Innovation as a response to the crisis

From the conference "Internet start-ups: an opportunity for economic growth and employment for the country”, encouraging data emerges on the situation of Italian start-up companies.

The event, held on 5 November at the Area Science Park Padriciano Trieste and organized by AIR - Italian Association for Research, has primarily attracted the attention of young researchers, in search of a possible source of employment. During the conference, significant statistical data has been presented on the performance of start-up companies with a high level of innovation: there are nearly 300 new companies which base their work on innovative projects, employing over 1200 people with high educational level (postgraduate degree and above), and whose turnover is around 65 million. In addition, over one third of these companies have growth rates over the 50%.

According to President AIR, Alessandro Fraleoni Morgera, the conference has been useful, on the one hand, to draw the attention of young researchers and, on the other, to send a clear signal to the political class "that does not seem to grasp the changes taking place in a smaller and smaller world, where the competition is based on ideas and innovation capacity”.

In addition to the presentation of the data previously mentioned, the conference described the ideal path which leads, from an inventive idea, to a successful company, offering several case histories of many small businesses which, despite strating from the lowest level, have been able to achieve great success in a short time, thanks mostly to technological innovation and an entrepreneurial spirit to the forefront.

But women, in particular, have got great results. There are more and more companies run by women, especially in the sector of services (40.8%, versus 34.9% of trade and 21.5% of manufacturing), in spite of their difficulties in finding lasting jobs and combining career and family. A research based on two large samples - 3 thousand women entrepreneurs and 3 thousand women aged 25-44 - shows very encouraging results: 46.5% percent of entrepreneurs engage in the management of existing family businesses, but the answers also indicate a strong inclination to experiement with new roads. 26% of respondents introduced improvements and innovations in the last 2 years (45% of them renovated their products) and, among them, 59% increased their turnover. On the contrary, 80% of those who did not updated themselves in the last 2 years saw a drop in sales.