The book represents a historical analysis of the change that affected the largest Italian companies from the beginnings (the great icons of the second half of the nineteenth century such as Ansaldo, Edison, Fiat) to the most recent years. An evolution that involved firstly a virtuous path up to the years of the economic miracle, and then a reversal of the trend fueled by the propensity to financial operations preferred to real development through technological innovations. The decline was due to many mistakes made by the governments that succeeded each other after 1948 (erroneous industrial policies) and by the big private capitalists who proved inadequate especially in the years of globalization. Mainly since the nineties of the last century, the resources of labour and capital left unused by large companies favored the expansion of a new kind of capitalism, the fourth in order of time. It follows the first characterized by large enterprises born such by initiative of local élites with the support of large banques d’affaires (mixed banks), the second one originated from the crisis of those same mixed banks and their rescue that brought the largest industrial enterprises under State control and the third represented by small enterprises inside the industrial districts grown in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. The Italian manufacturing structure in the fourth capitalism sees winning medium-sized companies, family-controlled and with a flexible management conducted by managers whose skills are equivalent to those typical of large companies. The fundamental characteristics of these companies are the productive specialization, the propensity to create market niches on which to position themselves as leader, fundamental links in the national and international supply chains, a strong financial stability thanks to the use of own resources fed by operating cash-flows, the localization in territories with a high propensity for entrepreneurship and a high density of skilled workers; all useful to exploit economies of scale external to the enterprises, but internal to the integrated systems they promote. The typical sign of this capitalism is its success on the international markets, which in the long term implies a strong net surplus of the balance between exports and imports of industrial goods made in Italy.
Il libro rappresenta un’analisi storica del cambiamento che ha interessato le grandi imprese italiane dai primordi (le grandi icone della seconda metà dell’Ottocento quali Ansaldo, Edison, Fiat) agli anni più recenti. Un’evoluzione che ha comportato prima un cammino virtuoso fino agli anni del miracolo economico, e poi un’inversione di tendenza alimentata dalla propensione alle operazioni finanziarie preferite allo sviluppo reale attraverso le innovazioni tecnologiche. Il declino ha avuto origine da molteplici errori commessi sia dai governi succedutisi dopo il 1948 (errate politiche industriali) che dai grandi capitalisti privati rivelatisi inadeguati soprattutto negli anni della globalizzazione. Prevalentemente dagli anni Novanta del secolo scorso le risorse di lavoro e capitale lasciate inutilizzate dalle grandi imprese hanno favorito l’espansione di un nuovo genere di capitalismo, il quarto in ordine di tempo. Esso segue il primo caratterizzato dalle grandi imprese nate tali per iniziativa di élites locali e con il sostegno delle grandi banche d’affari (banche miste), il secondo originato dalla crisi di quelle stesse banche miste e dal loro salvataggio, che ha portato le maggiori imprese industriali sotto il controllo dello Stato, e il terzo rappresentato dalle piccole imprese dei distretti industriali e cresciuto negli anni Sessanta, Settanta e Ottanta. La struttura manifatturiera italiana nel quarto capitalismo vede vincenti le imprese di media dimensione, a controllo familiare e aventi una gestione flessibile condotta da dirigenti le cui competenze equivalgono a quelle tipiche di chi governa le grandi imprese. Le caratteristiche fondamentali di queste aziende sono la specializzazione produttiva, la propensione a creare nicchie di mercato sulle quali posizionarsi come anelli fondamentali nelle catene di fornitura nazionali e internazionali, la forte stabilità finanziaria grazie all’impiego di risorse proprie alimentate dall’autofinanziamento, la collocazione in territori ad elevata propensione di imprenditorialità e a forte densità di lavoratori qualificati; tutti elementi utili per sfruttare le economie di scala esterne alle imprese, ma interne ai sistemi integrati che esse promuovono. Il segno tipico di questo capitalismo è costituito dal suo successo sui mercati internazionali che comporta nel lungo periodo un forte avanzo netto quale saldo tra export e import di merci industriali made in Italy.
Coltorti, F., Le grandi imprese nello sviluppo industriale italiano, EDUCatt, MILANO -- ITA 2021: 287 [http://hdl.handle.net/10807/192538]
Le grandi imprese nello sviluppo industriale italiano
Coltorti, Fulvio
Primo
2021
Abstract
The book represents a historical analysis of the change that affected the largest Italian companies from the beginnings (the great icons of the second half of the nineteenth century such as Ansaldo, Edison, Fiat) to the most recent years. An evolution that involved firstly a virtuous path up to the years of the economic miracle, and then a reversal of the trend fueled by the propensity to financial operations preferred to real development through technological innovations. The decline was due to many mistakes made by the governments that succeeded each other after 1948 (erroneous industrial policies) and by the big private capitalists who proved inadequate especially in the years of globalization. Mainly since the nineties of the last century, the resources of labour and capital left unused by large companies favored the expansion of a new kind of capitalism, the fourth in order of time. It follows the first characterized by large enterprises born such by initiative of local élites with the support of large banques d’affaires (mixed banks), the second one originated from the crisis of those same mixed banks and their rescue that brought the largest industrial enterprises under State control and the third represented by small enterprises inside the industrial districts grown in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. The Italian manufacturing structure in the fourth capitalism sees winning medium-sized companies, family-controlled and with a flexible management conducted by managers whose skills are equivalent to those typical of large companies. The fundamental characteristics of these companies are the productive specialization, the propensity to create market niches on which to position themselves as leader, fundamental links in the national and international supply chains, a strong financial stability thanks to the use of own resources fed by operating cash-flows, the localization in territories with a high propensity for entrepreneurship and a high density of skilled workers; all useful to exploit economies of scale external to the enterprises, but internal to the integrated systems they promote. The typical sign of this capitalism is its success on the international markets, which in the long term implies a strong net surplus of the balance between exports and imports of industrial goods made in Italy.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.