N. 88 - Aprile 2015
(CXIX)
FINANCE EASIER FOR INNOVATION,
COMPETITIVENESS, INTERNATIONALIZATION
The World of SMEs
di Antonio Anelli
In
an
economic
environment
where
competition
has
become
increasingly
large
and
globalized,
the
issue
of
internationalization
does
not
relate
exclusively
to
the
most
big
companies.
Currently,
the
difficulties
of
the
domestic
market,
undermined
by
the
decline
in
the
purchasing
power
of
households
and
the
consequent
reduction
in
domestic
demand
and
consumption,
impose
to
small
and
medium
enterprises
to
open
up
the
challenges
in
the
international
competition.
It
is
need
to
face
global
competition
in a
proactive
manner,
overcoming
resistance
to
change
and
the
development
of
our
SMEs,
which
give
rise
to
forms
of
internationalization,
also
basic,
like
the
simple
export
can
be a
critical
success
factor
and
the
only
alternative
to
surviving
and
growing.
Obviously
the
costs
for
the
implementation
of a
strategy
of
international
development
(consulting,
store
openings,
sales
networks,
etc.)
are
often
a
strong
deterrent
for
SMEs.
The
incentives
to
support
internationalization
are
not
made
only
by
sinking
fund,
but
in
many
cases
take
different
forms
and
techniques
"innovative",
through
instruments
such
as
equity
participation,
venture
capital
operations,
the
sale
of
export
credits,
and
so
on.
In
this
context
a
complementary
role
and
of
no
less
importance
is
coated
by
lenders.
Financial
institutions
play
a
role
of
mediation
between
those
who
own
capital
(investors)
and
those
who
use
them
(companies).
This
process
aims
to
stimulate
greater
efficiency
of
markets,
which
are
inherently
structurally
imperfect
because
of
the
variety
of
tax
and
asymmetric
information
reflected
on
their
financial
structure.
The
financial
structure
rather
than
being
irrelevant
as
postulated
in
the
standard
economic
theory
for
perfectly
competitive
markets
and
in
the
absence
of
taxes
(Modigliani
and
Miller
1958;
Goldsmith
1969)
is
an
essential
variable
in
the
process
of
business
growth.
The
financing
enterprises
becomes
an
essential
factor
of
support
when
considering
the
context
and
economic
factors
that
have
characterized
the
world
stage
in
recent
years
and
in
particular
our
country
where
the
"engine
of
growth"
for
the
economy
is
represented
by
SMEs.
In
the
past,
the
vogue
of
big
business
was
supplanted
by
the
gradual
attenuation
of
Fordist
production
model
and
the
diffusion
of
new
ICT
technologies
that
generated
the
processes
of
decentralization
and
disintegration
in
favor
of a
more
flexible
production
and
organization.
The
speech
of
the
SME
financing
wheels,
in
today's
scenario
around
the
relationship
banking
in
the
presence
of
asymmetric
information.
In
other
words,
the
key
role
of
finance
and
credit
in
modern
capitalist
economies
is
the
essential
prerequisite
to
allow
companies
to
acquire
the
necessary
capital
in
order
to
invest
more.
A
factor
of
evidence
is
the
tendency
of
the
larger
companies
to
appeal
directly
to
the
financial
markets
to
raise
the
funds
necessary
for
their
growth.
When
they
are
not
developed
specific
instruments
and
financial
markets
to
support
SMEs
generated
a
strong
dependence
on
the
credit
provided
by
the
banking
system
that
assumes
a
crucial
role
in
determining
the
development
of
both
individual
business
initiatives
of
both
the
various
international
contexts.
SMEs
are
the
driving
force
for
the
growth
of
European
economies
and
play
a
key
role
in
the
creation
of
new
jobs.
In
all
countries
they
are
given
a
great
deal
of
attention
to
the
conditions
that
may
favor
the
strengthening
or
creation
of
these
business
realities.
Among
these
conditions,
a
strong
capital
structure
and
the
easy
access
to
financial
resources
are
essential
to
support
the
growth
of
the
company,
entering
new
markets,
technological
innovation
(ICT).
The
critical
and
peculiarities
of
our
economic
system
are
essentially
attributable
to
matters
relating
to
the
management
of
SMEs
in
the
processes
of
growth
and
development
of
the
matrix
bottom-up.
Recently
there
was
some
opportunity
for
SMEs
in
terms
of
financial
resources
for
development.
The
main
reference
is
to
the
new
stock
markets,
the
increasing
access
to
risk
capital,
to
new
financial
instruments
and
to
changes
in
tax
regulations.
In
recent
years,
significant
public
intervention
in
favor
of
SMEs
according
to a
logic
of
coaching
and
encouragement
of
market
forces
did
not
generate
excessive
problems
of
access
to
finance
as
it
emerged
in
the
late
nineties,
especially
among
SMEs
in
the
South.
Instead,
everything
relief,
appears
to
be
the
role
of
the
institutions
for
which
they
assume
particular
importance
when
examining
the
factors
that
explain
the
competitiveness
of
companies
both
nationally
and
internationally.
By
contrast
there
are
actions
stimulus
coming
from
banking
systems
towards
public
sector
for
greater
linkage
between
Community,
national
and
regional
support
and
development
of
SMEs.
Flexible
forms
of
production
hinged
around
networks
of
enterprises
and
districts
are
the
essential
feature
of
an
Italian
model
of
producing
and
doing
business.
The
Italian
industrial
structure
has
four
distinctive
elements:
a
small
number
of
large
companies
managed
in a
rational
managerial
and
organizational
typical
of
Anglo-Saxon
business
models;
a
myriad
of
small
production
units
often
very
compact
manner
spread
throughout
the
country
and
in
some
cases
have
sought
organizational
forms
of
coordination
and
system
integration,
typical
of
the
lattice
structure
(industrial
district,
network
companies);
a
presence
in
the
growth
of
medium-sized
companies
that
are
fixed
at
an
evolutionary
stage
intermediate;
a
competitive
weakness
in
the
productive
specialization.
In
particular,
the
Italian
SMEs
have
a
series
of
unfavorable
connotations
for
growth
and
competitiveness.
The
lower
spending
on
R&D,
the
reduced
ability
to
penetrate
foreign
markets
because
of
unwillingness
to
integrate
exports
with
a
presence
abroad
next
to
greater
dependence
on
short-term
credit
penalize
the
return
on
investment
and
not
encourage
entrepreneurs
to
growth
dimensional.
The
limit
for
SMEs
consists
of
the
under-funding:
a
weakness
for
strategic
growth
in
size
and
competitiveness
of
the
production
system.
SMEs
do
not
take
big
risks
and
try
to
contain
the
borrowing.
A
positive
answer
to
this
problem
is
the
potential
for
networks
that
do
guarantee
for
credit
and
have
greater
access
to
financing,
especially
if
the
network
is
stable
and
well-planned.
Therefore
banks
would
assess
better
the
relations
system
by
funding
favorable
terms
compared
to
requests
from
individual
traders.
SMEs
can
also
reach
other
competitive
advantages
as a
result
of
participation
in
the
networks.
In
particular
benefited
from:
the
greater
economies
of
scale;
greater
efficiency
in
terms
of
specialization
of
enterprises
belonging
to
the
network;
a
reduction
of
transaction
costs
and
the
development
of
shared
production.
The
processes
of
globalization
open
markets
have
disrupted
the
traditional
patterns
of
economic
competition.
Globalization,
the
acceleration
of
technological
innovations
and
create
opportunities
for
SMEs
and
to
provide
better
access
to
information,
financial
resources
and
technology
and
new
markets,
but
also
involve
transaction
costs
and
new
challenges.
Economic
globalization
in a
broader
become
synonymous
with
de-nationalization
of
the
economy
and
relocation
of
production
processes.
It
is a
complementary
aspect
to
the
concept
of
internationalization
by
which
to
enter
foreign
markets
and
becomes
crucial
and
inevitable
collaborate
with
local
entrepreneurs.
The
EU's
role
in
the
process
of
internationalization
of
SMEs
is
twofold
and
is
essentially
financial
assistance
and
trade
in
the
foreign
countries.
An
SME
that
wants
to
enter
international
markets
must
have
two
fundamental
resources:
1. a
good
knowledge
of
the
markets
internationalization
(knowledge
and
the
attractiveness
of
the
main
competitive
factors);
2.
excellent
familiarity
with
the
ability
to
activate
the
funding
/
public
facilities
and
private,
with
the
organization
of
resources
on
site
production
and
logistics,
with
the
ability
to
acquire
the
materials,
raw
materials,
the
training
of
human
resources,
in
terms
of
skills,
capacity
building,
for
the
effective
and
efficient
organization
of
strategic
business
for
export
and
for
the
relocation
of
the
company.
This
know-how,
along
with
an
integrated
package
of
skills,
it
is
necessary
to
identify
the
rate
of
development
of
the
various
sectors,
the
segmentation
of
demand
and
understand
the
consistency
of
supply
to
identify
the
critical
success
factors
in
identifying
what
are
the
competitive
factors
that
you
have
to
acquire
to
operate
in
that
market.
The
operational
process
of
internationalization
is
substantiated
in
the
study,
definition,
realization
of
agreements,
alliances
with
stakeholders
and
with
institutional
representatives.
In
this
aspect
is
due
to
networking
activities
with
associations,
chambers
of
commerce,
ministries
and
various
associations
abroad.
The
problem
is
that,
in
selecting
worthy
companies
of
the
subsidy,
the
government
does
not
have
the
tools
to
evaluate
those
that
actually
are
subject
to
financial
constraints
and
therefore
the
risk
of
supporting
companies
that
would
be
able
to
autonomously
avail
external
financial
resources
becomes
high.
The
latter,
of
course,
much
prefer
to
use
the
public
contribution
(which
costs
nothing)
in
place
of
bank
loans
or
venture
capital.
There
are
many
measures
by
which
the
EU
and
individual
Member
States
undertake
to
encourage
the
creation
of
innovative
new
businesses,
reduce
barriers
and
bureaucratic
tax,
provide
the
skills
and
resources
needed
to
develop
R&D.
It
is a
set
of
financial
instruments
and
not,
that
have
as
main
theme
the
aim
of
increasing
the
competitiveness
of
those
who
are
considered
agents
promoters
of
innovation.
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