Italian medium-sized companies at the top for productivity

Italy first for productivity. An anomalous title, in fact, that seems out of place compared to the averages published by the main research institutes, which see our country systematically languishing for years in this ranking in international comparison. An average that is however affected by the significant weight of micro-enterprises, as well as the difficulties of the Public Administration. Because by focusing the analysis elsewhere, on medium-sized entities, the discussion (and the ranking) changes.

Systematic data is provided by the 25th edition of the Report on medium-sized Italian industrial companies, produced by the Mediobanca Research Area, the Tagliacarne Study Center and Unioncamere, a study that focuses on a "valuable" part of our production system. Companies with an autonomous ownership structure attributable to family control with between 50 and 499 employees, in a range between 19 and 415 million in revenues, 3,650 companies that generate just under 200 billion in sales, 16% of national added value and 14% of exports. And that beat the European competition of the other three major continental manufacturers in terms of productivity.

They do so in terms of growth of the indicator, with an increase in added value per employee that between 2014 and 2023 was 31.3%, with a greater intensity than the corresponding Spanish (+29.9%), German (+25.8%) and French (+20.2%) realities. But even comparing the absolute values ​​the ranking does not change, with Italy exceeding Germany by 3.3%, France by 14.7% and Spain by 18.7%.

The segment of our medium-sized companies is also performing well elsewhere, ranking second for performances recorded in the last decade in terms of turnover (+54.9%) and employment (+24.2%), surpassed only by Spanish Mid-Caps (respectively +80.8% and +45.8%). However, confirming their advantages over their French counterparts (+41% and +11.5%) and German ones (+38.5% and +8.8%).

Even on the innovation front, family-capitalist Italy wins the silver medal: 45.8% of our medium-sized companies own patents, a lower share than the German one (61.2%), but higher than the French one (32.2%) and the Spanish one (31.2%).