NET-ECONOMY REPORT

FORCOPRECANET – FINAL DOCUMENT 2005 – RESULTS from INTEVIEWS-on NET-ECONOMY in Italy

  

                In the NET Economy the progressive development ITC Communication potentially seems  to build up major market opportunities for firms in transition economies forward the future knowledge driven  society . Contemporary problems are focused in the “e. Work “ Management because the  low salary and because the difficulties of the little enterprises working on Net economy sector as well as  new intermediaries of  marketplace using and developing electronic communications.  This is the conclusion of the analysis  of 150 interviews  in Italy on the basis of FORCOPRECANET Leonardo Project (2002-2005) see : http://www.narnia.it/forcoprecanet/. In particular the interviews are realised in three  central regions  Interviews : TOSCANA , UMBRIA and LAZIO  .

 

The enterprises ( in total 150 SME’ s)

 

The principal activities of the Net-Economy  firms are the following :

e. Commerce and e. Trade ITC products, (8%)

Telecommunication (1 %)

ITC Consultants and software houses ( 84 %)

e. advertising and publicity  on line (7 %)

               

The enterprises interviewed by EgoCreaNet/LRE partnership , belongs to the SME’ s and in particular  (40%) replies  are included in the NACE Codex 7222 ( i.e. Software and consultant in informatics) and about  the 24 %  replies are included in the NACE Codex 7260 ( i.e. General informatics activities, …for instance e. learning ), the remaining 16% of the replies are belonging on various little enterprises on commerce and telecommunication services.

 

Manager’s data

Gender data : 84% Male ; 16% Female

Age  average of managers : between 30 – 50 year old

Familiar situation

Married : 65% (with little children in the family -only 29%) -  Single 35%

Studies Levels

Not Graduates at University 18%

University’s Students  40%

University’s Graduates 42%

Disciplines

Science and Technology 32 %

IT-Multimedia    29%

Humanistic  and Law studies  21 %

Economy 18%

Professional activity notes:

                                The digital economy is a complex sector working on the dynamics of contemporary changes of market and marketing both at the local and international levels for  reshaping the traditional organization of work in firms, and also  to develop innovative business practices. Therefore the NET-Companies normally works as well as  new business intermediaries. So that the “e. Work” management is characterised by  a great flexibility of professional activities that generally do not correspond to the disciplines of the previous studies or  University’s standardised professions.

In various cases an additional professional study is made by Net-Economy managers through the frequentation an specific Master or by means personalized auto-learning methodology . In any case, from the interviews, we know that managers on the Net-Economy need  to be continuously adjourned  in their professional activities.

Finally the professions in managing Net-Economy enterprises, need to be organized like a team management within  various flexible competencies and skills; so that the work co-organization in the Net Economy firms, is normally collegial and anyhow less hierarchical in respect to the traditional work organisation of SME’ s, based  on the traditional production of tangible goods.

 

Professional Work  - Weakness and Vulnerability.

                The dynamics of change of global marketplace and of the rapid evolution of communication technology (Hardware and Software), both such factors wildly provokes a continuous  challenge  that give the impression of being as  positive trend in the expected additional value of NET-Economy looking in the long term period .  Nevertheless, looking in a short term of “e. work” management, the weakness and vulnerability of this kind of working in internet, is  depending from the fact that is very hard to acquire innovative  capabilities and skills at every stage of the Net-Economy development.  In spite of this difficulty the major part of managers and workers ( for instance Web-manager, Partners- relationship, Responsible of sales supports…)  running on  Net –Economy, quite all reply to the  interviews to be satisfied and to remain very motivated on the “e. work and entrepreneurships” made in the Net –Economy areas.  Anyway all of them see problems in the forecasting the future sustainability of  the “e. work” and of the little enterprises new business , based on electronic-communication. As a matter of facts the firms interviewed  perceive the difficulty of continuous need of refinancing the firm to follow the technological evolution of the informatics.  So that appears, from the analysis of the interviews that the overcoming professional vulnerability of managers and workers in the NET-ECONOMY as well as the surviving of the Net Economy SME ‘s, requires a well-built and concerted response not just only directly from the managers and entrepreneur,  but from the necessary sustaining from an plentiful spectrum of the society, including great industry, trade companies, and also from the decision political makers in the governmental institutions and in the public sectors; in conclusion all the societal policy need to understand and support the changes in the marketplace intermediation through the communication technology. Finally need to be optimized financial risk strategies of the bank to favour the Net-Economy firms, working at the local and international levers  as  new intermediaries  of the global e. market-place. In short the weakness and vulnerability is considered determined by : 40% Internal  difficulties of continuous adjournment of technology and training ; 60% Political Societal external questions

e. Work and Training Practices

                Net –Economy  huge challenges for statistical measurement instruments and processes however it is very difficult to analyse them more rigorously in relevant and  reliable manner , this because  the obscurity of the contemporary working position of e. workers and managers in all the NET-Economy areas. In fact frequently “e. workers”  obtain only  not  stable  working contracts an also typically they receive not adequate salaries for graduates and diplomats.  In fact normally “e. workers” are assumed  on the basis of flexible contracts with a duration of few months. These contracts are  named Co. Co. Co . ( Continuative . Co-ordinated . Collaboration), and normally corresponds to very low salary, some time comparable with manufactured work positions of the manual working class. Finally the not existence in Italy of “e. workers” tread unions and also about SME’ s Unions to protect all the problems of work in the Net-ECONOMY sectors, is to be considered as an evident indicator of this working and business unpleasant situation . So that all the little enterprises  working in the fields related to the Net –Economy in Italy , normally survive by the low salary of the intellectual “e. work” and this fact is in serious contrast with the importance of knowledge and technology management in the contemporary global development.  This retard on the tread union policy for the “e. workers” is partially covered by the BREAD & ROSES company  <http://www.breadandroses.it/> , and the partner EGO-CREANET/LRE is grateful for the collaboration of BREAD & ROSES as an  important stakeholder of  Italian contribution to the FORCOPRECANET –Leonardo Project . At last we remember that on the  interviews  relates to  the necessity of  continuous training of Net-Economy managers and e. workers , the 68% declares that they utilize opportunities of continuous training proposed by Public Institution or private Companies , while the 32% declares to prefer the self-learning, using on line opportunities. At the enquire if the training is more useful for the firms or for the e. workers  the reply proportion is: in favour of the  firms  46% , and on the other side  for the e. worker 54 %;  those replies are justified principally because the training adjournment generally do not correspond to the hope of  an increase of the e. worker’ s salary.

Expectations.

                Net Economy is not a standardized process, because both the societal and economic dynamics do not correspond to an usual progress of the development of the industrial society, but live in a deep change of the old industrial society that go forward the future Knowledge Economy.

See our contribute : CHINA –TEXTILE MEETING: ttp://www.edscuola.it/archivio/lre/chinaitaly_textile_meeting.htm

So that is necessary to “anticipate” the work functions of many features of the Networking Economy, remembering that the level of the most developing actions are regional in nature, this because Regions of Europe , are more in the neighbourhood of the citizens, and European citizens need to understand the contemporary  socio-economic transformation, driven by the contemporary changes in the  international work division of labour and as a consequence of the global world production  and trading transformation. As a matter of facts in this developmental global context it is necessary to develop a new approach in economy ( i.e. Knowledge Economy) , based on the electronic communication opportunities for innovate the marketplace, and this is mainly  working at level of responsibility of the Europe of Regions in the field named institutional co-operative “e. Govern”. The suggestion and expectation coming from the FORCOPRECANET project developed in Italy, henceforth permits to observe that the regional variation in the speed and pattern of change is having and will progressively have, enormous impact on the structure of the European Union, in particular on the task of maximising European cohesion and on the European policies for promoting and managing the effects of change through realizing the skill and competencies of e. work management professional advancements. See our contribute in  MEKEM proposal  : https://www.edscuola.it/archivio/lre/mekem_project.htm

                Finally it will be necessary to clearly recognize  that old business need to be transformed in new ways  of “e .business”, based on networking affairs that can be developed in internet ; in fact this transformation of e. business,  ( especially related to e. commerce) it will be necessary of the global internationalization of e. market place. Hence this conclusion will be  promising, only if the digital intermediaries institutions and companies, will be able to transform the localized districts of tangible products in a fundamental integration with un-tangible goods production , by means  networking  collaborative co-organization of international “Digital districts”,  based on the intermediation of the Net Economy firms and companies,  that need to be powerfully sustained by the National and European policies.