Andrea Colli
Department of Policy Analysis and Public Management, Bocconi University, Milan
Michelangelo Vasta
Department of Economics and Statistics, University of Siena
Abstract
This paper, by merging a qualitative and quantitative approach, focuses on the evolution of business groups (BGs) in Italy along the XX century. By adopting the network analysis, and by using a large and comprehensive dataset (Imita.db), this paper provides various proxy measures of the relevance of the largest BGs in the Italian economy. The analysis, by also providing a taxonomy, clearly shows the persistence of large and entangled BGs in the Italian economy. Moreover, it shows that BGs are present not only among large firms, but in almost all the dimensional and juridical forms of the Italian firms. The paper, by challenging the conventional wisdom, confirms that BGs is neither limited to the less developed countries, nor is simply a second best functional substitute of the M-form characterizing big business around the world
Keywords
business groups (BGs), network analysis, Italian capitalism
Jel Codes
N83; L22
