Apprendimento collettivo, ICTs e performance delle PMI

Apprendimento collettivo, ICTs e performance delle PMI (di Roberta Capello e Alessia Spairani) - ABSTRACT: In the last twenty years great attention has been devoted to the role played by ICTs on the performance of economic systems, at both national and regional level. Some basic facts are well known in this field, among which: 1) less developed regions and nations show a lower level of ICT adoption and, particularly, of strategic ICT use; 2) organisational changes play an important role in the exploitation of ICT potentialities to achieve greater performance. The present paper wishes to contribute to this debate by highlighting the role played by spatial elements in the development and exploitation of ICTs by small firms. The main questions that are put forward and empirically tested are: 1) Is it true that small firms achieve greater performance through the use of ICTs? 2) Is it true that collective learning processes and relational capital, which have recently been identified as the main channels through which small firms acquire advanced knowledge, also play an important role in ICT development and exploitation by small firms? Do the replies to these questions change according to the size of firms? The empirical analysis is based on a database built at the firm level in three main areas: a large city, Milan; a small city, Piacenza; and cities (Palermo and small cities) in a less developed region, Sicily.