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Metalnet2000 Project

Structure and dynamic of the changes in the relationship between mechanical engineering companies in Modena (2000)

M. Russo e R. Giardino (2000), La costruzione dell'universo utilizzato per estrarre il campione di imprese da intervistare

M. Lalla (2001), Dal campione all'universo: determinazione dei pesi per le stime dei parametri
E. Pirani e M. Russo (2001), Le fasi dell'indagine campionaria: raccolta dei dati, codifiche e classificazioni (  conferenze e seminari.

  "Reti di competenze nei distretti industriali: il sistema produttivo metalmeccanico" 

Notes of Margherita Russo, head of the research project
(last update: 15th October 2003)

The research project "Metalnet 2000 - Structure and dynamics of the changes in the relationship between mechanical enterprises in the province of Modena" was carried out from September 1999 to April 2003.
It was financed by the 1999 "Applied research" fund of the University of Modena, with a co-funding of the Chamber of Commerce, Province and Municipality of Modena.

Studies on industrial clusters in Emilia Romagna show that the presence of a rich fabric of mechanical skills has been a crucial factor in the development of local production systems for ceramics, biomedical, woodworking machinery, agricultural machinery and packaging machines. In fact, the centre of the region is characterised by a large number of small and medium-sized mechanical engineering firms, as well as some larger firms.
The mechanical production of the region – which comprehends the production of machine tools, the production of hydraulic components, agricultural machinery and the production of luxury cars- is intended not only for the domestic market, but also for foreign European and non-European markets. The production structure of these companies relies on a large subcontracting network of machining and components, largely located within the region. The mobility of workers within the enterprise and between enterprises helps to spread and enrich the wealth of technical skills among production workers.

The idea behind the research project "Structure and dynamics of the changes in the relationship between metalworking companies" is that the mechanical skills widespread in the province of Modena offer many technical opportunities for manufacturing activities, not only mechanical, but also ceramics and biomedical. The spread of these skills throughout the production structure is documented by the post-war research and discussed in various essays. There is little data and the knowledge available is fragmented and often not comparable.

In particular, this research sought to investigate how the restructuring phenomena of some large and medium-sized enterprises in Modena influenced local subcontracting companies, examining the extent to which the specializations in the area changed and whether the use of subcontracting outside the area changed, if yes for which products and from which area.

Such a systematic survey seems appropriate not only for the indications of industrial policies and training policies, but also from a theoretical point of view. The absence of systematic empirical knowledge is, in fact, also the result of a theoretical lack of modelling in this field. It is sufficient to think that, so far, empirical studies that try to identify the skills of companies starting from the network of social relations in which they operate did not provide precise methodological indications: the cases studied are generally very limited for the nature of the reports examined and for the sources of information used.
A goal of this research is, therefore, to formulate a methodology that gives theoretical and empirical support to the vision of the enterprise as an agent capable of modifying, through interactions with other agents and artefacts, the environment in which it operates.

METALnet research was organised in three phases.

The objective of the first phase was to develop a methodology for the collection and analysis of data from a survey to a sample of metalworking enterprises in the provinces under investigation. This methodology made it possible to define the field under investigation and to collect information from public administrative sources.
The description of this phase - which was carried out in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Modena - is presented at
“The construction of the universe used to extract the sample of companies to be interviewed”, M. Russo and R. Giardino (2000).

In the second phase, the survey and analysis of the structural characteristics of the metalworking sector in the province of Modena was carried out through a survey that included the collection and processing of data relating to a sample of companies.
The sample, stratified in 10 compartments and 8 size classes, has a significance for each individual cell.
In the period March-May 2001, we completed the first phase of interviews to the sample of 331 enterprises with more than 5 employees: the availability of almost 50% of the sample companies in providing the data requested in the questionnaire allowed us to obtain highly significant results (with a relative error of less than 5%) in the analysis of metalworking enterprises in the province of Modena, by size class.
Therefore, we reached an initial result of the research project, concerning the quality of the data to be analysed. However, the objective on the quality of the data was even higher: the research project aimed to obtain significant data also for each of the 10 groups of metalworking production specializations (which we called "sectors") relevant to characterize the metalworking enterprises of the province of Modena.
This objective was only partially achieved because few responses from some of the companies surveyed were still available: some large companies did not complete the questionnaire in time for the inclusion of their data in the processing phase, others postponed the date of delivery of the requested information.
In general, the collaboration of companies has been greater than that of similar surveys, and this is why we believe that an effort should be made to try to collect the missing data: this effort of the research group will allow us to make full use of the collaboration of the companies that filled in the questionnaire promptly.
The information was obtained from administrative sources and through the sample survey. The questionnaire used in this survey allows a quantitative and qualitative description of the dynamics of the following variables: the product, the production process, the level of vertical integration, the size in terms of employees, the composition of the workforce, added value, turnover (internal and foreign), recourse to subcontracting, the degree of dependency on subcontractors and customers, the characteristics of competition, the supply markets for inputs and outputs, the dynamics of investments and the expansion factors of the company.
In addition to filling in the questionnaire with the assistance of specially trained persons, companies could also fill in the questionnaire directly online or in paper form and send it by post to the project secretariat at the Faculty of Economics.
The sampling methodology is described in “From sample to universe: determination of weights for parameter estimates”, M. Lalla (2001).
The data collection and analysis phase is presented in: “The sample survey phases: data collection, coding and classifications”, E. Pirani and M. Russo (2001).

In the third phase of the research, the data collected through the questionnaire were processed and analysed.
The documentation of these analyses has already been presented in some documents currently being printed, which can be downloaded from this site in the "research documents" section and discussed at conferences and seminars.

The analysis of the structural characteristics of the metalworking sector allowed us to proceed in the deepening of the study on relations between companies and on the networks of skills that characterize innovative processes and are a decisive factor in the competitiveness of business systems.
These in-depth studies were developed in the Prin2002 research project "Industrial Clusters as Complex Systems" (coordinated by D. A. Lane), in particular in the sub-project of the research unit of Reggio Emilia (coordinated by Margherita Russo):"Networks of competences in industrial clusters: the metalworker production system" (105,720 Bytes). This Prin2002 subproject was co-financed by the province of Modena.

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