Working group

THE WORKING GROUP (Metalnet 2000)

Scientific Project Manager: Margherita Russo

Scientific Committee:
Margherita Russo, professor of Applied Economics at the Faculty of Economics of Modena, carries out research activities on the birth of innovative processes: it is in this area that she has developed an interest in competitiveness of local production systems, in the training of technical and professional skills and in the environment. In the theoretical analysis of innovation, her research focused on three aspects: the endogenous nature of the process of technical change, the role of interaction between companies and the effects of technical change on work organisation and the workforce. She is one of the promoters of the project of the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia "Officina Emilia - Laboratory of history of skills and innovation in mechanics" www.officinaemilia.it.
Giovanni Bonifati, Professor of Political Economics at the Faculty of Communication Sciences in Reggio Emilia, proposed original contributions in the analysis of certain investment decisions and interpretation of the development of the American economy. His expertise is relevant in the analysis of investment decisions and relations between enterprises covered by this investigation.
Giuseppe Fiorani, an economic researcher, carried out important research on the economic structure of the province of Modena and on the metalworking industry. His contribution to this project concerns the definition of sample characteristics, the formulation of the questionnaire and the methodological aspects of the research project.
Paolo Gurisatti, an economic researcher and founder partner of POSTER, carried out a survey on the relations between medium-large mechanical enterprises in the province of Treviso. His contribution to research concerns the methodology of the research project.
Michele Lalla, Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Economics of Modena, carries out research activities in the field of statistics for science and social sciences. His contribution to the research concerns the sampling methodology, the preparation of the questionnaire and the supervision of the processing of the collected data.
David Lane, professor of Statistics and Complexity Theory at the Faculty of Communication of Reggio Emilia and member of the Santa Fe Institute (US), carries out research activities on the themes of complexity and theoretical aspects concerning the formation of "networks of competences" and the dynamics of changes in the space of agents and artefacts. His contribution is therefore relevant to the methodology for the dynamic analysis of relations between companies.
Tommaso Minerva, Professor of Statistics at the Faculty of Economics of Modena, carries out research activities on neural networks and genetic algorithms and is an expert in information technology. His contribution to the research project concerns the methodology for collecting the on-line questionnaire.
Elena Pirani, an economic researcher, collaborated in the implementation of the empirical survey in the phase of data collection and analysis.

Creation of the UNI-mec archive of the population of enterprises surveyed: Raffaele Giardino (Chamber of Commerce of Modena)

Production and management of the website www.metalnet.unimo.it and the on-line questionnaire: Gianluca Masci, Stefano Dall' Olio, Daniele Cavedoni Business

Interviews to enterprises and data entry (February-June 2001):
Cristina Castoldi, Matteo Cavallari, Simona Corsini, Lorenzo Esposito, Enrico Fontana, Giada Fornaciari, Francesco Ippolito, Saverio Marmo, Elisa Martinelli, Gianluca Masci, Davide Mucci, Enrico Nannini, Antonio Panciroli, Elena Pirani, Giuliano Prandi, Matteo Rubbiani.

Coordination of the survey phase of questionnaires (February-June 2001):
Gianluca Masci, Elena Pirani, Giulio Prandi

Database management and data processing (February 2001-June 2002):
Erminia di Santo and Elisabetta Zironi (Faculty of Economics of Modena), Elena Pirani

Administrative office in the stage of data collection (February-June 2001):
Monica Morselli and Cinzia Tedeschi (Department of Political Economics, University of Modena)

Reproduction of questionnaires and information sheets: Claudio Fregni and Guido Macchia (Press Centre, Faculty of Economics of Modena).

Administrative Office (Applied Research Fund 1999-2000):
Barbara Viario (Department of Political Economics, University of Modena)

Credits :
We thank for the comments in preparing the questionnaire:
Anna Bernardi, Lamberto Casari, Stefano Colletta, Maurizio Cremonini, Andrea Fontanive, Andrea Ginzburg, Enrico Giovannetti, Giorgio Leonardi, Daniele Libertucci, Enrico Luppi, Lara Magnani, Giuseppe Marotta, Gianluca Masci, Gianluca Maselli, Cinzia Neri, Giulia Pignedoli, Paolo Onesti, Vittorio Rieser, Sandra Scaltriti, Giovanni, Giovanni, Giovanni, Scaltriti, Sandra Scaltriti, Giovanni Solinas, Giuseppe Tattara, Frank Wilkinson, Adriana Zini.
Thanks to the collaboration of Federico Tosatti (Modena Provincial Administration) we were able to easily use the map file of the province of Modena.
Engineer Gianfranco Carnevali tried to fill our technical gaps on metalworking by offering us a generous help in many phases of the research.