Italian small businesses drive innovation growth despite funding hurdles

Recent Istat data for the 2022-2024 period reveals a growing trend of innovation among small Italian businesses with at least 10 employees. Approximately 62.9% of these small enterprises engaged in innovative activities, marking a 4.3 percentage point increase compared to the 2020-2022 period. This growth is driven exclusively by smaller firms, while medium and large enterprises saw slight declines in innovation rates.

Despite this increased activity, a significant gap exists in accessing financial support. Only 14.5% of small innovative firms successfully applied for and obtained public funding, a decrease of 5.1 percentage points from the previous triennium. The difficulty in accessing resources is attributed to the complexity of navigating various European, national, and regional funding programs rather than a lack of available capital.

On an international level, Italy ranks third in the European Union for innovative small businesses, with a rate of 64.5%, which is 14.2 percentage points above the EU average. This exceeds the innovation rates of small businesses in Germany, France, and Spain. However, the transition faces challenges regarding human capital; reports indicate a significant shortage of workers with the green skills necessary to manage sustainable technologies.