Financing Firms' Network: The Italian case

In this study we aim to treat firms' networks as an instrument for firms to promote growth, enhancing their performances and improving the conditions of access to credit. The analysis focuses on the Italian context where has been recently introduced the network contract (Italian Legislative Decree no. 5/2009) - the first legislation in Europe to regulate firms' networks. The purpose of this work is to find the differences in the performance and financial variables of Italian firms that have signed network contracts with a control sample of non-networked firms and to investigate the characteristics of network contracts that involve the best performance for networked firms. We found that network contracts have a positive effect on the financial aspects and profitability of firms.