The Network Contract as an instrument of growth in SME

Small and medium-sized enterprises are vital for the EU's economy, accounting for more than 99% of European businesses and two thirds of private sector jobs. Neverthless the dimension is a weakness for their growht in the globalized market. The SME have a tool to become competitive, this is the creation of network. For this purpose in 2009 the Italian Government enacted the “Network Contract” a soft form of network to improve competitiveness and Innovation in Small and medium size enterprises. The Italian regulation is in application of SME Business Act issued by the European Comunity in 2007. The NC is an innovative institution in our production and legislative system. It realizes a flexible management, where companies can collaborate, maintaining theirs independence and autonomy, implementing shared projects that increase the innovative capacity and competitiveness on the market. The topic of this paper is to analyze the NC in the different sector of activity using the database of Italian Register of Companies (Registro delle Imprese ‪http://contrattidirete.registroimprese.it/‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‪) with a special focus on the health sector. ‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬‬ The final objective is to verify the achievement of the goals set by companies belonging to the registered networks, according with the purpose of the Italian regulation of the network contract. These goals are 1. the increase of innovation; 2. the market competitiveness. In order to verify the achievement of the objectives, a survey will be administered to the Apulian companies in the healthcare sector that adhere to a network contract.