Firm-based Training and Innovative Strategies in the Manufacturing
Sector. Empirical Evidence for a local industrial System
Giovanni Guidetti
Massimiliano Mazzanti
The paper investigates the driving factors of firm training using
a survey-based dataset concerning manufacturing firms in the Emilia Romagna
Region, located in Northern Italy. Data derive from a structured questionnaire
administered in 2002 to the management of a representative sample of firms with
more than 50 employees in a highly industrialised local production system. The
applied analysis explores the linkages between firm training activities and its
driving forces. The main potential factors associated to training here
considered compounds firm structural characteristics, human resource management
practices, workforce features, labour management, and firm’s performances. We
observe that training activities emerge positively associated with
high-performance practices, workforce skill level, firm size, firm
productivity, and labour flexibility. The analysis suggests that a widening
gap, between innovatively evolving and stagnant firms, could characterise the
future dynamics of industrialised local areas. This is a key concern for the
current debate on local systems development in the European and Italian
environment, mainly based on small and medium size firms. The high and joint
relevance of both structural variables, labour demand-related factors and
HRM/innovation practices shows that regional industrial policies must support
labour policies within an integrated policy effort aimed at increasing
potential firm productivity.
Keywords :
Firm training, general training, labour flexibility, human resource management, firm performance, local industrial system, innovative strategies, JEL : J24, C21, L23, L60.
• The conceptual framework
— Set of hypotheses 1. Complementarity among training
practices
— Set of hypotheses 2. The relevance of firm’s structural
variables as forces associated to training policies
• Empirical analysis
— The data
— Methodology
• Applied analysis outcomes and policy issues
• References