A training programme for Italian SMEs to improve digital literacy and competitiveness. Master Thesis Defense of Francesco Zitelli. MSc in Business Information Systems at FHNW (Olten - Switzerland).

1. MadeinItaly:
EccellenzeinDigitale
A training programme for Italian SMEs to improve digital
literacy and competitiveness
Author: Francesco Zitelli
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dino Schwaferts

5. 52 Chambers of Commerce involved
Source: EccellenzeInDigitale.it

6. “Eccellenze in Digitale” consists of:
Frontal lectures
to entrepreneurs
One-to-one
Meetings
Long problem-
solving sessions

7. What is this research about?

8. “Personalized tutoring plan
can improve digital maturity
of Italian SMEs”
Thesis Statement:

9. The aim is to improve the productivity of SMEs
The focus is on the
ICT adoption among SMEs

10. BCG – e-Intensity Index 2013
Source: Boston Consulting Group

12. Offline SME Online SME Online and Active SME
Source: BCG SMEs questionnaire; BCG elaboration

13. Turnover is correlated to Digital Maturity
Offline SME
During last 3 years (2009-2011):
Online SME Online and Active SME
Source: BCG SMEs questionnaire; BCG elaboration
- 4.5 % - 2.4 % + 1.2 %

14. We want to
“connect” Italian
SMEs to the Internet

15. 3. increased
entrepreneur's
awareness of
digital potential
4. adoption of digital
solutions and
strategies
5. increased
company's digital
maturity
6. improved
performance of
SMEs
7. improved
cluster
competitiveness
8.
increased
labour
demand
2. demand for
digitization of
SMEs
Theory
Framework

16. “Personalized tutoring plan
can improve digital maturity
of Italian SMEs”
Thesis Statement:

17. Research Questions
Impact on digital maturity of SMEs?
Most adopted solutions among SMEs?
Strengths and weaknesses of the programme?

18. How to distinguish Offline,
Online and Online-and-Active
SMEs ?

19. Survey each company across 21
indicators and establish
categorization criteria

20. Example of Data Collection

21. 5
basic
indicators

22. 12
intermediate
indicators

23. 4
advanced
indicators

24. Categorization criteria
IF {
[ (“updated website”=1) OR (“updated social networks”=1) OR (“updated blog”=1) ]
AND [ (“ecommerce” + “AdWords” + “export” + “marketing”) > 0 ]
}
THEN Company IS “online-and-active”,
ELSE IF [ (“website” = 0) AND (“blog” = 0) AND (“social network” = 0) ]
THEN Company IS “offline”,
ELSE Company is “online”

25. Example of Data Collection
… offline
… online
… online-and-active
…
…

27. 32
Returned final reports
52
1119
Reviewed SMEs

28. 7
11
16
18
20 21
23 24
26
28 29 30 31 32
35 36 38 39 39 39 40 40 41 42 43
45 46
48
50
56
61
65
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
Piacenza
Fermo
Taranto
Ancona
Campobasso
Salerno
Ferrara
Biella
Venezia
Chieti
Ragusa
Crotone
Rovigo
Lecco
Savona
Cosenza
Cuneo
ReggioEmilia
Frosinone
Viterbo
Perugia
Potenza
AscoliPiceno
Sondrio
Terni
Padova
Pesaro
Firenze
Verona
Genova
Avellino
Lucca
Involvement score:
Number of Involved Companies per Province

29. 32
35
46
48
50
52
79
250
529
0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Altro
Turistico
Servizi
Industria
Vitivinicolo
Commercio
Mobile
Artigianato
Agroalimentare
Count by Sector

30. Programme impact on digital
maturity of SMEs?

31. Exante (Sep 2014) vs expost (Feb 15)
Sep 14
22 1 1 1 1 1Feb 15
Suppose “Firm 22” improved all indicators:
For sure, it will jump from “Online” to “Online-and-active”.

32. 184
798
137
50
627
442
OFFLINE ONLINE INATTIVA ONLINE ATTIVA
exante expost
General results

33. Markov Chain of General Results

34. Impact score: explanation
Sep 14
22 1 1 1 1 1Feb 15
Suppose “Firm 22” improved all indicators:
For sure, it will jump from “Online” to “Online-and-active”.
Therefore, it counts as a +1 in the Impact Score.

35. 1 3 4 4 5 6 7 7 7 8 9 9 10 10 11 11 12 13 14 15 15 16 16 16 16 17 18
22
25 26
30
39
Venezia
Piacenza
Cuneo
Biella
Verona
Lecco
Viterbo
Fermo
Crotone
AscoliPiceno
Campobasso
Chieti
Firenze
Terni
Ancona
Ragusa
Frosinone
Salerno
Padova
ReggioEmilia
Sondrio
Perugia
Taranto
Cosenza
Savona
Avellino
Ferrara
Rovigo
Lucca
Pesaro
Potenza
Genova
Impact score:
how many companies moved upward?

36. 1
543
96
10
1314
7
26
17
19
12
21
16
20
29
23
2
22
11 9
24
30
15
18
8
32
28
31
27
25
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Impactscore
Involvement score
Involved companies vs. Impacted companies
y = 0.75x
Best Performance Frontier

37. 0,04
0,10
0,11
0,17
0,18
0,19
0,20
0,21
0,23
0,23
0,28
0,31
0,31
0,32
0,36
0,38
0,38
0,38
0,40
0,43
0,44
0,45
0,46
0,57
0,61
0,62
0,64
0,70
0,71
0,75
0,78
Venezia(1)
Verona(5)
Cuneo(4)
Biella(3)
Viterbo(9)
Lecco(6)
AscoliPiceno(10)
Firenze(13)
Terni(14)
Crotone(7)
Avellino(26)
Frosinone(17)
Padova(19)
Chieti(12)
Sondrio(21)
Ragusa(16)
ReggioEmilia(20)
Lucca(29)
Perugia(23)
Piacenza(2)
Cosenza(22)
Campobasso(11)
Savona(24)
Pesaro(30)
Ancona(15)
Salerno(18)
Fermo(8)
Genova(32)
Rovigo(28)
Potenza(31)
Ferrara(27)
Relative Performance
(conversion rate %)
Impact on digital maturity of SMEs?

38. Most adopted solutions
among SMEs?

39. 0,97
0,76
0,29
0,07
0,04
0,42
0,29
0,48
0,23
0,62
0,57
0,15
0,13
0,06
0,07
0,12
0,27
0,12
0,03
0,05
0,06
0,98
0,86
0,60
0,12
0,09
0,51
0,53
0,62
0,78
0,85
0,79
0,27
0,57
0,11
0,15
0,23
0,66
0,19
0,06
0,27
0,14
Ex-post vs. ex-ante comparison:
adoption rate for single indicator
exante expost

40. 0,01
0,03
0,05
0,06
0,06
0,07
0,08
0,09
0,09
0,10
0,12
0,12
0,14
0,21
0,22
0,24
0,24
0,31
0,39
0,45
0,55
Intervention adoption ranking
(adoption rate differentials)

41. + 55 %
Google My Business

42. Updated SocialUpdated Site
+ 39 %+ 31 %

43. Strengths and weaknesses of
the programme?

44. 18
16
12
1
0
5
10
15
20
yes no unemployed (blank)
“Is your job position an opportunity
related to Eccellenze in Digitale?”
Job Placement Results

45. 4
1
4
6
16
10
4
2
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
“How satisfying was the programme?”
(scores from 1 to 10)

46. Improved Customer Relationship Management
To improve
distribution of
instructions,
templates and
deadlines
To streamline data
collection and
aggregation at
central level

49. Future Developments
Distretti sul
Web
Eccellenze in
Digitale 1
Eccellenze in
Digitale 2
Crescere in
Digitale
Year
2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016
Length (months)
6 6 9 3
Interns
20 105 150 3000
Monthly Salary
(€)
1000 1000 1000 500
Total cost of
salaries
(€ thousands)
120 630 1350 4500
Source: Unioncamere

50. MadeinItaly:
EccellenzeinDigitale
A training programme for Italian SMEs to improve digital
literacy and competitiveness
Author: Francesco Zitelli
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dino Schwaferts