Business organization and Italian culture: An historical perspective

The relationship between culture and business organization in Italy is complex. The main reason is Italian culture’s diversity in terms of local traditions, resources, languages, attitudes, values. In many ways, Italy looks more like a “community of communities” than a homogeneous culture. In this contribution we try to identify some of those social and cultural elements that, more than others, seem to have significantly influenced the way Italian companies are organized and managed. Specifically, we focus on three important aspects: the role of the central State in the historical development of the Italian economy, the wide diffusion of family-owned and family-managed enterprises, and the economic relevance of the “territory”, that is, the geographical proximity of firms and their reference to local communities.