Communicating an innovation in the world market. Case study Wtek

6 0. INTRODUCTION The period of crisis, which involved most of the world in recent years, has severely hit also Italy. Among the Italian companies, micro-enterprises have had more difficulty adapting than those small and medium-sized. The term "micro-enterprise" means a company that has less than 10 employees. This type of company accounts for most of the Italian companies, in fact, in Italy, 99.9% of enterprises are SMEs, and 94.4% of these are micro enterprises: they contribute to about half of total employment and a third of the value added (SchedaInformativa SBA 2013, CommissioneEuropea). SOURCE: Scheda Informativa SBA 2013, Commissione Europea Similarly to the entire European Union, on the whole, the crisis in Italy has had a very negative impact in terms of value added and employment in the SME sector, which conversely was better managed by big companies. The added value of SMEs fell by 10% between 2008 and 2012, the number of employees fell by 5% and the number of enterprises by 2%. In large companies, instead, the value added is back to pre-crisis levels, and there was only a slight decrease in the number of employees (SchedaInformativa SBA 2013, CommissioneEuropea). SMEs, especially the most careful ones, have now understood that internationalization is an essential element for survival, not only because of the reduction in domestic demand, but mainly because they need a strategic solution which can be solid and stable across time. N° COMPANIES N°EMPLOYEES VALUE ADDED Micro 3.491.826 94,4% 6.930.947 46,1% 185 29.8% Small 183.198 5,0% 3.236.764 21,5% 135 21.9% Medium 19.265 0,5% 1.861.089 12,4% 101 16.3% SBA 3.694.288 99,9% 12.028.799 80% 422 68% Big 3.196 0,1% 3.013.012 20% 198 32% Tot 3.697.484 100% 15.041.812 100% 620 100%