Small Business Management: The Italian Handicraft Companies

The study proposes to investigate entrepreneurial and managerial culture in micro, small and medium-sized businesses located in Verona (“Nord-Est” of Italy). The handicraft companies’ answers on a mailed questionnaire help us to understand the link between significant issues of entrepreneurial aspects (size, innovation, market and human resources management) and specific behaviours. The choices made by craftsmen showed an entrepreneurial culture oriented more to adaptation than to competitiveness and often rarely oriented to having strategic human resources management. The results encourage reflection on possible risks and necessary interventions for this important entrepreneurial class in the local economy