“Firms in Italian regions through a multivariate statistical analysis”

In the last years, world financial markets were in the midst of a credit crisis of historic breadth and depth that had a special emphasis on the corporate sector. In fact, a lot of firms encountered some difficulties to survive and to adopt the correct strategies to overcome that difficulty. The study intends to highlight the principal economic and financial characteristics of firms in Italian regions and to create groups of regions heterogeneous between them, but homogeneous within them. From the methodological point of view, the research is developed through the collection and elaboration of data representative of the firm status in the Italian regions and published by Istat and Infocamere in the period 2010-2011. Specifically, data regards some demographic aspects and selected economic and financial indicators through the analysis of the aggregated balances distinguished by economic sectors. The study uses a multi-disciplinary approach and is realized through the Principal Component Analysis, to summarize the relationship between different dimensions of the investigated phenomenon, and the Cluster Analysis, necessary to carry out heterogeneous groups of regions between them, but homogeneous within them. Particularly, the study puts in evidence some cluster of economic sectors being affected by particular financial and economic conditions such as that of some economic sector that are located in different Italian regions. Indeed, it is possible to identify some leading economic sectors and reflect about the actions that firms can undertake for the Italian economic growth.