Valeria Sodano and Fabio Verneau 205
employees in Campania. The management structure comprises mostly graduates in the 25 to
40 age range in firms in Emilia, whilst in Campania only 20% are graduates and the average
age is mostly over 40.
The level of participation in formal and informal associations enables us to notice further
differences. As shown in table 3, relative to the survey carried out with questionnaires, the
interviewees from Campania show a preference for trade unions and professional bodies whilst
participation in voluntary, environmental or recreational organisations is all but non-existent.
In Emilia, on the other hand, the percentage of interviewees belonging to such organisations is
much higher, with the single exception of religious based ones.
The analysis of the principal data relative to the two Regions also shows major differences. In
tab. 4 we show data published by two ISTAT surveys relative to the importance of voluntary
organisations and criminal activity carried out in Italy and in the two Regions being examined.
The consistency of voluntary activity in Campania is well under the national average, and
occupies, with only 0.3 organisations per 10,000 inhabitants, the last place amongst the Italian
regions whilst Emilia, placed at sixth in the list, comes out as one of the Italian regions with the
highest density of organisations and number of volunteers.
Regarding trust indicators, in both groups about 50% of interviewees trust both their
neighbours and most of the people they know, so showing a substantial similarity. However,
the perception of trust and confidence in the main institutions appears highly dissimilar and
systematically greater in Emilia, as clearly shown in table 5. In particular behaviour towards
central and local government should be noted.
The criminality indicator also makes apparent profound differences between the two regions.
In Emilia all interviewees declare as negligible the influence of criminality on either their
firm’s activity or that of the territory, whilst in Campania 39% of firms interviewed maintain
that their own economic activity is prejudiced by criminal systems and an even higher
percentage maintain that the territory’s economy is jeopardised by such organisations.
This data brought out by the questionnaire survey is confirmed also by official statistics
regarding illicit and criminal activity and crime. In this case the comparison between
Campania and Emilia is synthesised in table 6. With respect to the three categories contained in
the table, Campania seems afflicted by social problems to a far greater extent than is observed
in either Emilia or Italy as a whole.
In conclusion, both official statistics and indicators emerging from the informative survey
make apparent substantial differences between the two regions. In particular the 4 categories of
indicator considered let one suppose a different composition and quality of social capital,
which could be useful in explaining the different organisation of the two regions and their
differences in terms of economic performance.
The different endowment of social capital gives northern and southern firms different chances
to succeed in the three strategies mentioned previously. The first strategy (building new
relationships with retail organizations) demands high trust, in that collaborative vertical
relationships aimed at optimising logistic and information flows and seeking common
marketing goals, require loyalty and a cooperative outlook. It therefore mainly fits Emilian
district. The second strategy (innovation) also seems more viable for the Emilian district,
mostly because whatever the product innovation may be, its success will require strict retailer
collaboration (i.e. trust), for the launch and the subsequent promotional activities. Conversely,