The requests of small and medium-sized enterprises: strengthening capital and aggregations

SMEs are at a crossroads: 55% aim to grow in the next five years, but 40.7% have already postponed, reduced or abandoned at least one investment due to lack of financial resources. It is one of the main data of the Small Industry Report 2026.

At the same time, there is an accelerating hemorrhage: between 2018 and 2024, industry in the strict sense lost 7.1% of its businesses. Yet it is the SMEs that govern the country: they employ three-quarters of the workers in the non-financial private sector, produce 65% of the added value, and generate half of the exported value.

Remaining small risks disappearing, but growing requires resources: the request most shared by entrepreneurs, indicated by 88% of those who participated in the study, indicates a tax system that rewards the strengthening of equity capital, followed by the request, 78%, for financial instruments for growth and aggregations.

The Report also identifies two structural urgencies for SMEs: coming together to grow and preparing for generational change in time, because in industrial companies with between 20 and 49 employees over half of the entrepreneurs are over 60 years old and research shows that young people on boards are associated with more dynamic growth, both in turnover and employment.

«We need to deal with a leap in complexity», said Alberto Baban, president of the Nord-Est Foundation and coordinator of the Small Industry Scientific Advisory Committee, who edited the Report, together with the Confindustria Study Center, Intesa Sanpaolo, who explored the topic of generational turnover, and Luiss, who focused on the capitalization aspect. The CSC, as explained by its director, Alessandro Fontana, has identified size as one of the main reasons for the productivity gap compared to other European countries. If companies with 10-19 employees became 50-249, aggregate productivity would grow by 4.3% and 6.1% in manufacturing alone.

Among SMEs, self-financing prevails, the formula most used by 55.8% in the last three years; 61% would evaluate new members and 65.4% recognize that they could also bring skills. Financial constraints weigh especially on smaller entities. 48% report that the lack of financial resources has sometimes led to postponing, downsizing and giving up on investments.

«Capitalization and aggregations are two complementary levers, the data shows the value of structured collaborations, present in 82.6% of companies with a turnover growing by over 30 percent», explained the Vice-Rector of Luiss, Enzo Peruffo. The same dynamic relationship is found in small companies in the supply chain, which have a productivity 30% higher than isolated companies.

As regards generational turnover, the focus conducted by Intesa Sanpaolo on 550 thousand companies, in 11.5% of cases the board of directors is made up only of over 65s and that between 2019 and 2023 the arrival of young directors did not compensate for natural aging. The balance is negative by 9.8 percent, as explained by Giovanni Foresti, Regional Research manager of the bank. Growth is therefore an imperative: we need, says the Report, simple, predictable and long-lasting incentives.