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Mental maps of entrepreneurs and location factors: an empirical investigation on Italy

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Abstract

The explanatory factors of firms’ location have been largely studied by the location theory, and by the large amount of empirical studies on the revealed locational preferences of entrepreneurs. On the contrary, the literature studying how entrepreneurs perceive places, that is to say, their mental maps, is quite limited. Actually, only one international line of research so far has really focused on the perception of entrepreneurs, defining an original methodology and applying it to the country-level case studies of the Netherlands, Germany, Czech Republic, and Italy. The present paper belongs to this line of research and aims to investigate the relation between the entrepreneurs’ perception of the NUTS3 Italian provinces as potential locations of investments and their socio-economic, spatial/infrastructural, environmental, social, and institutional characteristics. The research question in the present contribution is: ‘are the mental maps of entrepreneurs related to the provinces’ characteristics, and, if so, to which characteristics?’ To do so, descriptive statistics and an econometric analysis (OLS) allow exploring the relationship between the perception score (average rating assigned to Italian provinces), as stated by the entrepreneurs, and the main location factors, usually taken into consideration in the most relevant literature. The main findings highlight not only the significant role of economic and accessibility factors, as expected, and but also the role of some contextual factors such as the presence of the mafia, which is notoriously present in some areas in Italy.

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Fig. 1

Source: our own compilation based on data from Musolino (2015)

Fig. 2

Source:  Our own compilation based on data from S&W Spiekermann & Wegener, Urban and Regional Research (2014)

Fig. 3

Source: Our own compilation based on data from Fondazione Transcrime (2013)

Fig. 4

Source: our own calculations

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Notes

  1. The so-called Padana Region is located in the Po valley, and includes approximately four Italian administrative regions: Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, and Veneto.

  2. See Fondazione Transcrime (2013).

  3. Interestingly, the work by Musolino (2015) adopts the same data on entrepreneurs’ perceived attractiveness of Italian provinces, dividing entrepreneurs by macro-region of residence. He discovered that Southern Italy is quite neglected as a potential location also because the so-called locational self-preferences (Meester 2004) are not valid in the Italian case. Southern entrepreneurs themselves are more willing to prefer locations in Northern Italy.

  4. These divisions correspond, respectively, to the NUTS 2 and NUTS 3 levels in Italy, as defined in the Classification of Territorial Units for Statistics by the European Union (http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Glossary:Nomenclature_of_territorial_units_for_statistics_(NUTS).

  5. Respondents rated the provinces following a stepwise mechanism: they had first to rate regions, and then eventually/optionally, provinces. In fact, they had the possibility not to assign any rate to the provinces, instead leaving them all with the same rating assigned to the region. This is why it is also interesting to take both maps (regional and provincial) into account when analysing the results of the web survey.

  6. Traditionally in Italy, there are four main Mafia groups: the Sicilian Mafia, the Camorra, in Campania, the ‘ndrangheta, in Calabria, and the Sacra Corona Unita, in Apulia. Some authors also refer to a ‘fifth’ mafia, concerning the criminal phenomena exhibiting some of the significant features of the four main groups (for an overview, see Calderoni 2011).

  7. For relevant studies about the emergence of the Padana region, see, e.g. Bramanti et al. (1992), OECD (2006) and Turri (2000). Concerning the role of Milan in attracting inward foreign direct investments, see Mariotti and Mutinelli (2014), and Mariotti (2018).

  8. See among the others, Svimez (2011).

  9. Models (3) and (4) show robustness check.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Research on Regional Economics, Transport and Tourism (CERTeT), Bocconi University, Via G. Roentgen 1, 20136, Milan, Italy

    Dario Musolino

  2. Department of Economics and Political Science, Aosta Valley University, Strada Cappuccini 2A, 11100, Aosta, Italy

    Dario Musolino

  3. Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polytechnic of Milan, Via Edoardo Bonardi 3, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Ilaria Mariotti

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  1. Dario Musolino
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  2. Ilaria Mariotti
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Correspondence to Dario Musolino.

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Musolino, D., Mariotti, I. Mental maps of entrepreneurs and location factors: an empirical investigation on Italy. Ann Reg Sci 64, 501–521 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00168-019-00907-0

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