The ten issues have as their sole source of data the business register, a true wealth of information, held by the Italian Chambers of Commerce, which contains information on the 6million businesses currently registered in our territory. The nature of the information is therefore census-based, covering all economic entities belonging to the two divisions of activity in which accommodation and food services are classified since 2009, respectively. On the level of analysis during 2008 there was the adoption of Ateco2007 the new classification of economic activities that forces to address a homogeneous analysis, to focus attention only on the two-year period 2009-2011 In September 2011 in the archives of the Italian Chambers of Commerce there were 393,000 registered companies belonging to the out of home. It represents the fifth largest sector after trade, construction, agriculture and manufacturing. It is Lombardy, considering absolute values, the first region for the presence of businesses in the sector (14 percent) followed by Lazio (11 percent) and Campania (9 percent). And it is the capital city where the highest number of restaurants (10,000) and bars (8,500) is concentrated This figure already explains that the spread of businesses depends more on physical variables (mainly resident population) than on monetary variables (income, consumption, propensity to consume, etc.). This does not mean, however, that the establishment of enterprises is not jointly influenced and has been influenced by both physical and economic variables. Within the supply chain, the overwhelming majority of businesses are located in the restaurant sub-sector: 9 out of 10 businesses belong to this category despite the fact that there are realities such as Bolzano where there is one hotel for every 122 inhabitants, compared to a density of hotels per inhabitant (hotels per number of inhabitants) that is 10 times lower than the country average. Despite the context characterized by a still uncertain economic situation and the persistence of significant structural criticalities of the country's system, in the last year the out-of-home channel has highlighted a marked business dynamism: in the twelve months from September 2010 to September 2011 there was a natural growth of 2.9 percent, higher than the increase achieved by the total number of businesses (overall, the total number of businesses increased by only 0.3 percent) Only four provinces have seen the number of businesses in the channel decrease in the last year, namely Belluno, Isernia, Trento and Savona. The provincial capital of Trento is also the one that is at the bottom of the ranking in terms of percentage change while Monza is the one that has the highest change in the last year. Milan, Rome and Turin are the three realities that in absolute terms recorded the best performance for both out-of-home overall and food services. In relation to specific categories in the supply chain, restaurants account for nearly two-thirds of the overall increase in the sector. The expansive trend observed is also substantiated by the number of openings made during 2010: 55 businesses every day, including Saturdays and Sundays, at a rate of nearly one per hour-a sign that the desire to get involved is still present even in a recession. The next issue is about the type of business by legal form, a theme that ties in with that concerning average size and especially with the idea that complex legal forms favor capital accumulation, labor demand qualification, investment-in a word, the theme concerns the determinants of growth in the medium and long term. Forty-four percent of businesses registered in the sector are sole proprietorships: the incidence is highest in bars where 1 in 2 individuals adopt this form and less numerous in lodging where a more complex corporate form is generally preferred in 2 out of 3 cases. It must be said that in recent years sole proprietorships have begun to lose weight and the out-of-home channel is moving, albeit much more slowly than other economic sectors and overall businesses, toward more complex corporate structures. Capital companies that are more numerous among lodging and restaurants because these are more articulated activities that usually require more capital than is needed to open a bar. The north and especially the center favor forms suited to the complexity of the times: 1 out of 3 corporations is found in central Italy, while in the south and the islands, an area still closely tied to the owner and family, 37 percent of sole proprietorships are concentrated. However, an examination of the entrepreneurial birthrate data deduced from the Business Registry also returns a picture with much less vivid colors, which raises questions about the sustainability of new business ventures in the sector, which at a difficult time such as the one we are currently experiencing highlight certain elements of fragility. Taking a look at the out-of-home businesses that ceased in the first nine months of this year, we find that their average age was just over 8 years, compared with an average age for the total economy of almost 11 years, or two years less Half of these businesses failed to celebrate five years of existence, and more than 3 in 10 had been opened after 2008. From a territorial point of view, the most critical issues seem to characterize the Marche region where the businesses that ceased had an average age of 7 years. This high mortality may be explicable by the low barriers to entry and low economic investment that may attract less knowledgeable first-time entrepreneurs. Even from the long-term comparison, wanting to disregard the more strictly cyclical events, the sector does not come out at its best in terms of the "longevity" of the businesses present, showing an average age per business (11.4 years), lower both than the figure referring to total economic activity, which can be estimated at around 13 years, and compared to other sectors such as transport, manufacturing and trade (in that order the longest-lived). The average age in housing appears significantly higher than in bars and restaurants, the category with the lowest value of the indicator. Going down into territorial detail, it is the Northeast that has the longest-lived out-of-home businesses at the moment, with Trentino Alto Adige also leading the way nationally while the Northwest is characterized as the area with the lowest average age. Although nationally it is Puglia that is the youngest region, where businesses are close to ten years old on average. Every day in Italy nearly 31 businesses are declared bankrupt-one of these is an out-of-home business. Data for the third quarter of 2011 showed a largely stable trend compared to the same period in 2010. These are 109 cases, rising to 436 between January and September, and when compared with the first 9 months of 2010 they send a worrying signal: they show a 20 percent growth and certify that the sector is also paying the long wave of the crisis. Given that the phenomenon in absolute terms, however, concerns an extremely limited number, it is the Northwest that is the most affected geographic area also when analyzing the ratio of companies that have entered bankruptcy to registered companies: with more than 3 bankrupt companies per 10,000 registered, the constituency formed by Liguria, Lombardy, Piedmont and Valle d'Aosta precedes the Northeast and the Center. Last is the South where the incidence of firms with an open bankruptcy procedure out of the total number of firms present comes close to two per 10,000, a figure that is justified by the greater prevalence in the South of sole proprietorships and the lower frequency of entering bankruptcy of this legal nature. The analysis of data on the production structure shows a reality based on a widespread network of small and very small businesses. Well, the "out of home" suffers, as moreover in general the whole country system, from a "dwarfism" of enterprise given that the number of employees per economic activity amounts to 4 units and that more than 8 out of 10 enterprises employ a maximum of five employees. In detail, with just over 6 employed per enterprise in accommodation and less than 4 in the "bars and restaurants" section makes the average size of Italian enterprises in the sector one of the smallest in the European landscape, compared with a value of more than 5 for the European Union average and more than 4 in the eurozone. The significant presence of small and micro-sized enterprises is a peculiarity of female entrepreneurship. The close link between size and gender enterprise is also confirmed in the out-of-home sector and allows us to say that enterprises in the sector are essentially "in the hands of women," with a greater presence than in other fields (there are no female-dominated sectors). 32.4 percent of businesses are pink, a percentage that is slightly up from two years ago (+0.3 percent). An analysis of the data shows that the South is the area where the largest number of pink businesses in the sector is concentrated and where the rate of "feminization" is highest: one in 3 businesses in the sector is led by a woman. Considering the provincial scope Frosinone, Rieti and Bolzano form the podium of provinces where the incidence of female entrepreneurs on the total number of out-of-home businesses is highest. Although the sole proprietorship is still the predominant legal form among women's businesses in the sector, when starting a business Italian women entrepreneurs are also increasingly making more mature organizational choices. In the past two years, the weight of corporations has increased by two percentage points from 8 to 10 percent. Comparing then the September 2011 data with those of September 2009, it can be seen that in the last two years the "women's out-of-home" sector is the one that has contributed the most (more than 7,500 units out of 40,000 total) in absolute values to the balance, which is positive, of the total number of women's businesses. The particular vocation of women toward the sector finds justification in the flexibility that distinguishes the working time (especially for catering) in the sector and that allows for the reconciliation of care commitments within the family with work. Espresso coffee and cappuccino, pizza margherita and spaghetti carbonara. Italian specialties that, increasingly, "speak" foreign. The presence of foreigners in the sector and in particular among restaurant services is constantly increasing, businesses with foreign owners are growing, growing a lot. "Foreign" businesses in Italy as of September 30 weighed just over 7 percent in line with the incidence that total foreign businesses have on the 6 million businesses currently on the Register. They rank as a choice after trade and construction. The development of entrepreneurship among migrants has been intense in the simpler forms of business, but is still limited in the more structured ones, where the administrative and bureaucratic burden on the entrepreneur increases. Nationally, the percentage of sole proprietorships with a foreigner at the helm are 10 percent. 10 years ago they were less than half (4 percent), and in the past year they have grown 6 times faster than sole proprietorships in the out-of-home sector as a whole. Many of the immigrants, when they decide to start a company, do so primarily to open restaurants (over 60%). The bar channel represents a format of more recent discovery by foreign entrepreneurs: it is only in the last few years that foreigners, especially Chinese, are opening bars in the major cities of the North-Central region, testifying that the psychological barrier given by the (Italian) specificity of this business format has now been overcome. Out of the 3900 businesses with Chinese owners in Italy as of last September 30, 1700 were restaurants and 2000 bars, while 9 times out of 10 when an Egyptian, the capital's business community of reference, decides to enter the sector, he chooses to do so by opening a restaurant. The profile of foreign-born entrepreneurs has also changed profoundly over the decade: they were mainly our European neighbors yesterday, Swiss and Germans, they are now linked to countries no longer on the old continent: 1 in 4 businesses is Chinese and 1 in 10 Egyptian. They tend to settle in areas where economic conditions are better and where there are nuclei already settled in our territory can facilitate the migrant's integration into the local business community: 1 out of 2 foreign businesses is based in the North of the country. In Milan 1 in 3 sole proprietorships has a non-Italian owner in Naples only 1 in 50. Statistics on gender and age of foreign entrepreneurs in Italy's out-of-home business tell us that they are generally men belonging to the 35-49 age group. Foreigners are an asset to the sector as are women and should increasingly become so for young people. As of September 30, there were more than 15 percent of sole proprietorships with an owner under the age of 35 compared to the total value of businesses in the sector. Young business captains are important for the out-of-home, but the out-of-home is also important for the "under 35" if we consider that after construction it is the sector where they are most present and that, in the supply chain, youth enterprises weigh almost 4 percentage points more than the contribution they make if on the total. Young business captains are mostly men, while from a geographical point of view, Rome is the province that scores the highest number of youth business ventures, followed by Naples and Milan. But if, on the other hand, we look at the percentage incidence that youth enterprises have on the total number of supply chain enterprises then the picture changes radically: the top 10 positions are all occupied by provinces in the south of Italy with Enna, Crotone and Trapani in that order occupying the first three positions. The self-employment component is therefore more relevant in the South than in the North where the productive structure is consolidated. He is between 36 and 51 years old; he is male and a high school graduate. More often than not, it is a bet on oneself, a chance to realize a dream in the drawer, even before it is a way out of the difficulty of finding a stable employee job. This is the profile of the new entrepreneur, traced by the statistical survey carried out, last summer, in collaboration with Unioncamere on the archives of the Chambers of Commerce that involved the owners of companies at their first experience, which had opened their doors between January 1 and June 30 of the current year. As of June 30, one in four of the 2011 'freshmen' was under 30 years old, a significant percentage of young people in line with the figure for total businesses. But the group with the highest percentage weighting turned out to be the 36-51 age group in which as many as half of all new entrepreneurs were touched. If for 1 in 3 it took less than 10 thousand euros to launch into the market, for 1 in 4 30 thousand was not enough, a much higher percentage when compared to the total number of businesses where only 1 in 10 committed a similar amount. As in the rest of the economy, a general increase in the average level of education has been observed in the out-of-home sector over the years: the vast majority of new out-of-home entrepreneurs have a high educational qualification i.e., a high school diploma even if, when considering the number of graduates, the difference between the level of education in the field of accommodation and catering, other business services (27 percent) and in general with respect to all economic sectors is still significant. Only construction has a lower number of graduates with 5 percent. One in 3 does not go beyond compulsory education.
Roberto Susanna Born in Rome on September 19, 1971. In 1996 he received a degree in demographic and actuarial statistics from the University of Rome "La Sapienza." He is currently a civil servant in the Communications and Institutional Relations Department of InfoCamere, the information technology company of the Italian Chambers of Commerce, for which he has been handling relations with institutional bodies and private interlocutors for many years.
