Early or delayed entry in inter-firm network agreements: evidence on performance and markup of Italian firms

Abstract

Inter-firm network agreements (IFNA) are policy instruments which stimulate collaboration among companies allowing them to share several economic, financial, and managerial benefits. Using a sample of 16463 Italian firms that joined a network during the period 2013–2021, the goal of this paper is to empirically investigate whether the early or delayed entrance of firms in IFNA may influence their performance and markup. The results show that early entering firms exhibit on average i) a reduction in markup, ii) an increase in added value, and iii) an increase in revenues, with respect to those firms that will join a network later. This study contributes to the network literature by providing additional empirical evidence on IFNA as instruments to foster cooperation, innovation, and internationalization among firms with no geographical bound. JEL codes: L1, L14