Corporate finance... what else? The case of the productive chain networks in north-east Italy and the scaffolding finance adopted by their leader.

The Italian North-East district is a clear evidence of the presence of productive chain networks, in which firms tend to specialize in specific risk management. This generates new approaches in the theory of the firm.We investigate which are the implications for the financial activities of the clusters. The paper presents a methodology to identify firms according to their network role: LF, SF and standing alone firms (SA). Accordingly, empirical evidence about the capital raising activity of LF, SF and SA is reported, deploying the necessity of a new approach in finance, where corporationis no more the focus.