In recent years the competitive scenery of SMEs has changed. Globalization and the recent difficulties have driven companies towards new configurations. The reduced dimension of the large majority of Italian companies is the result of even more criticism in front of the global market, besides which they suffer from competition from those in countries with lower production costs. The economic contingency, which has reduced the GDP of many countries and in particular that of Italy, has made markets more attractive to higher rates of development. It is difficult that all these challenges can be defeated by firms aiming exclusively at lower production costs, they will have to evaluate other aspects such as quality, research, technology, brands, service, etc..

The aggregation of Italian firms has not happened in a significant or spontaneous way but in the form of fusions or acquisitions.

Now with the network contract there is another tool which allows companies "to form a critical mass". The network contract, in comparison to the pre-existing forms such as ATI, consortia and districts, allows the elaboration of more structured and complex aggregative forms crossing the limits of the sector or geographical area. In this way it is possible to take advantage of economies of scale in the various business activities and also to fully exploit their combined skills in the network also outside of the sector of origin. This new organizational form, notwithstanding the young age of the specified contract, promises interesting developments for the future.

The first chapter of the book is devoted to an excursus on the principal theories relating to the networks among enterprises to then compare the new network contract with preceding contractual forms. The second part analyzes the factors that predispose the construction of a network. The third chapter, using the C6 Model - Vitality developed by pd for, proposes a cyclical evolutionary journey for the network in three phases: start-up, challenge and evolution. In the fourth part the essential points are introduced for the elaboration of a network business plan. Three case histories of firms that are forming networks between themselves complete the publication which should prove to be a useful tool to entrepreneurs undertaking this journey.