Bocconi Establishes the Francesco Merloni Chair in Entrepreneurship
Bocconi University has established the Francesco Merloni Chair in Entrepreneurship, sponsored by Fondazione Aristide Merloni and assigned to Andrea Fosfuri. The Chair aims to strengthen research and education in entrepreneurship and honor the memory of Francesco Merloni — an industrialist who contributed to the country’s economic and political life — by turning his entrepreneurial legacy into a source of inspiration for new generations.
Understanding What Enables a New Venture to Grow
Research will focus on the processes of launching, developing and scaling new entrepreneurial ventures in technological and innovative fields — areas often characterized by long timelines, uncertain commercialization paths and intermediate results that are difficult for investors to evaluate. Major attention will be devoted to the relations between entrepreneurs and innovation ecosystems: science, capital, talent, institutions, customers and markets that can support experimentation and facilitate growth.
“With this Chair, we bridge the past and the future,” says Francesco Billari, Rector of Bocconi University. “We pay tribute to a key figure in Italian entrepreneurship while investing in the knowledge needed to launch and grow new businesses. Such commitment is in alignment with Bocconi’s mission: to produce rigorous research, nurture talent and contribute to overall economic and social development.”
Many Startups, But Few Scale Up
The challenge lies not only in launching new ventures but in creating the enabling conditions for the best among them to consolidate and grow. As of the first quarter of 2026, there are 11,739 firms listed as innovative startups in the Italian Business Registry. However, 2024 data reveal a structure that remains highly fragmented: 97% of these entities have fewer than 10 employees, with an average workforce of just 1.5. According to 2025 data, one in five innovative startups in Italy is based in the Milan metropolitan area. These figures highlight both the ecosystem's vitality and the challenge that many innovative ventures face when they have to take the leap, scale up and become larger enterprises.
This issue affects all of Europe. In a March 2026 document, the European Commission noted that the EU is home to over 40,000 venture-capital-backed tech startups, generating more of them than any other region in the world. Yet, scaling up to a global size remains a weak point: in 2025, Europe had 331 "unicorns" (new companies reaching $1 billion in value) compared to 1,963 in the United States. The new Chair’s scientific program addresses precisely this gap between the ability to generate innovation and the capacity to scale it.
A New Data Infrastructure for Italy and Europe
The Chair will develop empirical methods to identify and analyze innovative entrepreneurial ventures on a large scale. A key objective is to build the data infrastructure needed for a systematic study of entrepreneurship in Italy and Europe — ranging from evaluating available sources and defining a new dataset to establishing the organizational conditions for continuous renewal of research data and findings. The goal is to track the evolution of these firms, measure changes in uncertainty regarding potential market applications, and identify the resources and relationships that truly influence their growth trajectories.
"Innovative companies do not grow around a good idea alone," explains Andrea Fosfuri, holder of the Francesco Merloni Chair in Entrepreneurship. “They need ecosystems capable of connecting knowledge, capital, people, institutions and markets. Studying these links using robust data will help us understand the conditions that truly foster the development of high-potential startups and how successful entrepreneurs can give back experience, credibility and resources to the ecosystem that supported them.”
From Research to the Training of New Entrepreneurs
Alongside research, the Francesco Merloni Chair in Entrepreneurship will contribute to training future generations of entrepreneurs through courses and academic material. Seminars, workshops, conferences and outreach activities will also bring the results of this scientific work to the academic community, businesses, institutions and the general public. In this way, the Chair aims to combine rigorous analysis, research diffusion and direct dialogue with those who build and finance new ventures.
"The Francesco Merloni Chair in Entrepreneurship is an investment in the ability of new generations to transform ideas, knowledge and innovation into growth and development,” says Paolo Merloni, President of Fondazione Aristide Merloni and Executive Chairman of the Ariston Group. “My father always believed in the value of hard work and responsibility, and in the development of individuals. Through this Chair, we aim to foster a space where business experience, academic research and critical thinking can converge for the benefit of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs — enabling new generations to learn not only how to grow, but also to take the right decisions.”
The new Chair strengthens the partnership between Bocconi and Fondazione Aristide Merloni; both share a commitment to education, research, innovation and entrepreneurial culture, as well as the conviction that human capital and the cultivation of talent are decisive factors in driving growth.