Footwear Industry Footwear Industry - empirica

Footwear
larger ICT investments; they are the major financing source for about 10% of mediumsized
and large firms. Venture capital funding is insignificant compared to the other
sources, as only about one in every hundred firms identified it as is the major source for
their ICT investments. Some of the sector’s SMEs (about 5%) have reported successfully
drawing from public funds for their investments.
Exhibit 3-7: Major source for investments in ICT
Cash-flow
financing
Bank loans
Venture capital
Public funds
and other
Weighting % of % of % of % of % of % of % of % of
empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms empl. firms
Footwear (EU-10) 79 84 8 7 1 1 5 3
Micro (1-9 empl.) 86 8 2 1
Small (10-49 empl.) 83 4 1 5
Medium (50-249 empl.) 78 10 0 6
Large (250+ empl.) 72* 11* 0* 0*
All 10 sectors (EU-10) 74 82 5 7 1 1 9 7
Micro (1-9 empl.) 82 8 1 2
Small (10-49 empl.) 81 6 1 2
Medium (50-249 empl.) 70 8 1 2
Large (250+ empl.) 67 2 1 8
Base (100%)
firms that have made investments in ICT
N (for sector, EU-10) 391 391 391 391
Questionnaire reference C4 C4 C4 C4
* Data only indicative due to low number of observations (N ~ 25).
Source: e-Business W@tch (Survey 2006)
The overall picture illustrates that, presently, footwear firms are fairly in line with the
average of all sectors studied by the e-Business W@tch in 2006 both for current and for
planned investments in ICT. However, as the current ICT adoption rate is very low and as
the larger companies are the most reluctant to spending, the gap to other sectors is likely
to remain unchanged, if not increase in the future.
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