The MET surveys, carried out since 2008, have the analytical objective of providing a perspective on the evolution of the industrial system in Italy: the aim is to investigate the structural and strategic drivers of productivity and performances.

We focus on methods and distributions of innovative paths, of research and development efforts and of market expansion strategies. The analyses must have the possibility of dealing with the high heterogeneities that have characterized the Italian system in these years.

MET’s survey methodological choices are based on several factors: high  sample numerosity (24.000 interviews for each wave) matched by a substantial weight given to regionality, sector and dimensionality, an unbalanced sample to have a larger numerosity of those companies with higher probability of experiencing interesting and rare phenomena (for instance R&D), fixed biannual frequency, a panel component of approximately 50%, questions relative to reasons behind firm status transformations that lived through strong variations between subsequent waves, attention and training during surveying times,  and alignment with external databases (financial statements, public policies and others).

For these objectives the survey must be characterized by a very large sampling (over 24,000 for each wave).

The questionnaire used is particularly rich, making it possible to analyze both structural phenomena and those linked to human capital, and, finally, those linked to financing channels and the constraints on growth.

The simultaneous presence of all this information at a microeconomic level, also allows to analyze the relationships between different phenomena with appropriate methodologies.

The basic questionnaire has been enriched over time to take into account emerging phenomena (such as those related to the digitization of production, Industry 4.0, the so-called Smart Specialization) and to give increasing space to aspects of social and environmental sustainability.

Finally, the timeliness of the analyses and the efficiency obtained with the long experience gained, should be emphasized. This allows to obtain first results from very extensive surveys in a very short time.