What are supply companies? Classification, characteristics and examples of public and private supply companies.
SUPPLY COMPANIES: CHARACTERISTICS AND CLASSIFICATION
Companies can be divided according to their purpose into:
- manufacturing companies , that is, companies that pursue the realization of profit (predominant objective) through the satisfaction of human needs (the instrument through which to realize the real objective);
- supply companies , that is, companies that pursue the satisfaction of human needs through the procurement and subsequent use of the necessary resources. Economically, they do not pursue profit, but rather the balance of the budget, which is why they are said to be non-profit;
- composite companies , that is, companies in which both the objective of satisfying human needs (which is predominant) and that of pursuing a profit are pursued at the same time (an example is constituted by public bodies).
A special case is that of non-profit organizations , which operate in sectors that are of no interest to manufacturing companies because they are not profitable and which are not even of interest to the State in the broadest sense of the term due to a lack of funds and resources or by choice.
The funds that allow these organizations to survive rarely come from the individuals who use the goods or services offered by the organization, and in any case the fees requested would be largely insufficient to cover the costs.
For this reason, the main funding comes from the State or from private citizens who, sharing the aims of the organization, decide to finance it.
The main difference between non-profit organizations and delivery companies is that in delivery companies the resources collected are used to satisfy the needs of the company’s members, while in non-profit organizations it is usually external subjects to the organization that derive the greatest benefits from its activity.
PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SUPPLY COMPANIES
Supply companies can be further classified based on their legal entity into:
- public companies , or those belonging to territorial or institutional public bodies;
- private companies , i.e. family businesses or private associations.
CORPORATIONS AND FOUNDATIONS
A further classification can be made by looking instead at the methods of obtaining the resources necessary to carry out the activity. In this regard, we distinguish:
- corporations , made up of a group of individuals who have the same interests and who, after having determined the amount of resources necessary to carry out the activity, provide the necessary funds through payments that may be voluntary or mandatory;
- foundations , in which there is a group of individuals who decide to create the foundation by contributing a certain amount of capital and then, on the basis of the presumed fruits of this contributed capital, set the objectives that can be achieved by the foundation.
The difference is therefore substantial: in corporations the objectives are set first and then the necessary financial resources are provided through the members’ contributions, in foundations on the contrary the capital is provided first and then on the basis of the capital collected it is evaluated which objectives can be achieved.
