Why was the Italian military so ineffective as a fighting force in World War II?

There are a number of reasons generally given for the
Italian weakness in World War II.

• Economic and
  industrial weakness.  Italy was not a major power in economic and industrial terms
  before or during the war.  In a war where success was so dependent on technological
  advances and industrial capacity, Italy was
  lacking.


• Quality of weapons.  This is closely related to
  the first weakness.  Italy simply did not have a weapons industry capable of creating
  first-class equipment for its troops.


• Weak morale.  The
  war was not as popular in Italy was it was in Germany or Japan.  Italians were therefore
  not nearly as motivated to fight.  Because Italy lacked a truly strong set of war aims
  that was supported by the people, morale in the Italian army was low.  This was
  exacerbated by the inferiority of their
  equipment.