Incubators as catalysts of academic spin-offs: evidence from the Israeli case-study

There is already a respectable body of evidence that connect industrial innovation with knowledge spillovers from academic research, and many suggest that university research units can play a helpful role in small firm innovation, but very few take into account their role in the making of ‘innovation systems’, as promoters of innovative spin-offs. In addition, the theory does not distinguish sufficiently between different patterns that foster the spatial concentration of new activities. Dealing with the processes of knowledge generation and diffusion, this paper explores the behaviour of development agencies, i.e. of incubators, in order to increase interactions between academic research and firms, expressly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Through a survey of Israeli Technological Incubators Programme (TIP), this paper both attempts to individuate specific behaviours and aims at identifying the interdependence of universities, firms and development agencies in stimulating innovative dynamics. Through a questionnaire and on field investigations, it put in evidence ‘formal’ and ‘informal’ interdependences between universities and incubators. In particular, it has been achieved an empirical analysis on a sample of university incubators, in order to reflect on successful experiences and limitations of their methodologies in the entrepreneurial promotion. These “enabling structures” are intended to increase the level of basic education through actions of continuous learning and to develop efficiently a process of networking. The Israeli case-study put in evidence that: 1. information or codified knowledge, as in the collaboration between RTD institutions, but also tacit knowledge, know- how and competencies circulate in the incubators; 2. “soft” infrastructures and institutions can remove those obstacles which usually hinder the diffusion of “technology spillovers” and stimulate the opening of the local district to the external world, thus favouring its relations with research centres and technologically-advanced businesses; 3. such agencies need a necessary institutional background in order to sustain ‘knowledge and innovation networks’ at local and inter-regional level; 4. innovative projects can be supported by action tools based on a “transactive” approach that stimulate cooperation amongst the different actors and facilitate their mutual relations. Finally, it seems to be indispensable the creation of a subject “integrating” the technological relations amongst the businesses in the different sectors thus assuring an unitary governance of the interactive process of technological development.

THE ROLE OF DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES FOR THE ENTREPRENEURIAL

National and local “economic development programs” – programs that provide assistance to individual businesses with tax or financial subsidies, or special public services, in order to increase local jobs or improve local businesses’ competitiveness – have become prominent and controversial. The paper illustrates the basic principles of development agencies that are not invariable and specific structures, rather “ideal- typical” structures that assume particular aspects only referring to a variety of local society answers’. In this sense, a tool as the enterprise incubator could foster the growth of entrepreneurs in regional contexts with a low level of entrepreneurial attitude. The definition of a model of incubator, through the analysis of a specific case study, the Israeli technological incubators, whose outline conditions, resources, vocations, obligations and their incidence on policies of entrepreneurships promotion in Israel are identified, help us to outline factors of success, direct and induced effects on regional contexts, possible new relations introduced among actors, also in a new informational economy perspective. The local context characters, both at human and social capital level and at institutional and infrastructure levels, become decisive factors for productive choices, overtaking sometimes the national level to link directly to global networks. In this way, it seems inevitable a transformation of both the aims and the organisation in a changing context. The role of development agencies has moved from promoting the local demand to structure involved in elaborating solutions in the socio-economic field.SMEs innovativeness; entrepreneurial promotion; incubator; Israel

Ways of Thinking and Looking at the Mediterranean City

It’s almost a decade that the social science attitude has changed in evaluating the history and reality of the Mediterranean basin geographic area. The decadence of capitalistic modernisation has created a void in social and cultural relationships. A process of cultural legitimisation has been started, focussed on the Mediterranean image and identity, which is pointing out the problem of local cultures’ knowledge and preservation as fundamental elements for planning and management. Searching for a definition of Mediterranean city, not only through geographical or morphological schemes, the paper considers also social, economic and cultural elements, like the borders’ permeability, the supremacy of the “family” on the State and the pervasiveness of the informal economy. Most of these urban realities reveal a “culture of the derogation” and a great rural immigration that give still significance to a classification of resident population, instead of those based on the service users. Moreover, the large Mediterranean urban areas are usually based on a unique centre, rich of economic and human resources, connected to a hinterland poor and degraded, without any kind of identity. On the economic side, the need of entering in the global market leads most of these cities facing the international scale and finding a strong characterisation. On the social side, it could increase the social exclusions with the danger of conflicts. Anyway, every solution must start from the regional scale with public policies, which aim to promote the consensus, exceeding the urban/rural distinctions and stimulating the local community participation.Mediterranean city, urban theory, models, urban statistics, planning

POLICIES FOR THE LOCATION OF INDUSTRIAL DISTRICTS IN ITALY AND

Recent global trends have affected significantly territorial and economic policies, especially in advanced-economy democracies, weakening frequently their national sovereignty. This paper, through published data, documentary sources, and interviews, offers a comparative perspective of industrial localisation’s policies in Israel and Italy, focusing on the dualism national decision-making/local practice. Although they have two different political structures, both countries have shifted to greater decentralisation, increased deregulation, and more privatisation. Since the beginning of the State, Israel industrial localisation policy used tools as national and regional planning and fiscal incentives, with the objective of the industrial dispersal. But last years’ profound economic, political, and social changes have led to a transformation of Israeli industrial geography, shifting changes in the government policies, and reinforcing the local-government assertiveness. Developing industrial parks has become a top priority even for rural regional council, with the risk of over-investment in too many industrial parks of too small a size. Similarly, since post-war years Italy concentrated on regenerating the economic periphery, the southern regions, through the “Cassa per il Mezzogiorno”, helping finance and developing irrigation, agriculture and industrial development in the most disadvantaged areas with a policy of investments in infrastructures and financial supports to the localisation of large firms. The change of industrial models, now based on more flexible structures, has brought, almost spontaneously, the “Third Italy” phenomenon, a proliferation of ‘local production systems’ (LPS) where SMEs represent an high share of total employment. Based on an endogenous development model, the success of LPS is not guaranteed unless change and innovation take place among local SMEs and institutions and between the local production system and the external environment, competing areas and other spatial system. For both countries is necessary a comprehensive, strategic and flexible planning and a stable, efficient and no-bureaucratic decision-making process, at an intermediate scale between regional and local.

Intermediate Institutions for Interactive Learning Processes in a Governance Perspective: the Case of Aeronautic Industry in Campania Region.

The present paper presents the results of the empirical analysis on fifteen enterprises and twenty no-industrial organizations involved at different level in the Aeronautical Cluster in the Campania Region. Information and data on the selected sample are colleted both by a study of the industrial sector, and also by suitable questionnaires and interviews, that the authors have submitted to the entrepreneurs and to the top managers of either the enterprises or the no-industrial organizations. The authors have focalized their study by applying the SWOT analysis on the following issues: • the cluster’s structure by analysing the relational skill developed by single actors of the cluster and by their impact on the innovation capacity of the enterprises; • the effectiveness of cluster’s governance strategies and how different actors actually participate to the local development processes of the aeronautical industrial sector. On these bases the authors wanted to deduce possible policy options for different kind of actors to optimize the cluster’s governance. Particularly they will describe in the present paper some indications to: 1) the SME’s that present strong relations with customers but low integration with large part of the others actors, i.e. with no-customers enterprises; 2) the large enterprises related to the industrial policies and to the suppliers' governance; 3) the policy makers at local level and the intermediate institutions for a better support of the local enterprises. In fact, the research results are based on the conscientious awareness that the analyzed sector is at a critical point, for which it is necessary that all the actors involved put together their efforts in order to steer and to direct the development process, both by identifying participative mechanisms at local level and also by strengthening those exogenous elements which are able to promote local development. Obviously only part of the criticisms can be solved at local and national level and some of them can be solved only partially. This observation opens the question of policy at the international level which can be determinate only with a more exhaustive integration into transnational networks. The research described in the present paper has been undertaken within the framework of the project: “IKINET – International Knowledge and Innovation Network†(EU FP6, N° CIT2-CT-2004-506242).

Progettazione ed Implementazione di un'Applicazione di Business Activity Monitoring basata su tecnologia Sun eBAM Studio® per un Portale di scommesse on line

Realizzazione di una piattaforma di monitoring real-time che permetta il monitoraggio dell’availability del sistema e dei processi che prevedono movimenti di denaro, affinchè possano essere rilevate possibili frodi

Modi di pensare e vedere la città mediterranea

This essay attempt to summarise what is known about the mediterranean cities and their relationship to the so-called Global Cities, principally based on immaterial fluxes, which offer a growing centrality to cities networks and communication systems. A new dualism has sprung, global/local, pointing out the problem of local cultures’ knowledge and preservation as fundamental elements for their planning and management. An important matter could be to define the Mediterranean City, not only through geographical or morphological schemes, but also considering social, economic and cultural elements, like the borders’ permeability, the predominance of the family on the State or the predominance of an informal economy. Most of these urban realities reveal a “culture of the derogation” and a great rural immigration that give still significance to a classification of resident population, instead of those based on the service users. Moreover, the large Mediterranean urban areas are usually based on a unique centre, rich of economic and human resources, connected to a hinterland poor and degraded, without any kind of identity. On the economic side, the need of entering in the global market lead these cities facing the international scale and finding a strong characterisation. On the social side, it could increase the social exclusions with the danger of conflicts. Anyway, every solution must start from the regional scale with public policies which aim to promote the consensus,exceeding the urban/rural distinctions and stimulating the local community participation.Mediterranean sea, city, urban development, planning

De elektrische deelauto: een alternatief voor toekomstige mobiliteit?

Binnen het nieuwe mobiliteitsdenken zal deelmobiliteit een belangrijke plaats hebben. De toegang tot de stad met één vervoermiddel zal meer en meer worden teruggedrongen. Het gebruiken van verschillende vervoermiddelen zal de regel worden. Buiten de klassieke vervoermiddelen O.V., fiets, lopen zullen voor bepaalde verplaatsingen deelauto’s een rol gaan spelen. Naarmate deze deelauto minder storend is voor het leefmilieu, kan deze rol vervuld worden door een elektrisch voertuig. Deze paper rapporteert over het gebruik van elektrische deelauto’s. Vier cohousings ontvingen gedurende een jaar gratis, twee elektrische deelauto’s en oplaadinfrastructuur. Twee cohousing waren in de stad gelegen en maakten gebruik van het bestaande Cambio terwijl twee cohousing in het sub-urbane gebied waren gelegen. De bedoeling was om binnen deze specifieke omgeving gebruikersprofielen af te leiden. Daartoe werd het gebruik van de voertuigen -via logging van verschillende parameters- en het laden van de voertuigen, gemonitord. De eerste resultaten van deze testen worden in deze paper beschreven

Ways of Thinking and Looking at the Mediterranean City

It’s almost a decade that the social science attitude has changed in evaluating the history and reality of the Mediterranean basin geographic area. The decadence of capitalistic modernisation has created a void in social and cultural relationships. A process of cultural legitimisation has been started, focussed on the Mediterranean image and identity, which is pointing out the problem of local cultures’ knowledge and preservation as fundamental elements for planning and management. Searching for a definition of Mediterranean city, not only through geographical or morphological schemes, the paper considers also social, economic and cultural elements, like the borders’ permeability, the supremacy of the “family” on the State and the pervasiveness of the informal economy. Most of these urban realities reveal a “culture of the derogation” and a great rural immigration that give still significance to a classification of resident population, instead of those based on the service users. Moreover, the large Mediterranean urban areas are usually based on a unique centre, rich of economic and human resources, connected to a hinterland poor and degraded, without any kind of identity. On the economic side, the need of entering in the global market leads most of these cities facing the international scale and finding a strong characterisation. On the social side, it could increase the social exclusions with the danger of conflicts. Anyway, every solution must start from the regional scale with public policies, which aim to promote the consensus, exceeding the urban/rural distinctions and stimulating the local community participation