The relationship between needs and instruments of innovation policy in different regions: the Matrix INT - Instruments and Needs of Technology

The methodology, which is described in this study, aims to evaluate the gap between the characteristics of the demand and the supply of technology transfer (TT) services to small and medium size firms in a wide international framework, comprising both developed countries and less developed countries. The study focuses on a "demand led" and strategic approach. It underlies that the problems and opportunities of development of the small and medium size firms in the various individual countries are different and that determines a different structure of the demand of technology transfer services. Moreover, this study aims to identify the role and characteristics of the TT intermediaries in the wider framework of the strategies and instruments of innovation policies. In fact, the instruments of innovation policy are not only those, which operate directly on the individual firms, but also those, which can operate on the "selection environment", within which the firms are embedded. Key words: evaluation, innovation, technology transfer, regional policies

The governance of regional networks in the process of European integration

The paper illustrates the model of territorial networks and it investigates the role of institutions in a bottom-up approach of economic and institutional integration aiming to tackle the negative impacts of the globalization process on the economic development. The first chapter illustrates in analytical terms the model of territorial networks and the multidimen-sional nature of the process of integration, in a regional and international setting and it contrasts it with the traditional neoclassical model of price competition and of aggregate efficiency. The second chapter illustrates the concept of organizational/institutional distance and it analyses the various forms of interregional interdependence between developed and less developed regions and it contrasts them with the neoclassical model of market integration and interregional competition. The third chapter investigates the impact of the European Union enlargement on a reform of the aims and instruments of EU regional policy and the characteristics of a regional policy appropriate to the aim of the integration of the new accessing countries in the European Union. Finally, the fourth chapter illustrates the role of institutions in the governance of the international economic relations and the lessons which may be derived from the process of European integration in order to tackle the impact of the globalization process on less developed countries. Key words: Globalization, European Integration, networks, distance, institutions Prof. Riccardo Cappellin

Enlarging the scale of knowledge in innovation networks: theoretical perspectives and policy issues

Nowadays, it is widely accepted that knowledge and learning are the core of competitiveness, international division of labour and agglomeration and exclusion phenomena. Yet we are still in need of a better understanding of the processes which allow access by individual regions both to codified knowledge and RTD networks as well as tacit knowledge and know-how at the international/interregional level. This paper will discuss possible approaches to analyze the mechanisms which operate at the international/interregional level and lead to higher forms of integration of industrial and service firms, not only in a commercial or financial perspective but also in knowledge and innovation networks. It will point to a need to develop policy strategies in support of institutions that create and transfer knowledge on a European scale and outline open questions for the creation of the necessary institutional background for the creation and the support of knowledge and innovation networks at this level and for the conditions of its transferability to Objective 1 regions and the EU candidate countries.

Regional Learning Networks in Medium-Tech Technologies and European Integration

The paper aims at investigating the transfer of tacit knowledge both at the regional and at the interregional level and it focuses on the factors and forms of the processes of interactive learning between small and medium size in medium technology sectors. The analysis proceeds from the contributions of four strands of literature, focusing on economics of agglomeration, cognitive economics, industrial strategic alliances and governance in a knowledge economy. While industrial economics interprets technology spill-over at the local level as an automatic and chaotic process allowed by geographical proximity of the firms, regional economics identifies different specific types of flows and networks, which link together in an organized way the various firms and other private and public actors within a given regional innovation system. Cognitive economics may bring a significant contribution, as it considers the relevance for economics of human cognitive aspects and it discovers the key role in the creation of new ideas of selected factors, such as the stimulus by changes in the external environment, the process of “neurognosis†or negative reaction aiming to the protection of the internal integrity, the search process constrained by cognitive proximity, the success in pattern making and the achievement of consistency and compatability, the process of “exaptation†or reconversion leading to path-dependency, the creation of new connections and routines and institutions, which allows to save the limited cognitive capacity of individuals and organizations. This theoretical framework in the analysis of the processes of knowledge creation may be schematically represented through the model of “Territorial Knowledge Managementâ€, which aims at promoting the interactive learning processes within the regional innovation systems and focuses on a selected list of knowledge levers, such as: market orientation, accessibility, receptiveness, common identity, creativity and governance. On the base of these theoretical concepts and tools, the paper analyses various case studies of firms embedded in different industrial clusters in Europe, focusing on the forms of the process of interactive learning and innovation between the various regional actors. Finally, the paper attempts to derive from that analysis useful indications for the possible extension of knowledge and innovation networks at the interregional and international level and for decreasing the regional divide in a modern knowledge economy. The research has been undertaken within the framework of the project: “IKINET – International Knowledge and Innovation Network†(EU FP6, N° CIT2-CT-2004-506242). Keywords: knowledge creation, interactive learning processes, industrial clusters, innovation policies, European integration, medium technology sectors, small and medium size firms.

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).

Strategy for Innovation and Knowledge Creation in the Aeronautical Industrial Cluster in Campania Region.

This empirical study is a part of a large theoretical and empirical research project, “IKINET – International Knowledge and Innovation Network†(EU FP6, N° CIT2-CT-2004-506242), coordinated by University of Roma “Tor Vergataâ€, on the international/interregional dimension of existing knowledge and innovation networks, where not only information or codified knowledge, as in the collaboration between RTD institutions, but also tacit knowledge, know-how and competencies circulate. With particular focus on how to decrease the “organisational and institutional distance†between the various regions at the international/interregional level, since tacit knowledge and innovation capabilities often are embodied in human capital and individual organisations and institutions. The aim of the paper is to identify the key barriers to an efficient operation of knowledge creation and transfer and innovation networks in the Aeronautical Industrial Cluster in Campania Region, in the south of Italy. In Campania there is a long tradition in this sector and today there are about sixty enterprise that work in the sector, we use, like sample of the regional industrial, fifteen enterprise subdivide in large primer contractor and suppliers of first and second range. Information and data on the selected sample are colleted, and also by suitable questionnaires, and interviews, that the authors have submitted to the entrepreneurs and to the top managers of either the enterprises. We focalize our analysis on firm recent performance and related factor of competitiveness; organizational characteristics of the firms, competencies and management of human resources; innovation history and knowledge creation and transfer processes within the firms; finally we analyze from qualitative point of view relevance of enterprise in the cluster like technological crux. Examined sample give back a realty extremely composed with strategy really different but with some common aim and operative behaviourism that let us to deduce some homogenous group.

L'evoluzione delle strutture economiche regionali

Collana dell’Associazione italiana di scienze regionali (AISRe)- Parte I - Analisi dei processi di localizzazione #13- Parte II - Analisi degli squilibri inter ed intraregionali #103- Parte III - Politiche economiche e territoriali #189- Abstracts #275

Knowledge Creation and Innovation in Medium Technology Clusters

This study deals with the processes of innovation in the medium technology industrial sectors. First, it illustrates the differences between the linear model of innovation and the systemic and cognitive model of knowledge creation. Then, it focuses on the concepts of connectivity, creativity, and speed of change, which characterize the processes of interactive learning in the industrial clusters. Finally, it illustrates a typology of regions, where problems and policy fields are different, and it indicates the guidelines of a governance of interregional knowledge and innovation networks