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• Positive externalities enhancing the generation and diffusion of tacit knowledge

• Spillover of information and technology

• Common pool of resources

• Social, cultural, economic, political and institutional issues

• Proximity among the actors which can also reduce the uncertainty

An RSI is a “set of economic, political and institutional relationships occurring in a given geographical area which generates collective learning processes leading to the rapid diffusion of knowledge and best practice”

• Top-down approach

• Bottom-up approach

• Integrated RSI

• Local productive systems: e.g. industrial districts, grass root RISs

• Regional nets of innovation: e.g. high-tech clusters, meta districts

• Regionalization of national systems of innovation (NSIs): e.g. scientific parks, innovation pools, technological districts

• Regional differences in the

  • industrial structure

  • social,

  • cultural,

  • economic,

  • political and

  • institutional issue

• Lags behind in the production or adoption of new technology

• Density of sources of knowledge about new technologies is higher

Industrial districts are characterized by the presence in the same location of small and medium companies operating in light manufacturing sectors of the economy

• Relational embeddedness of industrial districts

  • presence of integrated and familial social relationships.

• Structural embeddedness

  • formal organizational structures like governance, associativeness and services.

• Regional agglomeration of e.g. high-tech firms performing above average on absorption capability, diffusion capacity and access to knowledge

Technological parks are an agglomeration of research institutes and universities as well as the services and infrastructures gravitating around them.

• spatial scale

• Regional Innovation Systems (RIS)

• Determine whether firms located in stronger clusters are more likely to innovate than other firms

• Supply side: Externalities deriving from:

  • Labor market pooling

  • Provision of productive inputs

    • competitors,

    • firms in related industries,

    • suppliers,

    • customers and research institutions

  • Knowledge spillovers

  • Learning-by-doing and learning-by-using processes

  • Easy access to physical infrastructure

• Demand side:

  • Strong local demand

  • Visibility

  • Possibility to exploit sources of good ideas and information coming from key users

• Congestion effects

• Competition effects

• Test for the presence of external learning effects acting at regional level on the diffusion of a new industrial technology