Regional innovation systems in Europe: lessons for Italian traditional industrial regions

In recent years the most competitive modern economies have often been referred to as knowledge economies. Economists have begun to recognize knowledge creation and technical progress as important determinants of economic growth and competitive advantage at both national and local level. The basic thesis behind the emergence of the knowledge-economy concept is the unique combination of factors that have led to the rapid technical progress in the areas of computing, biotechnology, telecommunication and transportation, to the marked growth in the knowledge-intensive services and to the in-depth change in the nature of workplaces towards high-skilled work. These trends have changed the way in which economies, organizations and governments work and have signed the transition from the industrial to the post-industrial era. In this context, firms can exploit new opportunities but, at the same time, they face an increasing competition at the global level. The strategic effort of territorial actors must then be aimed at creating a favorable business environment so as to attract knowledge and skills and to foster growth and competitiveness of the local system. The aim of the present paper is to sketch the development path of the Italian most industrialized regions and to investigate to which extent it differs from the route traced by the so-called knowledge-based European regions. For this purpose, the paper compares a sample of Italian regions (those with the highest employment level in manufacturing activities and the largest income per-capita) with a group of selected European territories which, in the last decade, have restructured their economic base through a process of industrial, organizational and institutional renewal, leading to a significant improvement of their competitiveness.