Traditional SMEs and innovation: the role of the industrial policy in Italy

Secondo Rolfo and Giuseppe Calabrese

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, 2003, vol. 15, issue 3, 253-271

Abstract: The aim of this paper is two-fold. First, it analyses the Italian aid programmes for innovation and technology and, in particular, the role of the regions in view of the recent legislative framework. The second aim is to match the needs of Italian SMEs for technological innovation with the state and regional aid programmes. Two empirical research programmes carried out at Ceris-CNR (Institute of Economic Research on Firms and Growth - Italian National Research Council) confirmed that the Italian SMEs' approach to innovation tends to meet the demand of the existing market through incremental processes. The most common way of introducing new technology is by purchasing new machines and equipment to reduce costs and improve quality. All industrialized countries tend to favour the linking of SMEs with external sources of knowledge. The paper shows that in Italy such a policy clashes with the capacity of SMEs for absorbing innovation. Most of them lack the technical structures (technical office, design department, R&D laboratory, prototype department, etc.) and the graduate staff capable of interacting with the research bodies.

Date: 2003
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/08985620210158401 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:entreg:v:15:y:2003:i:3:p:253-271

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TEPN20

DOI: 10.1080/08985620210158401

Access Statistics for this article

Entrepreneurship & Regional Development is currently edited by Professor Alistair Anderson

More articles in Entrepreneurship & Regional Development from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().