Science Parks and Entrepreneurship: Enhancing Territorial Absorptive Capacity in a Hostile Region

Carmela Elita Schillaci, Marco Romano () and Melita Nicotra ()
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Carmela Elita Schillaci: Università degli Studi di Catania
Melita Nicotra: Parco Scientifico e Tecnologico della Sicilia

DSI Essays Series, 2012, vol. 28

Abstract: In the paper, the concept of absorptive capacity, already successfully applied to firms, is extended to territories. At the regional level enhancing territorial absorptive capacity is strictly related to improving the level of entrepreneurship in an area. From a theoretical point of view, territorial absorptive capacity is dependent on increasing investment in human resource learning, promoting R&D activities and, above all, integrating research and business actors. In such a context, we propose a notion of Science Parks playing a strategic role in increasing territory absorptive capacity and thereby entrepreneurship by acting as knowledge gatekeepers that acquire external knowledge through their national and international networks and improve learning among organizations in a region. The "Science and Technology Park of Sicily - PSTS" case-history is particularly significant in showing the role of Science Parks for the development of absorptive capacity in "hostile regions".

Keywords: Science Parks; Absorptive Capacity; Entrepreneurship; Hostile Region (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
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