The global connectivity of regional innovation systems in Italy: a core–periphery perspective

ABSTRACT

The study evaluates the role of global connectivity in a country's regional innovation systems, using Italy as the study context. Two forms of innovation connectivity are analysed: domestic Italian entities connecting to external knowledge sources (‘reaching-out’ processes) and foreign entities connecting to knowledge resources within Italian regional innovation systems (‘reaching-in’ processes). It is found that Italian regional innovation systems’ rising connectivity to global knowledge resources is being driven almost entirely by ‘reaching-in’ processes managed by foreign entities. The driver role of foreign entities in an advanced country's regional innovation system connectivity to the global environment is a key new finding.

KEYWORDS:

• inventor connectivity
• regional innovation system
• core–periphery framework
• knowledge sourcing
• global innovation network

JEL:

• F23
• O32
• O52

DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Alexander Berman http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6249-5657

Alba Marino http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3932-8102

Ram Mudambi http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-5602

Notes

1. Owing to the complexity of the patenting process itself, the processing time at the USPTO takes an average of three years (OECD, 2009). That is, a consistent time lag between the application date and the final grant date of a patent exists. For this reason, the period 2011–14 is likely to suffer from consistent bias owing to missing values. In other words, as of 2015 – the final reference year of our study – the USPTO had not yet examined all the applications submitted in those years.