Innovating in the local systems of small medium sized enterprises: the experience of Tuscany

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Abstract
Innovation policies addressed to SMEs in Tuscany (and in Italy as well) have given, so far, a very limited contribution to improving the SMEs performance in terms of competitiveness and technological enhancement. The interpretation the paper attempts to demonstrate is that innovation policies have been designed for a ‘generic’ SME, in a frame of traditional sectors, within administrative areas, whereas successful SMEs are not merely operating in a given sector or area; they are agglomerated in peculiar Spatial Systems of Small Enterprises (SESS). The productive, spacial, social models of functioning of a typical SESS are described in order to: (i) identify the local mechanism of interdependencies (between firms, labour force and local government), which generates relevant flows of external economies; (ii) prove that innovation policies have neglected the vital characteristic of the SMEs (their agglomertion in SESSs). Finally, a new innovation policy for SMEs designed by the Regional Government of Tuscany is presented.
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