The Impact of Technopoles and Science Parks on the Regional and Local Innovation Systems
The Impact of Technopoles and Science Parks on the Regional and Local Innovation Systems

Author(s): Massimiliano Ferrara, Francesco Lamperti, Roberto Mavilia
Subject(s): Economy, Business Economy / Management
Published by: ASERS Publishing
Keywords: firm‘s birth rate; entrepreneurship; patents; science parks; sustainable growth
Summary/Abstract: In recent years a good number of countries has invested in the creation of Technopoles (TP) and Science Parks (SP), with the aim of fostering an entrepreneurial culture based on innovation and research, and directly stimulating and supporting innovative start-ups. In this chapter we investigate how the presence of such structures affects entrepreneurship at the local level. In particular, we want to capture possible direct and indirect effects brought by TP/SPs to the territorial unit of analysis. Using a large dataset concerning Italian provinces (NUTS 3 level), their socio-economic environment and their TP/SPs, the chapter examines how the presence and density of TP and SP affects economic development of surrounding areas and, in particular, how they stimulate entrepreneurship. The resulting econometric models are estimated by means of panel regressions and a Difference-in￾Difference model. We find a positive and significant effect of the presence of TP and SP on patenting activity, while firms’ birth rates and GDP levels seem not to be directly affected in the short-run (5 year time window). To the contrary, we observe a negative impact of TP/SP’ local density on new firms’ birth rate in the same time span, consistently with our hypothesis that of TP/SP are attractors for innovative business ideas but need time to develop the incubation process leading the idea to the market. Finally, we find a robust negative correlation between the regional density of TP/SPs and GDP evolution. Causal relations are here discussed and investigated according to our main hypothesis about the role of TP/SPs in regional economies.

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