In search of knowledge for innovation:a study of Italian SMEs

Starting from a research conducted by Confindustria Veneto SIAV and commissioned by ISFOL, a government institution dealing with vocational training, social and employment policies, the study was aimed at understanding how industries, universities and regions interact within the territory in order to sustain innovation of the industrial structure and of knowledge and learning systems. The general structure of the research is presented herein, based on 51 case studies conducted in three Italian regions (Veneto, Piedmont and Apulia), and the relevant regional focus groups. On the occasion of this meeting within the context of the UIIN, the focus of attention shall be the search by SMEs for new external knowledge, made necessary by the fast pace of differentiation caused by the increasing pressure of competition, which is also analysed in the paper. Specific emphasis is given to the relationship between enterprise and university. By using a very simple classification scheme for relationship levels, a presentation is given of three cases purposefully selected on the basis of the major difficulty, i.e. internalizing the acquired knowledge, with a view to going beyond the technological transfer concept, in order to highlight the importance of the final steps, i.e. the organisational and operational contextualisation of new knowledge. Indeed, acquired knowledge has to be transformed in order to be implemented into a specific context. Despite the idiosyncrasy of specific reported cases, a final synthesis is provided taking into consideration a few joint, transversal features and support actions undertaken in the final steps of the transfer process. The stories told by enterprises about their experience confirm that a company’s innovative potential is not so much to have good ideas, but rather to be able to turn them into profitable business. This also draws the attention to the development of business models, which have also been studied in the research, towards the repositioning of the value chain.