SURVEY ON PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES FOR INNOVATION CLUSTERS OF TUSCANY: CHARACTERISTICS, MOTIVATIONS AND SATISFACTION

With the Regional Council Resolution (DGR) no. 1040 of 2010, Tuscany Region identified twelve technological / application sectors to promote the creation of innovation poles. The purpose of the process was to foster interaction and collaboration between firms, technology transfer intermediaries and research bodies to strengthen the innovative capabilities of the regional SME system, to be achieved through a reorganization and enhancement of the technology transfer infrastructure in the area. The aim of this study is to profile the companies that joined the innovation poles during the first phase of the program and to represent its point of view. In order to achieve this goal it was necessary to carry out a broad campaign of business interviews following a precise statistical sample design. Sample companies were subjected to a structured questionnaire that would help to rebuild the company’s innovative profile before joining the pole, the underlying reasons for joining and the subsequent opportunities to contact the pole. Companies with contact with the pole after enrollment were asked to express satisfaction with these contacts. The results of the survey show that: (i) the demand for technology transfer by the participating companies was not very high, although there were few companies already engaged in innovative activities at the time of subscription; (ii) about half of the companies registered were contacted by the poles, gaving priority to their companies in their contacts with universities or research bodies in their first contact agenda, and then devoted a relatively greater focus on people with more organized internal R & D; iii) most of the contacts took place with little “personalized” activities from a technological point of view, and in only a few cases, the operators carried out a real check-up to identify the technological needs of businesses; (iv) business satisfaction with the activities actually received and the services actually received stands at intermediate levels, and services are often judged with quality comparable to those offered on the market by suppliers outside the innovation poles.