Parchi tecnologici e scientifici e distretti industriali. La lezione marshalliana della Silicon Valley

Today all people agree on the fact that most developed countries search for competitive advantages on the field of innovation and technological research. Innovation and technological research are shared between the large companies and a lot of small ones. But an interesting fact emerges from the evolution of technological processes; it is characterized by the growth of clusters of innovative firms with research centres, especially university centres. The most famous experience is that one of the Sylicon Valley. But in Europe, also, there are interesting experiences of so-called scientific and technological parks. The author singles out that Sylicon Valley’s experience and other similar ones share the features of the marshallian industrial districts. We know that a marshallian district is a specialized not large area with a large population of small firms. It is the structures of the social and productive nets that favour the growth of the districts. So immediately a question arises, that is: why in Italy, the country of the industrial districts, there are few experiences of scientific and technological parks? The paper analyses conditions that justify a district (in the marshallian sense) conception of the industrial and technological parks.

Maurizio Mistri, Parchi tecnologici e scientifici e distretti industriali. La lezione marshalliana della Silicon Valley in "ARGOMENTI" 18/2006, pp 5-28, DOI: