Does innovation drive economic resistance? Not in Italy, at least!

Journal title RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA
Author/s Giuseppe Calignano, Luca De Siena
Publishing Year 2020 Issue 2020/3 Language English
Pages 19 P. 31-49 File size 163 KB
DOI 10.3280/RGI2020-003002
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Innovation is considered a key variable for determining regional economic resistance. However, a very few studies aiming to determine the existence of a relationship between innovation and regional resilience - in its various dimensions - have been carried out until now. Our paper aims at narrowing the gap in this regard by looking at the ability of ‘resistance’ showed by the Italian provinces (NUTS3 level) in the 2008-2014 recessionary period. Our statistical analysis reveals that innovation, proxied by employment variation rate in high tech sectors, is not clearly associated with ‘resistance’ at the regional level. Other variables such as diversity of regional economic activities, GDP variation rate, population density and geographical location are actually associated with a higher degree of resistance, while related variety shows an inverse and statistically significant correlation.

Keywords: Innovation, resilience, Related Variety, Unrelated Variety, economic crisis, Italy

  1. Doloreux D. and Dionne S. (2008). Is regional innovation system development possible in peripheral regions? Some evidence from the case of La Pocatiere, Canada. Entrepreneurship and regional development, 20: 259-283. DOI: 10.1080/0898562070179552
  2. European Commission (2019). European Innovation Scoreboard 2019. -- Online available at: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/industry/innovation/facts-figures/scoreboards_en.
  3. Faggian A., Gemmiti R.., Jaquet T. and Santini I. (2017). Regional economic resilience: the experience of the Italian local labor systems. Ann Reg Sci, 60(2): 393-410.
  4. Fitjar R.D. and Rodriguez-Pose A. (2011). Innovating in the periphery: firms, values, and innovation in southwest Norway. Eur Plan Stud, 19(4): 555-574. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2011.54846
  5. Frenken K.., Van Oort F. and Verburg T. (2007). Related variety, unrelated variety and regional economic growth. Reg Stud, 41(5): 685-697. DOI: 10.1080/0034340060112029
  6. Guo Q., He C. and Li D. (2015). Entrepreneurship in China: The role of localization and urbanization economies. Urban Stud, 53(12): 2584-2606. DOI: 10.1177/004209801559559
  7. Hair J., Black W.C., Babin, B.J. and Anderson R.E. (2010). Multivariate data analysis (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education International.
  8. Holling C.S. (1973). Resilience and stability of ecological system. Annu Rev Ecol Syst, 4: 1-23.
  9. Isaksen A. (2001). Building regional innovation systems: is endogenous industrial development possible in the global economy? Can J Reg Sci, 1: 101-120
  10. ISTAT (2015). La nuova geografia dei sistemi locali. Roma: ISTAT
  11. Jacobs J. (1969). The Economy of Cities. New York: Random House.
  12. Lagendijk A. and Lorentzen A. (2007). Proximity, knowledge and innovation in peripheral regions. On the intersection between geographical and organizational proximity. Eur Plan Stud, 15(4): 457-466. DOI: 10.1080/0965431060113326
  13. Lagravinese R. (2015). Economic crisis and rising gaps North-South: evidence from the Italian regions. Camb J Reg Econ Soc, 8: 331-342.
  14. Lazzaretti L. and Capone F. (2015). Innovations and innovators in a resilient city. The case of chemical innovations after the 1966 flood in Florence. City Culture Soc, 6(1): 83-91.
  15. Marshall A. (1890). Principles of Economics. London: Macmillan.
  16. Martin R. (2012). Regional economic resilience, hysteresis and recessionary shocks. J Econ Geogr, 12(1): 1-32.
  17. Id. and Sunley P. (2015). On the notion of regional economic resilience: conceptualization and explanation. J Econ Geogr, 15(1): 1-42.
  18. Modica M. and Reggiani A. (2014). An alternative interpretation of regional resilience: evidence from Italy. In: ERSA conference papers (no. ersa14p369). European Regional Science Association.
  19. Montgomery (1994). Corporate diversification. J Econ Perspect, 8: 163-178.
  20. Nooteboom B. (2000). Learning and Innovation in Organizations and Economies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  21. Asheim B.T., Coenen L. (2006). Contextualising regional innovation systems in a globalising learning economy: on knowledge bases and institutional frameworks. J Technol Transf, 31: 163-173.
  22. Balland P.A., Rigby D. and Boschma R.. (2015). The technological resilience of US cities. Camb J Reg Econ Soc, 8(2): 167-184.
  23. Baltzopoulos A. (2009). Agglomeration externalities and entrepreneurship – micro-level evidence from Sweden. CESIS Electronic WP 190, Centre of Excellence for Science and Innovation Studies, The Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm.
  24. Boschma R.A. (2004). Competitiveness of regions from an evolutionary perspective. Reg Stud, 38(9): 1001-1014. DOI: 10.1080/003434004200029260
  25. Id. (2015). Towards an evolutionary perspective on regional resilience. Reg Stud, 49: 733-751.
  26. Id. and Weterings A.B.R. (2005). The effect of regional differences on the performance of software firms in the Netherlands. Journal of Economic Geography, 5(5): 567-588.
  27. Bristow G. and Healy A. (2014). Regional resilience: an agency perspective. Reg Stud. 48(5): 923-935. DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2013.85487
  28. Ead. and Id. (2018). Innovation and regional economic resilience: an exploratory analysis. Ann Regional Sci, 60: 265-284.
  29. Cainelli G., Ganau R. and Modica M. (2018). Does related variety affect regional resilience? New evidence from Italy, Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1823, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised May 2018.
  30. Calignano G. (2017). Nanotechnology as a proxy to capture regional economic development? New findings from the European Union Framework Programmes. Nanotechnol. Rev., 6(2): 159-170.
  31. Id. and De Siena L. (2015). Resistere alla crisi: il caso del distretto di Recanati-Osimo-Castelfidardo. EyesReg – Giornale di Scienze Regionali, 5(1): 27-33.
  32. Id. and Hassink R. (2016). Increasing innovativeness of SMEs in peripheral areas through international networks? The case of Southern Italy. REGION, 3(1): 25-42.
  33. Id. and Quarta C.A. (2015). The persistence of regional disparities in Italy through the lens of the European Union nanotechnology network. Reg. Stud. Reg. Sci., 2(1): 470-479. DOI: 10.1080/21681376.2015.107589
  34. Capello R., Caragliu A. and Fratesi U. (2015). Spatial heterogeneity in the costs of the economic crisis in Europe: are cities sources of regional resilience? J Econ Geogr., 15 (5): 951-972.
  35. Clark J., Huang H. and Walsh J.P. (2010). A typology of ‘innovation districts’: what it means for regional resilience. Camb J Reg Econ Soc, 3: 121-137.
  36. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (2018). Relazione sulla ricerca e l’ innovazione in Italia. Analisi e dati di politica della scienza e della tecnologia. Roma: CNR.
  37. Cohen W.M. and Levinthal D.A. (1990). Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. Adm Sci Q, 35(1): 128-152. DOI: 10.2307/239355
  38. Cooke P. (2012). Complex adaptive innovation systems: relatedness and transversality in the evolving region. London: Routledge.
  39. Id., Parrilli M.D., Curbelo J.L., eds. (2012). Innovation, global change and territorial resilience. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
  40. Cosci S. and Mirra L. (2018). A spatial analysis of growth and convergence in Italian provinces: the role of road infrastructure. Reg Stud, 52(4): 516-527. DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2017.133411
  41. Cowell M., Gainsborough J. and Lowe K. (2016). Resilience and mimetic behaviours: economic visions in the Great Recession. J Urban Aff, 38(1): 61-78.
  42. Crescenzi R. (2011). A spatial perspective on innovation and economic growth. In: Crescenzi R., Rodriguez-Pose A., eds., Innovation and regional growth in the European Union. Berlin: Springer.
  43. De Siena L. and Calignano G. (2019). Agglomeration Economies in the Italian ICT Sector: The Structural Features. Rivista Geografica Italiana, 126(4): 162-192. DOI: 10.3280/RGI2019-00400
  44. Pilotti L., Sedita S.R. and De Noni I. (2013). Performance e crescita dei sistemi produttivi locali italiani tra rispecializzazione, divisione cognitiva del lavoro ed ecologie del valore. In: Fratesi U. and Pellegrini G., eds., 2000. Territorio, Istituzioni, Crescita. Milano: FrancoAngeli.
  45. Reggiani A., de Graaff T. and Nijkamp P. (2002). Resilience: an evolutionary approach to spatial economic systems. Netw Spat Econ, 2: 211-229. DOI: 10.1023/A:101537751569
  46. Schumpeter J.A. (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press (Harvard Economic Studies 34).
  47. Id. (1939). Business cycles: a theoretical, historical and statistical analysis of the capitalist process. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  48. Id. (1942). Capitalism, socialism and democracy. New York: McGraw-Hill.
  49. Sedita S.R., De Noni I. and Pilotti L. (2017). Out of the crisis: an empirical investigation of place-specific determinants of economic resilience. Eur Plan Stud, 25(2): 155-180. DOI: 10.1080/09654313.2016.126180
  50. Sensier M., Bristow G. and Healy A. (2016). Measuring regional economic resilience across Europe: operationalizing a complex concept. Spat Econ Anal, 11(2): 1-44.
  51. Simmie J. (2014). Evolutionary growth theory and resilience in UK cities: re-invention, replication, recession and recovery. Technical Report, Oxford Brookes University.
  52. Id. and Martin R. (2010). The economic resilience of regions: towards an evolutionary approach. Cambr J of Reg, Econ and Soc, 3: 27-43.
  53. Solow R. (1957). Technical Change and the Aggregate Production Function. Rev of Econ and Stat, 39(3): 312-320. DOI: 10.2307/192604
  54. Storper M. (2011). Why do regions develop and change? The challenge for geography and economics. J Econ Geogr, 11: 333-341.
  55. Sunley P. (2013). Innovation. Global change and territorial resilience. Reg Stud, 47(4): 644-645. DOI: 10.1080/00343404.2013.78175
  56. Todtling F. and Trippl M. (2005). One size fits all?: Towards a differentiated regional innovation policy approach. Res Policy, 34(8): 1203-1219.
  57. Xiao J., Boschma R. and Andersson M. (2017). Resilience in the European Union: the effect of the 2008 crisis on the ability of regions in Europe to develop new industrial specialization. Industrial and Corporate Change, 6: 1-19.

  • Knowledge and innovation dynamics of the Northwest Russia under geopolitical changes A. S. Mikhaylov, D. D. Maksimenko , M. R. Maksimenko , M. M. Filatov , in Baltic Region /2023 pp.79
    DOI: 10.5922/2079-8555-2023-4-5

Giuseppe Calignano, Luca De Siena, Does innovation drive economic resistance? Not in Italy, at least! in "RIVISTA GEOGRAFICA ITALIANA" 3/2020, pp 31-49, DOI: 10.3280/RGI2020-003002