The Analysis of Network Additionality in the Context of Territorial Innovation Policy: The Case of Italian Technological Districts

Evidence from economic literature suggests that innovative activities based on extensive interactions between industry, universities and local government can yield high levels of economic performance. In many countries, therefore, steps have been taken at an institutional level to set up innovation networks and, in particular, regional technological districts. Our paper deals with Italian Technological Districts: we aim to analyse the network additionality for territorial innovation determined by district policy. The analysis is based on a priori structural regional characteristics and on Social Network Analysis techniques.