Processi di innovazione, sistemi relazionali e strategie di localizzazione: la rilevanza di un approccio di analisi differenziato a livello settoriale

Over the last years, several theoretical and empirical analyses have been carried out to investigate the relationships between localization strategies and innovation processes. According to many scholars, notwithstanding the globalization, learning and innovation still are localized processes, so that the local features of the regional industrial system explain and determine success of firms and agglomerations in innovation. In the meanwhile, however, other researches have shown that innovation processes are far from being exclusively embedded in local contexts, as they profite by increasing long-distance resources and information flows. This paper investigates what is localized and what is not in processes of learning and innovation, suggesting the importance of adopting a differentiated analytical approach at the industry level in order to achieve a better comprehension of the relationships among innovation processes, relational systems and localization strategies.