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While innovation policy mixes combining several policy instruments have been advocated as a response to complex problems, there is very little evidence of their effectiveness compared to that of individual instruments. By considering a set of Italian regional policy programmes implemented in 2011-2014, we analysed a policy mix composed of: (i) technology and innovation advisory services, the aim of which is to help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to gain a better awareness of their innovation needs and of how to address them; and (ii) innovation vouchers, which are used to subsidise SME purchases of knowledge-intensive services. To draw causal inferences on their differential effectiveness, we adopted a propensity-score-matching approach extended to multiple treatment levels.\ud We found that advisory services are more effective than innovation vouchers and as effective as policy mixes in increasing SME propensity to innovate and engage in R&D collaborations. Conversely, policy mixes are more effective than each individual instrument in increasing productivity. Hence, merely providing SMEs with technology and innovation advice is not sufficient to elicit productivity improvements; SMEs also need to act on such advice by working with external providers of knowledge-intensive services in order to implement efficiency-producing changes.

The provision of public funds to private firms for the purchase of services, particularly knowledge-intensive ones, has received so far little attention from the evaluation literature (Bakhshi et al., 2015; Bruhn et al., 2018 are notable exceptions). These interventions often target small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), providing them with a small amount of public funds that reduce their cost of purchasing services (Storey, 2003). Public funding can take the form of a direct subsidy or a voucher, which firms must use to purchase services from accredited service providers, or sometimes from any provider freely chosen by the beneficiary firm (OECD, 2000; Storey, 2003; IEG, 2013).

Why has the cluster concept proved so successful in this millennium? Which are the authors, the scientific areas, and journals that have helped to enliven the debate in this era, characterized by the transition from a solid modernity to a liquid modernity, as the well-known sociologist Zygmunt Bauman would say? With this work, we have aimed to answer these research questions by adopting an evolutionary approach. By means of a bibliometric analysis based on descriptive statistics and social network analysis tools, we have identified the founders and the main disseminators of the cluster concept across time. The point of departure is an original database, created by the authors, consisting of 1586 academic articles about industrial clusters that have been published from 1989 to 2010 in international scientific journals (source: ISI Web of Science). Our claim is that the Porterian contribution on clusters opens up a global debate over a concept that was Òin the airÓ many years before. The cluster concept is rooted in the Marshallian tradition, and is strongly related to the Italian and European literature, which is more familiar with the narrower concept of the industrial district. By relaxing some of the specific features that characterized the industrial district model, a more inclusive concept is promoted, which, in a prey-predator relationship, assimilates previous contributions. By now, the cluster concept has gained international recognition and been constantly sustained by a theoretical discussion that encompasses a variety of disciplines and approaches. Our evidence shows that this success can be attributed basically to the liquid properties we have identified: multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary qualities and global dimension.

The forces of globalisation now impacting on local economies pose threats to the existing paradigm of competences and routines, yet simultaneously offer opportunities to integrate new knowledge and learning. This is particularly pertinent with respect to Europe’s ‘mature regions’, which are undergoing a major economic restructuring by trying to shift from traditional manufacturing activities to hybrid activities that comprise a combination of manufacturing and a higher component of intangible inputs and related knowledge service activities. The objective of the article is to discuss the concept of ‘place leadership’ by looking at how the embedded skills, knowledge and cumulated learning of a place can be used by its institutional infrastructure to identify sustainable growth trajectories. In other words, its aim is to explore how the economic, social, institutional and cultural aspects of places shape the opportunities for upgrading and renovation drawing upon their historical specialisation. The conceptual contribution of the article draws on two case studies, in the West Midlands, UK and in Prato, Tuscany, where we study the processes of decision-making, forms of leadership and ultimately the nature of local leadership.

The fast rise of made in China in international markets has raised concern, among others, in the SME clusters of Italian industrial districts. The several cases of specialized towns (i.e. localities characterized by the presence of a specific cluster) in the China more dynamic regions exemplify a rich variety of factors supporting industrial growth, some of them based in cluster and local relations, other ones in international business strategies. This article presents two specific contributions. Firstly, it is proposed an advancement in the understanding of cluster forms of industrial development in China new industries, through a statistical analysis on a set of specialized towns of the Guangdong Province. The analysis is led by hypotheses generated and discussed on the basis of models of local and cluster development incorporating the experience of Italian industrial districts. Secondly, it is suggested the application of the empirical results to the reflection on business and policy reactions in Italian industrial districts to the international competitive challenge.

This paper examines the regional effects of public spending on Active Labor Market polices (ALMPs). Using an unbalanced sample of 308 regions belonging to 29 OECD Economies for the period 1995-2011, we show that discretionary increases in public spending on active labor market policies at the national level have statistically significant short- and medium-term effect in reducing regional unemployment rate, while raising regional output. These effects tend to be larger during periods of low GDP growth, and when complemented by a larger share of cohesion fund expenditures.