Brokerage and SME Innovation: An Analysis of the Technology Transfer Service at Area Science Park, Italy

This paper contributes to the literature on innovation brokerage by analysing the effects of brokerage activities on the innovation and growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The authors provide a detailed description of the Technology Transfer Service (TTS), credited as a European best-practice innovation broker, at Area Science Park in Italy. They then carry out an exploratory econometric analysis, the results of which show that the support provided by the TTS enables research-industry collaboration and has positive effects on product and process innovation in SMEs, but it appears not to affect the generation of new patents in SMEs. The results also suggest that the growth in innovation enabled by the support of TTS has a positive effect on the SMEs' revenue growth and job creation. However the innovation broker is more effective in relation to larger firms than it is for micro-enterprises. (Contains 6 tables and 4 notes.)