«Andante ma non troppo». The links of Italian universities with business activities

The increased importance of knowledge and the role of universities inthe incubation of technology-based firms gives universities a more prominent placein economic development. Their engagement in the support to business innovation,however, is not the same in all economically developed countries. In Italy, wherecooperation between universities and companies does not have a long tradition, thereis a substantial shift away from the model of the university as an ivory tower.The paper argues that the propensity of Italian universities to take economicadvantage of the results of research has grown in recent years and it is distributedunevenly among universities. Results from a multivariate analysis conducted on theItalian public universities show that the main factors influencing this distribution are:the amount of researchers dedicated to technological disciplines, the specialization ofthe local economic milieu in high-tech activities and, finally, the quality of researchthat fosters extra-local networks.The paper also presents the results of in-depth qualitative case studies on the roleof technology transfer offices. The effectiveness of these intermediate organizationsincreases when officers are professionally skilled, when liaison offices are stronglyendorsed by academic institutions and when their activities are reinforced by thepresence of a local or regional network of intermediaries and by forward-lookingand continuous public policies.