Role of the public research system in national wealth creation

This paper explores the importance of scientific research as a knowledge source in the industrial innovation process, offering a broad view of how much, where and how scientific institutions are embedded in industrial innovation. The analysis is based on the results of the 1990–92 European Community Innovation Survey and in particular those from Italy. The answers to the questionnaire provide a picture of the relevance and the patterns of the links between industrial firms and scientific institutions and offer some policy suggestions for improving these linkages. From the point of view of the economics of science the resulting pervasiveness of science in economic activities, even in a country such as Italy characterised by a high proportion of small and medium-sized firms, is an interesting outcome, since it opens up the possibility of analysing scientific activity as driven not only by the peer-review mechanisms, but also by the inter-linkages with economic activities. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.