Many are the types of infrastructures, i.e., the forms of support to entrepreneurship that can be found in Italy, just like in other developed countries, and that for the most part aim at fostering the concentration and coordination of the resources involved in research activities, developing collaborations between universities and enterprises and promoting the transfer of technologies and in general the diffusion of innovation. More specifically, it is possible to identify research areas, industrial development areas, business innovation centers, business incubators, centers for the innovation and transfer of technologies, scientific parks, technology parks and technopolis. This complex taxonomy of structures is intended to effectively meet specific needs of the territory, such as the need to foster creativity, the opportunity for cultural contamination and the provision of services to newly emerging enterprises. The enterprise incubation activity is gaining increasingly more strategic value for the development of economic systems, from a production standpoint as well as in employment and social terms. In particular, the enterprise incubation activity aims at speeding up and systemizing the process of creation of innovative enterprises. Through the use of common infrastructures and the provision of specific services supporting business activities, the enterprise incubators offer professional growth opportunities to new entrepreneurs and the possibility to meet other undertakings in the territory. The purpose of the paper is to take a close look at the Italian non-profit incubation system. In this respect we will analyze a new incubation model, aiming at fostering the processes of innovation creation and diffusion in a local economic system, namely, the enterprise incubator “The Furnace of Innovation”, which was created from the recovery and expansion of the site of the former Furnace of Asolo (Treviso, Italy) and from the aggregation around a project shared by the main actors of the territory. Thanks to its logistic characteristics and a number of tailored services, the Furnace offers opportunities and support to new enterprises with innovative features, preferably in the design and communication sectors, and a project of economically sustainable growth. Moreover, through an articulated planning of catalist events such us workshops, meetings and theme exhibitions, the Furnace contributes to create a local context open to new contamination of knowledge and ideas, necessary for the creation of an innovative and creative territorial system. The research matter will be dealt with by means of a critical analysis of the national and international literature and an empirical analysis carried out in relation to the enterprise incubator “The Furnace of Innovation”. This paper intends to identify the activities and services offered by the Furnace of Innovation, in particular, the enterprise incubation service, its recipients and advantages, as well as the virtual incubation service, the element considered most relevant in the process of selection of ideas, the profile of would-be entrepreneurs and the level of competitiveness reached by the incubated enterprises.

The non-profit enterprise incubators in Italy. From a brickyard to a laboratory of ideas: the Furnace of Innovation of Asolo

CASTELLANI, Paola
2009-01-01

Abstract

Many are the types of infrastructures, i.e., the forms of support to entrepreneurship that can be found in Italy, just like in other developed countries, and that for the most part aim at fostering the concentration and coordination of the resources involved in research activities, developing collaborations between universities and enterprises and promoting the transfer of technologies and in general the diffusion of innovation. More specifically, it is possible to identify research areas, industrial development areas, business innovation centers, business incubators, centers for the innovation and transfer of technologies, scientific parks, technology parks and technopolis. This complex taxonomy of structures is intended to effectively meet specific needs of the territory, such as the need to foster creativity, the opportunity for cultural contamination and the provision of services to newly emerging enterprises. The enterprise incubation activity is gaining increasingly more strategic value for the development of economic systems, from a production standpoint as well as in employment and social terms. In particular, the enterprise incubation activity aims at speeding up and systemizing the process of creation of innovative enterprises. Through the use of common infrastructures and the provision of specific services supporting business activities, the enterprise incubators offer professional growth opportunities to new entrepreneurs and the possibility to meet other undertakings in the territory. The purpose of the paper is to take a close look at the Italian non-profit incubation system. In this respect we will analyze a new incubation model, aiming at fostering the processes of innovation creation and diffusion in a local economic system, namely, the enterprise incubator “The Furnace of Innovation”, which was created from the recovery and expansion of the site of the former Furnace of Asolo (Treviso, Italy) and from the aggregation around a project shared by the main actors of the territory. Thanks to its logistic characteristics and a number of tailored services, the Furnace offers opportunities and support to new enterprises with innovative features, preferably in the design and communication sectors, and a project of economically sustainable growth. Moreover, through an articulated planning of catalist events such us workshops, meetings and theme exhibitions, the Furnace contributes to create a local context open to new contamination of knowledge and ideas, necessary for the creation of an innovative and creative territorial system. The research matter will be dealt with by means of a critical analysis of the national and international literature and an empirical analysis carried out in relation to the enterprise incubator “The Furnace of Innovation”. This paper intends to identify the activities and services offered by the Furnace of Innovation, in particular, the enterprise incubation service, its recipients and advantages, as well as the virtual incubation service, the element considered most relevant in the process of selection of ideas, the profile of would-be entrepreneurs and the level of competitiveness reached by the incubated enterprises.
2009
incubation; enterprise; knowledge; innovation; creativity; network
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11562/334506
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