The evolution of an innovation policy in a local system of production. The case of the Regional Programme for Industrial Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer

Aim of this thesis is to analyse the evolution of a policy within a local system of production. We consider policy as standardised social technologies devoted to the coordination of the physical technologies of production. In this sense we can compare them to institutions: arising spontaneously as organic entities for the development of networks of production and then becoming pragmatic as formally embedded in laws and norms. To investigate this process we will employ as case study some industrial policies developed by Regione Emilia Romagna from the 1970s to the Regional Programme for Industrial Research, Innovation and Technology Transfer (PRRIITT) in 2003.