A Regional Profiling Of Start-Ups And Spin-Offs In Italy: Is Smart Specialisation A Utopia?

Policies aimed to foster the creation of start-up or spin-off companies have been designed and implemented on both EU and national levels. Those efforts have surely increased the number of new technology-oriented companies in the whole continent. This paper aims at describing the distribution of registered start-ups in Italy both geographically and by sector of activity. Data was drawn from the National Registry of Innovative start-ups, a list created by the Italian Govt. in 2012, which contains information on several characteristics of the start-up population of the country. The activity code (ATECO 2007 code) is a numerical string associated to each type of economic activity. By analysing the activity code distribution across the country, we were able to determine a profile of each region based on the type and business of the established start-up companies. Similar regional profiles have been grouped in order to compare the reality with the smart specialisation strategies adopted by the region. Results show that certain external factors such as the presence of incubators, specific funding programmes and, most importantly, a dynamic and close relationship between universities and the business community have a strong influence on the start-up companies establishment and development.