Abstract
The competitive and innovative performance of a territorial region depends on the persistence and attitude of the different actors (public and private) towards promoting innovation and competitiveness. The capacity of innovation of the territories is related with company behaviour in that area and vice versa. Thus, the aim of this chapter is to generate local development using innovative small companies.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Innovation: Exists when new elements are introduced (radical innovation), but also the adaptation, modification and improvement of products, processes or services (incremental innovation).
Innovation Process: Emergence of endogenous capacities and by networks between the entrepreneurs, as well as between the entrepreneurs and local institutions.
Knowledge Mechanisms: collective learning and individual learning, improving existing knowledge and allowing the production of new knowledge and require on-going training and permanent learning.
Innovation Systems: innovation results from a system of feedbacks, forward or backward linkages, between different functions and different actors in a network of cooperation.
Competitive and Innovative Territory: Require persistence and participation of the different actors: companies, institutions of support and assistance to the company’s activity, public institutions in innovation activities.
Innovation Clusters: Groups of standard behaviours of the companies relative to the involvement in activities of innovation.
Governance System: The set of institutional actors with capacity to decide on territorial region, have a central role in the innovation process, through the projects that it defines, regional policies and also organization and regulation of the local activities.