The participants at this roundtable session observed that Italy has long been a country that, paradoxically, is brimming with ideas yet marked by scant innovation and little skilled employment for the young talent chiefly responsible for these ideas. The abundant and inexpensive intellectual resources on hand are held back by a combination of a poor aptitude for project creation and poor communication among the various actors who are in a position to ensure that good ideas translate into great innovations.
It was noted that the obstacles that prevent virtuous cycles of innovative development taking root in Italy – of the kind which make it possible to exploit synergies between financial backers, the research sphere and business – are well-known. Over the years, and particularly recently, there has been a lack of openness in the country to innovation, the spread of which runs into many more hurdles in Italy than it does in other developed countries. For instance, the size of the internal market – a key element in stimulating the emergence of innovative business initiatives – is extremely limited. Added to this is, on the one hand, a very limited entrepreneurial aptitude and propensity, probably stemming from an education system that does not devote adequate attention to providing entrepreneurial training, and, on the other, a prevailing cultural orientation in universities that leads the profit and non-profit sectors to be viewed as being at odds rather than as complementary. Finally, compounding the effects of an already high aversion to risk, deeply-rooted in the Italian cultural psyche, is an insolvency regulatory regime that stigmatizes business failure.
Yet – it was acknowledged – there are encouraging signs: the number of new start-ups funded by venture capital is on the rise, as is that of university spin-offs and enterprise initiatives kick-started by so-called business angels. Business innovation centers are spreading, and around a dozen specialized venture capital funds are now operating. It is thus a case of building on the many existing successful experiences and ensuring effective linkages between the various nodes of the venture capital chain already in place in Italy (including incubators, technology transfer centers, regional funds, and venture capital funds). Indeed, there is no shortage of worthwhile local initiatives set up by chambers of commerce, industry associations and other organizations, though these are still very limited in scale.
It was stressed that, in this regard, the public sector could play a crucial role in “linking up” the various nodes of the chain, but that measures of substance are required to that end. Rather than aspiring to fund new start-ups directly with public funds that are inevitably limited and disbursed via costly bureaucratic procedures, certain guidelines need to be followed: barriers to entrepreneurship have to be lowered by simplifying and reducing the costs of bureaucracy; the intended areas of investment need to be chosen carefully; new vehicles of communication between entrepreneurs, investors and policy makers must be devised; the sharing of information regarding success stories should be facilitated in order to promote positive “role models”; the establishment of organizations that act as intermediaries between universities and private enterprise needs to be encouraged; and, finally, trust has to be placed in the workings of the market, including by instituting dedicated funds or adopting models – such as that in France – which envisage the participation of banks and insurance companies.