The innovation system of the spanish tile district: a systemic approach

Innovation has become a central issue for companies. And, even though the sources of innovation can come both from inside or outside the organisation, firms are increasingly dependent from the external environment as a source for knowledge and innovation. In this work we apply the systemic approach to the analysis of a particular territory, the industrial district. We are particularly interested on the analysis of the interaction between the productive-technological environment and the scientific environment through the analysis of research contracts and patents. Our analysis shows that R&D activities in the Spanish tile DIS is mainly carried by providers whereas final producers focus their innovation on none technological aspects. It also shows a weak appeal to patenting as a way to protect innovations, and scarce cooperation between providers and very limited with other elements of the DIS. We conclude that inside a DIS technological innovations spread with little restraints, and this makes final producers to focus on non technological innovations as their differentiation strategy.
Trabajo presentado al 9th International CINET Conference: "Radical Challenges in Innovation Management" celebrado en Valencia (España) del 7 al 9 de Septiembre de 2008.