Introduction

In the “knowledge economy”, local political authorities embarked upon the attraction of key high tech (HT) firms, the promotion of local research and innovation, attention to the technology transfer, and other policy options concerning entrepreneurship, whose main goal was to be the next “Silicon Valley”. Savannah, Georgia and Pisa, Italy are two midsized cities that for different reasons lag behind in the HT race and local authorities desire to bring their cities to a position where they are able to exploit their assets more efficiently. A deep understanding of the nature of the local knowledge system and absorptive capacities of the region is important to formulate policies that are able to stimulate the proper model of growth of the local economy. The goal of this study is to make recommendations on how these cities can increase their HT growth potential by identifying the economic growth model that best relates to the city. An empirical approach has been followed to determine the key dimensions of the local knowledge production and transfer system

 Methods

We considered a theoretical framework of the various industrial districts of a midsized city like Pisa and Savannah. The result of a technology opportunity assessment analysis led us to relate the two cities with economic growth models by assessing their research outputs in terms of publications and patents and relating them with high tech employment and number of start-ups. Academic publications and patents also attempt to measure the knowledge system within the cities, especially how these systems can increase knowledge capital and how this knowledge capital can translate into a greater absorptive capacity and dynamic capabilities of firms and local institutions to stimulate sustainable economic growth. Under either exogenous or endogenous model, the actual growth of the local high tech industry can be measured by looking at the dynamics of the current HT labor market and the number of HT firms.

 Results

The collection and analysis of patents, publications and employment data in the last decades, showed that the publication activity in Pisa is quite impressive, and it is mainly the result of a very active university system and public research labs. Savannah’s publications are much less in number than Pisa, but as opposed to Pisa, they come mostly from the private sector. The production of patents in Savannah has consistently been double than that of Pisa. Pisa’s patents are dispersed to a greater number of assignees and are mainly HT.  The analysis of the HT employment data showed the dominance of the IT sector, both in the number of firms and in the total employment for both cities. Compared with the rest of Georgia, Savannah is rapidly losing positions in the HT sector, and it is not enjoying the development of an industry, which in 10 years created 70,000 new jobs in the state. Pisa’s HT industry is growing significantly, but in spite of the consistent R&D activities in the city, it is not performing better than the Italian average.

 Conclusions

The city profiling and the analysis of high tech employment in the two cities show that both Savannah and Pisa are not fully exploiting growth potential through the HT sector. This could be explained by the fact that their innovation systems are currently lacking clear leadership. A non-smooth knowledge flow leads to a path where the accumulation of new resources and competences does not translate into greater dynamic capabilities. The analysis of publications and patents shows that Savannah is more likely to experience exogenous growth while Pisa identifies more closely with potential endogenous growth. In order to facilitate economic growth, Savannah should focus on the development of absorptive capacity, which will enable “local champions of innovation”, to detect, transfer, and adapt for the local knowledge system know-how produced elsewhere. Pisa should facilitate greater networking, communication, and leadership, in order to create the incentives for increased knowledge and technology transfer within the innovative system already in place.