The case of Pisa, in Italy, emerges as an effective representation of the difficulties and opportunities of HTSFs in peripheral regions, as well as of the challenges and phases that a knowledge-based local economic policy might face. The paper summarizes the results of a three year empirical analysis of the local HT sector. Over 200 firms, with an impressive average growth rate, have been identified and analysed in the province of Pisa, where a traditional manufacturing sector is slowly but constantly declining and coexists with an outstanding public research system, which attracts and retain in the city important human resources, generates high-tech start-ups and attracts external companies in the area. Four different categories of firms are identified and analyzed: (1) established innovators, (2) technology integrators, (3) technology labs and (4) emerging innovators. Furthermore, three phases of development of Pisa high-tech sectors are described: (1) birth and innovative growth, (2) consolidation and stability and (3) clustering and restart.
It seem that the knowledge-based potentialities of the area will represent a strong asset for its future development; nonetheless, the relative weakness of networking initiatives, the lack of a clera public and private leadership in the sector, and the inadequacy of the local financial market are identified as the main bottlenecks for the further growth of an already promising HT cluster.