Territorial innovation systems: foundations and current extensions.

Summary With the retreat of the large Fordist firm, the 1970s highlighted the organizational efficiency of groups of small SMEs, specialized in a part of the manufacturing process of a specific product and inserted in local networks, such as the Italian districts. Different analytical currents have then insisted on the place of geographical proximity in the organization of production, and more particularly on its role in the processes of innovation and the constitution of local systems. The objective of this chapter is to review the state of the art of these approaches and to propose a critical analysis. After describing the main forms of territorial innovation systems developed in the economic literature, from districts to clusters, we will analyze in a second part the mechanisms and factors that explain the success of these systems, while relativising the role played by geographical proximity in these systems and highlighting the importance of long-distance relationships, made possible by mobility and communication techniques.