Sistemas regionales de innovación: un espacio para el desarrollo de las PYMES. El caso de la industria de maquinados industriales[Regional system of innovation: a space for the developemnt of SME, the case of the machine shops]

This book integrates three analytical approaches: (i) local and regional innovation systems, (ii) technological spillovers from transnational corporations, and (iii) the processes of technological learning and accumulation of technological capabilities, and creating of absorptive capacities. The literature highlights the existence of a relationship between absorptive capacity and benefiting from knowledge spillovers of transnational corporations, but the empirical evidence on this relationship is weak, particularly in developing countries. This book presents evidence that in the case of an area of mature technology, e.g. machine tools, this relations emerges. It was found that as the levels of absorptive capacities of firms are higher, particularly SMEs, it is more likely that firms benefit from spillovers. But the characteristics of this relationship depends on a number of factors, among them: the type of linkages of SMEs with their clients, the nature of innovation activities and learning undertaken by these companies, and the organizational capabilities of SMEs (particularly the formation of the owner). The methodology is based on the use of direct indicators to assess spillovers, absorptive capacities and their relationship.