Industrial Policy for 'New' Industries in 'Old' Europe: Virtual Cluster in Genetics in Italy

Many European countries are facing new competitive pressures because of the increasing success of countries such as China, India and South Korea. In this context, Italy seems to be squeezed between the difficulties caused by these new competitors specialized in traditional sectors and the difficulties of entering new high tech industries. This paper focuses on the strategic industrial policy options that this “Old-Europe” country may have in order to guarantee its future capacity of producing wealth by participating in the transnational value chain, while avoiding the risk of being progressively marginalized. We present the case of the genetic research sector of one of the most successful Italian regions, Emilia Romagna. This region is characterised by an old manufacturing tradition, by the presence of many small firms organised in specialised clusters and by established poles of knowledge such as universities and research centres. We decided to focus on this sector first of all because of the great potentialities it has been showing worldwide in the last few years; secondly because the development of genetics could be an example of how to encourage the structural adjustment of an “Old Europe” region looking for answers to new international challenges; thirdly because the region has a latent pool of knowledge in this sector that does not seem to be not properly exploited.