Evaluation of national science park systems: a theoretical framework and its application to the Italian and Spanish systems

Although many authors have analysed the role and the efficiency of science parks, only a few contributions have analysed national science park systems (SPSs) as a whole. Because of the lack of data, evidence regarding the performance of science parks in a nation is very limited and there is a lack of comparisons between different systems. This paper aims to introduce a simple framework to analyse SPSs and to show its use for comparing the state of development and the main differences of two or more SPSs. Its application to the Italian and Spanish systems shows that science parks play a more important role in Spain than in Italy. The main causes of these differences are argued to be (i) the presence of a set of coherent and particular policies which favour science parks in Spain and (ii) the internal factors of the Spanish science park system, including business models of the science parks and the role of the national association.