Aeronautics-aerospace activities in a knowledge based regional context. Perspectives versus global competitiveness

The main goal of this paper is to explain how the introduction of new technologies from strategic sectors such as the aeronautics-aerospace, may influence the competitiveness at regional level. The analysis involves both European and Italian level. According to the traditional Pavitt’s taxonomy, the aeronautics-aerospace sector can be defined as a knowledge-science based sector. The EU looks at the aeronautics-aerospace like a leading sector in building the society of knowledge and information and a potential tool of competitiveness gain in the global market. It is well-known that technological innovation included into the aeronautics-aerospace activities may be suitable to many other sectors, so that it produces a technological fertilization in economic fields sometimes far under the production point of view. This is possible because aeronautics and aerospace activities are technologically integrated as well as available for many applications. Indeed it is interesting to note that the aeronautics-aerospace sector is meaningfully structured in poles at regional level in several EU member states, so that we can sustain that industrial districts formed by aeronautics-aerospace science and application could represent an interesting evolution of numerous knowledge-based areas into the future EU, and they could contribute to induce more connective and connecting companies thanks to an over-national market and well-distributed activities at regional level. At the actual state of worldwide competitiveness, the aeronautics-aerospace sector is able to increase local competitiveness and development.