An insight into the innovative start-up landscape of Trentino

Abstract

An insight into the innovative start-up landscape of Trentino Is it time for the "Start-up Valley" to scale up? This paper offers an in-depth analysis of the characteristics of innovative start-up firms in Trentino, a high-income mountainous area in the North East of Italy. This work is part of a series of thematic papers on regional start-up landscapes in Italy, produced by the OECD Trento Centre for Local Development. Following the 2018 OECD Evaluation of the Italian Start-up Act, which embraced a national perspective, it represents a first attempt to analyse the impact of this policy at the local level. Among Italian regions, Trentino boasts the highest density of registered innovative start-ups over all young firms established locally. However, innovative start-ups spread unevenly throughout this territory, concentrating in urban areas. Female and young founders are less prevalent than in Italy at large. Firm dynamism, in particular high-growth and exit trends, the uptake of emerging technologies among local start-ups as well as their propensity to use national incentives are other key areas of this work, which concludes with a set of evidencebased recommendations for policy makers.

The future of remote work

“…This has been the case in Germany and Portugal, which have redirected teleworkers interested in relocating to the country into established visasfor freelancers and for retirees or other foreigners living of a recognised stable income, respectively. 8 Such initiatives are aimed towards a work-from-anywhere way of operation, rather than a hybrid model that combines teleworking and office presence. The logic behind such schemes is clear: the expense of the incentive is worth the boost to the local economy that teleworkers may provide, even if they only remain for a limited time.…”

“…While it prominently came to the fore during the pandemic, teleworking had emerged as an object of regulation in some OECD countries long before that (for example, the European Framework Agreement on Telework dates back to 2002). The crucial issues of access to teleworking and the working conditions of teleworkers have evolved in many OECD countries in the last decade (OECD, 2021 [8]).…”

“…2 For further information, visit: https://work.iceland.is/working/icelands-remote-work-long-term-visa3 For further information, visit: https://mup.gov.hr/aliens-281621/stay-and-work/temporary-stay-of-digitalnomads/2868334 For further information, visit: https://nomadvisamalta.com/5 For further information, visit: https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/greece-plans-to-create-special-visa-fordigital-nomads/6 For further information, visit: https://www.comune.rieti.it/content/rieti-smart-village7 For further information, visit: https://santafioraturismo.it/vivi-in-paese/8 For further information, visit: https://govisafree.com/digital-nomad-visa-remote-work-visa/ emerges that defines…”

Enhancing the impact of Italy’s start-up visa

“…One of the most remarkable cases is that of the United States: according to a study published in 2016, 50 out of 91 technology companies with market value over USD 1 billion ("unicorns") were founded by foreign nationals (Anderson, 2016[3]). In Silicon Valley, the presence of qualified non-US workers is very high (57%), and other major US hubs also show a significant presence of non-American workers (Silicon Valley 4 The Italian Start-up Act has been the subject of extensive research by the OECD in the last few years, with reference to its impact both at national (Menon et al, 2018[17]) and in three selected regions (OECD, 2020 [18]) (OECD, 2020 [19]) (OECD, 2020 [20]).…”

“…Examples of established capacity building networks include: 19  The "Summer Academy on Cultural and Creative Industries and local development" (known as SACCI), organised on an annual basis since 2018, provides an international forum for cooperation between policy makers and entrepreneurs in cultural and creative sectors.…”