Evaluating policies for innovation and university-firm relations. An investigation on the attitude of Italian academic entrepreneurs towards collaborations with firms.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of education in spreading entrepreneurial culture at the regional level. Key items explored in the paper are: the focus and the scope of entrepreneurial education at the regional ecosystem level; what content and methodologies are consistent with the dierent phases of the education process; actors,relations and policies operating in the local ecosystem of innovation. On the basis of the existing literature and empirical evidence, the paper analyses: entrepreneurship as the main explanatory factor for the economic performance of a country; the potential of education in fostering entrepreneurship; the conceptualization of innovation and education as processes consistent with the perspective of ecosystems. Finally, the actors' relations and behaviours in the regional context are analysed in the light of enhancing the impact of education, from primary to post-graduate, aiming at the economic growth and social development of the community