Design networks and knowledge management for supporting small and medium enterprises. Cases from Italy.

The shift from industrial economy to knowledge economy and from material resources to “intellectual resources” has supported new ways to look at innovation processes. More and more importance is given to knowledge diffused inside and outside organizations as the key resource to foster innovation. Italian companies, above all in furniture, home accessories, fashion sectors, have gained a competitive advantage. This success was based on local knowledge network, connecting systems of small an medium companies, in which design played a distinctive role. The global diffusion of knowledge, thanks to Information and Communication Technology, represents for Italian companies an opportunity and a risk as well: they can easily access new knowledge about design, technologies materials etc., but they can hardly protect their specific know how and their local capabilities. This paper aims to explain how Italian successful companies created design knowledge networks and how they continuously support design innovation. Starting from this scenario it shows, through two case studies, how a public institution – the University – can support design knowledge sharing and creation inside local systems of SME.