Knowledge building in rural areas: experiences from a research center-rural SME scientific partnership in central Italy

This article proposes an approach designed and adopted to identify and qualify effective positive experiences in the cooperation between rural small and medium enterprises, and research institutions (and the resulting knowledge flows). It outlines a managerial prototype, based on identified processes,which could be cloned and applied in other contexts in order to make knowledge more productive for rural areas. On the bases of the experiences from a case study in Central Italy, an analytical framework linked to three interrelated levels emerges: (a) agents’ nature and characteristics; (b) relations between agents; and (c) dynamics of an agent-based binary system. At present,the first two levels have been implemented to evaluate the dynamics of this partnership, to create general indicators to identify divergence/convergence balances between the agents involved and to create a knowledge system for the management of the conflicting strategies that emerge from their intrinsically different natures.