Innovation, Technological Transfer and Competitiviness: A territorial approach.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the innovation and the technological transfer in what concerns their impact on the competitiveness of the performance of lagging regions. The distinction between the concept of innovation and technological transfer seems to be relativised, since it is assumed that the conditions for the operationalisation of the process of technological endogeneisation require contextual conditions similar to the regions that export technology. Some conclusions about the role of some factors must be taken from studies carried out and from our empirical research, concerning Beira Interior, such as the industrial structure, the quality of entrepreneurial activity and networks and cooperation for innovation, which might appear as a struggle to the process of innovation and to the technological accumulation. We also stress some of the implications on the regional polic