Institutional Assets as a Tool to Support Networking among Regions: An Analytical Model

This paper aims to investigate which institutional assets could foster the degree of internationalization of regional governments. The underlying assumptions are that the broadening of international relations of a territory is crucial for regional development, and that the internationalization of the regional public sector positively contributes to increased international relations of a territory. The focus of the paper is on the role performed by the regional-level public sector. In order to manage the network of relations with homologue actors (i.e., foreign Regions) and more broadly to successfully internationalize themselves, the public sector of the Regions should be endowed with the proper assets. In this paper, it is suggested an analytical model defining such assets. The analysis takes into account a number of dimensions: the ‘formal’ dimension of internationalization, that is, the formalization in juridical acts of the ‘will’ of the public actors to play internationalization-specific activities; the functional dimension, i.e. whether the organizational and managerial resources for sustaining internationalization are present; and, in addition, assumed that public administrations operate in networks of public and private actors, also the regional network dimension, i.e. the characteristics public and private-public network may possess in order to facilitate the internationalization of the regional public system. Three categories of indicators of internationalization are proposed: the formalized goals towards internationalization (which cannot a priori be assumed for a regional government to be a political priority); managerial and organization conditions for the internationalization; the degree of internationalization of the public regional network. The first category of indicators refers to the political will of the Region to be ‘international’ and to its formalization in public documents. The second category of indicators, much more complex, aims to investigate whether managerial and organizational conditions for the internationalization are present (for instance: availability of adequate financial resources, of human resources’ skills and competences, of dedicated organizational structures inside the regional structure). Concerning the third factor, to analyze only the international assets ‘internal’ to the Regions could be misleading: if public actors operate in a ‘networked’ environment (internal: within the same Region; and external: among different Regions), it is useful to investigate the characteristics of the ‘public’ networks in which they are involved. At a systemic level, networks can be defined as webs of organizations interrelated one to the others by dependency relations based on the availability of resources (i.e., money, knowledge, information, and so on). In this sense, the issue of the ‘governance’ of the system is crucial. The paper is structured as follows: first, there is a definition of the relevance of the ‘internationalization’ issue for regional governments; second, the analytical model is depicted and the three dimensions of analysis are described; third, the predictable effects on the management of the ‘internal’ and ‘external’ networks are presented; fourth, practical applications of the model and a proposal for its operationalization is done.