ABSTRACT
How can we make the entrepreneurial discovery process (EDP) part of the ordinary life of an institution (or at least of those institutions whose responsibility it is to design and implement regional and urban policies)? Is it possible to overcome the paradox of having civil servants, whose job description does not entail making choices, taking risks and enduring failures, managing processes which are in fact defined by choices, risks and failures? How can we make bureaucrats and innovators work together? Is the above feasible without engaging in the question of more profound change in the very nature of public administrations? Are there institutional conditions, which can make institutions more capable of initiating and sustaining innovation? Does not an effective EDP imply also a transformation in the approach of lobbies to policy making? How can we make companies be part of the decision-making process so avoiding policies getting captured by (conflict of) interests? And how can we use this opportunity to make companies themselves to think more strategically and longer term than they normally do?
