Intercepting smart policies to foster high-tech SMEs in regional environment

Regional environments are undergoing significant transformations, reshaping the geography of innovation, thanks to increasingly smart policies. In this study, we aim to examine the localization of high-tech SMEs in different local systems, focusing on the Italian landscape for an 8- year period (2013–2020). This research has been carried out on a heterogeneous sample of 250 high-tech SMEs from “startup.registrodelleimprese”, employing descriptive analysis using T-test and U-test. Our findings demonstrate that the location decisions of high-tech SMEs are influenced by local policies that prioritize innovation and competitiveness. Moreover, they show the importance of SMEs in changing the entrepreneurial trait of regional environments. This contributes to the ongoing debate on the importance of smart policies in shaping the spatial distribution of high-tech SMEs and offers insights for policymakers, entrepreneurs, and stakeholders seeking to foster innovation-driven economic development in regional areas.