TITLE:
Organizational Culture of Innovation Ecosystems in the Southern Cone: Comparing Parque Patricios and São José dos Campos
AUTHORS:
Marcel Fantin, Matheus de Souza Oliveira da Veiga, Osvaldo Battistini, Ania Tizziani
KEYWORDS:
Innovation Ecosystems, Technology Parks, Innovation Districts, Territorial Development, Southern Cone
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.9,
September
15,
2026
ABSTRACT: This article examines, from an exploratory and relational perspective, the organizational culture of two prominent innovation ecosystems in the Southern Cone: the Parque Patricios Technology District (DTPP) in Buenos Aires and the São José dos Campos Innovation and Technology Park (PIT) in Brazil. Organizational culture is understood here as the values, incentives, governance routines, and interaction norms that shape cooperation among actors. Although both arrangements have succeeded in attracting firms and projecting new urban and economic images, the study argues that firm attraction alone is insufficient to produce robust innovation ecosystems, defined as arrangements able to sustain cooperation, build technological capabilities, and generate territorial spillovers beyond tenant firms. Based on literature review, documentary analysis, cumulative firm data, field observations, and semi-structured interviews, the article compares the two cases in terms of governance, university-firm-state relations, urban integration, productive orientation, spillovers, and strategic coupling with global production networks. The findings indicate that the DTPP benefits from urban accessibility and redevelopment but faces weak R&D density and fragile local cooperation, while the PIT draws on a stronger industrial and scientific trajectory but remains physically and institutionally disconnected from its surroundings. The article concludes that parks and districts can contribute to territorial development only when they operate as long-term institutional infrastructures oriented by public missions, technological capabilities, and social distribution of benefits.