The paper focuses on the issue of how to identify appropriate indicators to measure the
performance of publicly-funded innovation intermediaries. It argues that indicators need to
be closely tied to the policy's objectives, which are usually linked to the remedying of
innovation system failures. The case of a policy programme implemented in Tuscany (Italy)
is used to illustrate how the choice of performance indicators that are only loosely tied to the
policy's objectives, can lead intermediaries to adopt behaviours that are misaligned with …

Intermediary organisations that support firm-level and collaborative innovation, often called
'innovation intermediaries', have gained increasing prominence in knowledge-intensive
economies. They provide a range of knowledge-intensive services that include, among
others, technology foresight and technology scouting, R&D partnership formation, technical
assistance in R&D projects, dissemination and commercialisation of results, and technology
transfer. In recent years numerous policy interventions have funded organisations …