Local strategic networks and policies in European ICT clusters - the cases of Amsterdam, Bari, Dublin and Oulu

Regional interfirm networks are believed to be a vehicle for innovation and regional economic growth. From this perspective, local and regional governments are increasingly trying to promote these types of networks. This article discusses the relation between strategic networks and local development. It focuses on the role of local institutions that support strategic networking in ICT clusters in a number of European cities. It also discusses and analyses the way local and national governments try to influence local strategic networks in this sector. Our case studies are Amsterdam, Bari, Dublin, and Oulu.strategic networks policies ICT cluster casestudy Amsterdam Bari Dublin Oulu

Adult education in Malta : challenges and prospects

Lifelong learning has long been a topic of discussion in Malta but, as this article shows, barriers to participation continue to exist. This article outlines the historical and economic changes that have led Malta to its present situation where adult education largely focuses on employment skills. Although available through a variety of channels, challenges still need to be met to ensure the participation of groups such as women, older people and immigrants. This article advocates a national strategy for adult education within which a balance is struck between learning for employment and learning as a public good.peer-reviewe

Industrial district effects and innovation in the Tuscan shipbuilding industry

The aim of the present work is to investigate innovative processes within a geographical cluster, and thus contribute to the debate on the effects of industrial clusters on innovation capacity. In particular, we would like to ascertain whether the advantages of industrial districts in promoting innovation, as already revealed by literature (diffusion of knowledge, social capital and trust, efficient networking), are also keys to success in the Tuscan shipbuilding industry of pleasure and sporting boats. First, we verify the existence of clusters of shipbuilding in Tuscany, using a specific methodology. Next, in the identified clusters, we analyse three innovative networks financed in a policy to support innovation, and examine whether the typical features of a cluster for promoting innovation are at work, using a questionnaire administered to 71 actors. Finally, we develop a performance analysis of the cluster firms and ascertain whether their different behaviours also lead to different performances. The analysis results show that our case records effects of industrial clustering on innovation capacity, such as the important role given to trust and social capital, the significant worth put in interfirm relations and in each partner’s specific competencies, or even the distinctive performance of firms belonging to a cluster.geographical clusters, industrial districts, innovation, technological transfer, shipbuilding industry

Using Data Envelopment Analysis to Evaluate Environmentally Conscious Tourism Management

This paper discusses a methodology to assess the performances of tourism management of local governments when economic and environmental aspects are considered as equally relevant. In particular, the focus is on the comparison and efficiency assessment of Italian municipalities located on the costal areas. In order to assess the efficiency status of the considered management units, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), a methodology for evaluating the relative efficiency of decision making units, is applied. The efficiency index measure used in DEA analysis accounts for both environmental and economic features correlated to the tourism industry. Further, potential managerial improvements for those areas resulting far from the efficiency frontier can be investigated.Data envelopment analysis, Sustainable tourism

Urban food strategies in Central and Eastern Europe: what's specific and what's at stake?

Integrating a larger set of instruments into Rural Development Programmes implied an increasing focus on monitoring and evaluation. Against the highly diversified experience with regard to implementation of policy instruments the Common Monitoring and Evaluation Framework has been set up by the EU Commission as a strategic and streamlined method of evaluating programmes’ impacts. Its indicator-based approach mainly reflects the concept of a linear, measure-based intervention logic that falls short of the true nature of RDP operation and impact capacity on rural changes. Besides the different phases of the policy process, i.e. policy design, delivery and evaluation, the regional context with its specific set of challenges and opportunities seems critical to the understanding and improvement of programme performance. In particular the role of local actors can hardly be grasped by quantitative indicators alone, but has to be addressed by assessing processes of social innovation. This shift in the evaluation focus underpins the need to take account of regional implementation specificities and processes of social innovation as decisive elements for programme performance.

A Comparative Perspective on Italy’s Human Capital Accumulation

This paper reviews the evolution of educational institutions and outcomes over the 150 years since Italy’s unification, and discusses their interaction with national and regional growth patterns. While initial educational conditions contributed to differentiate across regions the early industrial take off in the late 19th century, and formal education does not appear to have played a major role in the postwar economic boom, the slowdown of Italy’s economy since the 1990s may be partly due to interactions between its traditionally low human capital intensity and new comparative advantage patterns, and to the deterioration since the 1970s of the educational system’s organization.Education systems, tracking, economic growth, regional convergence

European Regions Financing Public e-Services: the Case of EU Structural Funds.

EU Structural Funds represent by far the main source of funding for innovation in general and for eservices in particular in the lagging regions of Europe classified into the “Convergence” objective. The paper explores the amount of resources dedicated to public e-Services and Information Society by elaborating European Commission data on programmed resources for the 2007-13 period. Moreover, the paper represents the first attempt to use a quantitative approach – i.e. a principal component analysis and a cluster analysis – in order to identify the different strategies adopted by European Regions for Information Society development. The results shows that in the “Convergence” Regions, a specific “public e-services strategy” emerges. Regions investing in public e-services tend to concentrate available resources to e-government or e-health, while very low percentage of total funding is dedicated to the other categories such as broadband or infrastructural services.Information society, regional policy, Cohesion Policy, Structural Funds, e-Services, e-Government, Cluster analysis.