Does the Concept of “Community of Practice” Show New Trajectories for the Evolution of Industrial Districts?

The aim of this paper is to find a framework that could be useful to evaluate the utility of the concept of “Community of Practice” (CoP) for understanding the dynamics of knowledge creation and sharing in Industrial Districts (IDs). The CoP concept stems from the managerial experience of large corporations, which have found in it a kind of “living repository” of knowledge. The source of the concept of agglomeration of firms in ID is completely different. Anyway, many similarities can be found between the concepts of ID and CoP, as well then some differences. The paper proceeds as follows. First, it explains the three main concepts useful for understanding further argumentations: knowledge, ID, CoP. Next, it offers a framework to put in comparison the two concepts of ID and CoP. In the end, an example of how the applications of tools, coming from the CoP concept, can be useful to formulate some hypotheses on the evolutionary behaviour of IDs is shown.Community of Practice, Industrial District, Knowledge, Learning

The Unexplored Effect of Skills and Technology on Firms' Performance

The aim of this paper is to add new findings to the knowledge based view of the firm, where the cross-learning ability of individuals and organizations plays a fundamental role in the determination of firms' superior performances. Collective, non formal - informal, formal types of learning (learning drivers) contribute to shape the competitiveness of firms, especially in the present knowledge-based economy, where the necessity to respond effectively to frequent external shock (demand, technology, competitive environment driven) emphasizes the importance of being flexible and quickly adaptive. Nevertheless, focusing on learning capacities, and particularly on human skills, often leads to forget or ignore industry effects, such as innovative intensity, which increase the explanatory power of the learning drivers. This work explores the conjoint effect of learning drivers and innovative intensity on firms' performance by showing some evidence from statistical data analysis on the Danish IDA (Integrated Database for Labour Market Research). A sample of firms belonging to the manufacturing industry is studied using data related to the year 1999. The paper proceeds as follows: firstly, the role and relevance of human resources in the determination of firm's performance is presented. Secondly, a missing ring in the knowledge based view of the firm is detected: the R&D investments intensity. Thirdly, the data analysis process and the methodology adopted are illustrated. Finally, the results are presented and discussed.Human capital; innovtive intensity; knowledge; learning; manufacturing; performance

Embodied Knowledge Transfer Comparing inter-firm labor mobility in the music industry and manufacturing industries

This paper adds new knowledge to the phenomenon of transferring embodied knowledge through labor mobility by means of a comparative study of the entertainment and manufacturing industries. Explorative in nature, the paper takes advantage of unique data on the Danish labor market (i.e. IDA) to investigate labor mobility patterns for the two selected industries and to detect internal differences within industry segments and regarding creative intensive and invention activities in particular. We use the music industry as a proxy for the entertainment industries.Embodied knowledge transfers, labor market dynamics, inter-firm mobility, creative intensive and invention activities, entertainment industries, manufacturing industries

The birth and the rise of the cluster concept: an evolutionary approach

The cluster concept has become an increasingly popular topic for researchers and policy makers. Although this concept is not new, its importance increased during the last decades. Following some authors, the persistence of the cluster concept, as well as its diffusion across different contexts and scientific fields, is a result of its fuzziness. The absence of a unique definition of cluster, as well as a unique methodology for “measuring†clusters favor its loose application to a wide variety of contexts (from economics to management, to economic geography, innovation studies and so forth). The paper aims at identifying the evolutionary pattern of the cluster concept, from the emergence, to the growth and the potential future development. The theoretical discussion is empirically supported by a bibliographic analysis based on statistical and social network analysis tools. The point of departure is an original database, consisting of 5332 academic articles about industrial clusters or industrial districts that have been published from 1989 to 2010 in international scientific journals (ISI Web of Science). We first identified the masterpieces of the cluster concept, selecting the most cited articles, second we performed a backward and forward citation analysis, in order to get information on the roots and the future development of the concept. The results shed light on the milestones in cluster literature as well as on its possible developments. The backward analysis emphasizes the multidisciplinary ground of the concept, which emerges in the realm of the agglomeration economy and local competitive advantage studies and spans over innovation and internationalization studies. The forward analysis highlights the new dimensions of the cluster concept, which give particular emphasis on the emergent literature on culture and creativity studies, as well as on the open innovation paradigm.

Mapping the emergence of a new organisational form: An exploration of the intellectual structure of the B Corp research

This paper explores the emergence of B Corp as a new research field through a bibliometric analysis of the B Corp literature, based on a database of 142 documents collected by Scopus and published between 2009 and 2020. This emergent field is an important component of the structural change occurring in our society, which, in recent years, has seen the emergence of new for-profit organisational forms with a strong social consciousness. The bibliometric analysis reveals the foundational works and the historical evolution of the research field, pinpointing the connections between similar concepts in the literature on sustainable enterprises, such as B Corp, hybrid organisation, benefit corporation, and corporate social responsibility. Through a social network analysis, we sustain a relational view of B Corp research, and propose a taxonomy of concepts and terminology, which shows that the concept of B Corp defines an emergent organisational form

HyperSpectral Imaging based approach for monitoring of micro-plastics from marine environment

The possibility to develop a sensor based procedure in order to monitor plastic presence in the marine environment was explored in this work. More in detail, this study was addressed to detect and to recognize different types of microplastics coming from sampling in different sea areas adopting a new approach, based on HyperSpectral Imaging (HSI) sensors. Moreover, a morphological and morphometrical particle characterization was carried by digital image processing. Morphological and morphometrical parameters, combined with hyperspectral imaging information, give a full characterization of each investigated particle, concurring to explain all the transportation, alteration and degradation phenomena suffered by each different polymer particle. Obtained results can represent an important starting point to develop, implement and set up monitor strategies to characterize marine microplastics. Moreover, the procedure developed in this work is fast, not expensive and reliable, making its utilization very profitable

Exaptive innovation in constraint-based environments: lessons from COVID-19 crisis

Purpose – This paper explores how exaptive innovation process might be considered a useful innovation model in constraint-based environments. Through an in-depth case study, it illustrates clearly the antecedents of exaptation processes, which are particularly relevant in rapidly changing environments requiring new solutions under time and resource constraints. Design/methodology/approach – The authors adopt a single case study approach that is particularly suitable in case of an inductive research design, which is required because of the novelty of the topic. The research is inspired by the use of the snorkeling mask EASYBREATH, commercialized by the giant Decathlon, as a medical device, a respirator to treat patients affected by coronavirus in Italy. The authors organized the evidence according to a novel taxonomy grounded in the literature. Findings – The case study stimulates reflections on the existence of some antecedents to the exaptive innovation process in constraint-based environments: (1) the availability of specific actors in the innovation process; (2) the creation of platforms of interaction between people with different competences, nurtured by collective bottom-up financing systems; (3) the role of the community of makers, in particular, and of the 4th industrial revolution, in general, for creating enabling technologies; (4) multidisciplinary individual background of key actors in the innovation process is crucial to ensure the exaptive path to be in place. Research limitations/implications – This work has some limitations, due to the choice of limiting the analysis to a single case, nevertheless, it offers a first glance on a new technological trajectory available in constraint-based environments. Originality/value – The case study results underline the importance of new digital collaboration platforms as knowledge multipliers, and illuminate on the potential of the fourth manufacturing revolution, which, through new technologies, creates opportunities for distributed forms of innovation that cross long distances

The Italian Case and the Challenges of Migration Theories through an Analysis of Female Migration

This article argues that female migratory flows in Italy can be considered as a gender-based method of female empowerment and social mobility of women (both within society and the family structure). In Italy, in the last three decades, the migration flow has changed in terms of magnitude, the subjects involved and the migration methods, making the difference between forced and voluntary migration slippery and confused. In spite of the overwhelming presence of women in migration flows, until recently the general assumption drew the international migrants as young, economically motivated men, totally neglecting the role of women. This article argues that by paying attention to the existing relationship between the women’s social position and migration we can better understand aspects of the process of migration previously neglected. Moreover, this article aims to bridge the gap between the macro analysis (an almost exclusive focus on the structural causes of migration) and the micro dimension (a focus on the migrant as a rational subject). Finally, it aims to underline how deceptively and confused are the no-natural categorises of regular and irregular migrant. In this context, the article analyses the two main entering channels of female migrations in Italy: a specific aspect of the sex industry, namely trafficking for sexual exploitation, and the private care market

Wernicke Korsakoff Encephalopathy

Consideration for Wernicke encephalopathy should be given to patients with any evidence of long-term alco- hol abuse or malnutrition and any of the following: acute confusion, decreased conscious level, ataxia, ophthalmo- plegia, memory disturbance, hypothermia with hypoten- sion, and delirium tremens. Wernicke encephalopathy should be considered when any patient with long-term malnutrition presents with confusion or altered metal sta- tus. Signi cant overlap exists between Wernicke enceph- alopathy and Korsako psychosis, in which patients ex- perience delayed and potentially irreversible anterograde and retrograde amnesia. For this reason, the two entities have been described together as Wernicke-Korsako syn- drome. Bariatric surgery, human immunode ciency virus, hyperemesis gravidarum, and other disorders associated with grossly impaired nutritional status have been asso- ciated with Wernicke-Korsako syndrome. Additionally, infantile thiamine de ciency with manifestations of Wer- nicke syndrome has been reported in infants fed formula that was de cient in thiamine. Implementation therapy, with thiamine is a fun- damental approach for the treatment of WE: it must be avoided the administration of ev glucose, which may cause a precipitation of thiamine defects. No therapy has been validated for the treatment of Korsako amnestic syndrome. erefore, the clinicians should avoid any po- tential precipitating factor in speci c patients, more at risk to develop Wernicke-Korsako syndrome

Handwritten Text Generation from Visual Archetypes

Generating synthetic images of handwritten text in a writer-specific style is a challenging task, especially in the case of unseen styles and new words, and even more when these latter contain characters that are rarely encountered during training. While emulating a writer's style has been recently addressed by generative models, the generalization towards rare characters has been disregarded. In this work, we devise a Transformer-based model for Few-Shot styled handwritten text generation and focus on obtaining a robust and informative representation of both the text and the style. In particular, we propose a novel representation of the textual content as a sequence of dense vectors obtained from images of symbols written as standard GNU Unifont glyphs, which can be considered their visual archetypes. This strategy is more suitable for generating characters that, despite having been seen rarely during training, possibly share visual details with the frequently observed ones. As for the style, we obtain a robust representation of unseen writers' calligraphy by exploiting specific pre-training on a large synthetic dataset. Quantitative and qualitative results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal in generating words in unseen styles and with rare characters more faithfully than existing approaches relying on independent one-hot encodings of the characters.Comment: Accepted at CVPR202