Market orientation and academic spin-off firms

Purpose: Academic spin-off firms are considered an important mechanism to transfer technological knowledge from university to industry, although they often show a low growth rate. One possible cause is the lack of proper marketing capabilities, since spin-off managers tend to reduce the role of marketing to the implementation of mere tactical activities. This study analyses whether spin-off firms adopt a market orientation and the effect it produces on firms' economic and innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis is based on both quantitative survey data and in-depth interviews, referring to a unique sample including Italian and Spanish spin-off companies. Findings: Results highlight that MKTOR and MARKOR measurement scales show different abilities to capture the implementation of market orientation by sampled firms. We find that the generation and dissemination of information on customers and competitors directly affect firms' ability to develop technological innovations and gain profits. Nevertheless, market orientation also constitutes a challenge to spin-offs, and may eventually generate inefficiencies when external technological conditions require firms to respond quickly to environmental stimuli. Practical implications: The findings of this study are relevant to academic spin-off managers who are responsible for adopting, implementing and maintaining market orientation strategies under different environmental conditions. Limitations: The characteristics of sample used for the quantitative analysis may limit the generalization of results. Originality/value: Even though the market orientation concept has been largely analyzed, no previous study has examined its application by academic spin-offs. By employing qualitative and quantitative analyses we provide novel insights in this respect

Business Model Innovation and exaptation: a new way of innovating in SMEs

Although research underlines the need for SMEs to innovate their Business Model, they face considerable challenges in exploring external business opportunities and experimenting/developing their available resources in unexpected ways. We posit that one way that SMEs can innovate their Business Model is through exaptation, a discontinuous evolutionary process that allows utilizing and adapting existing resources in new application domains. Using a case study approach, we investigate the case of a SME that has successfully innovated its Business Model through exaptation. We then discuss how three key exaptation processes lead to value creation, delivery and capturing, thus supporting Business Model Innovation in SMEs

The cittaslow certification and its effects on sustainable tourism governance

The paper examines the relationship between sustainable tourism governance and Cittaslow certification. As an organised network of small cities, Cittaslow is attempting to focus plans around the primary assets of locality-based identity, by choosing to preserve the unique characteristics of each urban area. Through a quantitative analysis, based on International Cittaslow certified cities, the paper aims to examine the effects of Cittaslow certification on local government for the implementation of more sustainable tourism governance. Findings reveal that interest in being certified acts as a stimulus to the definition and the implementation of more sustainable development, allowing a destination to become part of an international network of cities. The results highlight the need to fully exploit the various opportunities in order to be certified, moving primarily from the implementation of policy initiatives coherent not only with the many requirements laid down by Cittaslow, but which have a positive impact on areas considered more strategic for small town development, while avoiding the waste of effort and scarce resources on other less focused projects.Este artículo examina la relación entre una gestión de turismo sostenible y la citación Cittaslow. Como una red organizada de pequeñas ciudades, Cittaslow es un intento por enfocar planes alrededor de los activos primarios basados en la identidad de una localidad, eligiendo preservar las características únicas de cada área urbana. A través de un análisis cuantitativo, basado en las ciudades con certificación internacional Cittaslow, este documento pretende examinar los efectos de la certificación Cittaslow en gobiernos locales para la implementación de una gobernanza de turismo más sostenible. Los hallazgos revelan que el interés en ser certificado actúa como un estímulo para la definición e implementación de un desarrollo más sostenible, permitiendo al destino convertirse en parte de una red internacional de ciudades. Los resultados resaltan la necesidad de explotar las diversas oportunidades para obtener el certificado, principalmente desde la implementación de iniciativas de políticas coherentes no solo con los muchos requisitos establecidos por Cittaslow, sino que también aquellos que tienen un impacto positivo en áreas consideradas más estratégicas para el desarrollo de pequeñas ciudades, mientras que se evita gastar el esfuerzo y los escasos recursos en otros proyectos menos enfocados

Improvements of Decision Support Systems for Public Administrations via a Mechanism of Co-creation of Value

This paper focuses on a possible improvement of knowledge-based decision support systems for human resource management within Public Administrations, using a co-creation of value's mechanism, according to the Service-Dominant Logic (SDL) paradigm. In particular, it applies ontology-driven data entry procedures to trigger the cooperation between the Public Administration itself and its employees. Advantages in such sense are evident: constraining the data entry process by means of the term definition ontology improves the quality of gathered data, thus reducing potential mismatching problems and allowing a suitable skill gap analysis among real and ideal workers competence profiles. The procedure foresees the following steps: analyzing organograms and job descriptions; modelling Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes (KSA) for job descriptions; transforming KSAs of job descriptions into a standard-based model with integrations of other characteristics; extracting information from Curricula Vitae according to the selected model; comparing profiles and roles played by the employees. The 'a priori' ontology-driven approach adequately supports the operations that involve both the Public Administration and employees, as for the data storage of job descriptions and curricula vitae. The comparison step is useful to understand if employees perform roles that are coherent with their own professional profiles. The proposed approach has been experimented on a small test case and the results show that its objective evaluation represents an improvement for a decision support system for the re-organization of Italian Public Administrations where, unfortunately often, people are engaged in activities that are not so close to their competences

The role of culture in open innovation processes through intermediaries: towards a theoretical framework

Purpose – The paper aims at analysing the role of culture in open innovation processes supported by open innovation intermediaries, mainly from a seeker’s point of view, creating a new framework linking open innovation processes and open innovation intermediaries based on different types of knowledge. Design/Methodology/Approach – Starting from the assumption that culture matters in the knowledge transfer processes, we relied on extant literature on open innovation processes, open innovation intermediaries, and types of knowledge to build a new framework to understand which open innovation intermediary types are more suited to support the different open innovation processes supported by intermediaries and how they can help firms in overcoming cultural barriers. Originality/Value – The role of culture in open innovation has already been studied, though not in relation with its processes. Moreover, culture has not been analysed when open innovation intermediaries support open innovation processes. In order to fill this gap in literature, our paper focuses on the support that different types of open innovation intermediaries could give in overcoming the cultural barriers more likely to occur when implementing different open innovation knowledge transfer processes. Practical Implications –The framework built can help seekers to overcome cultural barriers, to open up their internal R&D activities, and to improve their innovation processes by taking advantage of external knowledge sources, choosing the right open innovation intermediary type, and making its support fully effective