Do Cultural and Creative Industries (CCI) matter for innovation and value creation in knowledge-based business? Aims, forms and practice of collaboration in Italy

Purpose: This paper provides the first results of a scoping study exploring in detail how Cultural and Creative Industries(CCI) can represent a source and resource of critical and creative thinking as well as a set of processes to be deployed in order to foster and support innovation. Scope: Focusing on a sample of Italian companies, the aims, the forms and the specific practices of collaborations between CCI and knowledge-based and traditional businesses are identified and discussed. Method: In order to derive and test theories, trace causal pathways, explore hypotheses, researchers have designed and implemented qualitative research methods and conducted investigation mainly based on web-available data, archives and interview-based information. Results: The case examples of relevant Italian companies effectively provide evidences of the impact and modalities of adopting initiatives to develop innovation capacity. Recommendations and conclusions: The investigation of a sample of Italian companies suggests that most of the attention is focused on collaborations aimed to reinforce company image and reputation, to develop corporate social responsibility and to improve brand recognition

Assessing performance and impact of the technological districts (TDs): General modelling and measurement system

Purpose - This paper aims to define a general model to identify and assess performance and impacts of the technology districts (TDs), paying great attention to avoid confusion on contents and methods as well as overlapping of economic, financial and managerial dimensions of performance and impact that often have characterized the academic and policy literature. Although over the past years the emphasis on knowledge and science-based resources has strongly contributed to create a wide acknowledgement of the relevance of the TDs for the national and local development paths, there is still a need for a better understanding about the assessment of the TDs’ performance and impacts. Design/methodology/approach - First, a literature review - both at academic and practitioners’ and policy level - was performed using a systematic approach. Then, a rigorous Delphi methodology was designed and implemented to identify and select the most important issues of interest of the research by soliciting qualified experts. Findings - Based on this research, a well-grounded set of macro-areas and specific indicators aimed to assess performance and impact of the TDs is proposed from which researchers and policymakers can choose those which are more fitted to the needs of their studies and as a way to define the specific focus of their investigation. Practical implications - The definition of this general model has the objective to support the elaboration of a structured set of managerial and policy implications able to drive, respectively, the management in the strategy formulation and implementation, as well as in the actions for the performance improvement, and the decision-makers in the elaboration of effective policies of development and correct evaluation of the impact of the TDs on the different places. Originality/value - This paper contributes at theoretical and practical level to improve the managerial and policy methods and tools to identify, assess, manage and report the performance and the impact of the TDs. The originality and the value of the paper resides in its attempt to improve and to let more shared and transparent the informative quality on which the TDs are called to operate and report to the stakeholders, in particular regulators and public organizations. Moreover, this paper will hopefully stimulate a debate and encourage a greater level of clarity, generalizability and comparability in the TDs performance measurement systems research stream

Editorial. Knowledge-based dynamics of local development: a position paper

Abstract: The debate on the nature and dynamics of local development in both academic and policy circles has now moved from the earlier and then traditional focus on endogenous and context-specific assets to analysing more and more the role of the knowledge assets and their dynamics for grounding local systems’ capacity to perform sustainable development and value creation for their key-stakeholders. However, the research on this subject appears still widely open to new theoretical and empirical contributions. This position paper provides the background for this debate: specifically, we analyse – through an excursus of the issues related to the local and regional development – some theoretical and policy reasons explaining the relevance of identifying and exploiting knowledge-based dimensions of value. The paper concludes with a call for investigating what are the new knowledge dimensions and traits to be further and better developed and managed

Regional development and knowledge-based factors in European Union NUTS 2 regions: A structural equation modelling

This paper examines the relationships among regional development and knowledge-based factors applying a structural equation modelling (SEM). The object of investigation is a large sample of European Union (EU) NUTS 2 regions. The insights confirm the strategic relevance of the knowledge-based factors for the regional development, but they seem to suggest that it is the regional development that drives the attraction and the absorption of critical knowledge resources that, in turn, virtuously support renewed development dynamics

Knowledge-based capital in building regional innovation capacity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and the relevance of knowledge-based capital as a strategic resource and a source of regional innovation capacity. The paper identifies human, relational, structural and social capital as the four main knowledge-based categories building the knowledge-based capital of a region. The role of each knowledge-based category in determining regional innovation capacity is analyzed. Specifically, the authors discuss the relationships among the knowledge-based categories and a regional innovation capacity. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on an in-depth literature review of the knowledge management and regional innovation research stream. The fundamental underlying research questions that have driven the research are: “What are the knowledge-based capital categories affecting a region's innovation capacity?” and “How do knowledge-based categories influence regional innovation capacity?”. The paper is conceptual in its nature and aims to delineate a theory-based framework to drive further empirical research. Findings – The paper first clarifies the concept of knowledge-based capital and of regional innovation capacity. These are two key concepts for understanding the role and relevance of the knowledge assets bundles in the creation, development and management of innovation capabilities at regional level. Then the paper explores how knowledge-based components affect the innovation capacity of a region. This is an issue of great relevance for both theory and practice. From the theory point of view it allows the identification of the main factors characterising the links between knowledge assets and innovation capacity, while from a practical point of view it can provide implications for policy makers for the definition of policies oriented towards the development of regional knowledge asset domains to develop regional innovation capacity. Originality/value – The paper provides an answer to the need to develop a holistic view of the links between a region's knowledge-based capital and its innovation capacity. Indeed, most of the studies in the literature have analysed the links between isolated knowledge asset categories and innovation capabilities. The paper, on the basis of a clear definition of knowledge-based capital and innovation capacity, analyses why regional knowledge foundations make differences in the innovation capacity of regions