The paper aims to present a collaborative and distributed model of a decision support system (DSS) as tool for the governance of an urban context according to the principles of an Intelligent City. The proposed model is centered and inspired to the open innovation (Chesbrough, 2006), user-driven innovation (Prahalad et al., 2008; Prandelli et al., 2008), and collective intelligence (Kim, et al., 2011; Atlee et al., 2006). In this perspective, the proposed model highlights the crucial role played by Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) as emerging structures for the smart configuration of a city (Komninos, 2011, 2008). By concentrating the analysis and the discussion on the collaborative and distributed governance of intelligent cities, the proposed study offers: - an integrative perspective of intelligent city based on a review of the main issues related to, with a specific attention to the governance processes; - a holistic view and a collaborative and distributed decision making model for city governance, which gives much more relevance to knowledge assets of the community of stakeholders rather than to the physical infrastructures.

Framed in the scientific and institutional debate on the intelligent growth of regions, the paper discusses the sustainable innovation ecosystems as dynamic and multi-actors environments for the innovative entrepreneurship fertilisation. In coherence with the European agenda for the smart specialisation, the innovative entrepreneurship is presented as driver for the achievement of the regional intelligent growth and for the regions’ successful positioning in the geography of the innovation. Based on a qualitative academic and policy-based literature review, the paper provides evidences on the meaning of the innovation ecosystems as environments in which the virtuous dynamics of knowledge creation, diffusion and absorption within a large community of stakeholders, sustain the emerging of innovative entrepreneurship. Focusing on the innovation and the entrepreneurship as core processes for the knowledge-based regional development, the study offers a set of implications for the agenda of scientists and policy makers, coherently with the European strategy for the smart specialisation.

The paper aims to contribute at the emerging debate on smart tourism by presenting a methodological framework to support destinations in creating their own identity. The methodology is the result of a literature review aimed to deepen the meaning of tourism as regional integrated system of actors and knowledge-intensive industry largely interested by the diffusion of digital and social technologies that enable processes of users’ co-creation as well as of the preliminary evidences of two case studies built around two ongoing experimentations of digital tourism, #Appiedi and #SalentoUpNDown. Carried out in Apulia, both the two initiatives are aimed to promote and testing a model of smart tourism, labelled with the #ApuliaSmarTourism, inspired to the principles of service co-creation, digitalization and user centrality.

This paper presents the preliminary results of a wider research about Corporate Blogs as emerging effective tools for a new approach to Customer Relationship Management. Despite the increasing interest on the emergence of a virtual dimension of CRM and the main implications in terms of knowledge sharing, customers retention and reputational consequences, the research on Web 2.0 technologies applied to marketing is still in its infancy. This paper aims to provide a set of guidelines to suggest a more effective way to utilize a corporate blog. We applied Social Network analysis to illustrate a case in which the dimensions and dynamics of a Customers Virtual Community go beyond the boundaries of the official institutional blogs. The evidences from the case show the potential benefits of a network-based approach to help direct marketing efforts and invest in scanning the Blogosphere where ideas, opinions and comments may represent lost business opportunities.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how collaborative entrepreneurial learning (EL) processes between entrepreneurs and university students can enhance the entrepreneurial practices in the context of knowledge-intensive enterprises. These learning processes represent a valuable source for entrepreneurship development in incumbent enterprises in the forms of innovative products, services, processes or organizational renewal. Design/methodology/approach – An extreme case study is the project “Mimprendo” (www.mimprendo.it), an initiative promoted by the Italian Conference of the University Colleges and the Italian Association of Young Entrepreneurs in collaboration with Italian universities. This is analyzed in the period 2009-2015, during which seven editions were developed. Findings – A framework is presented based on collaborative EL processes to perform relevant entrepreneurial projects in knowledge-intensive enterprises. The framework provides a coherent and systematic approach to generate, select and implement entrepreneurial practices in incumbent companies starting from a project competition involving creative students and innovative entrepreneurs. EL processes in the community composed of entrepreneurs, experts and university students are grouped into the entrepreneurial phases of inspiration, exploration, exploitation, acceleration and growth, and include the learning processes of “intuition and sensing,” “contamination,” “experiential and contextual learning,” “experimenting and acting” and finally “thinking and reflecting.” Research limitations/implications – Implications for research can be identified according to many perspectives to deepen the centrality of the learning process in the research on knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship. Practical implications – The framework results to be a promising approach to diffuse an entrepreneurial culture both in incumbent enterprises and in university students through a synergic collaboration among industry, university and institution. Practical implications could be derived for enterprise, students and educators involved in the design of innovative learning initiatives to sustain the development of an entrepreneurial mind-set. Originality/value – The framework contributes to extending an emerging research area exploring entrepreneurship as a never-ending dynamic learning process. The involvement of brilliant university students in activating EL process with entrepreneurs in incumbent enterprises represents a novel aspect in the field of entrepreneurship and innovation.

The rising of the knowledge economy, enhanced by the fast diffusion of ICTs, drives a wider perspective on the divide among countries, interpreting it more and more as the result of an asymmetry in the access to knowledge and in the readiness to apply it in order to renew the basics of their development dynamics. Looking at the Mediterranean Area, the positive correlation between the Networked Readiness Index and the Global Competitive Index indicates that the opposite sides of the Mediterranean Sea are performing a development path at two different paces. To support the creation of Intellectual Capital able to apply, diffuse and benefit from e-business, the e-Business Management Section (eBMS) of Scuola Superiore ISUFI – University of Salento launched in 2005 the Mediterranean School of e-Business Management. In this chapter we offer a presentation of its genesis, the most distinctive features, operational model and action plan. The preliminary results of its activities show the role and the main challenges of the School in addressing the needs of the Mediterranean Countries towards a logic of partnership for the development of their intellectual assets.

Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate how customer knowledge management (CKM) can opportunely support the process of value creation from Big Data. Focusing on tourism as a knowledge-intensive industry, the paper tries to contribute to the debate on management of Big Data by proposing CKM as a meaningful approach for transforming the huge amount of data available on social networks into valuable assets for competitiveness of tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a qualitative research methodology based on multiple exploratory case studies identified in a set of digital local events related to the Apulia destination (southern Italy). Findings – Research findings demonstrate that the three dimensions of CKM (knowledge for, from and about customers) could be adopted as lens for analyzing the huge amount of data created for, from and about tourist experiences and for transforming them into valuable assets supporting the competitiveness of tourismdestinations. Research limitations/implications – Limitations are related to the industry and the regional dimension of the sample. Accordingly, more research is necessary to prove the validity of the approach and to assure its larger replicability. Practical implications – Implications for the agenda of organizations and destinations’ makers for designing and implementing knowledge-based services and products arise. Originality/value – Elements of originality reside into the adoption of CKM as framework to analyze Big Data in the tourism industry.

The notion of ‘Big Data’ has recently been attracting an increasing degree of attention from scholars and practitioners in an attempt to identify how it may be leveraged to create innovative solutions and business opportunities. Specifically, Big Data may come from a variety of sources, especially sources outside the usual boundaries of organizations, and it represents an interesting and emerging opportunity for sustaining and enhancing the effectiveness of the so‐called open innovation paradigm. However, to the best of our knowledge, no prior works have provided a broad overview of the use of Big Data for open innovation strategies. We aim to fill this gap. In particular, we have focused our investigation on two types of companies: small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and big corporations, reviewing the major academic works published so far and analysing the main industrial applications on this topic. As a result, we provide a relevant list of the main trends, opportunities, and challenges faced by SMEs and large corporations when dealing with Big Data for open innovation strategies.

The paper presents the conceptual model of an entrepreneurial learning centre as initiative to fertilize the emerging of the knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship and the larger diffusion of an entrepreneurial culture in the regions. Framed in the scientific and institutional debate on the intelligent growth of the territories in the knowledge economy, the study debates the meaning of the entrepreneurship as knowledge-intensive process resulting from the application of the key enabling technologies to answer at the current societal challenges. Due at the knowledge intensive nature of those technologies as well as at complex dynamics emerging in the market, the entrepreneurship results more and more a learning processes; this is the reason why a learning strategy is required. Inspired by this debate and also by the emerging issue of the entrepreneurial universities, the entrepreneurial learning centre is conceived as a dynamic environment focused on the knowledge triangle, characterized by a learning strategy based on anticipatory and action learning approaches and the presence of a wide large community of regional stakeholders. Finally these characteristics contribute to the achievement of the regional smart specialization strategy.

The development of entrepreneurial mindsets in graduated students with science and engineering backgrounds represents an emerging priority for the higher education systems. However, this dimension is still in infancy, especially in Europe. Aimed to contribute at this debate, the study provides evidences on how European universities are approaching this goal. Based on a cross-case analysis of 22 post-graduated programs, the study explores the emerging trends and the "invariance" traits adopted to develop high qualified human capital with an entrepreneurial mindset. Implications for theory and practice include the most pressing challenges for universities involved in their transitions towards an entrepreneurial configuration

Regional development in the knowledge-based economy is not just determined by the creation of new knowledge but also by the ability and willingness to transform this knowledge into new products and processes that create economic and social value. Improving this entrepreneurial mindset in human capital is becoming one of the most important challenges to raising innovation, productivity and regional growth. With the aim to provide a contribution in this direction, the paper presents an innovative curriculum model to sustain the development of the entrepreneurial mind set especially in engineers and scientists. Based on an ongoing experiment with five education projects launched by a technological district located in south Italy, the preliminary results emphasise the role of an entrepreneurial-directed approach based on the phases of developing, managing and growing new 'technology intensive' ventures. Implications for theory and practices highlight the strategies for designing entrepreneurial learning programs that could support the creation of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship for regional development, mainly in those regions where entrepreneurship does not arise spontaneously.

This paper aims to demonstrate how the huge amount of Social Big Data available from tourists can nurture the value creation process for a Smart Tourism Destination. Applying a multiple-case study analysis, the paper explores a set of regional tourist experiences related to a Southern European region and destination, to derive patterns and opportunities of value creation generated by Big Data in tourism. Findings present and discuss evidence in terms of improving decision- making, creating marketing strategies with more personalized offerings, transparency and trust in dialogue with customers and stakeholders, and emergence of new business models. Finally, implications are presented for researchers and practitioners interested in the managerial exploitation of Big Data in the context of information-intensive industries and mainly in Tourism.

The radical changes occurred in the global business environment, in the information technology field and in management practices call for a general rethinking of firms strategic positioning and competition. In this scenario, the capability of managing all their own intellectual assets represents for firms the only way to survive and success. The comprehension of the role that customers can play in contributing at the firms value creation is one of the main element behind the growing attention of researchers and managers for the management of the relationship with customers. Highlighting the relevance of a Customers Relationship Management (CRM) issue in a Knowledge Management perspective as well as in a Relational Marketing one, the study shows how the rising and the large adoption of Web 2.0 technologies represent a real opportunity for the effective implementation of a CRM strategy.

We examine the importance and the role that digital marketplaces play for SMEs in developing countries By building on the literature of digital marketplace and business models we argue that the features of the context shape the type of the business models applicable for digital marketplaces. We suggest that before designing a digital marketplace initiative it is necessary to undertake a context assessment that ensures a better understanding of the firms’ preparedness to the usage of this kind of platforms in terms of technological infrastructure, human resources’ capabilities and skills, integration and innovation level among firms. It is essential to start with feasible initiatives and build up steadily the qualifications necessary for facing hindrances. However, starting at the right point and in the right way doesn’t automatically guarantee success and competitive advantage of SMEs, but can represent a way to start admitting the fundamental role of the innovation in a high complex environment.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute at the discussion on the corporate entrepreneurship by providing evidences on the adoption of a collaborative entrepreneurial learning approach to enhance the entrepreneurial practices of companies. More in depth, the paper will discuss and evaluate a coherent methodology to promote corporate entrepreneurship by transforming the creative thinking of young talents (university students and post-graduated), into valuable products/services/process or organisational renewal. Design/methodology/approach - The methodology adopted a longitudinal extreme case study, the Project "Mimprendo" (www.mimprendo.it) case, an initiative promoted and managed by the Italian Association of Young Entrepreneurs and the Conference of the University Colleges in collaboration with some universities and the primary enrolment of students. Originality/value - The collective entrepreneurship approach has been successfully supported and implemented by Mimprendo to sustain and promote entrepreneurial spirit development in companies using the strength of the collective idea and creativity of young talents to generate, select, and implement innovations in companies starting from their ideas. Practical implications - The study provides theoretical implications for future studies as well as practical implications for universities and companies.

Entrepreneurial learning emerged as an important yet insufficiently understood area of enquiry in the field of technology-driven entrepreneurship. However, very few studies are available that examine specific processes that take place at individual and collective level in entrepreneurship to transform experience into entrepreneurial development goal. With the aim to cover this gap, this papers develops a new understanding in this area, defining an integrated framework for entrepreneurial learning process happening in the context of technology intensive enterprise. The defined framework encompasses a plurality of building blocks regarding: a) the entrepreneurship outcomes, b) entrepreneurial goals, c) the entrepreneurial learning processes, d) the ontological levels of entrepreneurial learning, and e) the types of entrepreneurial stakeholders. The framework contributes to demonstrate how a “learning lens” can be applied to create avenue for further research in entrepreneurship. Originality in the framework consists in the integration of entrepreneurship with the entrepreneurial learning area providing insights and implications for theory and practices.

Purpose – This paper aims to present an innovative approach to enable the creation of entrepreneurial attitudes in engineers and scientists in the domain of high technologies such as tissue engineering, nanotechnologies for human health and ICTs for product/services design. The Model arises from an ongoing experimentation launched by a Technological District located in Apulia Region in the South of Italy, strategically projected in the future to operate as an ecosystem to stimulate Innovative Entrepreneurship in the local context. Design/methodology/approach – In the paper we adopt a method based on a case study (Eisenhardt, 1989) to explore the processes that influence successful development of entrepreneurial competence in Engineering field. The case study describes the first results of an innovative experimentation related to five post graduate education and research programs launched by a technological District Dhitech created by the Italian Government in the South of Italy in 2005 (in the Apulia Region, exactly) to promote innovation, to create, diffuse and share knowledge for technology entrepreneurship capability, so increasing the competitiveness of the Region. Originality/value – The article provides an integrated framework for the creation of the Entrepreneurship perspectives in high technology industry in a Region where the resources for innovation and entrepreneurship are not generated spontaneously. The work start from the analysis of Apulia Region Innovation index, in order to demonstrate the real usefulness of the model in a Region where the development of initiatives and projects to diffuse Entrepreneurial attitudes is still in infancy. Practical implications – From a theory perspective, the identification of the phases for activating high tech entrepreneurship process is an attempt to advance the discussion on strategies for entrepreneurship education in non-business studies, with a particular focus on high technology domain such as: nanotechnology, biotechnology and tissue engineering, ICTs for innovative product and service design. Formal education programs and Academic-Business initiatives in entrepreneurship education targeted for non-business studies are still in infancy in Italian Higher Education systems and especially in South Regions. For practitioners, the article gives evidence about a “process based curriculum” to instil an entrepreneurial perspective in scientist and engineers.

The radical changes occurred in recent decades in the tourism sector, largely due to the diffusion of the Information and Communication Technologies, have intensified the competition among tourist destinations. In this scenario, destinations are called to compete at global level by creating an integrated offer able to satisfy the needs and willingness of tourists. Specifically, the creation of regional integrated tourist systems as forms of aggregation and integration between a large differentiated community of actors, directly and indirectly involved into tourism value chain, arises as the main challenge. Based in the above premises, this study aims to deepen how this process of collaborative and synergic growth of a region with a tourist vocation can be managed by promoting the creation of an integrated tourist system. At this purpose, this work will present the results of a web survey aimed to demonstrate empirically the degree of integration between the different actors of the Apulia tourist system, as regional destination of growing popularity, as well as to derive implications for theory and practice. The results of context analysis evidence the fragmentation of the regional tourism systems, and the low level of cooperation that represents an obstacle to the creation of an integrated tourist offer. Finally, a contextualized model for the development of regional tourism network in Apulia, based on the current situation, will be presented.

The new competitive scenario based on knowledge resources has led firms to become more open to innovative sources and mainly to focus on collaboration with customers to co-create value (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004; Sawhney, Verona & Prandelli, 2005). Internet, and more in particular the web 2.0 technologies, enable patterns of collaborative innovation, involving customers into the NPD process. By contrast, empirical studies show that there are many large and small companies which do not grasp the opportunities provided by the customers’ contribution. This is due to a number of inhibiting factors that represent barriers for the collaborative innovation. This chapter aims firstly to delineate and validate some of these constraints by using the insights coming out from a case study and secondly to suggest a possible solution in order to overpass some of the barriers identified and to exploit the customers’ knowledge acquired on the web.

The rising of Web 2.0 technologies is changing the traditional way companies search and interact on the web, enabling open knowledge sharing processes and collaborative innovation. This paper describes a methodology to consolidate a collaborative Innovation approach based on exploitation of knowledge shared on the web and active participation of customers within new product development process. We tested the methodology in a case of a global automotive company that has enhanced its new product development process by launching a forum and creating a virtual customers community. The research has been articulated into three main steps: 1) identification of the main areas of analysis: New Product Development Strategies and Collaborative Innovation Tools; 2) data collection through the observation of the Company’s forum and forum/blogs launched by other firms; questionnaires and face-to-face meetings with a manager in charge of new product development; 3) application of a web text mining model (Yin, et al., 2007) to extract relevant data from the information exchanged on the company’s forum. The preliminary results indicate that the ideas exchanged by customers on the company’s forum could be used in the phase of “New Ideas Generation” and “Product Concept Design”. The next step of this research is to implement the web text mining tool within the Company’s platform for relational marketing, in order to explore the links among the emerging ideas and recognize lead users.

The paper presents a thematic conceptualization of a Regional Entrepreneurial Learning Center, conceived as a catalyst of the knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship in the regions and a strategic asset for their growth in the scenario of the entrepreneurial economy (Thurik, 2008; Audresch and Thurik, 2001). Incardinated on the Knowledge Triangle and aimed to enhance, primarily, the social and economic valorization of the Key Enabling Technologies, the Center will promote the synergic integration between the universities, primary actors in the process of the knowledge creation, the companies, that allow the socio-economic valorization of the knowledge available through the innovation and entrepreneurial processes, and the governmental institutions, supporting their knowledge exchanges and knowledge valorization processes. Coherently with the emerging nature of the knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship as entrepreneurial learning process and inspired by the current debate on the innovation ecosystems, the Center will promote the development of continuous and dynamic entrepreneurial learning processes to create a young knowledge intensive entrepreneurs, the evolution of the Universities towards an entrepreneurial configuration, and to accelerate the diffusion of entrepreneurial behaviors and culture in all the regional organizations and institutions.

Purpose: To contribute to the literature on the nexus of Intellectual Capital (IC) and Big Data by exploring emerging researchers trends. Design/methodology/approach: To present a literature review discussing contributions from IC research and Big Data highlighting novel and emerging issues. Findings: A conceptual framework demonstrating how Big Data perspective validates the need to shift IC research from focusing on the organization to the eco-systems focus. The framework has four main dimensions: Why: the managerial reasons for using Big Data for IC; What: the typologies of Big Data for IC practices; How: the Big Data processes adopted for IC management; Who: the organisation’s stakeholders involved and impacted by value creation. Originality/value: The paper is novel because it investigates the effects and implications that Big Data can offer IC research, by supporting the emergence of a fourth stage of IC research. Additionally, it explores recent literature on Big Data through an IC lens. Practical implications: Outlines the socio-economic value of Big Data, from and about the companies’ ecosystems; identifies entrepreneurial opportunities for existing companies through Big Data for renewing their value proposition; and outlines new tools for managing Big Data to support disclosing IC value drivers and for creating new intangible assets.

Il patrimonio culturale rappresenta un fattore di indiscussa rilevanza per l’attrattiva di un sistema turistico. Tale rilevanza dipende, tuttavia, dalla capacità che l’insieme degli attori del territorio dimostrano nella sua valorizzazione al fine di attrarre flussi turistici e soddisfare esigenze di profitto ed occupazione. Diviene prioritario, pertanto, comprendere quale sia il livello di conoscenza, di collaborazione, di cooperazione che caratterizza gli attori del territorio, ed in particolar modo gli operatori del settore culturale, in un contesto di ecosistema territoriale innovativo e collaborativo. Obiettivo del lavoro è stato quello di comprendere in che modo i beni culturali contribuiscono a qualificare l’offerta culturale, quali modelli di business e strategie di sviluppo vengono attuate dagli operatori per la promozione e valorizzazione dei beni culturali, quali sono le nuove idee di sviluppo che percepiscono come potenziali strategie. Le informazioni sono state raccolte realizzando un focus group con operatori che, a Lecce, operano in ambito culturale. La metodologia di indagine utilizzata parte dal presupposto per cui l’identità, la cultura, la professionalità ed i propositi degli operatori si evincono dal linguaggio utilizzato durante la discussione. Gli elementi chiave individuati per lo sviluppo di un sistema turistico innovativo sono: coinvolgimento dal basso dei residenti; professionalità, abnegazione e senso di responsabilità degli operatori; attivazione di progettualità finalizzate alla valorizzazione del patrimonio.

Il volume propone una lettura interdisciplinare di alcuni temi di grande attualità nel dibattito scientifico ed istituzionale sulle dinamiche competitive delle imprese e dei territori nello scenario dell'economia della conoscenza. L'imprenditorialità innovativa è identificata nel volume come driver per la crescita e processo strategico per la creazione di valore economico e sociale a partire dalla valorizzazione di know-how tecnologico, al fine di fornire risposte ai bisogni di un mercato sempre più interconnesso e globale. La rivoluzione digitale, che caratterizza il nostro presente e che in maniera così preponderante impatta sugli assetti strategici ed organizzativi delle imprese e dei territori, rappresenta il fattore comune alla base delle riflessioni che accompagnano il volume che si prefigge, quindi, l'obiettivo di dimostrare quale sia la natura e l'intensità del legame tra imprenditorialità, marketing ed innovazione, attraverso l'analisi di contributi teorici e casi di studio. La declinazione dei temi trattati a livello organizzativo e territoriale rende il volume uno strumento di utile riflessione per studiosi delle dinamiche competitive d'impresa e di crescita regionale e per chi con passione ricerca in tal senso.

Purpose: This study contributes to the literature on intellectual capital (IC) in light of the emerging paradigm of Big Data. Through a literature review, this paper provides momentum for researchers and scholars to explore the emerging trends and implications of the Big Data movement in the field of IC. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review highlights novel and emerging issues in IC and Big Data research, focussing on: IC for organisational value, the staged evolution of IC research, and Big Data research from the technological to the managerial paradigm. It is expected that identifying these contributions will help establish future research directions. Findings: A conceptual multi-level framework demonstrates how Big Data validates the need to shift the focus of IC research from organisations to ecosystems. The framework is organised into four sections: ‘why’ – the managerial reasons for incorporating Big Data into IC; ‘what’ – the Big Data typologies that enhance IC practice; ‘who’ – the stakeholders involved in and impacted by Big Data IC value creation; and ‘how’ ¬– the Big Data processes suitable for IC management. Originality/value: This paper investigates the effects and implications Big Data offers for IC management, in support of the fourth stage of IC research. Additionally, it provides an original interpretation of IC research through the lens of Big Data. Research implications: The paper provides many avenues for future research in this emerging area of investigation. The key research questions posed aim to advance the contribution of Big Data to research on IC approaches. Practical implications: The paper outlines the socio-economic value of Big Data generated by and about organisational ecosystems. It identifies opportunities for existing companies to renew their value propositions through Big Data, and discusses new tools for managing Big Data to support disclosing IC value drivers and creating new intangible assets.

This regional spotlight demonstrates how tourism can be used to promote smart regional growth. Specifically, the study focuses on Apulia, a region of Italy that is attempting to achieve intelligent, sustainable, and inclusive growth through the use of a smart specialization strategy. Smart specialization is a strategy for supporting the socio-economic development of the European Union, based on identifying regional vocational areas and industries, and promoting place-based entrepreneurial development there. The relevance of tourism for smart specialization is confirmed by the dynamics that are currently reconfiguring the sector into a regionally-integrated and knowledge-intensive industry. This regional spotlight therefore aims to highlight the implications and strategic actions for the marketing and management of Apulia as a smart destination by demonstrating how its vocational identity as a regional tourism destination can be suitable as a means of promoting structural development and broader socio-economic wellbeing.

This paper aims to discuss the importance of Living Labs as an effective mechanism that can support the creation of dynamic innovation ecosystems and networks. The analysis of literature related to regional innovation and based on the Quadruple Helix framework, is integrated with exploratory research analysis of 20 cases of Italian Living Labs. The field study is realized through a web-based content analysis and questionnaires. The paper contributes to study how the Living Lab can constitute an effective mechanism supporting the creation of dynamic innovation ecosystems and networks, in the final aim to explore its relevance for setting regional strategies for smart growth, which valorize the internal and external knowledge assets. The paper provides important implications, both at research and policy levels, related with the knowledge-based innovation processes that could be activated at territorial level.

The emergence of the blogosphere has created new challenges for large companies in the management of their corporate reputations, since grass roots blogs can generate negative perceptions about a firm and then spread them rapidly and widely. The blogosphere has also created new opportunities for firms to enhance their reputations, because the informal and personal communication that occurs on blogs may generate significant positive ‘ Internet word of mouth ’ . This paper examines the interaction between the blogosphere and a leading technology company, Dell Computer, over a critical two-year period. Our approach combines two novel techniques: automated mining of blog entries, enabled by parsing software, which generates semantic analysis and network maps of the relevant blog entries; and netnography, a method derived from ethnography for analyzing Internet-based discussions. This study shows that many established reputation management approaches, which were developed during the era of mass media, need to be reshaped to meet new realities in the age of Web 2.0.

The paper aims to contribute at the debate on smart tourism destinations as intelligent configuration of regional integrated and multi-sectorial system, evaluating the promptness of Apulia, as regional destination of growing popularity. At this purpose, a web-survey was used to gather data regarding the level of use of technologies, internet and social media for communication; the collaboration attitude and the level of integration with the other actors of the tourism system for creating new and innovative business opportunities; the level of interaction and collaboration with customers for experience and service co-creation; and the advantages and the main drawbacks related to the use of ICT applications. The results of context analysis evidence that the Apulian offering of hospitality need to invest more in the ICTs’ infrastructure, increasing digital services for customers and employees as well as in the creation of a cultural background able to sustain the process of emancipation of the destination in a smart perspective. Moreover, results suggest also the needs to create a culture of collaboration, enhancing dynamic interaction between diverse tourism actors.

The study aims to investigate which are the meaning and impact of a modularity platform approach for the competitive management of a tourist destination. Focusing on tourism as a knowledge-intensive business sector and bundle of products and services, this study adopts a constructive and qualitative literature review to demonstrate as a modularity platform approach can be adopted as basis for the effective management of a destination. The study offers implications for companies and decision makers. The application of modularity to increase the competitiveness of a destination highlights the importance of a deep knowledge of the area as well as of the technological and strategic mechanisms that have an impact on the execution and co-creation of a successful tourist experience.

The article is focused on the explanation of the benefits of an open innovation approach in order to drive small and medium enterprises within the actual dynamic environment. In particular, the article gives evidence of the capability of the new paradigm in enabling innovative patterns of growth and development, especially for the small segment, not able to overpass a lot of constraints for achieving high performance by itself. We argue that firms’ innovation can be carried out through open innovation platforms, in which they will grasp the most important benefits and opportunities in order to catch the value creation.

As a field at the intersection between computer science and people behavior, social computing can contribute significantly in the endeavor of innovating how individuals and groups interact for learning and working purposes. In particular, the generation of Internet applications tagged as web 2.0 provides an opportunity to create new “environments” where people can exchange knowledge and expe-rience, create new knowledge and learn together. This article illustrates the design and application of a prototypal platform which embeds tools such as blog, wiki, folksonomy and RSS in a unique web-based system. The platform has been developed to support a case-based and project-driven learning strategy for the development of business and technology management competencies in undergraduate and graduate education programs. A set of illustrative scenarios are described to show how a learning community can be created and developed through the technology platform.

Social networks have a significant role in the tourism sector: both on the demand and on the supply. They are an important information source for travelers, allowing destination makers to ‘socialize’ and share information and comments with users and possible visitors. Leveraging off social media to market destinations has proven to be an excellent strategy as largely recognized in several studies focused on the comprehension of importance of social media in the online tourism market (Chung and Buhalis, 2008; Inversini and Buhalis 2009; Xiang and Gretzel 2010). Following these developments, tourism managers have started to put in practice new strategies that exploit social media tools in order to promote and incentive tourism in the area. Therefore, the primary purpose of the study is to show how digital strategies and, especially, the use of social media tools, may be critical to enable tourism destination competitiveness. The main objective is to analyse a destination digital strategy aimed to define the best features to perform a winning digital strategy that allows to promote and market a tourist destination on the web. Framed in the above premises, a benchmark of some Italian e-destinations best practice examples [ENIT 2015 Blogmeter 2015 have been conducted with the aim to comprehend trends and main features of the use of technologies and applications. The chosen cases are, then, analysed more in depth, through a qualitative online exploratory survey. The results obtained from a contemporary and successful Italian DMO, evidence the criteria enabling a competive 2.0 tourism strategy.

The chapter aims to contribute at the discussion on the role that creativity can assume in sustaining corporate entrepreneurship development by focusing on the centrality of entrepreneurial learning in incumbent enterprises. Empirical evidences coming from the case study of “Mimprendo” project (www.mimprendo.it), an initiative promoted by the Italian Conference of the University Colleges and the Italian Association of Young Entrepreneurs, are presented. Findings provides insights about the collaborative entrepreneurial learning as happening in the community composed by University students, entrepreneurs, and researchers to solve relevant managerial and entrepreneurial innovation’s needs. Those evidences are at the basis of an integrated framework aimed to provide a coherent and a systematic view on the collaborative entrepreneurial learning processes to nurture, select, and implement creative ideas of universities students for sustaining the corporate entrepreneurship in incumbent companies.

The paper aims to contribute to the debate about knowledge and digital divide affecting countries’ competitiveness in the knowledge society. A survey based on qualitative and quantitative data collection has been performed to analyze the level of ICTs and e-Business adoption of the Tunisian SMEs. The results shows that to increase the SMEs competitiveness is necessary to invest in all the components of Intellectual capital: human capital (knowledge, skills, and the abilities of people for using the ICTs), structural capital (supportive infrastructure such as buildings, software, processes, patents, and trademarks, proprietary databases) and social capital (relations and collaboration inside and outside the company). At this purpose, the LINCET “Laboratoire d’Innovation Numerique pour la Competitivité de l’Entreprise Tunisienne” project is finally proposed as a coherent proposition to foster the growth of all the components of the Intellectual Capital for the benefits of competitiveness of Tunisian SMEs.

Framed in the scientific and institutional debate on the intelligent growth of regions, the paper discusses the sustainable innovation ecosystems as dynamic and multi-actors environments for the innovative entrepreneurship fertilisation. In coherence with the European agenda for the smart specialisation, the innovative entrepreneurship is presented as driver for the achievement of the regional intelligent growth and for the regions’ successful positioning in the geography of the innovation. Based on a qualitative academic and policy-based literature review, the paper provides evidences on the meaning of the innovation ecosystems as environments in which the virtuous dynamics of knowledge creation, diffusion and absorption within a large community of stakeholders, sustain the emerging of innovative entrepreneurship. Focusing on the innovation and the entrepreneurship as core processes for the knowledge-based regional development, the study offers a set of implications for the agenda of scientists and policy makers, coherently with the European strategy for the smart specialisation.

On the basis of a synthetic review of the literature about the Living Labs phenomenon, the article investigates to what extent the theoretical approach finds a coherent application in the reality. Focusing on 15 Italian living labs associated to the ENoLL, the study addresses a comparative analysis based on a set of features extracted from the literature. In providing a significant overview of the Italian experience in terms of Living Labs, the study focuses on their implications for the development of entrepreneurial competencies by leveraging on user centrality and public-private networking. Starting from this analysis, the case of VINCENTE Living Lab is presented, by highlighting the technology entrepreneurship dimension that represents the core process for the intelligent growth in the knowledge economy scenarios.

The aim of this paper is to propose a dynamic integrated approach, based on modularity concept and on the business ecosystem approach, that exploit different eBusiness services for SME under an open business network platform. The adoption of this approach enables firms to collaborate locally for delivering the best product/service to the customers as well as globally by accessing international markets, interrelate directly with the customers, create relationships and collaborate with worldwide actors. The paper will be structured as following: We will start by offering an overview of the state of the art of eBusiness platforms among SME of food and tourism firms and then we discuss the main drawbacks that characterize them. The digital business ecosystem approach and the modularity concept will be described as the theoretical ground in which our proposed integrated model is rooted. Finally, the proposed model along with a discussion of the main value creation potentialities it might create for SMEs will be presented.

A paradigm shift is taking place today that provides a compelling value preposition for organizations and requires the adoption of new business models for the management of their core activities in a competitive way. The new emerging business models are related with open innovation, cloud computing approach as well as social networking which create opportunities for firms to harvest the resources and knowledge that could be found outside firm’s boundaries. However in order for firms to grasp the most of the emerging technologies they should reconfigure their activities as to tackle the challenge and opportunity presented by new innovations and technology trends. In this paper we aim to demonstrate the changes that these new trends are witnessing for the business models of firms from a provider and user perspective.