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.

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.

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

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.

In the networked world supply chain integration and networking is being echoed in various industries as a strategic imperative for firms. Firms are recognizing the power of the Internet as a platform for creating different forms of relationships and collaborations aimed to enhance value and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Digital Marketplaces represent one of the most powerful solutions adopted by firms to manage their supply chains and to support the networking practices among firms, especially among SMEs. They enable firms to more efficiently buy, sell, and manage their supply chain processes on a global scale. However, SMEs Supply chains may differ in the modalities of coordination and collaboration, the intensity of relations between actor and more specifically the technological infrastructure and competencies available. These factors may affect the success of digital marketplaces and their potentialities for firms networking. We suggest that digital marketplaces could provide a viable model for SME networking, however successful path toward networking requires a harmonization of digital marketplace business model with supply chain characteristics.

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.

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.

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.

This chapter’s main objective is to provide a new conceptualization of the tourism which has major implications for management approaches, business models and strategy techniques of the sector. The objective is to try to reconcile the complexity of the environment with the managerial techniques and strategies that aim to create sustainable competitive advantage. We will begin with a review of tourism characteristics of supply and demand side. Then we will analyze the paradigm shifts that are taking place overall in the new economy and the main challenges they bring on in the tourism context. Subsequently, we will discuss the need to realize a shift in tourism conceptualization and management in itself. We will move our focus of analysis away from traditional, mechanical views of tourism to dynamic approaches that take into account the behavior of the overall system and help identify key leverage points of change and transformation.

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.

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.

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.

More and more firms today face situations where “knowledge is generated through the repeated combination and re-configuration of diverse disciplines and expertise in flexible forms of organization” [Lam, (2000)]. As a consequence firms can no longer afford to rely on value created singularly or autonomously [Prahalad and Venkatraman, (2008); Prahalad and Krishnan, (2008)] or on just their internal knowledge and skills. The firm’s ability to exploit external knowledge has become a critical component of its innovative capabilities [Cohen and Levinthal, (1990)]. In an open innovation context, firms jointly create value through a number of non arm-length transactions in so-called value networks. Thus, collaboration and the establishment of ties and relationships with different enterprises as well as with customers, competitors, public and private institutions as potential sources of external knowledge, is imperative for firm innovation. Networking allows firms to acquire additional knowledge and skills for innovation processes as an important way for firms to augment their innovation capability [Gatignon, Tushman, Sith, and Anderson, (2002); Hauser, Tellis, and Griffin, (2006)]. While collaboration and interaction between different business actors has always been important, the widespread deployment of the Internet has greatly enhanced the ability of firms to engage in collaborative innovation in several ways. It is the aim of this article to present the features and characteristics of a tourism innovative ecosystem for competitiveness that comprise a multiplicity of autonomous, interdependent, and self-organizing actors, without physical borders of separation from the environment, that rely on the Internet infrastructure to integrate and exchange value.

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.