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In the past 20 years, museums have made digital technologies key resources for accomplishing and innovating their functions. The current pandemic affirms museums' dependence on digital tools, which have become the only means to reach the public during lockdowns. While the scientific community generally examines information and communication technology as a tool to provide innovative museum functions, it rarely seeks to understand how digital solutions permeate daily organization and management. Through an extensive literature review, this paper aims to consolidate a pre-pandemic body of knowledge from which further investigations and useful suggestions can be developed. By benchmarking heterogeneous literature sources, the study identifies three core topics (business models, digital professions and digital strategy), questioning whether changes driven by digital technology within museums follow radical innovation or gradual adaptation. In the conclusions, the paper underlines major implications for museums, policy makers and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a rising globalization of the economy and society, the digital transformation, and the economic downturn started in 2008, working is becoming less dependent on distance, location, and time. These are some of the reasons that have fostered the development and diffusion of new working spaces like coworking spaces. The paper aims at exploring the location determinants of coworking spaces, an issue that has been less developed by the literature up to now. By focusing on the 549 coworking spaces located in Italy at the year 2018, the paper investigates the location factors of such workplaces, and the attractiveness of large cities as well as peripheral areas. The results of the descriptive statistics and the econometric analysis (a Zero-Inflated Negative Binomial model is applied) confirm that coworking is mainly an urban phenomenon, since coworking spaces tend to be knowledge-intensive places for creative people. Specifically, the municipalities showing higher innovation and entrepreneurial environment (i.e. major cities) are preferred locations. Besides, it is discussed whether coworking spaces may contribute to fostering the development of peripheral and inner areas in Italy, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic where the share of teleworkers outside metropolitan areas has massively increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital platforms play a central role in the development of the Digital Entrepreneurial Ecosystem (DEE). The growing body of research addressing the issue of imbalances in DEEs has raised the challenge of how to recommend policies specifically designed to overcome the causes of such imbalances. This paper explores the issue of platformization in three developed and high-income countries in the European Union: Germany, France and Austria. The framework and empirical measurement of the Digital Platform Economy (DPE) Index are used to analyze the state of DEE in these three countries, identify the most prominent weaknesses that could be barriers, and propose policy recommendations to overcome these barriers and promote the development of DEE. The results of the three-step investigation present the current state of DEE in each country and find that similar constraining elements in the Digital Multi-Sided Platforms of the three countries have the most potential to systemically disrupt the DEE balance. Tailor-made policies with a holistic approach are recommended to address these constraining elements and target overall DEE growth. The results of this study are expected to motivate future research highlighting the issues surrounding multi-sided platform markets in the context of digital economic development in the European Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation has deeply influenced how innovation can rise in the production, distribution and consumption of cultural products. Although data-driven innovation has been proved effective in creating value across many business functions, the pace of adoption of strong data ecosystems seems slower for Arts and Cultural Organizations (ACOs). The paper theoretically explores how data analytics can affect different areas of innovation in the core cultural sectors. By integrating marketing intelligence, arts management and policy literature with illustrative evidence from secondary sources, we discuss the potential impact of data analytics for enhancing ACOs innovation. First, digitalization and connectivity have increased opportunities for customer engagement and empowerment, shifting cultural consumption from a transaction to a relationship with cultural organizations. Second, data-driven metrics allow ACOs and policy makers to match more effectively patterns of consumption and eventually to create value from harvesting and processing information. Finally, although ACOs are encouraged to review their traditional business models through this new trajectory, significant conceptual and organizational barriers question the benefits of data analytics and slow down its adoption. The paper contributes to the academic and policy debate on the role of data-driven innovation in arts management and marketing strategies for cultural organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since digitalization and Industry 4.0 have been recognized as a key issue for future economic development, prosperity and wealth distribution, several studies have emerged on the potential threats of new technology on workforce development. The consensus is that jobs may fall away, while some new jobs will be created, with a different skills profile and a new set of qualifications that are required. This paper examines the effects of three main indicators: the impact of skills, industrial sector dominance and product complexity on workforce reduction. Based on metropolitan data from the US (Census) and Europe (Eurostat), the author develops a metropolitan typology based on industrial sectors in each metro and analyses the systematic relationship between regional variations of automation, local skills and economic sector variations, finding that automation exposure in Europe is significantly lower than in the US and that medium-skilled manufacturing jobs in the US are increasingly threatened and low-skill service jobs remain relatively safe from automation – leading to a decreasing middle class. This also shows how metropolitan areas are at risk of developing polarized effects: some facing economic upturn and continuous prosperity, and a majority of others either stagnant or with extreme downturn and high unemployment rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores and interrogates existing approaches to urban-rural digital divide reduction. The EU and its member states are applying fragmented and diverse digitalization of territories. Any systematic review of best practice and the juxtaposition of urban and rural areas is lacking. The authors present a taxonomy of key European rural digitalization approaches and determined EU country clusters according to the extent of their use, with a critical analysis of the context of their successes or failures. The key finding is identification of digital infrastructure and virtual sphere coherence as a challenge for bridging the urban-rural digital divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses electronic service (e-service) adoption in regards to socio-spatial dynamics. Conceptually the paper focuses on the interrelations of both private and public e-services and on the influence that demographic variables have on e-service adoption. To empirically engage in this discussion the study uses segmented residential areas representing different socio-spatial characteristics; namely 'city center', 'high-income suburban' area, and 'lower-income suburban' area. With data from an extensive postal survey and standard statistical methods for analyzing survey data the paper shows the extent of existing differentiation in e-service use between genders and according to age, education and income, as well as spatial differences between the studied residential areas. The study results, thus, clearly indicate that the e-service use has still statistically differentiated user profiles, particularly if it is considered in a spatial setting. The paper concludes by addressing directions for the future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ongoing digital revolution is transforming economic production systems as well as our daily lives. If the expectancies in terms of innovation and opportunities are very high on the supply side, little is known about the effective uses of digital tools by customers and the impact on them and their consumption patterns, especially in a situation of mobility. Tourism for example has been tremendously impacted by the digital transformation. It has changed the way people plan, book and travel, but also the way the stakeholders communicate on their destination. But it is also expected that mobile and wireless technologies change the tourist experience of the destination. Mobile devices could induce change in tourist behaviour at the last minute in situ. By using an analysis in terms of services, we suggest that suppliers and tourists in territories coproduce M-tourism services. These services depend on the tourist behaviour but also on the supply, which is available in the destination. Drawing on a survey conducted on the Champs Elysées in Paris in 2018, this paper analyses how different types of people (tourists, residents, workers, etc.) are using these digital services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary urban development is increasingly characterized by collaboration and co-production between 'experts' and the 'public' in urban planning processes. Recently, local planning actors have adopted digital participatory platforms (DPPs) which are specifically built for networked engagement and collaboration purposes. However, the knowledge on embedding DPPs in wider planning dialogues is still limited and scattered. The aim of this paper is to provide a better understanding of the organizational conditions for the successful adoption and implementation of such networked co-production. Through a set of semi-structured interviews with representatives from public agencies and platform companies, we have analysed how organizational conditions for networked co-production manifest themselves in seven cases of DPP implementation. The analysis shows that these conditions are co-constitutive and co-evolutive rather than concurrent or sequential, with strong links between the compatibility of public agencies, attitudes to co-production, organizational cultures and incentives for co-production. The results critically emphasize the need to adopt holistic approaches to networked co-production, allowing for extensive experimentation and 'learning by doing'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advancement of industrial, innovation-related economic policies such as Industry 4.0 and the advanced digitalization of production play an increasingly important role in fulfilling economic objectives in both Canada and the United States. There are a variety of ways in which such industrial-related policy approaches can be developed and implemented. Varying aspects of industrial and economic innovation often occur within a regional context, which can change policy is developed and implemented, dramatically and with little warning. This paper applies a case-based approach to examine enabling and constraining factors of regional innovation policy in two cases - Ontario, Canada and Massachusetts, US. Moving beyond a linear conception of regional innovation, this research explores how policies and modalities for collaboration can facilitate Industry 4.0 and related innovation ecosystems. Our analysis suggests that regional innovation impact is influenced through four principal factors: industrial clusters; context; collaborative synergies; and network intermediaries. Additional research could focus on an expanded case examination of the relationship between top-down policy approaches and the operation of regional innovation ecosystems coupled with bottom-up market- and stakeholderdriven analytic approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a proposal to deal with cultural overtourism causing substantial negative effects. They burden the local population, tourists, and the natural environment by overcrowding, vandalism, and pollution. While at present tourism is suppressed by governments due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it will likely become a major issue again in the future. Our proposal allows us to think about the way cultural tourism should be organized in the future and how to mitigate the negative externalities affecting cultural heritage as well as the local population and the natural environment. As an innovation to overcome these problems, the heavily visited historical sites are to be replicated in a suitable nearby location. Advanced digital technology such as augmented and virtual reality, holograms, and digital twins are to be used to make the cultural sites attractive to all sorts of tourists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the complex context of the current social and economic challenges worsened by the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the discussion on 'a future for all places' has gained momentum. Nonetheless, there is a lack of evidence regarding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the specific challenges and opportunities of less populated, peripheral, and economically backward territories. Using STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political) as underpinning framework and a qualitative case-study approach, this study focuses on the pandemic's impact on Low-Density Territories (LDTs), often overlooked in research. By gathering insights from three case studies through in-depth interviews with regional stakeholders and field experts, secondary data and policy practices, this study pinpoints development opportunities created or accelerated by the pandemic, namely new working trends, digitalisation and technology adoption, cooperation and innovation, and new perceptions about the importance of LDTs. The findings stress the importance of adapting planning and regional development research and strategies to a post-pandemic scenario to seize the opportunities identified and break spatial inequalities affecting these territories. Besides, by applying a place-based approach it provides important implications for policy-makers, highlighting several recommendations and examples of local policy answers that other LDTs can adapt to in a post-pandemic reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industry 4.0 heralds the profound transformation of business models by enabling the fusion of virtual and real worlds and the application of digitization, automatization and robotics in manufacturing. We review the basic premises of Industry 4.0 and map them against the clusters’ features with the aim to establish the kind of relations between these two categories. By exploring the likely impact of clusters on Industry 4.0, our discussion revolves around the broader question of the role of regional ecosystems in industrial transformation. Clusters, thanks to the advantages such as knowledge base and mechanisms, agglomeration economies and externalities (labour pool and critical mass of firms) and favourable more stable, less uncertain environment of trust and cooperation, may facilitate the digital transformation, particularly its phasing-in and testing phases. Notwithstanding this potential, it should be stressed that not all clusters would be able to play such prominent role. Only these equipped with adequate knowledge base and providing some expertise in the field of IT solutions, robotics, automatics, and so on, i.e. the technologies crucial to Industry 4.0 seem predestined to contribute to the emergence of fully fledged industrial internet. Despite seemingly some inconsistency between these two categories, clusters can facilitate the business transformation towards Industry 4.0. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies is a priority from the perspective of firms' innovation performance. Nevertheless, enterprises' efforts to follow the pace of digital transformation may be inhibited by several factors. The goal of our study is twofold. First, we try to identify and characterize the barriers businesses face in the implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies, investigating the barriers' impact on the adoption of I4.0 tools. Second, we seek whether the higher level of adoption is followed by the enterprises' enhanced innovation performance. To that end, we combine a critical literature review with quantitative empirical research. The latter was conducted on a representative sample of 400 Polish manufacturers. The most popular I4.0 technologies implemented by the companies were cybersecurity and social media solutions. The most important barriers were administrative processes and capital expenditures associated with the implementation of Industry 4.0 solutions. Firms' greater involvement in innovations is followed by their more intensive implementation of Industry 4.0 technologies and the awareness of higher barriers. This study adds to the debate on barriers of innovative processes in companies and allows to draw conclusions valid for firms and policy makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The understanding of smart payment industry in the financialization under digital transformation will be the clue to capture the future directions and dynamics of modern capitalism economy. Is there any differences in smart payment industry according to capitalist economy condition among Daegu, Cardiff, and Nanjing ? By answering to this research question through comparative analysis of 3 regions based on qualitative interview method, this study found out as follows. First, there are different payment industry context among 3 regions; Daegu, card payment majority; Cardiff, transition from card payment to smart payment; Nanjing, Smart payment majority. Second, Economic contexts of regions could give direct impacts of the development of mobile payment industry such as the lock in the card industry at Daegu in South Korea, or the well-developed smart delivery platform of E-commerce at Nanjing in China, or the long history of capitalist economy which had increased the labor condition of laborer at Cardiff in Wales. Third, from the qualitative interview researches on 3 regions, gave 2 additional grounded theories such as the future direction of smart payment industry, and the double locked-in the card industry at Daegu in South Korea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The automotive industry faces the challenge of digital transformation at present, especially the autonomous vehicle. To explore the innovation links between different regional innovation systems, this study proposed a theoretical framework combining actor network, regional innovation and open innovation systems. Through the social network analysis and non-parametric test of patent data, the research findings show many significant differences between Europe and China. Finally, some suggestions are provided for strategy planning and policy implementation of open innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the role of Hidden Champions in rural areas in advancing regional digitalization through corporate local and regional responsibility and place leadership. Endowed with abundant internal resources and high innovative capacity, these global niche market leaders face regional resource constraints, concerning digital infrastructure and workforce with digital capabilities. 57 semi-structured interviews with firm representatives and regional actors in rural Germany are analyzed. We show that these enterprises strategically use measures of corporate local and regional responsibility and exert place leadership to develop digitalization-related assets in their rural regions. These initiatives are operated through modes of both inclusive and exclusive agency and benefit. We find that the motives for these actions are grounded in a perceived lack of swiftness and capacity of public actors, but also entail emotional attachment to the region, particularly for family businesses. Our findings have implications for regional policymakers, such as targeting greater alignment of regional and corporate development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Digital transformation is shaping our lives and altering planning. Digitalization is closely linked to smart governance, through which administrative units such as cities and regions increasingly offer digital services related to spatial planning. However, the increasing digitalization of spatial planning has received little attention in academic planning literature, and few studies have analysed how digitalization affects planning practice. The aim of this study was to help fill this gap by developing an analytical framework based on efficiency, transparency and innovation, to explore how digital plan data affect land-use planning. The framework was applied in a multi-case study analysis of Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In this study, which is one of the first to shed empirical light on the digital transformation of land-use planning, we found changes in planning practice mainly in terms of efficiency and transparency, less in terms of innovation. We have identified a great need for further research to attend critically to digital transformation of planning in order to optimize the benefits for planning practice and to avoid an unreflective shift towards technocratic planning practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article aims to explore the dialectic relationship between digital transformation and societal changes through a cultural and creative approach. The debate between an algorithmic society representation (as a narrative of the past) and a new strategic role of culture (as a narrative of the future) is still largely unexplored. In order to achieve the purpose of the research, the article wants to respond to the following research questions: what is the role of culture facing in the digital revolution? What opportunities and threats are created for the enhancement and preservation of culture and creativity? An open conversation in formal and informal environments has been mobilized from September 2018 until February 2020 with scientists and humanists following a narrative approach. The reflections derived and a comprehensive analysis of the literature on AI and data science have led to a review of models of culture-driven economic development. We propose a new research agenda for the preservation and enhancement of culture able to frame the opportunities and face the threats of the digital revolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The digitalization of cultural heritage is crucial for revamping the creative and cultural sectors during a period of stagnation. This work is about the revitalization of the Kyoto kimono cluster through digitalization, which initiated a new exaptive development path for a declining cluster. A growing community of economic geographers and regional scientists has begun to discuss regional path development beyond related and unrelated diversification. We focus on path renewal, which involves major change of a path into a new direction based on new technologies or organizational innovations. Existing knowledge and skills in a region are combined in new ways and may be linked to relevant extra-regional knowledge to provide new knowledge, enabling innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. The process encompasses the intentional and serendipitous actions of individual entrepreneurs (firm-level) and networks of systemic configurations (system-level). A narrative approach is used to capture the path renewal dynamics in the Kyoto kimono cluster. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many sparsely-populated regions in Europe are or perceive that they are left behind because of a reduced presence of public and private services in the area in comparison to more densely-populated urban areas. One solution that has been proposed to overcome issues of spatial injustice in these areas is the digitalization of public services. The use of new technologies can be a means to provide similar services in rural as in urban areas and to reduce costs. However, when services are becoming digitalized, in regions with ageing populations, spatial and social digital divides might increase. Could policies that deliberately involve local knowledge and stakeholders overcome such divides? This article analyses how far place-based strategies for the digitalization of services can overcome (perceptions of) spatial injustice in rural and sparsely-populated regions. It is based on findings from a Swedish and a German case study and raises the need to give more attention to social and organizational aspects in rural digitalization policies. We argue that place-based digitalization policies can make a difference if planned in a fair, transparent, and inclusive way and considering local communities' perceptions of injustice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past few decades, digital technologies have become essential for the competitive success of museums and the achievement of their institutional mission. To the best of our knowledge, few studies have analyzed the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on digitalization in the museum sector. In light of this, the present study aims to investigate whether the pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation of museums. It examines the case of Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence through semi-structured interviews and secondary sources. The results show that the museum started its digitalization some time ago, but the pandemic has accelerated it. The institution has been developing several new digital projects using various online and onsite tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As one of the biggest consumers of natural resources, the building industry is a central target for EU and national Circular Economy (CE) policies. This qualitative case study uses a practice theory approach to investigate how firms in the building industry in Luxembourg and Gothenburg, Sweden, understand CE and develop circular practices. The main findings indicate that the industry is in the early stages of developing CE practices. Most companies are in an orientation process and define the meaning and content of the Circular Economy. The definition and scope of what is included differ in the two case regions and show a clear link to prior policies. We do not find industry-wide practices in firm activities. We find promising developments in individual firms or supply chains, including purchasing for lower waste, CE materials and design using non-virgin materials and using digital tools to increase transparency. The main hindrances, according to interviewees, are the lack of cooperation between actors and guidance from policymakers. They further claim that fragmentation and lack of transparency are barriers to circular practices in the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The work looks at how regions design policies to facilitate the transition of regional innovation systems to Industry 4.0. The research analyses how regional Industry 4.0 policies should take into account the integration of the position of the regional productive system into international supply chains, the games of legitimacy and power of the actors involved in the innovation system, the institutional structures that allow the exchange of knowledge on Industry 4.0. between the agents and the connection between the synthetic knowledge base (engineering driven) and the analytical knowledge base (science driven) of the region. Through a detailed case study of the background, structure and impact of Industry 4.0 in the Spanish regions of the Basque Country and Catalonia, the work demonstrates how it is not possible to define a policy of promoting Industry 4.0 that is generalizable to all regions and how each region will have to adapt the design and implementation of its Industry 4.0 policies to the specific characteristics of its regional innovation system. Therefore the replication of policies from other regions will not be an effective mechanism for promoting Industry 4.0 since the transition to Industry 4.0 is a very regional specific and diverse process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation scholars have long recognized entrepreneurship is ‘imitative’, whereas the commercialization of novelty is ‘innovative’. Thus they are highly distinctive skill-sets. Entrepreneurship, first, involves optimizing market sentiment for pure profit sometimes to the point of catastrophe and even fraudulence in many markets. These include: payment protection insurance (PPI) to ‘flash crashes’, automotive emission ‘defeat devices’, corporate bribery settlements, social media ‘hacking’, ‘fake news’ and a litany of other infractions and catastrophes. Innovation, by contrast, is more explorative and team-reliant. Even if patenting betrays the hope for commercialization on markets, patented innovation frequently fails. Some academic innovators even profess a preference for prizes over profits. Second, this means that collective ‘bonding’ among entrepreneurs, in the form of claimed ‘entrepreneurial ecosystems’, is often based on a single customer platform or as a supplier of a highly specialist type of ‘imitative’ service from identikit pizza chains to ‘me-too’ smartphone apps. Through the latter, fused with artificial intelligence some interactive machine-learning services have long-existed as ‘postsocial’ algorithms serving customers of, for example, investment banks in stock and currency markets. Finally, entrepreneurship is fundamentally competitive, individualistic and non-solidaristic, whereas ‘open innovation’ was born from the practices of ‘open science’ and the collegiate tradition of research. Accordingly, ‘entrepreneurial ecosystems’ can display more closure than RIS set-ups. This special issue explores aspects of these ecosystem platforms and their implications for emergent forms of urban and regional evolution in the near and nearly present future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]