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The aim of the study is to explore the links that firms from low and medium technology (LMT) industries establish with universities for innovative purposes. Even though knowledge transfer from university to industry has generally increased over time, it has mostly been directed at firms in high-tech industries (HT) due to the belief that firms from LMT industries often lack the absorptive capacity necessary to take advantage of external knowledge. In the case of LMT industries, university-industry knowledge transfer has received less attention from management and innovation studies, and understanding the specific conditions where universities may contribute to the innovative effort of LMT firms largely remains unexplored. With the aim of contributing to this debate, the paper focuses on the wine sector, generally considered an LMT industry. Firstly, the study assesses to which type of innovation promoted by winemakers do universities effectively contribute. Secondly, the study examines under what conditions universities assume a relevant role in the innovative activity of LMT firms. To test our hypotheses, the study uses primary data collected through a survey targeting Italian wine SMEs and runs a set of econometric evaluations. Findings show that universities represent a relevant source of knowledge mainly for organizational and commercial innovation, but not for product innovation. For these purposes, university knowledge related to social sciences has a more relevant input for firms than does knowledge with higher scientific and technological content.

As a recommender system, Metacritic (metacritic.com) quantifies and aggregates reviews of entertainment products. The metascore published by Metacritic is controversial in its process for gathering, translating, and aggregating reviews. This study aims to assess the quality of Metacritic's scoring of movie critics’ reviews. By using a mixed methods approach integrating content analysis and multilevel analysis, we found that the movie review scores assigned by Metacritic reflecting the reviews’ semantic contents, being unbiased across the critics, and differentiating the movies reviewed. The paper provides, also, both theoretical implications, referred to an original framing of professional reviews in the service science, service systems and service quality; and practical implications related to the potential customers and for the entertainment industry.

The paper investigates the emerging practice of social crowdfunding. It focuses on both the role played by crowdfunding platforms and the activities that these platforms perform in enhancing and facilitating the diffusion of social and cultural projects through donations. Crowdfunding platforms empower the financing of projects by soliciting small investments from a large base of potential backers over the Internet and creating a dynamic funding network. However, crowdfunding platforms should also create greater legitimacy for social enterprises by promoting early societal interaction and participation. To explore the context of social crowdfunding, the paper examines the case of the Italian social crowdfunding platform – Meridonare – by using both primary and secondary data sources. Findings reveal that, beyond acting as a standard crowdfunding platform, Meridonare eases interactions and relationships among different stakeholders. The emerging set of relationships gives rise to a Social Crowdfunding Business Ecosystem (SCBE), with the crowdfunding platform acting as a hub to enact knowledge sharing and service provision to a plethora of different actors.

This is the accepted version without figures of the paper "Knowledge co-creation in Open Innovation Digital Platforms: processes, tools and services" published as final paper in "Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 1434-1447. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2018-0276" Citation: Abbate, T., Codini, A.P. and Aquilani, B. (2019), "Knowledge co-creation in Open Innovation Digital Platforms: processes, tools and services", Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 1434-1447. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBIM-09-2018-0276 Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how Open Innovation Digital Platforms (OIDPs) can facilitate and support knowledge co-creation in Open Innovation (OI) processes. Specifically, it intends to investigate the contribution of OIDPs oriented to successfully implement all the phases of interactive coupled OI processes. Design/methodology/approach: The paper carries out an exploratory qualitative analysis, adopting the single case study method. The case here investigated is Open Innovation Platform Regione Lombardia (OIPRL). Findings: The case study sheds light on how OIPRL supports knowledge co-creation through its processes, tools and services as a co-creator intermediary. In its launch stage, the platform simply aimed at giving firms a tool to “find partners” and financial resources to achieve innovative projects. Now, however, the platform has developed into an engagement platform for knowledge co-creation. Research limitations/implications: One limitation lies in the particular perspective used to perform the case study: the perspective of the digital platform itself. Future research should focus on the individuals engaged in the platform to better investigate the processes, tools and services used to implement the Open Innovation approach. Practical implications: The paper suggests ways in which OIDPs could be used by firms for effective exploration, acquisition, integration and development of valuable knowledge. Originality/value: The study conceptualizes the role of OIDPs in shaping knowledge co-creation, assuming that the platforms act as Open Innovation Intermediaries. Specifically, OIDPs can be observed to function as “co-creator intermediaries” that define, develop and implement dedicated processes, specific tools and appropriate services for supporting knowledge co-creation activities. &nbsp

What different configurations of Business Model (BM) exist in an IoT platform that aims at developing smart cities? To address this research question, we build on BM literature and argue that BM configurations have general characteristics beyond the unique traits of individual firms. We empirically investigate 21 projects for smart cities that participate to a European funded Accelerator using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). Our findings reveal the most frequent patters of association among value propositions and BM's building blocks. In so doing, we contribute to explain and analyze the diversity among cases as well as BM's causal complexity.

In today's markets, innovation has been identified as a key driver of firms' competitive advantage and innovation capabilities and as a key explanatory variable for differences between firms in behavior and outcomes. Although the literature has explored innovation capabilities, typically from a firm-level perspective, little is known about how firms' innovation capabilities originate in lower-level entities and processes, namely in the microfoundations of innovation capabilities. To bridge this gap, the present research adopts a microfoundations perspective to propose a conceptual model that investigates whether and how individual characteristics for innovation (individual attention to detail, creativity, and openness) and individual-level knowledge sharing behaviors (individual motivation, control, ability, and engagement) affect firm-level strategic innovation capabilities. Drawing on data from 287 R&D employees and general managers operating within 11 firms/research centers belonging to a cross-border R&D partnership, the results of structural equation modeling (SEM) show the crucial role played by individual motivation in effective and frequent sharing of knowledge and by individual engagement in knowledge sharing activities. This research contributes to the existing body of knowledge on innovation capabilities and knowledge management and provides interesting insights for marketers.

This study focuses on creativity and innovation in the gastronomy sector, where both concepts have become increasingly relevant determinants of success, business performance and longer-term survival. Specifically, it investigates the key factors that effectively stimulate the actions and behaviours leading to a continuous flow of novel and useful ideas that can be turned into innovations. To achieve this, an inductive methodology was used, based on the study of a single but significant case, using the semi-structured in-depth interview. The results show that new ideas are mainly generated directly by the chef; hence individual features play a leading role, together with endless experimentation. They furthermore underline that the innovation process is mainly influenced by a trial-and-error approach, which is possible only if the chef has a genuine entrepreneurial spirit. These results hold several relevant theoretical and practical implications.

Certain cultural barriers, such as insufficient openness, aversion to risk-taking, organizational inertia and specific syndromes could inhibit successful Open Innovation processes. However, how Open Innovation Intermediaries help in overcoming obstacles to successfully achieve Open Innovation processes, has not yet been analysed in depth. This paper aims to fill this gap, relying on extant contributions of Open Innovation processes, Open Innovation Intermediary features and types. Based on the distinction between outside-in, inside-out and coupled Open Innovation processes, the theoretical framework developed here identifies specific cultural barriers affecting each process and suggests which intermediary types could be more suited to sustain firms undergoing these processes. The framework supports firms opening up their internal R&D activities to choose the intermediary type most suitable for adaption to an appropriate culture, as well as overcoming any possible cultural barriers.

This paper aims to explore consumer attitudes toward using smart shopping cart, considering country of origin, gender, age, and intentions to use smart shopping carts while purchasing. Moreover, it investigates the influence of extracted factors on consumers' attitudes toward using smart shopping carts and the users' levels of digital competence. The data was collected through survey questionnaires using a purposive sample of 313 Croatian and Italian respondents. To this end, we applied statistical methodologies such as binary logistic regression, factor analysis, and analysis of variance. We found that, compared with Croatians, Italian respondents have a more positive attitude toward using smart shopping carts, regardless of age or gender. Moreover, we found that consumers are influenced by two major factors: functional and convenience. Consumers who purchase for functionality reasons will have preferences associated with faster product selection and speeding up the purchasing process without fearing that they lack the necessary expertise. If functionality has the tendency to increase, respondents will not lack ICT knowledge when purchasing with the smart cart.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to supply indications that may be useful in the process of development of new products that fully exploit the value potential of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies in the automotive industry. To this aim, the authors investigate how applications of the IoT to smart vehicles are perceived by consumers and describe different ways to increase their satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach – After a literature review focused on IoT and consumer behaviour in the automotive industry, the authors apply the Kano model to find the drivers for achieving customer satisfaction with new product developments in smartcars. Findings – Automotive companies need to consider what is attractive to drivers and what consumers consider to be “driver-friendly”. Using an empirical analysis, the authors highlight the motivations for developing a smartcar to fits the expectation of Italian drivers. Research limitations/implications – While the global framework given by this paper can be useful in all contexts, the empirical part is based on the Italian consumer. Further research may extend the application of the model to other countries to improve the generalizability of the results. Practical implications – This study supplies an analysis of qualitative data that may prove useful to researchers and managers in planning their strategic and operative activities with the aim of improving the development of IoT-related products in the automotive industry. Originality/value – This paper fulfils the need for an original research framework that sheds light on relevant insights and gives useful hints on the development of IoT technologies in the automotive sector.

This Research Note analyses the contribution of Cittaslow (slow city) to the governance of tourism destinations by promoting the "slowness" perspective and the concept of sustainable development at the local level. This movement strongly encourages policy-makers to orient its various efforts essentially to define and implement policies, activities and initiatives for sustaining economic development, social well-being and environmental sustainability. In this way, it stimulates the improvement of quality of life for inhabitants and tourists of the involved destinations. Based on a qualitative analysis focused on "Cittaslow Association", this study concentrates on opportunities and challenges for certified destinations as well as the linkages between practices defined by the Cittaslow Association and sustainable development. From a theoretical point of view, the Research Note contributes to destination development literature, offering significant highlights on the governance of tourism destinations. From a managerial point of view, it supports policy-makers underlining the main opportunities and challenges for a tourism destination in being certified as Cittaslow.

Academic spin-off firms are an important mechanism to transfer technological knowledge from university to industry, although they often show low growth and performance rates. This study analyses whether academic spin-offs adopting a market orientation benefit from superior economic and innovation performance. The empirical analysis is based on both quantitative survey data and in-depth interviews. Results show that the generation and dissemination of information about customers and competitors directly affect firms' ability to develop technological innovations and gain profits. Nevertheless, market orientation may generate inefficiencies when external technological conditions require firms to respond quickly to environmental stimuli.