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This paper explores to what extent and under what conditions resilience can be developed to cope with radical innovations in the industrial district context. Based on a comparative analysis of an Italian and Spanish cluster, this paper provides and in-depth examination of the transformation at the firm and cluster levels at the introduction, development, and diffusion of disruptive technologies, that enable clusters to cope with it and thrive. Our findings identify cluster attributes that support resilience and propose different measures of district resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much of the literature on environmental sustainability in global value chains (GVCs) focuses on how 'lead firms' (usually global buyers or retailers) can improve the environmental conditions of production among their various layers of suppliers. This approach focuses on the vertical governance dynamics of environmental upgrading along with GVCs. In our contribution, we emphasize the role of horizontal governance as a driver that underpins environmental upgrading processes. These horizontal elements include institutional support, pressure from civil society groups and political dynamics at the local level – which have been relatively overlooked in this literature so far. We examine environmental upgrading in Italian wine value chains, focusing on the fast-growing but environmentally-contested Prosecco and Valpolicella districts. Our analysis suggests that firms within the same industry may follow different processes of environmental upgrading – through certification, going 'back to tradition', technological innovation and/or as an articulation of local politics – also depending on their size. We conclude that horizontal governance is playing a more important role than previously thought in shaping environmental upgrading and provide some suggestions for future research in this realm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to adopt the absorptive capacity (ACAP) framework to understand radical innovation in industrial districts (IDs), adopting a multi-level perspective. By performing a longitudinal case study on an ID that has successfully introduced a radical innovation – the plastic ski boot innovation developed within the Montebelluna Sportsystem district in Italy – the paper highlights how key elements of the ACAP framework (i.e. its components, antecedents, and contingent factors) allow understanding wherein IDs might indeed successfully introduce radical innovations, and what are the specificities as respect as considering a single organisation as unit of analysis. Important policy implications arise, regarding how to support IDs competitiveness and resilience thanks to radical innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work analyzes the impact of university–industry collaborations (UICs) on the innovation performance of a sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in Veneto, a region in the north-east of Italy, which is considered particularly representative of the often-cited "innovation without research" model. We consider two aspects of such UICs that have never been at the center of theoretical and empirical debates on the innovation capacity of SMEs and whose importance has only recently been recognized. The first aspect is the variety of forms that UIC can take. Specifically, we distinguish between formal and informal collaborations. The second aspect is the possible influence of the absorptive capacity of SMEs on their ability to gaining from UICs in terms of innovation performance. We combine statistical analysis of the results of a survey administered to 179 SMEs in Veneto with a collection of anecdotal evidence to show that UICs effectively increase SMEs' innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of emerging economies in the global economy via embeddedness in Global Value Chains (GVCs) is increasing, but their ability to become innovation leaders is less certain. The GVC approach stresses that the inter-firm linkages afforded by being part of a chain are crucial for transferring knowledge. However, their impact on the innovation performance of the developing country firms involved in these GVCs remains controversial and requires more research. The present study provides a systematic review of the literature on developing country GVCs to investigate the learning channels used by local firms, both within (firm level, collective level) and outside of these value chains (i.e. external sources of learning), and the extent to which this activity promotes innovation. We use cluster analysis to classify the cases identified in a literature review to propose a novel typology of local GVC innovators: (a) GVC-led Innovators that achieve high levels of innovation, relying mainly on sources of knowledge within the GVC; (b) Autonomous Innovators whose innovation activity is based on external sources of learning; (c) Marginal Innovators, which constitute the largest group and are characterized by low levels of innovativeness and some use of knowledge available within the GVCs, but scarce use of external sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose This paper aims to explore in depth how internal and external knowledge-based drivers actually affect the firms’ green innovation performance. Subsequently, this study analyzes the relationships between absorptive capacity (internal knowledge-based driver), relationship learning (external knowledge-based driver) and green innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach This study relies on a sample of 112 firms belonging to the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector (ACMS) and uses partial least squares path modeling to test the hypotheses proposed.Findings The empirical results show that both absorptive capacity and relationship learning exert a significant positive effect on the dependent variable and that relationship learning moderates the link between absorptive capacity and green innovation performance.Research limitations/implications This paper presents some limitations with respect to the particular sector (i.e. the ACMS) and geographical context (Spain). For this reason, researchers must be thoughtful while generalizing these results to distinct scenarios.Practical implications Managers should devote more time and resources to reinforce their absorptive capacity as an important strategic tool to generate new knowledge and hence foster green innovation performance in manufacturing industries.Social implications The paper shows the importance of encouraging decision-makers to cultivate and rely on relationship learning mechanisms with their main stakeholders and to acquire the necessary information and knowledge that might be valuable in the maturity of green innovations.Originality/value This study proposes that relationship learning plays a moderating role in the relationship between absorptive capacity and green innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on regional innovation systems (RIS) has focused so far just on a few exemplary cases of regions where innovation resulted from systemic interactions between firms and institutions. This paper aims at evaluating quantitatively which regions can be considered RIS using Community Innovation Survey data on Italy. The analysis reveals a new geography of innovation in the country as compared to results emerging from studies on the 1990s, suggesting a high dynamism in innovation capabilities of Italian regions. Four clusters of regions are identified, but none of them can be described as a true RIS: the most innovative ones lack 'systemicness' and those that come closest to the RIS model have not the best innovative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several studies have emphasized the role of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in fostering innovation in metropolitan areas and regional innovation systems. Such areas are capable of expressing a strong demand for KIBS and consequently stimulate the rise and growth of KIBS. Despite an abundance of literature on KIBS emphasizing the relevance of spatial proximity to customers, many KIBS develop relationships on a broader national or even international scale. No studies have focused explicitly on this apparent discrepancy as yet. The aim of this paper is therefore to fill this theoretical and empirical gap by explaining the firm-level factors relating to the market extension of KIBS within the framework of regional innovation systems. Our analysis is based on a quantitative study on more than 150 KIBS supplying design or communication services located in the Veneto region (north-eastern Italy), an area that can be described as a regional innovation system. Five variables were considered, that is, size, experience, service standardization, investments in network technologies and relational intensity. Our results confirm that three of these variables, but not service standardization and relational intensity, correlate positively with the market extension of KIBS. Policy implications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]