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This study aims to provide a contribution to the systematisation of the state-of-the art of the literature on Big Data for the process of New Product Development (NPD). Based on the evidence of a structured literature review (SLR) on articles published from 2015 to 2021, the paper aims to identify new areas for future research, by highlighting the contribution of Big Data in the perspective of knowledge management for the improvement of the new product development process. Findings demonstrate a lack of research in this field and the fragmentation of the publications that require more in-depth investigation. The analysis allows the identification of quantitative and qualitative evidence of the research trends emerging at the intersection of the two well-known areas and to derive several implications both for research and practice.

Il rapido sviluppo ed evoluzione delle tecnologie digitali degli ultimi dieci anni sta disegnando uno scenario di innovazioni e rivoluzioni il cui impatto è paragonabile a quello che ha avuto la macchina a vapore nel tessuto economico e sociale della fine del 1700, e per lo sviluppo tecnologico dei secoli successivi. Infatti, così come la macchina a va-pore ha consentito di superare radicalmente il grande limite della “forza muscolare” che rappresentava l’unica fonte di energia propulsiva per l’economia del tempo, analogamente, nell’attuale economia della conoscenza, in cui il motore propulsore è rappresentato dalla “forza intellettuale” degli individui, le tecnologie digitali stanno dimostrando la loro capacità di elaborare in tempi rapidissimi grandi quantità di da-ti ed informazioni per automatizzare l’esecuzione delle attività (anche complesse), migliorare le capacità di apprendimento, valutare in pochi secondi innumerevoli scenari possibili nella prospettiva di selezionare ed attuare le decisioni più efficaci. Così, le tecnologie e i sistemi digitali stanno diventando sempre più intelligenti, autonomi e capaci di attuare in modo efficace un processo decisionale. In questo scenario, la capacità delle organizzazioni di adottare rapidamente ed in modo efficace tali sistemi, rappresenta la chiave di successo affinché le tecnologie digitali possano riattivare una fase di ulteriore sviluppo tecnologico, economico e sociale, introducendo significativi miglioramenti nella vita degli individui e delle organizzazioni, e contribuendo ad aumentare il valore delle risorse e sistemi fisici che vanno così ad integrarsi con quelli digitali. Oggi, quindi, le tecnologie digitali e i sistemi ICT costituiscono allo stesso tempo un’opportunità ed un rischio per le organizzazioni che operano nell’Economia Digitale. La crescente disponibilità e diffusio-ne di sistemi ERP, suite di CRM, soluzioni di social media, applicazioni mobile, sistemi di gestione documentale e workflow manage-ment, ambienti di business analytics, infrastrutture cloud, tecnologie RFID, sistemi di simulazione, impianti di automazione, soluzioni di Big Data, strumenti per l’Internet of Things, sistemi integrati di Knowledge Management e collaboration, etc. rischiano di soffocare e tra-volgere sul nascere iniziative che mirano ad innovare la struttura, i processi interni e le relazioni esterne delle organizzazioni. È fonda-mentale quindi fornire un metodo e alcuni strumenti di cui le organiz-zazioni possono dotarsi per cavalcare lo tsunami tecnologico odierno ed attivare così un processo di trasformazione e cambiamento che possa portare le organizzazioni ad operare da protagonisti negli scena-ri dell’Economia Digitale.

Social media have become an indispensable tool for promoting events and tourist destinations, but some tourism organizations are still unable to exploit their full potential. The present research addresses this issue and proposes a methodological framework that could help managers increase users’ online engagement with tourist events and destinations’ social media sites. In two distinct studies, this research identifies content- and format-related characteristics that trigger users’ engagement, here assessed in the form of message liking, commenting, and sharing. Study 1 examines the messages posted on the official Facebook page of a religious event celebrated in a Southern Italian region. Study 2 examines a sample of tweets posted on the official Twitter pages of the same region’s main tourism promotion agency. The results identify features that may increase the effectiveness of social media managers’ promotional efforts, and also highlight differences across the two platforms.

The exponential growth of data existing on the web and generated by organizations and individuals, computer systems and digital devices, is opening new scenarios and opportunities for their exploitation, and new technological and managerial challenges are arising about the collection, transformation, storage, processing, usage, and visualization of such huge amount of data. The Big Data paradigm has therefore emerged as a socio-technical system that allows for offering innovative services in many data-intensive applications and domains. Within the Big Data field, the Big Social Data concept emerged as a relatively new phenomenon with multiple meanings and applications. According to the literature, the Big Social Data paradigm still lacks of a clear and shared definition. Thus, through a Systematic Literature Review, this paper aims at fulfilling this gap by providing a conceptualization of the Big Social Data paradigm that includes a possible definition, the distinguishing characteristics and properties, and some applications in real-life settings. Furthermore, by leveraging an existing taxonomy of data types, this paper proposes an extension that is specific for the Big Social Data domain, by introducing a new category of data type, namely “Digital Context Data”, which includes data related to the patterns of digital context dynamics. Finally, specifically for this new category of data type, two example applications in data-intensive domains (i.e. smart tourism and e-health) have been provided to demonstrate how the Big Social Data paradigm can describe, both explicitly and implicitly, the patterns of digital context dynamics.

Successful businesses demand high-performing Human Resource Management Practices (HRMP) and effective Knowledge Management Capacities (KMC) in order to enhance the overall organizational performance. HRMP represent a system that attracts, develops, motivates, and retains employees to ensure the effective implementation and the survival of the organization and its members, whereas KMC are the key factors for gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage by leveraging on knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing processes. This study intends to investigate the influence of HRMP on KMC, with the final aim to find out the logical connections through which these two concepts meet each other. More specifically, the objective of this article is to identify specific HRMP supporting the development of KMC, with a focus on Indian Information Technology (IT) industry, which is a sector not deeply studied from this perspective. Based on the existing research contributions in this field, five key HRMP (i.e. recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and reward, employee retention, and career development) and two crucial KMC (i.e. knowledge acquisition, and knowledge sharing) have been selected for this study. The article adopts a qualitative research method based on a single case study of an Indian IT company and uses primary and secondary data collected through desk research and field interviews. Results show how HRMP enhance the individual learning, motivation, and retention for knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing, with the aim to improve organizational performance. This study provides a twofold contribution: from a research perspective, it contributes to deepening the analysis of the relation between HRMP and KMC, with a specific focus and an applicative case into the Indian IT industry; from a practitioner point of view, the results could be helpful to HR managers for motivating the employees to undertake learning processes, as well as to acquire and share knowledge resources useful for the organization to remain innovative and stay competitive.

Universities are increasingly being viewed by policymakers as engines of innovation through the technology transfer office (TTO). The process of innovation in developing countries, such as South Africa, is different from that of developed countries, with mature technologies often being adopted with limited success in developing countries. South Africa can be regarded as an inefficient innovator according to the Global Innovation Index 2015. In the wake of the IPR-PFRD Act of 2008 TTOs at universities in South Africa have had a reactive rather than a proactive approach to technology transfer. To become a more efficient innovator, South Africa needs to assess and enhance the current efficiencies of its TTOs and universities to activate steps to improve them. Framed in the above premises, this study aims to develop a Maturity Model to assess through non-monetary indicators, the efficiency of technology transfer. The fuzzy AHP is adopted to determine the priorities and weights of the non-monetary indicators, as they are ambiguous. The Maturity Model will be inspired by the Berkley (PM)2 Model which allows an organization to determine strengths and weaknesses, and to focus on weak practices to achieve higher maturity. The main components of the model will cover the following efficiency areas: IP Strategy and policy; Organization design and structure; Human resource; Technology; Industry links; and Networking. The findings will then inform the design of a customizable solution to barriers to the success of technology transfer and highlight weaknesses within each university or TTOs efficiency which may be improved upon to further aid success. Limitations of the study regard the need to test and apply the Maturity Model in some TTOs in South Africa. Several papers have highlighted the problems that exist with transferring best practice in different countries. The expected contribution of this study is to provide a means by which to overcome these difficulties and to sustain the decision-making process more effectively.

'European Monetary Union and Regional Policy', Barcellona 29th August – 1st September, 2000

The extended enterprise create partnerships with its external environment in order to acquire strategic information and achieve competitive advantage. For that, it integrates its information systems with the partners for fast communication and new knowledge integration in the product development process. The integrated systems involved in the interorganizational collaboration have specific functions and features. In this paper, we present the case study related to an aerospace firm integrating its information systems with one of its partners for complex product design. We investigate on the types of systems integrated, on their success factors and their impact on the product design. The results of the study provide important insights on the integration of the information systems for product development outsourcing.

This article discusses the role of intangibles for the strategic management of academic entrepreneurship and presents a framework for analysis and measurement of value creation dynamics. Most scholars are interested in that entrepreneurial dimension that allows academia to pursue innovation development and commercialization, for example through intellectual asset management, university spin-offs and technology transfer and brokering. While initially conceived as an institution with a teaching mission, in recent years, the university is assuming a "third mission", contributing to society and economic development more directly and so integrating the traditional teaching and research mission. In this strategic role, Knowledge assets and intellectual capital (IC) underpin the core drivers of value creation and need to be appropriately management and measured to assess the impact at economic and social level. The assessment of performance of academic entrepreneurship is not easy since the concept of IC can be used as a valid strategic management framework and competitive tool for Universities. In the tentative to cover this gap, the article tries to provide a contribution in this direction, presenting an integrative framework for IC management highlighting the dynamic relationship among the three components of intangible assets and their strategic impact on value creation dynamics in academic entrepreneurship. The critical examination of how IC evolves in practices over time is really relevant and allow the personalization to universities in different stage of IC maturity. The framework is coherent with the need to assume IC as a management technology especially in cases of universities attempting to manage IC for the first time. The framework provides a theoretical continuum along which the process of maturity of the University allows to be developed incrementally from one level to the next one, analysing how IC evolves in practice over time with regard to academic entrepreneurship activities. Implications for theory will be discussed along with future research.

Monitoring learners' satisfaction (LS) is a vital action for collecting precious information and design valuable online collaborative learning (CL) experiences. Today's CL platforms allow students for performing many online activities, thus generating a huge mass of data that can be processed to provide insights about the level of satisfaction on contents, services, community interactions, and effort. Big Data is a suitable paradigm for real-time processing of large data sets concerning the LS, in the final aim to provide valuable information that may improve the CL experience. Besides, the adoption of Big Data offers the opportunity to implement a non-intrusive and in-process evaluation strategy of online courses that complements the traditional and time-consuming ways to collect feedback (e.g. questionnaires or surveys). Although the application of Big Data in the CL domain is a recent explored research area with limited applications, it may have an important role in the future of online education. By adopting the design science research methodology, this article describes a novel method and approach to analyse individual students' contributions in online learning activities and assess the level of their satisfaction towards the course. A software artefact is also presented, which leverages Learning Analytics in a Big Data context, with the goal to provide in real-time valuable insights that people and systems can use to intervene properly in the program. The contribution of this paper can be of value for both researchers and practitioners: the former can be interested in the approach and method used for LS assessment; the latter can find of interest the system implemented and how it has been tested in a real online course.

PurposeThe paper aims to contribute to the Circular Economy debate from the Entrepreneurship Education perspective. Despite scholars' growing interest in both these research streams, scarce consideration is given to the comprehension of their mutual implications and meaning.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a cross-case analysis. It compares 16 higher education programmes launched by Universities in Europe aimed to create competences and skills for Circular Economy in students with different profiles. The analysis provides a critical view of the emerging trends for the entrepreneurship education skills and competencies needed for the emerging circular entrepreneurship paradigm.FindingsThe paper discusses the main trends of Entrepreneurship Education focused on Circular Economy debate at the European level: rationale and learning objectives (why); contents (what), target students and stakeholders (who) and the learning processes (how). Four thematic areas are identified as common patterns: circular economy business model, green supply chain management, technology entrepreneurship and innovation and public policies and institutional frameworks.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper sheds new light on a still under-researched area, suggesting several implications and avenues for future research in Circular Economy and Entrepreneurship Education. Limitations regard the need to analyse education programmes from a larger geographical area, to take into consideration interesting experiences in the rest of the world and to also collect quantitative data.Practical implicationsPractical implications arise for the development of learning initiatives for the Circular Economy: learning objectives and new thematic areas focused on circular, sustainable and innovative rethinking of the process for creating value in the incumbent companies; exploring meaning and benefits of collaborative approaches and participation in the circular economy innovation ecosystem and developing advanced models for soft-skills development in terms of leadership, motivational and creative skills.Originality/valueThe debate on CE can also be rooted in the paradigm of entrepreneurship as a core process to advance knowledge on valuable and sustainable innovation.

PurposeThe paper aims to contributes on the debates about University Idea Incubation by investigating the role and the engagement of different University's stakeholders in the process of opportunity recognition in an entrepreneurship education program targeted at students with an interdisciplinary background.Design/methodology/approachThrough a longitudinal case study methodology, the Contamination Lab at University of Salento (Lecce, Italy), the learning approaches and the knowledge process to create an entrepreneurial awareness, mindset and capability in students with different educational background are presented.FindingsThe findings demonstrates the crucial role of stakeholders' engagement for business idea presentation, open innovation challenge, contamination workshop on specialized topics, enterprise projects are important vehicle for effective students' business ideas and innovative projects development in a multidisciplinary environment. The close interaction among students, academia, companies and institutions creates a favourable environment that enables opportunity identification, idea generation through a deep contamination of knowledge, skills and experiences.Research limitations/implicationsLimitations include the need to generalise the results even if this limitation is typical of the case study methodology. Other research is necessary for an in-depth analysis in deep of the other Contamination Lab in Italy and to derive the “invariance traits” of this environment according to the features of the local entrepreneurial ecosystems.Practical implicationsImplications for practices include recommendations for designing innovative programs where the interactions between University-Institutions-Industry are realized.Originality/valueA conceptual framework is proposed by defining all the entrepreneurial knowledge process and knowledge creation within the Contamination Lab, highlighting the contribution of the stakeholders in each phase and learning initiative of the program.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the Big Social Data (BSD) paradigm, which still lacks a clear and shared definition, and causes a lack of clarity and understanding about its beneficial opportunities for practitioners. In the knowledge management (KM) domain, a clear characterization of the BSD paradigm can lead to more effective and efficient KM strategies, processes and systems that leverage a huge amount of structured and unstructured data sources. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts a systematic literature review (SLR) methodology based on a mixed analysis approach (unsupervised machine learning and human-based) applied to 199 research articles on BSD topics extracted from Scopus and Web of Science. In particular, machine learning processing has been implemented by using topic extraction and hierarchical clustering techniques. Findings The paper provides a threefold contribution: a conceptualization and a consensual definition of the BSD paradigm through the identification of four key conceptual pillars (i.e. sources, properties, technology and value exploitation); a characterization of the taxonomy of BSD data type that extends previous works on this topic; a research agenda for future research studies on BSD and its applications along with a KM perspective. Research limitations/implications The main limits of the research rely on the list of articles considered for the literature review that could be enlarged by considering further sources (in addition to Scopus and Web of Science) and/or further languages (in addition to English) and/or further years (the review considers papers published until 2018). Research implications concern the development of a research agenda organized along with five thematic issues, which can feed future research to deepen the paradigm of BSD and explore linkages with the KM field. Practical implications Practical implications concern the usage of the proposed definition of BSD to purposefully design applications and services based on BSD in knowledge-intensive domains to generate value for citizens, individuals, companies and territories. Originality/value The original contribution concerns the definition of the big data social paradigm built through an SLR the combines machine learning processing and human-based processing. Moreover, the research agenda deriving from the study contributes to investigate the BSD paradigm in the wider domain of KM.

An important but unexplored research issue is understanding how digital innovation ecosystem and a quintuple helix model can support the promotion of Circular Economy. Circular Economy, however, is intrinsically linked to the innovation issue. It can occur in a productive and consumption system under the form of a new product, process, organizational or marketing model. In the meantime, the digital innovation ecosystem debate was enriched by the social and environmental sustainability perspectives that are the pillars of the Circular Economy theory. Despite this, the research has failed to achieve full comprehension of digital innovation ecosystems’ dynamics and processes for the Circular Economy, by highlighting the need for deeper understanding. Under the above assumptions, this paper presents the evidence of a single and extreme case study related to the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP). This is shown as good practice of a digital platform for stakeholders’ engagement, supporting the creation of a digital innovation ecosystem focused on the Circular Economy. We conclude by deriving implications for researchers and policy makers’ agendas.

PurposeDespite the abundance of research in open innovation, few contributions explore it at inter-organizational level, and particularly with a focus on healthcare ecosystem, characterized by a dense network of relationships among public and private organizations (hospitals, companies and universities) as well as other actors that can be labeled as “untraditional” player, i.e. doctors, nurses and patients. The purpose of this paper is to cover this gap and explore how knowledge is transferred and flows among all the healthcare ecosystems’ players in order to support open innovation processes.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is conceptual in nature and adopts a narrative literature review approach. In particular, insights gathered from open innovation literature at the inter-organizational network level, with a particular attention to healthcare ecosystems, and from the knowledge transfer processes, are analyzed in order to propose an interpretative framework for the understanding of knowledge transfer in open innovation with a focus on healthcare ecosystem.FindingsThe paper proposes an original interpretative framework for knowledge transfer to support open innovation in healthcare ecosystems, composed of four main components: healthcare ecosystem’s players’ categories; knowledge flows among different categories of players along the exploration and exploitation stages of innovation development; players’ motivations for open innovation; and players’ positions in the innovation process. In addition, assuming the intermediary network as the suitable organizational model for healthcare ecosystem, four classification scenarios are identified on the basis of the main players’ influence degree and motivations for open innovation.Practical implicationsThe paper offers interpretative lenses for managers and policy makers in understanding the most suitable organizational models able to encourage open innovation in healthcare ecosystems, taking into consideration the players’ motivation and the knowledge transfer processes on the basis of the innovation results.Originality/valueThe paper introduces a novel framework that fills a gap in the innovation management literature, by pointing out the key role of external not R&D players, like patients, involved in knowledge transfer for open innovation processes in healthcare ecosystems.

Big Data has been heralded as a key agent of the third industrial revolution, and currently represents a promising area for value creation and frontier research. The potential to extract actionable insights from Big Data has gained increasing attention of both academics and practitioners operating in several industrial sectors. However, the adoption of Big Data solutions does not always generate effective value for the adopters. Therefore, the gap existing between the potential of value creation embedded in the Big Data paradigm and the current limited exploitation of this value represents an area of investigation that this paper aims to explore. In particular, this study aims at investigating the following research question: “Which are the multiple value directions that the Big Data paradigm can generate for organizations?”. In this vein, the article presents the result of a systematic literature review aimed at defining a framework that identifies the possible directions of value creation for an organization that may decide to implement the Big Data paradigm. By adopting a systematic literature review, the framework leverages and extends a previous contribution of Wamba et al. (2015) on the same topic. A further element of originality is related to the introduction of a further phase in the analysis, consisting in the application of text mining algorithms to analyse the selected resources, in the final aim to highlight possible terms and concepts remained hidden or latent in the human-led analysis.

Digital technologies have nowadays a significant impact on how new business ventures are imagined and created. The arising technology paradigm is leveraging the potential of collaboration and collective intelligence to design and launch more robust and sustainable entrepreneurial initiatives. However, although the topic of digital entrepreneurship is relevant and timely, there is a limited literature discussion on the real impact of digital technologies and collaboration on the entrepreneurial process. Further research is needed to describe the nature and characteristics of the entrepreneurial ecosystem enabled by the new socio-technical paradigm. Based on extant literature, this article proposes a definition of digital entrepreneurship ecosystem by highlighting the integrated digital-output and digital-environment perspectives. A collective intelligence approach is then adopted to define a descriptive framework and identify the distinguishing genes of a digital entrepreneurship ecosystem. Four dimensions associated to digital actors (who), digital activities (what), digital motivations (why), and digital organization (how) are defined and discussed. The framework was also applied to describe 9 real cases of companies and initiatives, which are analyzed as digital entrepreneurship ecosystems along the four key dimensions presented. The article ends with a discussion about the results and a research agenda for future studies.

Purpose Successful businesses demand high-performing human resource management practices (HRMP) and effective knowledge management capacity (KMC) to enhance the overall organizational performance. Rapid growth of both local and multinational companies operating in knowledge-intensive industries has increased the global competition in the labor market, also for the developing economies. Therefore, attracting valuable human capital, retaining talents and managing effectively knowledge to deliver on the latest technologies and innovative solutions and services are the biggest challenges in the modern IT industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of HRMP on KMC through a cross-case analysis including four companies operating in Indian IT sector. Based on the existing studies in this field, five key HRMP have been identified (i.e. recruitment and selection, training and development, compensation and reward, employee retention and career development), as well as two key processes supporting the KMC (i.e. knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing). Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a qualitative research method based on a multiple case study, and it uses primary and secondary data collected through desk research and field interviews. Findings Results show the existence of HRMP aiming to enhance the individual learning, motivation and retention of employees for knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing, in the strategic perspective to improve the organizational performance. Research limitations/implications The paper presents some limitations, which may provide scope for future research. First, being the study a qualitative multiple case analysis, a more extensive research is needed to generalize the results and investigate further relationships existing between HRMP and KMC. Moreover, a deep investigation on the organizational performance dimensions (e.g. sales growth, cash turnover, financial goal achievement) is required to verify the existence of possible links. Finally, a further limit consists in considering only knowledge acquisition and knowledge-sharing processes, excluding another crucial knowledge management (KM) process such as knowledge application. As for the research implications, the paper contributes to investigate the role of HRMP in supporting KMC in Indian IT companies, which represents a context of research not so much investigated. Practical implications From a practitioner point of view, the study can be helpful to HR and KM managers for motivating employees to undertake learning processes and enhance their performance, as well as to acquire and share knowledge resources that are useful for the organization to remain innovative and stay competitive. Originality/value As the influence of HRMP on KMC has not been widely studied in the Indian IT industry, the study may open the field for further studies on a deeper investigation of the relationships existing between human resources management (HRM), KM and organizational performance in knowledge-intensive industries in India and, more in general, in developing economies.

Innovation and competition take place increasingly between Business Models (BM), and not just among products, processes, and technologies. Therefore, Business Model Innovation (BMI) becomes the key process to unleash value creation for both established and new companies, and, among these latter, particularly for technological spin-offs. For their constituent characteristics, it emerges that BMI in technological spin-offs appears to be related to the effective management of the Intellectual Capital (IC). Despite this, current research has paid little attention to decline BMI through the lenses of IC. This study aims to provide a contribution in this direction by investigating how technological spin-offs innovate their BM by leveraging their IC dimensions. A review of relevant literature on BMI has been carried out. Then, a case study methodology has been adopted to analyze seven technological spin-offs. The analysis highlighted three main trajectories of BMI, defined in terms of the BMI scope and the main exploited IC dimension. The discussion of findings from a research and practical perspective contributes to the debate on BMI, by providing a new interpretative key based on the relevance of the IC dimensions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute 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. Research limitations/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. 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.

The concept of entrepreneurship is traditionally associated with the initiative of individuals who transform promising business ideas into successful new ventures. In the Schumpeterian view, the most innovative individuals are able to drive sustainable change and creative destruction in specific markets and industries, acting alone or within large companies (Schumpeter, 1934, 1949). However, the entrepreneurial process is also engaged in by established organizations, which are able to address the asymmetries between market demand and the potential of socio-technical innovation. At such an extended scale (from individuals to corporations), corporate entrepreneurship is activated as a means of achieving organizational innovation and increasing financial and market performance, with exemplary cases such as Apple, 3M, Procter & Gamble and Google. More specifically, corporate entrepreneurship represents the process of new business creation within established firms to improve organizational profitability and competitive position, or the strategic renewal of existing business (Zahra, 1991). It thus includes the creation and development of new business ventures, new products or services, or new strategies and competitive stances. Therefore, it becomes a key driver of organizational innovation, business performance and market leadership for organizations operating in technology-intensive industries. The focus on technology-based firms is timely and particularly relevant for corporate entrepreneurship. Indeed, the presence of innovative technologies and their market-relevant applications is a trigger for the creation of new products and services, as well as of the new business ventures that produce and commercialize them. The multidimensional nature of corporate entrepreneurship and its complexity in terms of enabling factors has generated the motivation for research to investigate and systematize such elements within an integrative perspective and model. In just such an endeavour, this chapter aims to identify the antecedents of corporate entrepreneurship at both the individual and organizational levels. In particular, the focus is on technology-based firms. For this purpose, this chapter is structured as follows: the next section reports some evolutionary patterns in the corporate entrepreneurship concept and its enablers. The concept of creativity is then analysed together with its relationship with organizational innovativeness, the role of human resource management as a driver of creativity and organizational innovativeness. The model and related assessment tool to be used in the corporate context are then introduced. Concluding remarks summarize the contributions of this work to theory and practice and reflect on planned and likely developments for further research.

Entrepreneurship and innovation are engines of economic growth and societal progress (Allen 2009; Wennekers and Thurik 1999). In particular, technology-based entrepreneurship has gained relevance as a driver of economic development and the renewal of regions and territories (Phan and Der Foo 2004; Venkataraman 2004). Its potential lies in the transformation of technology-grounded ideas into artefacts and technology applications with market value (Kirzner 1997; Venkataraman and Sarasvathy 2001).

In today’s business landscape it is widely acknowledged that the long-term viability of any firm operating in dynamic and complex environments will ultimately be determined by its ability to le’n and innovate successfully (D’Aveni 1994; Hoopes et al. 2003). A virtuous cycle of creativity, research and development (R&D), knowledge generation, application and innovation has accentuated the rate of competition and change. Knowledge, competences and learning have emerged as the key drivers of competitive advantage, making organisations rethink the way they generate value and remain competitive.

Since the seminal work of J. Moore in 1996, the Biological Metaphor of the Ecosystem has been attractive for many scholars. This interest has been growth by the current global scenario. The business ecosystem perspective rejects both the concept of region and industry. In the business ecosystem perspective company is viewed not as a member of a single industry but as a part of a business ecosystem that crosses a variety of industries. Business ecosystems base their success on both competition and cooperation. Self-organization and co-evolution are significant phenomena in the development of business ecosystems. The Digital Business Ecosystem concept is defined as the enabling technology for the Business Ecosystem and represent the digital software environment that support development of distributed and adaptive technologies and evolutionary business models for organisations. Nevertheless this theoretical approach requires more insight on some specific open questions. The first question currently open is: what is the effectiveness of the ecosystem metaphor? If the ecosystem metaphor is strongly seductive and suggestive highlighting emerging organizational structures and behaviours, it is not clear if we will be able to extend well known property of natural ecosystem to business environment. A similar result could open new and effective way of analysing and managing new, emerging and existing inter-organizational structures of firms. The second open question is: what evolutionary model can support a business ecosystem perspective? After Nelson and Winter resource based theory about the evolution of the firm many scholars have dealt with evolutionary approaches. Nevertheless in the business ecosystem perspective the evolutionary key question is far from being related to firm selection and is strictly related with the path-dependent histories of co-evolving organizational forms and with the research for what Padgett identify as the emergence of organizational genotype (logic of identity) and the process of creation of organizational phenotype (through interaction with surrounding social networks).

Networks are assumed to enhance small firms' performance and competitiveness. Research indicates that there are various sources of value that could derive from networks, such as cost and time efficiency, quality improvement, flexibility and innovation. However, in most cases these values are associated with a general framework of what Information Communication Technologies (ICT) and network models are supposed to offer to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their participating actors. Little empirical research has focused on the real value that participating firms can appropriate and create. Based on an empirical study involving SMEs, this paper analyses the value that SMEs can create and/or appropriate by participating in networks and the extent to which value creation depends on factors such as absorptive capability and social capital. This study demonstrates that SMEs can create and appropriate a great deal of value when they become an integral part of network systems. However, factors such as absorptive capacity and social capital need to be taken into consideration, since they greatly impact and affect the capability of firms to create and appropriate value. It is argued that in order to create and appropriate value through networks, they need to emphasize knowledge assimilation and sharing as well as creating continuous learning capability.

The purpose of this paper is to descrive the "virtualness" strategy of the e-Business Management School (eBMS), i.e. the strategy to enable a virtual organization to achieve advance education and research.