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Collaboration enables the sharing amongst individuals of resources and knowledge required to innovate. In recent years, this phenomenon has increasingly manifested in virtual collaborative spaces such as open-source software communities because of the advancement in the use of online technologies and the heightened need for distance work. However, it is still unclear which underlying mechanisms foster collaboration in these spaces. By using the Linux kernel open-source software community as a case study, we analyze data from the linux-pci@vger.kernel.org mailing list to model the influence of proximity on the likelihood of collaboration between individuals. Our dataset is composed of 10,513 message replies to the PCI mailing list posted by its 654 active members in the years 2013 to 2015. Our results show that geographical proximity does not have a direct impact on collaboration, while organizational features defined by institutional and organizational proximity do significantly affect collaboration. Cognitive and social proximity also significantly, and positively, affects collaboration, but these relationships show an inverted u-shaped form. Our results confirm the need to develop specific theorizing about virtual spaces, as they present unique features when compared to traditional physical environments.

Plain English SummaryFamily firms are key in supporting local development, especially in regional clusters. However, while it is well established that their strategies differ from other (non-family) firms, it is still unclear what is their networking behaviour for supporting knowledge exchange-and thus innovation. This paper provides an empirical overview of this phenomenon, by analyzing an Italian case study: the Parabiago footwear cluster. The results show that (a) family firms are more proactive in establishing network relationships; (b) family firms tend to exchange knowledge with other family firms, while non-family firms do not show the same homophilous approach. Overall, this indicates that policies for clusters need to balance support for distinct business types and recognize the familiness characteristics of regional productive structures.Knowledge networks in regional clusters are fundamental to support innovation and local development. Within clusters, family firms are key in creating business opportunities and supporting the establishment of inter-organizational networks. Yet, their role within regional clusters for knowledge transfers is still not well understood, especially in comparison with non-family firms. This paper applies Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to network data collected from the Parabiago cluster, one of the most important Italian footwear clusters, to contribute to a better understanding of the network strategies of family firms. We identify distinct network strategies associated with the cluster firms, accounting for different knowledge exchange types: technological, market, and managerial. In our modelling, we control for firm-level attributes and dyadic-level attributes, such as geographical distance and cognitive proximity between cluster firms. Our results suggest that the proneness of family firms to grow networks is highly robust relative to non-family firm relationships, irrespective of knowledge types being exchanged. Moreover, family firms tend to establish connections with other family firms, showing the presence of homophily in their networking approach; however, non-family firms are rather different, since they do not have the same homophilous approach when it comes to exchange knowledge with other non-family firms. These results indicate that the nature of ownership is driving knowledge exchange differences. This key feature of family-only relationships in clusters may help managers and policymakers in devising more effective and targeted cluster strategies.

Expert knowledge is considered fundamental in the policymaking process, especially when considering multidimensional phenomena such as social innovation. However, the positioning of experts in the policy debate still deserves a thorough investigation. By using Japan as case study and applying Discourse Network Analysis to the debates occurred in the Japanese National Diet (2017–2021), this study investigates the presence of discourse factions and the positioning of experts in these factions. Results show that factions exist but there is not a strong polarisation in the arena; moreover, experts do not just support neoliberal policies, they also encourage bottom-up initiatives.

Business model innovation is recognized as a key process for strengthening firms' performance in situations of strong competitive pressure and environmental changes. This process is driven by intra-organizational advice networks between managers, which exchange different types of advice based on organizational learning mechanisms such as cognitive search (how to conceptualize and create a novel business model) and experiential learning (how to adapt and experiment a novel business model. Investigating what are the key figures emerging from such network is essential for an in-depth understanding of the business model innovation process. By focusing on a multi-unit firm operating in the personal care service industry, we use Social Network Analysis (SNA) to examine the brokerage role of managers when sharing different types of advice towards a novel business model. Our results show that middle-level managers connect different managerial groups in different networks; however, differences exist between groups of middle managers, confirming their peculiar nature within organizations.

Climate change is a major issue for rural communities in developing countries; thus, a better understanding of climate-related vulnerability and risk beliefs to unlock adaptation actions is necessary. By focusing on the rural communities located in the Mexican lagoon system of El Carmen, El Pajonal and La Machona, we first investigate different sources of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity) and derive an aggregated vulnerability index integrating all the information. Hence, we link the different vulnerability sources—on top of additional cognitive and experiential elements—with climate-related individual risk perceptions. On the one hand, results identify the municipalities and communities most endangered and reveal the existence of levels of vulnerability along the lagoon deserving prioritization and action. On the other hand, a relationship between greater vulnerability and higher perception of risk applies. While exposure, sensitivity and cognitive components are found to shape climate-related risk perception, adaptive capacity and experiential factors appear to have no statistically significant influence.

The literature on rural development focuses on the socio-economic effects of agricultural support policies; the process of policy design, however, is devoted less attention. Identifying policy coalitions may help provide clarity on the motivations behind a given agricultural support system. Using Discourse Network Analysis, this paper studies the debates preceding the approval of the National Program for Strengthening Family Agriculture (Pronaf) in Brazil in the Nineties. This represented a relevant overturn of the preceding policy framework. Two coalitions that opposed each other have been identified: while large farm business associations favoured measures to enhance productivity, movements comprising of family farmers aimed at introducing credit instruments for small producers. The strong pressure from social movements was key to the adoption of Pronaf. However, findings suggest that the Workers' Party, which found itself in a less conflicting position, played a brokerage role in the negotiation of the final policy package.

Local authorities play a key role in tackling climate change by implementing targeted adaptation and mitigation measures. The specific implementation of a mix of adaptation and mitigation strategies is the outcome of the interaction of policymakers through a political debate and their attitudes towards climate change. By concentrating on the political discourses occurring in the Assembly of an Italian region (Emilia-Romagna), we use a multi-method approach of Discourse Network Analysis and Concept Mapping to investigate local policymakers’ positioning. Our investigation shows that actors are grouped not only according to their political affiliation, but also to the debated topics, and this relates to the preference for supporting adaptation or mitigation measures, which characterizes the local policy debate.

Studies on open innovation (OI) have highlighted the importance of inter-organizational knowledge networks. However, little is known about OI networks established by family firms, and their roles in such knowledge networks. By focusing on one of the most important Italian footwear clusters, this paper applies Social Network Analysis to investigate the role of family firms in exchanging knowledge according to their intra-cluster position and extra-cluster openness. Our results provide novel evidence on the role of family firms in OI networks, as they suggest that family firms mainly operate as gatekeepers in the technological and managerial networks, while they act as external stars in the market and managerial networks.

In the last decades, Brazil has become one of the largest soybean producers and exporters in the world. Although dedicated policies have been implemented since the 1960s, the recent rapid transition towards an agricultural system largely based on soy has had a strong impact on the country’s socio-economic structure—not only in terms of land and labour markets but also on its diverse ecosystems. According to the extant literature, soy has had a beneficial impact on local human development, measured by the human development index (HDI) of the municipalities. However, there is a lack of empirical studies assessing the impact of soy expansion on the single dimensions of the HDI (longevity, education, and income) to disentangle the indirect effects of socio-environmental change while controlling for other local dynamics. To fill this gap, we applied econometric methods to a novel dataset combining municipal-level data on soy production with socio-economic and environmental data for the period 1991–2010. Our findings confirm the positive relation between soy expansion and the HDI at local level, but this relation differs between different HDI dimensions. The marginal benefits of soy expansion are increasing for the income dimension but decreasing for education and longevity. On the other hand, changes in soy productivity (a proxy for agricultural intensification) have a more complex impact on the HDI and its dimensions, but in general its marginal benefits are decreasing over time. Further research could expand the time series once more up-to-date information becomes available.

The European Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) with its underlying aim to support regional growth, cohesion, and innovation has by now been widely applied to European Sparsely Populated Areas (SPAs). Previous works have identified that intra-regional stakeholder networks are important for a successful S3 implementation, and that their establishment is related to the level of proximity between stakeholders; however, the nature of such networks in the context of developing S3 in SPAs deserves further investigation. This paper explores how different dimensions of proximity are associated with intra-regional networks aimed at implementing S3 in a Northern European SPA (Lapland, Finland). The results suggest that geographical and cognitive proximity are positively associated with both formal and informal networking, while institutional proximity is negatively related with informal networking, suggesting that effective policy interventions require multiple relationships to be activated through supporting greater diversity between SPAs stakeholders.

In recent years, there has been a growing consensus in management and organisation studies regarding the crucial role played by business model innovation in supporting firms’ competitiveness. However, the intra-organisational processes that aim to develop business model innovation and the antecedents for its conceptualisation remain underexplored. Organisational mechanisms for learning between managers lead to the establishment of intra-organisational advice networks, which facilitate the acquisition and diffusion of knowledge for innovation. Using social network analysis, this study investigates the elements associated with intra-organisational networking intended to innovate business models. We analyse a multiunit cooperative firm as a case study. Within this firm, the conceptualisation of the novel business model activated a collaborative system of advice exchange between managers. We found that networking is supported by active managers who spread advice within the firm and managers who go beyond the boundaries of their organisational role. We propose several managerial recommendations, including that managers can develop sub-groups constituting specific and unique knowledge structures, which represent the real generators of business model innovation.

In spite of our current understanding of Smart Specialisation Strategy (S3) design and implementation, an understanding of interrelated governance practices aimed at addressing S3 governance issues is lacking. Applying a data-triangulation approach to a large peripheral Finnish region (Lapland), the analysis suggests that S3 implementation faces two key challenges: first, the development of stakeholder networks to support diversified specialization; and second, the lack of entrepreneurial discovery activity and associated differentiation of specialization. Policy solutions aimed at successful S3 implementation could focus on more targeted stakeholder engagement to mobilize resources for further diversified specialization.

By using a large cross-sectional dataset that observes municipalities from one of the most populated and wealthiest regions in Europe (Lombardy, Italy), this paper investigates how municipal waste re-cycling is correlated with a wide set of municipallevel variables. Results show that municipal waste recycling is linked to geographical, demographic, socio-economic and political variables. They also reveal that these tendencies vary according to municipalities’ population size. This empirical analysis helps in identifying those municipalities that have higher probability of being virtuous in terms of waste recycling.

In light of the global significance of food waste, a greater focus on improving food waste management strategies is called for. Implementing such management strategies requires a better understanding of stakeholder relations. This paper analyses the structure of multiplex relations among stakeholders involved in the creation of a novel food waste management system, investigating the drivers of network formation when multiple collaborations are observed between pairs of stakeholders. We apply Social Network Analysis to study food waste reduction strategies in the City of Ferrara (Italy). Our results provide support for the practical relevance of multiple interactions across dyadic relationships in stakeholder networks. They also suggest that 'third parties' are not necessary for an effective networking strategy, and that relationships between stakeholders of similar levels of expertise are not required for establishing multiple relationships, suggesting that functionally diverse coalitions are of greater practical relevance for food waste management strategies. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Often considered a traditional labour intensive activity, in recent years, the solid waste management (SWM) industry has been largely interested in innovation. Nonetheless, the analysis of innovations in the SW industry is frequently confined to process innovation in the disposal segment, neglecting other kinds of innovation – such as product innovation and organizational innovation – in other segments. While several economic theoretical frameworks have been developed for interpreting eco-innovation in general, a specific analysis of innovation in each segment of SWM is still missing, despite the specificities of this sector. To fill this gap, this paper shows how complexity theory can be profitably used to integrate the more traditional neoclassical approach, offering a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyse innovation in the SWM industry from both a market and firm perspective (the neoclassical approach) and from a social perspective (the complexity theory framework). Four main typologies of the SW market system, exhibiting different kinds of innovation, are outlined: (i) a “traditional” landfill-oriented system; (ii) a modern “waste-to-energy” incinerator-oriented system; (iii) a “light recycling” system with integrated solutions and a selection performance that is lower than 50%; and (iv) a “hard recycling” system.

PurposeBusiness model innovation is a key element for firms' competitiveness. Its development can be supported by the establishment of an actor-oriented scheme to overcome hierarchical structures. The actor-oriented scheme is characterized by intra-organizational networks of relationships that can be established and dissolved between individuals. However, we lack an empirical perspective about its establishment; therefore, the purpose of this research is to advance our understanding of intra-organizational networks for supporting business model innovation.Design/methodology/approachIndividuals create and manage knowledge aimed to innovate the business model through cognitive search and experiential learning mechanisms. Knowledge is spread within organizations by using intra-organizational advice networks, whose patterns reflect the presence of an actor-oriented scheme. This work applies social network analysis to network data from a multi-unit organization specializing in personal care services. We use a Logistic Regression-Quadratic Assignment Procedure to analyze intra-organizational network data on managers' advice exchange related to the learning modes of cognitive search and experiential learning.FindingsOur research empirically identifies the main elements of an actor-oriented scheme in a business model innovation process. We find that managers are able to self-organize, because they are not influenced by their organizational roles, and that commons for sharing resources and protocols, processes and infrastructures enable advice exchange, thus showing the presence of an actor-oriented scheme in business model innovation process.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is based on a cross-sectional database. A longitudinal study would provide a better understanding of the network evolution characterizing the innovation process.Practical implicationsThe results of our study support organizational decision-making for business model innovation.Originality/valueThis study provides empirical evidence of how an actor-oriented scheme emerges in a business model innovation process.

In the last decades, European Third Sector Organizations have been increasingly affected by marketization and the reduction of public resources for social services, hence pushed to develop new strategies to accomplish their social mission while remaining economically efficient. The existing literature suggests that the activation of networking activities can be a strategy to overcome these problems. By using a partially mixed-methods approach, this study investigates factors that stimulate the TSOs’ networking and attitudes toward different types of informal and formal networks. Our results suggest that TSOs try to cope with contextual challenges by activating both formal and informal networks, depending on financial and structural opportunities, but also suggest that the rationalities moving TSOs are highly heterogeneous.

As wine supply chains become increasingly globalized, sustainability issues take on ever greater importance. This is the first study to analyse the environmental sustainability aspect of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from a global wine supply chain perspective, covering just over 90% of Finland's wine imports. Lacking substantial domestic production capacity, virtually all wine consumed in Finland is imported. Finland is comparable to its Nordic neighbours, Sweden and Norway, in this respect. The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology was combined with sensitivity and scenario analyses to investigate GHG emissions implications from prospective policy changes. Our results spotlight differences related to wine production in the eight main wine producing countries for the Finnish market (Australia, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, South Africa, and the United States), related logistics, and all packaging types for wine used in Finland (glass bottle, Bag-in-Box, PET bottle, beverage carton, and pouch). We found an average value of 1.23 kg CO2e for 0.75 L wine consumed in Finland, ranging from 0.59 kg CO2e for French wine in a bag-in-box packaging to 1.92 kg CO2e for Australian wine in a glass bottle. After identifying the main GHG emission hotspots in the wine supply chain, our scenario analyses highlight the effects of reducing glass bottle weight, moving away from glass packaging toward bag-inbox, increasing bulk wine export volumes to Finland, and following the European Commission's Energy 2020 strategy which targets increasing energy efficiency by 20 percent.

Die Bereitstellung offentlicher Mittel fur private Unternehmen zum Erwerb von Dienstleistungen, insbesondere wissensintensiven, hat in der Bewertungsliteratur bislang wenig Beachtung gefunden (Bakhshi et al., 2015; Bruhn et al., 2018 sind bemerkenswerte Ausnahmen). Diese Masnahmen richten sich haufig an kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) und stellen ihnen einen geringen Betrag an offentlichen Mitteln zur Verfugung, mit denen sie ihre Kosten fur den Einkauf von Dienstleistungen senken konnen (Storey, 2003). Die offentliche Finanzierung kann in Form eines direkten Zuschusses oder eines Gutscheins erfolgen, den Unternehmen fur den Kauf von Dienstleistungen von zugelassenen Dienstleistern oder manchmal von beliebigen Anbietern, die vom begunstigten Unternehmen frei gewahlt wurden, verwenden mussen (OECD, 2000; Storey, 2003; IEG, 2013). .

By using a novel database that observes 1,497 municipalities from the Lombardy region in Italy between 2005 and 2011, this paper provides an empirical test of the Waste Kuznets Curve (WKC) hypothesis. Fixed effects regression analyses, generalized method of moments models and a number of robustness checks strongly indicate that among the municipalities under scrutiny there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between economic development and waste generation. Nevertheless, only a few of the municipalities under scrutiny reach the turning point of the estimated curve. These findings contribute to the expanding empirical literature that tests WKC by using municipal data, considered the most appropriate for this kind of analysis.

An adequate understanding of the dynamics that characterize the agri-food market is fundamental for the development of really efficient economic policies, especially after the two recent hikes in the prices of food commodities. The econometric literature provides today advanced analysis tools such as VAR models: these models are based on a system of equations in which each variable is regressed on a set of deterministic variables, on a number of lags related to each covariate in the model. To test the effectiveness of this analytical tool at dealing with the issues related to agri-food economy, we applied a VAR analysis on prices of major food and energy commodities (oil and biodiesel) referring to the period January 2000–December 2012. Our results identified statistically significant intertemporal relationships between the price of corn, soybean oil, rapeseed and oil, and suggested the direction of these relationships; we could conclude that the price of corn and soybeans are influenced mainly in the energy market. Moreover, we focused on the United States market and we set as variables the share of commodities used for the production of biofuels: we could observe that important alterations on the food market are due to the convenience in producing ethanol and biodiesel, since the portion of the crops used for energy is in direct competition with that devoted to the feeding. This kind of model, therefore, deals adequately with data and issues of the agri-food system and provides an analytical basis to develop economic policies that can take into account the complexity of the global food system.

This article exploit a data base of 1.522 observations related to Lombardy’s municipalities to run a cross sectional estimation of the drivers of MW selection. We find no evidence of a significant correlation between the percentage of selected MW selection and market variables such as the unit charge for waste management, a result probably affected by the high degree of integration existing in Lombardy among collectors and disposal operators. On the contrary, we discover robust and significant correlation with a set of geographical, socio-economic, and political variables. Among the latter ones, we have a confirmations on the influence of party competition on the percentage of household recycling, with the left wing ruling parties more addressed to it than the rivals, and on the high correlation existing between MW selection and the implementation of a unit pricing scheme. Other positive correlations with the independent variable are shown by per-capita income, while quite surprisingly the education level of citizens seems to play no role.

As a complementary research in the project "Poli.in_Analysis and modeling of Innovation Poles in Tuscany", this paper addresses the issue of how are structured policies for inno-vation in other EU countries and Italian regions that have adopted policies of innovation through the creation of innovation poles. Integrating a research produced by Caloffi, Mariani and Rulli (2014) on innovation poli-cies in the Italian regions, the paper analyses the policies of innovation and technology transfer of some of the major European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, and six Italian regions having innovation poles policies. For each country, the survey highlights the following issues. 1. Background: there is a national policy supporting the regional policies? At what level decisions are made concerning technology transfer? What are the infrastructure created at both national and regional levels? 2. Regions: which will be considered and why? 3. Time horizon: in which periods of time are individual policies for innovation active? 4. Financial dimension: what is the budget invested in those policies? 5. Beneficiaries: the aim is mainly to large companies or SMEs? Who are the stakehold-ers? What are the institutions involved? 6. Hints for the comparison with the policies of the Tuscany Region: what are the issues confrinted in other countries to identify the key players of innovation policy? What de-gree of similarity have the concepts used in the country compared to those we ientify in Tuscany (technology clusters, innovation poles, competence centers, network of incuba-tors, ...)? For each country sources of information are listed.The paper presents also a review on six Italian regions that implemented policies for in-novation poles.

The survey of innovation policies and technology transfer activated by the Tuscany Region (Italy) in the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 is one of the tools to support the research project "Poli.in_Analysis and modeling of Innovation Poles in Tuscany". In the first part of this paper we present a detailed review of innovation policies in Tuscany, by listing the calls, decrees and infrastructure created by the various policies, from the RIS and RIS +, implemented at the end of the 90s and early 2000s, to the last decrees issued in July 2014 on the basis of policies ERDF 2014-2020. On the basis of the legislation analyzed, we propose a timeline with a graphical representation where we highlight the relationship between the decrees, calls for funding and infrastructure created in the period 2000-2014. Where possible, the financial resources available to the region are reported. To define the purpose, the time evolution and the mutual relations between the entities and the infrastructure is the Glossary containing: the description of the infrastructure that facilitate or promote innovation; some definitions of the key technology transfer system in Tuscany; definitions of the services included in the catalog of advanced and qualified services. The Glossary is divided into three sections: Infrastructure or entities that facilitate or promote innovation; Definition; Qualified services. The sources used to prepare the report and the time line were those provided by the Region and, as a supplement, other documents and decrees that have been sourced from the official site of the Tuscany Region. As for the preparation of the glossary, in addition to the official documents of the Region of Tuscany we used also the corporate websites of the various entities described.

Tourism and environmental preservation are often conflicting activities, mainly in areas such as coastal lagoons, where seaside mass-tourism comes into contact with a very sensitive ecological system. In this paper we deal with a classical problem of both environmental and tourism economics, the internalization of environmental costs of tourism, focusing on the nautical fruition of the Lagoon of Marano and Grado (North-Eastern Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia Region). Using different instruments, both theoretical (Carrying Capacity framework, Polluter-Payer principle, Coase compensation) and empirical (Cluster analysis, Log-log regression, Forecasting model, cost and benefit calculation through actual market values), we get the result that a standard Coasian equilibrium (unit external cost equal to unit private benefit) doesn’t hold, and a higher coverage of the local berths endowment (i. e. a higher vessels transit in the Lagoon) is more effective for nature conservation than a tempered fruition. Another interesting result is that the best available solution to internalize environmental externality is a mixed one, comprehensive of a command and control rule (a speed-limit prescription), and a compensation scheme.

Tourism and environmental preservation are often conflicting activities, mainly in coastal lagoons, where seaside mass-tourism comes into contact with a very sensitive ecological system. In this paper we deal with a classical problem of both environmental and tourism economics, the internalization of environmental costs of tourism, focusing on the nautical fruition of the Lagoon of Marano and Grado (North-Eastern Italy, Friuli Venezia Giulia Region). Using different instruments, both theoretical (Carrying Capacity framework, Polluter-Payer principle, Coase compensation) and empirical (Log-log regression, Forecasting model, CBA with defensive expenditures and actual market values), we ascertained the result that - given the current nautical berths endowment - a standard Coase equilibrium (unit external cost equal to unit private benefit) does not hold, and a higher number of vessels transiting in the Lagoon is more effective than a tempered fruition for nature conservation. Another interesting result is that the best available solution to internalize environmental externality is a mixed one, combining a command and control rule (a speed-limit prescription) with a Coasian compensation scheme. All the technical theoretical and empirical derivations are reported in Appendix A (Pressure Parameter Calculation), Appendix B (Benefit and Cost Calculation), and Appendix C (Data set and Econometric Tests).