In the last decades, there was an increasing need for understanding, recognising and accessing project management competence, which resulted in the development of different project management standards from the second half of the 1990s. These standards prescribed the requirements, which are inevitable for the effective project management performance, so the majority of them connects to certain certification processes. The most important critical remark about them was that they put the required knowledge and skills into the focus and less attention was devoted the personality characteristics and behaviours (Crawford, 2000). The purpose of this academic research paper is to draw comparison among the project management competence approaches in different, wildly known project competency standards. Altogether four standards were involved in the research: (1) the second edition of Project Manager Competency Development (PMCD) Framework (2007) issued by the Project Management Institute’s (PMI), (2) Version 4.0 of the Individual Competence Baseline for Project, Programme & Portfolio Management (2015) issued by the International Project Management Association (IPMA), (3) the Australian Institute of Project Management’s (AIPM) Professional Competency Standards for Project Management (2008), and (4) the Association for Project Management’s (APM) Competence Framework (2008). The paper focuses on the following questions: How do project management standards define project management competencies? What kind of structure do these project management competency standards follow? Which competency levels could be identified in them? What are the similarities in their structure? What are the most important content elements/knowledge areas in these standards? How could we group them? Bearing in mind the different approaches adopted by the different standards, comparison dimensions were identified, based on which differences amongst the approaches in standards could be highlighted. There is a major misunderstanding in practice and in the academy about the definition of project management competence, so this study introduces the different definitions, which could be connected to project management competency, and how do this terms relate to each other. The aim is to get a structured, multidimensional overview of the different project management competence approaches in the standards.

The absence of policies, rules and models in businesses that enable them to generate a siutable capital structur and build a solid competitive advantage, is what sustains this research, which consisted in reviewing and analyzing the theories, empirical studies, existing hypotheses and all the main postulates with the purpose of identifying the main strategic factors of the country and of the manufacturing, services and communication companies, to design their strategies by incorporating long-term debt into their capital structures. In the analysis, financial information of companies that quoted continuously to the Mexican Stock Exchange was used, in the periods of 2000-2012. The long-term debt was the dependent variable, and the panel data technique was applied with the E-Views 8.1 program in order to determine its mathematical relationship to main independent factors. The econometric model and the strategic factors used in this empirical study were identified and used in previous theories and research that were analyzed and commented on in the theoretical framework of this research. Studies on capital structure in Mexico are essential, and the lack of a solid model to explain and make the financial decisions of Mexican organizations justifies this investigation. This analysis offers a solid basis for addressing the problem, questions and objectives formulated. The results are of theoretical and practical interest, in addition to identifying and understanding the mathematical relationship of the main strategic factors of the country and the company that influence the inclusion of long-term debt in the capital structure, the results are also useful to generate standards and guidelines that facilitate decision-making and reduce uncertainty by incorporating long-term debt made by manufacturing, services and communication companies in Mexico in order to generate a solid competitive advantage.

Revealing of the major channels of distribution of knowledge spillover effects, as well as analysis of influence of knowledge spillover effects obtained because of operation of foreign banks We propose sequential approach including econometric analysis of influence of the number and share of foreign assets on efficiency indexes of the Russian credit organizations at the first stage. Qualitative stage of the analysis, we took an opinion poll of chief executives of the Russian credit organizations about the influence of foreign credit organizations on the efficiency of local banks. For the analysis of influence of knowledge spillover effects we evaluated the presence of foreign banks on the local ones, and applied two variables for that – the number of foreign banks (N_FB) and the share of assets of foreign credit organizations in the banking sector assets. In order to explore the influence of the presence of foreign banks on the efficiency of local banks, we applied a model described in Claessens etc. (2001). At qualitative stage we took an opinion poll of the Russian credit organizations with the aim of detecting the major knowledge and competence acquired by the Russian banks as a result of entering the market of foreign players. Regression analysis showed that foreign credit organizations exert pressure upon the key operating expenditure items of the Russian banks due to the growth of the level of competition in the banking sector accompanied with pursuit of perfection of the business processes and implementation of innovative control systems by the Russian banks. The performed regression analysis of the influence of foreign banks on the economic efficiency of the local credit institutions has revealed the existence of competitive pressure from the foreign participants. The effect indicates negative development of competition in the banking sector to a greater degree. However, the results of the second stage of the research have shown that the presence of foreign banks has positive effect on the Russian banking market expressed in qualitative changes in respect to products and services rendered by the banks, inner business processes, competence and administrative procedures. The main task of the Russian banks should become adoption of those key competences that could help them to secure a better foothold in the market characterized by considerable variability, increase compatibility constantly.

The aim of the paper is to contribute to the general knowledge of Project Portfolio Management (PPM) by investigating the introduction to Hungary of this new management method. In the first part of the study, I briefly discuss the concept of PPM; then based on international surveys, I write about experiences gained in its operation. Then, in the second part of the study I describe the most important findings of an exploratory (qualitative) primary research regarding the practical implementation of the method in Hungarian Banking Sector. Actual findings concerning Hungarian Banking Sector: The support of top management is essential for the introduction of the PPM. The appearance of portfolio managers was preceded by the operation of the Project Management Office (PMO). The introduction of this method became necessary because of the increase in the number of IT projects. Information provided in the second part of the paper can be taken as a research report. In any case, the example of the six major Hungarian banks involved in the interviews can be considered as a kind of primary deeper country-wide experience. So it could be primary reference both for practical professionals and for organizational researchers.

The study starts in November 2017 to assessing the importance and the diffusion of a project management structure. The research will provide objectives and unambiguous results showing the importance of a central entity/office (PMO). The presence of this internal structure into a company makes the difference to the project’s success achievement and to the overall strategic management, resolving the very common lack of leadership and lack of clear business objective understanding. This article reports feedback from more than three hundred Swiss Companies; the study has been structured into 4 main areas with specific questions, in order to obtain a wide understanding of the maturity of the Swiss companies in the project management field. The 4 areas covered the following main topics: – project management; to have a preliminary indication of the project management methodology applied in the organization – project management corporate structure; to collect data about the organizational structure connected with project management – strategy management; to highlight any possible breach which might have an impact on project’ success – project success; to finally evaluate project’s results and the basis for their evaluation Thanks to the obtained results, you will be able to: – Know which is the cultural level as general overview in project management; – Know which are the most known/used PM tools; – Figure out the relationship between Projects success rate and PMO presence; – Understand which is the Companies propensity to lift up their knowledge and maturity. The study focused on the following objective: 1) project management. We want to understand if a particular project management methodology is used within the interviewee’s company. Some questions are focused on the various PM tools used by the company. 2) project management corporate structure. Collect data on the organizational structure related to the management of the project. 3) strategy management; to highlight any possible breach which might have an impact on project’ success. 4) project success; to evaluate project’s results and the basis for their evaluation. The obtained data have been statistically and critically analyzed, providing objective and unambiguous results showing the importance of a central entity/office (PMO). The presence of this internal structure into a company makes the difference to the project’s success achievement and to the overall strategic management, resolving the very common lack of leadership and lack of clear business objective understanding.

Exploiting data is an increasingly important source of competitive advantage for companies. However, identifying the benefits of data utilization in new business creation may be difficult for B2B companies that are not familiar with the field and are only just establishing their data strategy. The main research question of this paper is: “What kind of different ways are there to transform data into new B2B business opportunities?” The data of the qualitative case study (Yin, 2003) was collected during 2017 – 2018 from 22 semi-structured theme interviews with seven different companies. The case companies were selected while they were in different stages of data strategy implementation (from beginners to advanced as data utilizers). The results of the interviews were discussed in three different workshops with company and researcher representatives. Current research about data utilization and strategies is often analytical in nature, focusing on e.g. algorithms and modelling techniques (Sivarajah et al., 2017). This paper describes practical benefits and presents six different ways to utilize data in new B2B business creation. The paper helps practitioners to benchmark other companies and to provide feedback to managers for establishing their data strategy and developing their data-driven business successfully in practice. It also helps researchers see the utilization of data in new business creation in a broader context including the B2B business and strategic decision-making viewpoints.

The paper aims to fill the gap of investigating the role of project management offices at organizations of different project management maturity levels and to introduce a model developed by the author that integrates strategic management, project management and knowledge management in order to set up the strategic project portfolio and to support the successful planning and realization of strategic projects. Nowadays we deal with projects in several areas of life. Large infrastructural investments – subway, bridge, railway, or highway reconstruction, building residential communities – are completed in projects. Large enterprises start projects to develop new products, services and to introduce them to the market. Project is also one of the often used terms regarding the planning, organizing and hosting of international sport and cultural events. The culture of projects is not only spreading rapidly in the last few years among small- and medium-sized enterprises and the public sector in the member states of the European Union, but the project management methods, techniques, and related knowledge used during the project life cycle are also of extreme importance. Nowadays, we are working and living among projects. These projects have become part of the organizational strategy, and project management is an integral part of strategic management. The purpose of strategic projects is to contribute to the realization of the organizational strategy and to help the implementation of strategic goals. The main question is on the one hand how these projects are selected in order to have the project portfolio that is aligned with the organizational strategy and on the other hand how knowledge management centers like Project Management Offices (PMOs) can support the management of selected projects. The relevance of the research is highlighted by the PM Solutions’ “State of the PMO” study (2014, 2016), according to which PMOs garner more attention at the executive level and their role in strategic functions increases. Besides, PMOs have been significantly engaging in portfolio management functions. The paper first gives an overview about the theories of single project management and the organizational project management, and introduces the modified and further developed model of Kessler and Winkelhofer (1997) called “project oriented strategy planning” (Szabó, 2012). This is followed by the analysis of organizational project management maturity models. Then the role of PMO in selecting strategic projects is introduced and discussed. In the practical part of the paper an empirical survey is presented. The role of PMOs are analyzed at organizations with different project management maturity levels.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organizational unlearning in changing organizational cultures. Although the importance of unlearning has been recognized in the field of organizational culture, this recognition has been limited to superficial descriptions or serendipitous findings. Only little has been done to integrate the fields of organizational culture change (OCC) and organizational unlearning. We believe that companies neglect to engage in the process of unlearning when initiating OCC and that this neglect is in part caused by the lack of academic attention to unlearning within the framework of cultural change in organizations. By systematically reviewing the existing literature, we identify links between the fields of OCC and organizational unlearning. Although there is only a limited number of papers that explicitly deal with or connect both concepts, we found recurring patterns and established further links in order to advance interdisciplinary research. The success rate of OCC efforts is low and organizational unlearning is – in spite of its almost 40-year-history – still a field that has not received much attention in other established research areas. Compatibility issues refer to (i) a lack of consistency in concepts and definitions, (ii) a limited or fragmented scope of organizational culture, and (iii) the complexity of measurement. We believe that the constraint of bringing both fields closer together can be resolved by agreeing on consistent language, expanding the scope of unlearning to comprise all dimensions of organizational culture, and identifying promising research approaches for generating profound empirical evidence. Theoretical and While some researchers have already hinted towards a relationship between organizational culture and unlearning, we believe that there is a green field in connecting both areas. The social view of unlearning as well as cultural change and organizational learning could serve as reference points for connecting organizational culture and unlearning. Organizational culture can serve as an important factor in gaining competitive advantage in today’s rapidly changing global environment. Nevertheless, many companies struggle with achieving sustainable OCC. This paper suggests including unlearning into practical OCC efforts in order to facilitate successful OCC outcomes.

Unlearning of old and learning of new behaviour leads to cognitive dissonance when there are inconsistencies between the new behaviour and actors’ established underlying attitudes and assumptions. Cognitive dissonance can lead to resistance to change and actors hold on to old behaviour. In this conceptual paper, we fold research on unlearning with literature on role theory. We propose that unlearning of old and learning of new knowledge in the context of routines can be enabled when actors engage in “role transition”. This paper suggests that role transition can be applied as an intervention during unlearning and learning. Role transition can enable unlearning and learning processes in organizations. We develop propositions and suggest practical implications.

The paper gives insights into methodological approaches towards the long- term artistic project “Sites for Unlearning” through which processes of unlearning are tested against the backdrop of institutional structures. It responds to the research question how to approach processes of unlearning institutional habits and what is art’s stake in this. Moreover, the elaborations attempt to complicate a currently popular currency of “unlearning” in the arts as well as in organizational contexts as it explores the connecting tissue between “unlearning,” “learning,” and “lifelong learning”– three concepts that are explored in their relationship with organizational un/learning, knowledge economies, and decolonial trajectories. We propose an a decolonial, feminist, artistic approach in order to discuss “unlearning institutional habits” by means of the long-term project Sites for Unlearning. This approach includes an elaboration of the term “site” that is derived from the term situation (legacy of (artistic) situationist practices) and being situated (derived from the feminist approach of “situated knowledges” theorized by feminist philosopher of science Donna Haraway). This methodology puts in evidence that there are two major areas of concern for those who desire a paradigm shift in contemporary life increasingly defined by economic, socio-political and ecological pressures: institution on the one hand and learning on the other. The artistic project Sites for Unlearning attempts to challenge both. It builds on the insights and energies developed in and around the studies on unlearning that are shaped by alternative education and feminist and decolonial theory connected to organizational learning, knowledge management and theories of change (Andreotti 2011, Spivak 1993, Mignolo/Tlostanova 2012). Furthermore, it introduces arts-based research into the debates on what unlearning might do and be in an organizational context. The outcomes of the application consist of a reference guide and documentation of the conditions, modalities, methodologies and implications of a multi-year collaboration between the team at Casco and artist Annette Krauss engaging with processes of organizational unlearning with regards to specific institutional habits.

The purpose of the paper is to present research designs that are suitable for investigating organisational forgetting. The overall and long-term objective is to encourage researchers to use non-experimental, quasi-experimental and experimental designs as well as computer simulations to test the idea of the benefits of forgetting for adaptation and change with high construct, internal and external validity. We review the state of the art in management and organisational research and show options in how to use non-experimental, quasi- experimental and experimental designs for testing causes and effects of organisational forgetting by giving concrete examples. We emphasise experimental designs because they are declared the gold standard in management research. In that respect, we introduce the distinction between special-purpose and non-special-purpose settings. In particular, “learning factories” as a prototype of a special-purpose setting will be described, in which internal and external validity can be increased simultaneously. Learning factories have emerged in the last 5 years to test new ways of manufacturing, for example, cyber-physical production systems and human–robot interaction “live”, and to mirror a real production setting with a high physical and psychological fidelity. We suggest using learning factories as special-purpose settings to observe and investigate processes of organisational forgetting, e.g. for investigating the impact of forgetting routines, as routines are declared an important storage bin as part of the organisational memory. We show how a learning factory can be used as an experimental “theatre” for investigating the impact of eliminating retrieval cues that impede forgetting of a routine that has become invalid and been replaced by a new routine in order to adapt to a changing organisational environment. This example can be used as a model by which to design experimental procedures to put organisational forgetting to an empirical test on a group level, and implies the advantage of making temporal aspects of forgetting visible.

To find tools and methods to research how value creation can be done using smart data and what kind o business models shall be used for implementation these new models into digital business. We propose an approach to analyse the current situation with using intellectual capital in digital innovation companies. This methodology puts in evidence several examples of successful profiting from using of intellectual capital in the frame of current digital economics. The business models of pre-digital companies, based on promoting products, have also evolved. Their offer has gradually shifted towards services, to such an extent that what they are selling is not so much the product as the functions it serves. Value creation in digital innovation companies can be viewed as a system of three interacting components. First, the domain choice, selecting where to compete. Second, the resource base in terms of individual and collective knowledge. These two components provide input in terms of the demand of customers and the capabilities in the resource base of the company, to the third component: the product or service delivery process (PSDP). The content of the PSDPs can vary according to the needs of the customer. The outcomes of the application can be used in business environment for the new innovative companies working in digital business (IT- technologies, Big Data applications etc)

To support team and project work, internet-based collaborative applications are increasingly being used. They enable employees located within and outside of the organisation to communicate, share knowledge/data, and organise joint projects. These knowledge-based drivers of collaboration between team members can improve mastering dynamic and complex situations – key for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in today’s turbulent business environments. Supporting collaboration by providing technical (software, hardware) and structural (methods, strategy) resources confronts organisations with management and work design challenges. We explain the role of an integrated work design concept that enables SMEs to implement and manage the application of collaborative software. This concept combines measures of human resource management and work design practices with a socio-technical perspective. We conducted a thorough analysis of the status of today’s use of collaboration software in SMEs. Drawing from our survey of 101 SMEs in Germany and empirical insights from qualitative interviews with experts from three SMEs in different industries, we describe the measures and activities companies have put into practice in order to support collaboration of and between their teams. A socio- technical work design concept is then presented. To date, there are very few published empirical findings about the experience of SMEs using digital transformation, particularly their deployment of collaboration software. We outline the socio-technical system design approach available for practitioners attempting to design collaborative work in SMEs using internet-based collaboration tools. This gives practitioners in SMEs a helpful, clear orientation on how to combine the design of information systems and work systems with human resource management and organisational development practices. This study provides valuable information to managers and practitioners in IT and work design of SMEs, helping them to execute a more effective implementation and application of collaborative software possible. The design model describes twelve design dimensions on three levels that can be used by practitioners to transform their organisations to a new way of collaborating, sharing knowledge and supporting team and project work in SMEs.

The effective management and re-use of data or knowledge in the early product development phases ensures a competitive advantage. It supports the early identification of high potential technologies and trends and is therefore indispensable for a successful technology leadership. This work shows the results of the Design4Energy project and deals with the interoperability in early phases of product development to challenge the barriers of accessing and adapting novel technologies. Until now, technology databases were a means for communicating knowledge about technical innovations within companies or to industrial target-groups. This work analyses the design of technology databases with a processual integration into research and development. It is a concept for companies to collaboratively and effectively develop and adapt innovative technologies. An interdisciplinary, inter-divisional project team including ICT managers, HVAC engineers, energy experts, economic experts, architects, technology managers, and general constructors were involved in the system development. Based on the requirements of the relevant stakeholders, the project developed an architectural concept and use cases to integrate the system in the lifecycle phases of the building creation process. The stakeholders both iteratively and finally evaluated the system in industrial applications. Literature gives only little guidance on the methodology of building such databases, especially regarding the process integration and IT architecture. This work reveals that the system supports the collaboration between professionals in the design stage. Along the development and implementation of the system, the main success factors for technology databases result in four design principles: effective and efficient design, basic functionalities supporting technology adaption, interoperability, and integration into the processes and organization. These factors ensure applicability and data consistency of a company’s information management and increases the decision reliability in its technology management. The results of this work provide guidelines for the architectural, structural and methodological design of technology databases. Transparent design requirements based on real case learnings are of major benefit for industrial companies and research. This work lists requirements to build mature processes around the technology database in terms of applicability and data consistency of a company’s information management. Eventually, it increases the decision reliability in technology management and implies the success factors for a living database.

The framework developed in this paper provides guidance to SMEs to sense and seize digitally enabled growth opportunities as well as start a project based learning process to transform the organization in order to remain competitive in turbulent environments. The proposed framework is nurtured from a dynamic capabilities approach as well as from digital transformation studies and mitigates shortcomings of existing frameworks on IT-enabled business transformation. There are few frameworks regarding digital transformation developed until now, which lack a sound theoretical foundation and are less suited to the needs of SMEs. Therefore, the originality of this paper is to propose a framework that could allow SMEs to assess their digital maturity level, and the capabilities associated to each level, that are necessary for promoting a digital enabled growth. The developed framework can be useful for owners and managers of SMEs as a self-assessment of digital maturity as a baseline to assess current position and start coordinated initiatives for digital enabled growth.

The objective of this research is to identify the characteristics of social innovation about its processes, in order to identify / define whether a project is a social innovation or not. The research is carried out with the literature review, interviews with managers of social innovation centres / projects in the city of Bilbao, exploration of social innovation centres / projects through their web pages, the development of a focus group and the application Delphi technique with the help of specialists in social innovation issues. The results that have been reached and which are presented in this document are: the literature review which addresses a broad topic of social innovation (definitions, actors, key elements, processes, centres and examples); as a result of the interviews with the social innovation centres / projects, a list is made of the elements that characterize the social innovations, in addition to the literature and the exploration of the centres through the web pages; the result of the focus group is the final list of the elements that characterize the social innovations, which serve as an input for the development of the Delphi technique; and as a result of the application of this, we have the construction of the Framework that characterizes the social innovations on its processes, this Framework contains twenty characteristics, the same ones that are obligatory, relevant, irrelevant and irrelevant depending on the stage of the process. The concept of social innovation emerges in an extremely complex scenario: over-exploitation and depletion of some natural resources, climate change, technological revolution, growing demands and social aspirations. All this, in societies in which economic inequality increases. The diversity of conceptions is, in part, a reflection that social innovation is a dynamic field that is found in the definition and construction of a consolidated body of knowledge. Finally, the consistency of the Framework is validated in five social innovation centres, obtaining a favourable validation for its application.

This paper has the purpose to perform an exploratory study aimed at determining the degree of ambidexterity in Spain-based subsidiaries. Three research questions are formulated: (1) Are Spain-based subsidiaries knowledge explorers? (2) According to intra-corporate knowledge flows, which role do they play inside the multinational? (3) Can they be considered ambidextrous organisations? We proposed a quantitative approach. The population consisted of 1,291 Spanish subsidiaries of foreign multinational firms located in high- technology and knowledge-intensive sectors. A questionnaire sent to the CEO or the subsidiary’s top manager was used to collect information. Most of the variables were measured through a multi-item scale and were extracted and adapted from previous research. The novelty of this work lies in the fact that subsidiaries of multinationals are analysed from the perspective of ambidextrous organisations. Several contributions are made. From a theoretical point of view, the theories of the multinational firm and organisational ambidexterity are linked, highlighting how important dynamic capabilities are when it comes to subsidiary ambidexterity. From an empirical point of view, this paper stresses the fact that a subsidiary’s ambidexterity level is closely linked to the role that it assumes inside the multinational, as well as with the international competitive strategy undertaken. Findings show that Spanish subsidiaries of foreign multinationals are highly knowledge-exploring ones, since a large proportion of them identify with actions oriented towards the development and/or acquisition of capabilities in R&D, production or marketing. With regard to the roles played, 45% of subsidiaries have the role of integrated player, which stresses the high intra-corporate knowledge flows made in both directions and highlights its strongly ambidextrous nature. 10% of subsidiaries adopt the role of global innovator; 25% of them are implementers, and 20% have the role of local innovator.

The main aim of the current research investigates appropriate colors which inspired from traditional window in Iranian architecture, to control direct sunlight for meeting visual comfort criteria in terms of climatic and luminance based metrics. Furthermore, which combination of them would be more effective for optimizing visual comfort in terms of daylight glare probability? This research reintroduces the main application of colorful glass as a light controller in the window that considerably affects climatic-luminance based metrics containing daylight autonomy (DA), useful daylight illuminance (UDI), Overlit UDI and daylight glare probability (DGP). Based on scope and objectives of the research, a combination of quantitative and qualitative research methods are applied. Accordingly, different traditional case studies are considered by literature review to discover suitable colors to control daylight by means of comparative assessments. Furthermore, daylight parametric simulation, based on climatic-luminance metrics such as DA, UDI and DGP are applied to prepare data for considering colorful glass daylight performance from new perspective in terms of visual comfort aspects. Specifically, Rhino, Grasshopper and Diva as simulating and analyzing software are used for evaluation level. This methodology puts in evidence both qualitative and quantitative research methods to detect optimal solutions. Indeed, exploring appropriate colors by Iranian traditional case study review leads to create initial selections of suitable colors regard to visual comfort criteria. In the next step, numerical parametric simulation investigates daylight performance of colored glass from new perspective with the aim to distinguish new approaches to control daylight. The research ambition is to draw attention of research institutes and facade industry organizations to support research development for renovating passive strategies idea. In the other words, this research has potential to reintroduce Iranian traditional architectural principles as passive design strategies and reform them to be applied in the building industry. And also encourages practitioners to apply more passive strategies in order to use on-site renewable energy such as daylight. Through the publications and participation in international refereed conferences, the applicants foresee a much broader implementation of the research results.

Since the definition of the concept “firm’s absorptive capacity” (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) several scholars have focused on understanding how firms, regions and countries could make it easier to decode and seize information coming from different sources in an economically efficient manner. However, the development of absorptive capacity requires more than a mere exposition to, and familiarization with, the relevant prior knowledge. In fact, learning crucially depends on the intensity of the effort, has a cumulative pattern, and (learning) performance is greatest when the object of learning is related to what is already known (Caragliu, and Nijkamp, 2012). Despite the (absorptive capacity) concept were initially designed in the context of firm theory, it was argued that it can be extended to other kind of institutions, such as countries and regions. In this context, it is argued that technical, formalized knowledge does not capture the entire set of norms, uses and attitudes that also constitute a society’s knowledge. Thus, a proper definition of regional knowledge and regional absorptive capacity should include all types of knowledge, including not only the technical one, but also a society’s attitude towards learning. The concept of cognitive capital was identified as capable of encompassing all these aspects (characterizing regional knowledge), thus properly measuring a region’s absorptive capacity. Henry (2004) defined cognitive capital as the set of cognitive dispositions of agents towards socio-economic interactions. Basing on these premises, the aim of the present review is to resume various theoretical and empirical evidences emerged in the past, in order to highlight the main issues addressed in previous study and to propose promising avenues for future research on the topic. This review is one of the few studies attempting to resume various theoretical and empirical evidences emerged in the growing debate on the topic investigated. The review evinced how regional absorptive capacity depends on the region’s endowment with cognitive capital, defined as a set of all local, spatially bounded characteristics that determine a region’s capability to grow (Caragliu, and Nijkamp, 2012). The review also propose that a region’s inadequate endowment of cognitive capital may cause locally produced knowledge to spill over to adjacent competing regions. The main implications deriving from this review are indications for policymakers at the local/regional/country level. Policymakers and governors can reflect on the emerged suggestions in order to enhance the regional absorptive capacity of their specific territories.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the behaviour of the ‘shallow knowledge-generation’ toward educational games. The aim is to single out those gamification solutions which enable the ‘Digital Natives’ (DN) generation to enter into a flow state while learning and to observe how the structure of the games affect their viability. By understanding the different mindset patterns of DNs, we will be able to observe how different DNs can be facilitated to reach the state of flow by enjoying the games, rather than getting bored, getting anxious or becoming dependent. In this paper, we select gamification solutions that will help Digital Natives to attain a state of flow while studying with the help of Knowledge Based Systems and Artificial Intelligence. We believe that the mindset elements that are indicators of suitable gamification solutions can be traced in a simplified way with ‘if, then’ rules. In the era of the ‘shallow generation’, Digital Natives are trained as if they would need the same tools as the Digital Immigrants and their ancestors. Instead, we present the idea of facilitating the ‘shallowness’ as a starting point, because this generation knows a little about everything, and this is not necessarily a bad thing – if we arouse their attention, they can deepen their knowledge easily, because knowledge is just ‘a click away’. This generation of Digital Natives does not need to be specialized in a strict way but rather become despecialized with the ability to search for knowledge efficiently and thus to become competitive. Furthermore, this model will be unique as it will examine both the DI’s (creators of the game) and the DN’s (players) sides. The content will be provided by Digital Immigrants, so that DNs acquire the same knowledge as they would learn from traditional textbooks, but through these games. Furthermore, the games will be made by Digital Natives, because they understand how to gain shallow knowledge in a fast and exciting way – to raise the interest of their fellow DNs, and encourage and direct their further search for knowledge. AI will surely eliminate jobs, but it will also create new ones: we need to prepare for transition from specialization to despecialization. We should deliberately support the cognitive capacity of shallow knowledge which can be deepened when necessary.