Purpose – This contribution identifies and addresses two lacunae in research that may be considered essential when addressing enterprise sustainability. Firstly, it seeks to provide a theoretical explanation for, and justification of, the reasons why successful processes in social and individual experience, as well as activity within an enterprise, need to be supplemented by a “quasi-theoretical” understanding of what individuals are doing (viewed both from inside and outside) when they act upon their experience in the interests of sustainability. Further, it elucidates the way in which theoretical explanations and their practical application/projection into reality work in general together. The central aim is, however, to provide both empirical insights resting upon experiential success derived from a case study and a sort of theoretical foundation provided by philosophy and theory of science. As a result, we will provide means for decision support in an explanatory (and not just descriptive) way to understand and improve evolutionary processes influencing how to integrate the idea of sustainability into an innovative modelling of enterprises. Design/methodology/approach – A short review of related research traditions is provided, followed by both a conceptual framework LIR (Language-Information-Reality) that rests upon research in the philosophy and theory of science, and empirical evidence both to challenge unreflective or – in the Socratic sense – “unexamined” organizational life intended to innovate towards sustainable enterprise models. Originality/value – Research related to enterprise sustainability has expanded in recent years, making room in the “representational” approach to accommodate an “enactive” or rather performative one. However, it appears that at the point of this integration a theoretical explanation and justification in organizational and management research is still absent. This contribution seeks therefore to explicate the above-mentioned model-theoretic systemic framework of analysis LIR and point out the many ways in which the mutual limitations inherent in the two approaches mentioned above clash with respect to examining organizational life, and are in need of interaction if they are to avoid misapplication and overexploitation of organizational knowledge. Practical implications – The proposed theoretical extension and explanation facilitates understanding and controlled reproducibility of those events that are considered and accepted as examples of sustainable success within an enterprise, economic or otherwise.

Purpose – (1) To study the impact of verifiable information on the multi-bilateral negotiations and their outcomes. (2) To explain the reasons for the sellers’ lower satisfaction despite achieving better results in verifiable vs. non-verifiable multi-bilateral negotiations. Design/methodology/approach – We propose an experimental approach, in which groups of students participate in multi-bilateral negotiations. Collected process data and data obtained from two questionnaires is used to compare non-verifiable and verifiable multi-bilateral negotiations. Originality/value –This is, arguably, the first study on the role of information in multi-bilateral multi-attribute negotiations. It shows that social-psychological aspects affect the process and that new information may increase the impact of these aspects on the results. Practical implications – While more experiments need to be conducted the results of these experiments are applicable to market exchanges and transactions which involve government and business organizations. Multi-bilateral negotiations are more flexible than auctions and they allow for the consideration of multiple attributes in a dynamic way. This is one of the reason for using them instead of multi-attribute auctions. The social-psychological aspects and the role of information needs to be carefully considered. The results from our experiments suggest that in business negotiations disclosure of verifiable information may have unintended consequences. These results should be verified in other experiment and field studies both in commercial and non-commercial contexts.

Purpose – The aim of the paper that is to underline the economic and social policies needed for the promotion of entrepreneurship as this is an area that has benefited from initiatives that have failed throughout the Arab economies. Moreover, the paper tries to find out ways for the promotion of appropriate cultural values that could help promoting further, the creation of enterprises through the enhancement of entrepreneurship. This paper looks at the links between cultural variables, knowledge indices and entrepreneurship in Arab countries. Design/methodology/approach – In order to undergo the research the authors will use a regression analysis, hypothesis testing as well as secondary data on Arab countries. These data cover Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and variables related to enterprise creation that will be retrieved from several databases like Doing Business and World Bank. For further analysis, the outputs from Arab countries are also compared to those from the Eastern European economies as both groups of countries went through liberalization after a period of heavy government intervention. Originality/value – The innovativeness of the paper resides in the search for cultural determinants of entrepreneurship as these are related to individuals with their specific cultural characteristics. The use of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions is an important step towards looking for the link between entrepreneurship and the cultural values of each arab country. In addition, the outcomes of the paper have important value for both academia and policy makers as entrepreneurship is connected to specific cultural values that relate to the context in which enterprise creation policies are conducted. Moreover, this paper promotes the role that culture plays in knowledge economy and entrepreneurship in Arab countries. Practical implications – The outcomes from this paper are directly geared towards policy makers and those that are operating in the area of enterprise creation and development. In the context of a given country, different locations and regions might exhibit varieties of cultural dimensions that could affect the results of local initiatives focusing on entrepreneurship. Enterprise creation and entrepreneurship promotion policies need to be accounting for local cultural specificities. They should not be universal and omitting the cultural values that could drive for their entrepreneurship need to be promoted over time besides the implied specific instruments.

Purpose – Many researches try to individuate the entrepreneurial intent of different categories of individuals, and the factors that impact on their intent. Anyway, many of these investigations are based on homogeneous samples without, however, verifying if firms actually arise, nor the type of company created. The paper aims to going over the limitations of previous researches on the knowledge of the process of the entrepreneurial intention by investigating a population of individuals which seized the opportunity to participate at a university-based start-up competition (Suc). Design/methodology/approach – In the frame of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) the paper examines the influence of factors affecting the entrepreneurial intention, the perception of external of environment and the perception subjective competencies. The questionnaire to measure intent is based on an integration of psychology and entrepreneurship literature and is very close to the Entrepreneurial Intent Questionnaire adopted in intent approach leading articles. The population is from seven universities localised in a specific region and the TPB is tested using the Partial Least Squares (PLS) approach. Originality/value –The study is unique given that, within the entrepreneurial process, the individuals of the population investigated could be positioned beyond the intent but before the starting-up. Furthermore, these participants are considered high likely to start an high-tech or innovative businesses, and include individuals with heterogeneous characteristics who decide in team to start a business. Practical implications – The outcomes this survey show that competencies have a strong effect in favouring the entrepreneurial event while, the external environment doesn’t appear to exert a clear influence on intent. These considerations have two relevant implications. On the one hand the role of universities as natural provider of skills is emphasized. On the other hand it is shown how the support promised by the universities themselves under these initiatives can help aspiring entrepreneurs to overcome the conditionings of the external environment.

Purpose The scientific-technological hub “Magna Grecia” rises up to establish intense synergies and interactions with the local, regional, national and international entrepreneurial systems promoting environmental technological innovation, with the objective of significantly growing the competitiveness of the productive system on site and in a territory, like the Ionian territory, of which they think results of economic politics and industrial bankruptcy. All of this in coherence with the European program “Europa 2020: a strategy for intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth”. Design/methodology/approach The paradigm of the complexity is the characteristic paradigm of the historic period in which we live and from which we are launching our project. One systematic way (Bertalanffy, 1959) that was conceived and shaken to answer the challenge to which today we have been called to construct a sustainable community, in which different stakeholders can satisfy their needs without compromising the possibility that future generations can do the same. Educational systems elaborated in the scientific-technological hub “Magna Grecia” have been constructed to be able to encounter the needs of a society which is extremely variable and unpredictable; to shape to the complexity means, first of all, to change the way in which each of us knows and learns both in methods, and in content. The methodology is based on evidence based case study (Trinchero, 2004). Originality/value The possibility to work on a vision of a sustainable future depends on the capability of the citizens to open up to a new idea of citizenship. It is for this that to obtain a role of primary importance in the world of education, and that of the university, to be specific, called in order to accommodate and to make a new idea of development, founded on the systematic paradigm and capable of guaranteeing a holistic vision of the world: culture and the dynamics of education connected have great generative potential for the creation of economic value and consent the retrieval of the authentic sense of the territory, of its vocations, promoting educational routes accurate and capable of constructing a future of sustainable growth. This is how much we have and are looking to create. Practical implications To aim for and bet on, as we have done, the creation of a district highly qualified, capable to offer services of an elevated scientific-technological-environmental content means to consent the youth in the territory, who persist in this action to make business specializing in the environmental sector, a field that until a short time ago seemed impossible to develop in an Ionian city.

Purpose – Recently, the role of place-based innovation has gained relevance and is being explored by a growing number of scholars. We see this as an opportunity to instantiate a new discourse on bottom-up governance, where the role played by the circulation and management of knowledge is at the same time crucial and displaying unexpected dynamics. Starting from the evidence that places, namely urban places, are more and more showing up as innovation drivers (Hou, 2010), the paper first describes the social streets phenomenon as an example of place-based innovation, then analyses three Italian cases, and finally discusses the relevance of spatial proximity for knowledge sharing and behavioural alignment, thus contributing to the theoretical and pragmatic debate on Urban Living Labs and related innovation processes. Design/methodology/approach – Social streets are informal associations of residents, living in the same street or in close urban proximities (blocks or neighbourhoods), aimed at establishing links, sharing needs, exchanging abilities or knowledge, and collaborating on shared projects, so as to reciprocally benefit from a deeper social interaction and collaboration. This paper explores social streets as innovative examples of place-based innovation. We first investigate the nature of social streets’ innovation, in order to discover the role space has in it. Three specific cases are analysed in detail that differ to one another in having various origins, governance/organizational models and also spatial scales. These three dimensions are used as relevant to describe place-based innovation. Originality/value – The analysis conducted in this paper contributes to the theoretical discussion on Living Labs in general (Følstad, 2008; Ståhlbröst, 2008; Svensson et al., 2010) and Urban Living Labs in particular (Concilio and Molinari, 2014; Concilio et al. 2013), by adding to the analysis of the specific role of urban space in user driven, open innovation environments, where users are no longer passive consumers of services but rather protagonists of real innovation, thanks to their being place dwellers, “owners” and “shapers”. The proposed paper focuses on place-based innovation through the analysis of the social street phenomenon. In discussing alternative governance models of the related socio-digital environments, it suggests deepening the operational perspective of emerging, alternative models of urban government and management.

Purpose – This paper starts from the smart city concept and addresses its relevance for the tourism management literature to develop a process framework of “smart tourism destination governance”, which identifies the temporal stages and the crucial actions to take for designing and implementing a governance model oriented at the smart transformation of destinations. Tourism management literature has recently showed increasing interest in exploring the potential offered by the smart city concept, mainly conceived as the integrated use of ICT solutions, for achieving higher competitiveness. However, the pure adoption of innovative technologies is likely to be ineffective without adequate governance structures and processes that are required for ensuring the commitment and effective coordination and integration of firms, government and communities towards a holistic smart-oriented development plan for the tourism destination. This paper aims at bridging the smart city paradigm with the destination governance literature: the elaboration of a smart tourism destination governance process framework provides a valuable contribution for understanding how to effectively apply smartness principles for increasing the sustainable competitiveness of the destination beyond the mere technology dimension, making explicit the role of collaborative structures, user-driven service, social innovation and local community involvement. Design/methodology/approach – We draw on a critical review of the literature on destination governance and smart cities and tourism to identify the main temporal stages and the crucial actions to take in each stage for designing a smart tourism destination governance. The model makes explicit the linkages existing between relevant theories and all the identified stages of the development pathway for implementing an effective tourism destination smart governance model. For each stage the principles of a “smart logic” are integrated into the model, being used to define the specific content and form of actions to be taken to move along the destination journey towards smartness. Originality/value –This paper contributes to fill a relevant gap in the literature on tourism management by offering an original and integrative perspective for designing and implementing an effective smart tourism destination governance model. Practical implications – This framework is a flexible tool in the hands of destination managers for increasing the destination competitiveness; it shows how to match the design of governance structures and processes with the destination context, especially in terms of relational and knowledge capital of relevant stakeholders and implement smartness principles for its development following an incremental step by step logic.

Purpose – This presentation deals with the relationship between identity and physical aspects of the urban and public places. The importance of the urban and public spaces in the communication of identity might be seen as one aspect of the broad area of research into the meaning of the urban space and its relationship to the physical form in Algiers. Typically, the urban and public spaces symbolize accepted notions of the appropriate function of the plaza and preferred public relations, such notions are in themselves profoundly important in structuring gender relations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is based on two methodologies: • Deductive: a theoretical investigation based on the properties of the city structure, definitions, principles of design, and the dilemma of achieving modernization is as much cultural as technical. This combines information from literature reviews and the ideas of key figures in the urban development field and the place-identity, social identity and identity process as theories for cultural models of the city. • Inductive: a study of Algiers as example of historical settlements that have undergone much change processes. The study looks to elicit the images of the city main structure to support the theoretical propositions of surface and deep structural city elements. The conclusion to this part is based on an analysis of the case study. Originality/value – The city of today differs from its past in several respects: size and scale, street layout, land use patterns, architectural style and type of housing. Traditional urban form and building which would have provided information about regional and national identity have been largely replaced by forms characterizing the international and universal buildings and spaces. These changes have altered the city’s form and have given rise to questions about the impact of these changes on the image of the city in terms of size and cultural values. So the concept of urban space becomes a determinant of the ability of planners, architects, engineers and administrators to provide an environment which is adequately structured to avoid chaos and to maintain an acceptable quality of life. Practical implications – How people experience places, what constitutes a place and how identity is formed.

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to evaluate and identify feasible means of assessing the dynamic capability of Finnish Small and Medium Sized (SME) firms from the angle of the supporting and promoting capability of top management. The aim is to provide for suitable tools and means for the assessment that could be further tested in future research. A questionnaire is developed based on theoretical and empirical findings and acid tested in SME CEO interviews against the framework created. The interview results are analyzed and preliminarily interpreted for steering further research. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on the empirical data gathered in an ongoing Top Leader research project in the Small Business Center of Aalto university school of business, funded by ESF. The datasets are gathered in facilitated workshops, expert round table forums and personal interviews of selected SME management and HR expert representatives. The theoretical background is provided by the extant body of knowledge in organizational dynamic capability, SME strategy, innovation and leadership. Qualitative research and theory building approach using grounded theory method is selected in order to produce explanatory and pragmatic models and proposals. The main units of analysis are the personal, inherited and acquired capabilities of the CEO and the management team. These are operationalized through a framework derived from the literature of the Dynamic Capabilities. Originality/value – In firms operating with scarce resources, like in SMEs, this paradigm is of greatest importance. While sustained superior financial performance or the survival of the firm is a result of multiple independent and cross-dependent variables, an often neglected factor is capability of the CEO and management team of the firm. In a small company, the effect of the personal traits of an entrepreneur and other key influencers are claimed to be of remarkable meaning for the success. While the topic is touched in various streams of scientific research, the results are mostly presented on a conceptual level, thus leaving the full potential in managerial impact untapped. Here we are going to step down to produce a model that can be further leveraged also in managerial context. Practical implications – The preliminary outcomes of the research give implications that especially the external and internal networking abilities of the SME CEO prove to be a fruitful area for more concentrated research. The theoretical model chosen together with empirical data has been successfully translated into a questionnaire that will be used and improved in further interviews. The method is believed to be particularly useful for practitioners of SME leadership and strategy.

Purpose- Globalized economy , demand for small and medium businesses faces a number of challenges to keep the levels of global competitiveness , being among the incorporation leading and use technology to increase growth , productive and competitive development , so that in developing these technological processes inside, you can get the same benefits as part of their social responsibility.Therefore, this research focuses on the analysis of the relationship between technology and benefits of social responsibility in SMEs in the manufacturing sector in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – Literature reviewed focuses on the basics of matter as competitiveness, technology and social responsibility. The study has a quantitative approach and explores the relationship between the variables of social responsibility, technology and competitiveness in manufacturing SMEs in the metropolitan area of Guadalajara, through a survey of 418 SMEs which is the subject of study. The questionnaire was designed to obtain a profile of entrepreneurs and their organizations, and consist of two blocks as competitiveness and social responsibility, which contains a total of 37 reagents and reliability come through Cronbach’s alpha 0.900. The frequencies were obtained by the test of sphericity characterization of entrepreneurs, factor analysis was applied to the correlation of variables and finally the analysis of variance for hypothesis testing was performed. Originality/value – Methodology allows to analyze the correlation between competitiveness variable: technology and social responsibility variable: benefits in manufacturing SMEs to which we applied the study. Practical implications – Results show that the fact of using technology in manufacturing industries analyzed , they generate a positive benefit within the social responsibility element, which provides guidelines for developing strategies that benefit competitively these organizations , further economic development is achieved and productive and thus contribute to a sense of social responsibility.

Purpose – The management of innovation through spin-off enterprises represents one of the many strategies adopted by universities within the framework of the third mission activities. Previous studies showed that these companies, though characterized by a higher level of innovation, continue to struggle to survive and grow (Lindholm 1997; Lejpras and Stephan 2009; Balderi et al. 2011). Only recently, the survival of enterprises and their performance have increased qualitatively and quantitatively. Main objective of the present contribution is to identify all possible factors positively influencing performance, and to draw the directions of the performance development. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used for the analysis of the existing literature is based on the Systematic Review (Cook et al., 1997; Staples and Mahmood; 2007; Abatecola et al. 2011). This approach uses a revision process that allows the analysis of what has been studied and produced in literature so far, introducing a rigorous critical methodology (Tranfield et al., 2003).We use here the database EBSCOhost, and we reviewed a dataset of 108 articles to judge the respect of relevance and quality parameters, using the approach “fit for purpose” (Boaz et al., 2003). Originality/value – This study contributes to the literature on spin-off performance reviews, in particular the capacity of intellectual capital to maximize the value for the enterprise (Kujansivu 2009) and resulting in positive performance. The analysis has led to the identification of 9 variables:(a) Incubation phase and support; (b) Knowledge and competencies; (c) Funding; (d) Geographical location; (e) Network e Partnership; (f) Size; (g) Responsibility and trust; (h) Innovation and novelty; (i) Motivation. Practical implications – This study encourages further investigation on intellectual capital on academic or university spin-off. Also, it provides some guidelines for researchers, organizations and institutions that are willing to invest on or manage innovation and intellectual capital within the enterprise.

Purpose: understanding the growth (and decline in some cases) of solar PV geographic clusters Design/methodology/approach: a theoretical discussion, data collection and analysis Originality: no study has tried to understand solar PV clusters Practical implications: some tentative policies to create solar PV clusters (i.e. Australia, Germany) have failed, and billions of dollars and Euros dilapidated. The dynamics of solar PV clusters needs to be understood.

This paper reviews the results of an international expert workshop (SynCity2014), which searched for a new reading of the term “Smart City” paradigm from two specific perspectives: 1) creativity, 2) synchronisation of systems. On that background it compares creative smart city solutions for smart city logistics, public participation, urban simulations, and monitoring. Issues such as methodology, techniques, and instruments like multi-criteria analysis, multi-agent modelling, and technological foresight (backcasting) are presented and discussed.

Recent research in organisation science and knowledge management has increasingly focused on spatial support for knowledge-intensive forms of work. New typologies like coworking spaces, fablabs and open maker spaces indicate that breakthrough ideas may appear in spaces which facilitate creativity and innovation through design features. However, there are no rigorous studies nor methodological frameworks that bring together aspects of spatial design with organisational output. – Addressing this demand, the paper presents the methodology for the living lab experiment with the so-called Innovation Shed (iSheds) – a number of small work spaces that were purposefully implemented on TU Dresden campus to probe the influence of spatial environment on knowledge work performance in the field of scientific research. Referring to research in work psychology and environmental psychology, the article discusses the theoretical background for the ongoing experiment and introduces the factors of ‘sense of belonging’ and ‘personal control’ as key influences on worker´s performance, satisfaction, and commitment. Hypothesis is that factors can be directly related and influenced by architectural and environmental qualities – thus opening up a methodical path how to impact knowledge work through appropriately designed work environments.

Purpose – This paper aims to depict many-to-many innovation conceptualizations (Lundvall, 2007), in order to understand which are the most relevant features theorized as leading to the expected results on the basis of what scholars described in their researches. When scanning literature, it is possible to observe that the growing interest for the topic led to the definition of different innovation labels as those analysed in the present research, namely ‘system innovation’, ‘network innovation’ and ‘ecosystem innovation’. In order to pinpoint common and different elements in the three literature contexts, we performed a bibliometric analysis on a database built through scholars contributions. Design/methodology/approach – The wide literature on innovation has been collected through three different perspectives, leading to a set composed by more than 19.000 contributions. We chose a bibliometric approach (Callon, 1986) to analyse this wide set of literature and we investigated the keywords provided by authors through a double-step co-word (He, 1999). The first part gave us the chance to examine the whole set, and then we had the opportunity to compare the sub-sets related to the three different perspectives, in order to acquire a better understanding of the elements linking contributions on innovation. Originality/value – Literature on innovation is huge (Chesbrough, 2006) – even through contributions arising by combining different fields of science –, but an analysis about the evolution of this topic is missing, especially by taking into account the contexts of innovation. Nowadays, innovation is becoming more and more open than in the past, hence a better understanding of the theoretical evolution of innovation contexts can be helpful to investigate the emerging contributions and framing them in line with what scholars did in last decades. implications – The investigation performed led us to make theoretical contributions, namely to highlight the relevance of management, as an activity needed to get out the best from open context, especially as it concerns knowledge. Moreover, the role of strategy had a decreasing relevance when moving from system to network to ecosystem literature, while it is the opposite for technological features as they emerge in the three contexts of innovation and in direct relation with knowledge.

Purpose – the aim of this paper is to conceptually define knowledge, innovation and technology to establish a schematic approach to the relationships that this triad maintains and their impact on entrepreneurship and social innovation, particularly in Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – I propose an approach based on organizational studies, with a holistic point of view. I review conceptual proposals about knowledge, innovation and technology from philosophy, knowledge sociology and economy to suggest an integral view about relationships between these concepts in management, especially in entrepreneurship in Mexico. Originality/value – This methodology reveals the improper use of concepts like knowledge, innovation and technology in entrepreneurship. Currently the literature in management emphasizes innovation as a magic formula for social progress, but in developing countries like Mexico that situation is very complicated. Practical implications – The outcomes of the application is to develop a framework to propose a new methodology for understanding innovation and technology in Mexico.

Purpose – In recent years, youth unemployment has increased very quickly and intensely in Portugal, namely regarding the higher education qualified workforce. This scenario, in addition to the existing poor statistics that reflects this phenomenon were the switch for this pioneering research in Portugal that aims to discuss and to understand the outlines of this highly qualified migration; and to test the comprehensive power of the theses on which brain drain has been analysed: the model of the Exodus vs the model of the Diaspora. Design/methodology/approach – The research strategy is suitable to the characteristics of an exploratory study that allows to enunciate questions and hypotheses that can be studied in later steps of the research. Articulating an extensive research with an in-depth analysis we seek to identify the subjectivity of the direct actors of emigration in some of its main working contexts. We use a mixed strategy which makes use of multilateral technical quantitative and qualitative data collection: questionnaire surveys; life stories; and interviews with focus groups. Originality/value – This is a pioneering study in Portugal with relevant information for higher education institutions and policy makers. The study puts in evidence the importance of higher education institutions and policy makers learn from the results and testimonies collected. Furthermore, this research will contribute to a better understanding of the brain drain, helping to fill a gap in migration studies. Practical implications – From a practical point of view, the findings from the questionnaire, applied to a sample of skilled Portuguese emigrants in Europe, will allow to know the socio-economic and cultural background of these graduates; the reasons that led them to emigrate: the reasons that would make or not make them to return to Portugal; its employment status, career and remuneration in the host country; among others. All these results are supplemented by interviews with a wide range of interviewed, drawing a set of life stories.

Purpose – Italy can boast a huge cultural and natural heritage but often due to lack of resources and to management dysfunctions, many sites are abandoned. Traditionally, the model of heritage management is public, but in recent years the involvement of private profit-making enterprises increased. However, private has naturally tended to focus on the more attractive “blockbuster sites”, leaving Italy’s extraordinarily widespread cultural heritage unprotected. Our work intend to contribute to this field of study by focusing on the emergence of a new logic in the cultural heritage field. Through a case study analysis we would describe the emergence of a new logic in the Italian cultural heritage field. Design/Methodology/Approach – Our research deals with projects and initiatives aimed at protecting and promoting the widespread cultural and natural heritage which has been re-functionalised, preserved and made accessible to local communities and visitors. These initiatives have applied the concepts of social innovation to the management of cultural field. The research is based on a qualitative investigation using the case study approach. The collection of empirical data is carried out using a heterogeneous plurality of instruments. The methods include: document analysis, semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Originality/value – The Italian cultural heritage is characterized by two coexistent logics: the conservation logic and the market logic. These logics did not allow the establishment of models for the efficient and effective management of cultural heritage. We can identify a new emerging logic in this field. The participation logic is the way to find new models to manage social issues. Indeed it takes shape in the context of social innovation initiatives. Social innovation could fill the gap of welfare state fulfilling the social need to promote cultural and creative initiatives. Practical implications – Downstream of the first phase of research we have defined the characteristics of social innovation initiatives related to the cultural heritage. We can, therefore, make a mapping of the organizations that respond to those characteristics. In addition to this, the research aim to identify the economic impact of the social innovation initiatives object of study in term of people employed, type of contract, amount of resources necessary for sustainability, impact on community and territory. It could become an important tool for policy makers to promote and develop new initiatives.

Purpose – The importance of culture in contemporary society is steadily increasing; people are paying attention to issues like cultural heritage, values, cultural products and cultural development more and more. Each of these is connected with spiritual, emotional and cognitive knowledge although the studies that have been developed so far neglect the relationship between knowledge management and cultural management. Therefore, we aim to determine the main barriers that appear in the process of knowledge sharing in the cultural organizations from Romania. How is the process of knowledge sharing developed? What barriers interfere? How do the cultural entrepreneurs deal with them? Design/methodology/approach – We propose an exploratory research, based on an ethical and qualitative approach in which we combine the results of a comprehensive literature review with the ones generated by a structured interview. The literature review focuses on the articles published in Scopus, Emerald, EBSCO, ProQuest and Sage databases. The results serve as a starting point in developing an interview guide for the Romanian cultural entrepreneurs who represent our research population. Then, we present interviews conducted with 8 representatives of Romanian public and private cultural organizations (managers, employees and entrepreneurs). We aim to determine how they are sharing their knowledge inside and outside their organization’s boundaries and what are the institutional and cultural obstacles that they have to overcome. Data collected are processed using Nvivo software and research techniques like systematization and tabling are applied. Originality/value – This methodology focuses on the main cultural and institutional obstacles which Romanian cultural entrepreneurs have to overcome in order to share their knowledge inside and outside organization’s boundaries. Practical implications – The outcomes of the application have both theoretical and practical implications. On one hand, we propose a nexus between knowledge management and cultural organizations. Knowledge creation, sharing and use seem to be ignored by researchers from the field of cultural entrepreneurship. Therefore, by bringing the obstacles that interfere in the process of knowledge sharing from the cultural organizations to the forefront we extend theory from both fields of research: knowledge management and cultural management. On the other hand, we facilitate the development of cultural organizations by monitoring their practices and signalling the challenges they face regarding knowledge management.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a new paradigm for innovation, based on the multifield theory of organizational knowledge and on the entropic model of the organizational intellectual capital. In this new perspective, organizational culture is one of the nonlinear integrators that contributes directly to the transformation of the potential innovation capital into the operational innovation capital. Design/methodology/approach – My approach is based on a metaphorical interpretation of knowledge and intellectual capital as being organizational fields, and by considering the hypothesis of thermodynamic transformation of the potential of innovation capital into the operational innovation capital, which is generating through the innovation process a competitive advantage. That means a conceptual analysis supported by a literature search and adopting an entropic perspective. The great majority of knowledge and intellectual capital interpretations are based on metaphors that use a Newtonian perspective. Based on the new thermodynamic paradigm I propose a new interpretation of knowledge and intellectual capital as fields, which constitutes a better representation of their intangible nature. Also, by using the theory of nonlinear integrators, I can evidence the role of organizational culture in promoting innovation. Organizational culture is not a simple key success factor but a nonlinear integrator able to influence both the inputs and outputs of the innovation process. Originality/value – The proposed entropic model of innovation is based on the previous research of metaphorical analysis of knowledge and intellectual capital, and it is integrated into a more general perspective of thermodynamic transformations of the potential of innovation capital into the operational innovation capital through the work of nonlinear integrators. Cultural values play an important role in creating a shared vision and a successful corporate strategic thinking. Practical implications – The proposed entropic model of innovation contributes to a better understanding of the innovation process within the organizational intellectual capital, and allows new interpretations for the entropic transformations of rational, emotional, and spiritual knowledge and intellectual capital from one form into another. Also, managers can understand better the role played by organizational culture as a nonlinear integrator in stimulating innovation.