Purpose – In the current competitive scenario, innovative thinking is a fundamental addition to traditional business thinking. Increasingly organizations have to face unstable and unclear scenarios and to undertake challenges, that sometimes are so complex that organizations can’t just dive in. In such scenario, rather than identifying right answers or wrong answers, the goal should be exploring multiple possibilities, not relying on past experiences and known facts and consider ambiguity an opportunity. In other terms it is appropriate to ponder and approach the situations in an unconventional way using innovative thinking. The paper analyses the use of projective techniques as tool for stimulating innovative thinking in organization. These techniques are generally used in the field of psychotherapy, forensic and market research. However they can be advantageously used in business and can pave the way to bring more innovation into organization. Design/methodology/approach – This research is based on a case study carried out at a research marketing company which uses projective techniques as a tool to support, lead and develop innovative thinking. The research was conducted in two main phases. In the first phase we analyzed literature on projective techniques, putting particular attention on their use in practice. Then, attending a series of focus groups and interviews we examined the employ of the techniques in the investigated company. Finally, combining the gained theoretical and practical insights we designed a matrix tool for helping users of projective techniques in various phases of the business life cycle. Originality/value – This paper represents one of the first attempts to investigate at practical level, the application of projective techniques in a business landscape. Specifically, it shows how the projective techniques can be applied at various stages of the company’s life cycle: from initial idea generation up to the change management stage. Practical implications – In today’s business landscape, organizations need to identify new approaches for developing creativity and innovation. Projective techniques can be deployed as effective tools to develop the innovative thinking of management and employees and as an approach to capture insights from customers. The paper suggests insights on the practice use of projective techniques and provides a matrix to guide the application of the techniques in company’s life cycle.

Purpose – This paper investigates the strategies and policies that a sample of selected small and medium companies in a given geographic area (i.e., Apulia region, in Southern Italy) adopt with respect to sustainability issues. The companies have been selected as they are considered (by the local industrial associations) as sustainability champions in the targeted geographic area. In particular, four research questions are addressed: Which meaning do the analyzed companies attribute to “sustainability”? How do they put sustainability into practice? In which way do their specific actions reflect the meaning they give to “act sustainably”? Which are the main barriers companies found in embracing sustainability? Which benefits do arise from practicing sustainability and which disadvantages do they deal with? Design/methodology/approach – We use descriptive multiple case studies to investigate the dynamics related to corporate sustainability. We conducted open-ended in-depth interviews with managers and executives for each of the selected cases. Every interview was conducted through direct visits to companies and lasted at least two hours, so allowing the issues under investigation to be comprehensively analysed and the management’s views and opinions to be more correctly perceived and interpreted. Originality/value – Based on the in-depth analysis of the selected cases, some initial theoretical findings can be pointed out: when a company embraces sustainability, so simultaneously focusing on the economic, environmental, and social dimensions (e.g. Dyllick and Hockerts, 2002), it also focuses on quality – in its broad meaning, which ranges from product quality to quality of human relationships – and adopts a long-term orientation in decision making. Both quality and long-term orientation are aptitudes that reflect on mental models of any organization; therefore, the company’s commitment to embrace sustainability principles shapes its strategy and affects its programs and initiatives. Practical implications – This paper highlights some benefits that the interviewed managers or entrepreneurs put into relation with the adoption of sustainability. They concern profitability, image improvement, attraction of talented workers, better organizational climate, better relationships with partners, development of specific know-how and abilities, access to new markets, and long-term (i.e. sustainable) growth. Nonetheless, adopting a sustainability strategy requires to overcome some barriers – such as the need of strong financial efforts and a high dependency upon public subsidies for conducting investments – and presents some disadvantages (most benefits need time to be fully appreciated and there are higher risks of significant revenue losses).

Purpose – The objective of this paper is twofold. On one hand it explores the relationship between a firm ownership structure and R&D, on the other it tests the relationship between the board structure and the investments in innovation. Design/methodology/approach – This investigation is based on a sample of Italian listed companies observed over the period 2005-2013. In particular, through a regression analysis, it will explore the relationship between ownership concentration and R&D, as well as the relationship between the characteristics of the board of directors and R&D. Originality/value – This methodology highlights both the relationship between the ownership structure and the expenditure on R&D and the relationship between board composition and R&D. If the research, on one hand, extends the extant literature on aspects of corporate governance and innovation, on the other it is rooted in the resource dependence and agency theory frameworks. Our findings appear of interest since a relationship has emerged between ownership concentration and R&D on one hand, and some dimensions of the Board of Directors and R&D on the other. Practical implications – The outcomes of the application, besides improving the current understanding of the relationship between firms’ ownership structure, board characteristics, innovation and corporate performance, intend to reveal if the governance of Italian listed companies is efficient in determining company results and in pursuing growth through innovation. Moreover, our results could be of interest to both policy makers for the regulation of corporate governance and of BoDs, and to companies that regularly appoint the members of the board of directors.

Purpose: Purpose of this paper is, to show the experiences from the German and European pilot projects where the developments in Germany let into a national Intellectual Capital (IC) System with different stakeholder groups. The paper shows how the German IC Center has been built up and how the different stakeholder groups spread the idea of using Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS) as a continuous management instrument to improve innovation and the future development of organizations. The paper includes how the crucial functions “qualification & training”, “implementation”, “quality assurance” and “dissemination” regarding IC are organized in Germany and what results have been achieved since the movement started in 2008. Approach: The definition of IC and the methodology of proceeding ICS in small and medium-sized enterprises as well as in larger companies and organizational networks have been adequately researched in the last years. Originally started as a pilot project “Intellectual Capital Statement – Made in Germany” in the »Fit für den Wissenswettbewerb« (Fit for the Knowledge Competition) initiative, and funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, the concept of ICS is now established across Germany as a national movement of IC training, implementation and quality assurance. Furthermore the German researchers collected experiences on the European level in the European pilot-project “Intellectual Capital Statement – Made in Europe (InCaS)”. The concept of Intellectual Capital has thus far been researched and tested specifically with regard to enterprises and as a concept of establishing national IC Center. The experiences from Germany are the basis for the adaptation of establishing national IC Center worldwide. Value and practical implications: The paper will practically show how a national IC Center in Germany is working and how this concept is transferable to other countries which could benefit from developments and results on the practical and theoretical side “made in Germany”. The paper will also outline actual research activities on defining a regional concept of IC to close the gap between the well investigated concept of IC on the company level (micro) and the concept of national IC (macro).

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to elucidate how new technologies help museums in seeking legitimacy as valuable social and cultural institutions in front of the public. Museums as organizations information and knowledge oriented, embedded within society as repositories of community memory, have to embrace new technologies in order to preserve heritage and generate new knowledge to their audience. Design/methodology/approach – Museums coping with uncertainty and shortage of public funding as fundamental problem tend to achieve greater legitimacy by managing new technologies to sustain public trust and survive in their current forms. This study is based on archival and qualitative data drawn by literature review about the use of the internet technologies of information and communication within museums. Originality/value – Culture will have an increasingly important role as learning becomes more accessible and flexible. Museums as agents of cultural change should legitimize processes of capture, management and dissemination of information and knowledge instead of merely preserving the artefacts by embracing new technologies that ensure a fast and convenient communication with the public involved to participate in the definition of cultural contents toward a participatory museum. Practical implications – Museums by embracing new technologies moving from a virtual museum perspective based on information to a knowledge management and participatory approach may select different choices in order to use new technologies in the definition of content and knowledge creation as result of interactive and collaborative process based on participation and involvement of the audience and users of museum.

Purpose – The paper discusses the value of integrating the web-based negotiation support system Inspire into university level English for business purposes courses. The system offers a content-rich environment and a platform for dynamic communication and meaningful interaction between the negotiating parties. Practicing negotiation skills with a system, like Inspire, that supports negotiation decisions at every stage of the process enhances traditional delivery of the language courses and prepares the students both linguistically and intellectually for future challenges in the workplace, including business and entrepreneurship. Methodology – The instructional model adopted for the course is the sustained content instruction. A sustained content language course is similar to other university courses in that it focuses on one theme or topic. Exploration of one theme over a longer period of time lends itself to analysis, evaluation and the development of critical thinking and creates a natural learning environment for language acquisition. Through input from texts, group discussions, problem solving activities and completion of assignments typical for university courses, students build knowledge of the topic as well as cognitive and linguistic skills. Originality – The theme of the course discussed in this paper is Decision-making and conflict resolution through negotiations. There are three main components of the course: the course-pack with readings from the theory of decision-making and negotiations, an individual research assignment where students further hone their knowledge of the topic and on-line business negotiations project for which the Inspire system was used. The adoption of the system was motivated by: (1) its relevance to the theme; (2) the relative novelty of the technology which lent itself to a new learning experience for the students; (3) its potential for immersing the students in the language of negotiations provided by the system; (4) the opportunity for the students to be involved in authentic communication; and (5) its capacity to motivate the students to engage cognitively and emotionally in the process. Practical implications – The adoption of the Inspire system created a unique opportunity for the students to engage in meaningful communication with counterparts from different cultures. The students’ feedback indicates that they gained knowledge and skills that prepare them for success in university courses and in professional careers.

Purpose – A generic knowledge management process of organization, storage and retrieval of knowledge can suitably be fitted in a digital library. In the digital and knowledge age digital libraries can be used in knowledge management to handle intellectual assets and support knowledge creation. A multilingual digital library either stores content in more than one language or provides multilingual query access to monolingual content. In Serbia 18 of 308 scientific journals regularly published are bi-lingual, with papers simultaneously being in English and Serbian. Bilingual publication of results of international projects is also an increasingly frequent practice. In this paper we present a publicly available multilingual digital library named Bibliša, developed for management, search and the browsing of aligned bilingual text collections. Design/methodology/approach – The approach to the development of the presented digital library was to store its content in a NoSQL-database, with a web tool to enable the use of rich information in the stored text collections. The library content originates from various bilingual sources, with all documents aligned at the sentence level and provided with metadata. In designing Bibliša special attention was given to its component that offers language support, based on bilingual lexical resources and tools, to various multilingual aspects of this library. Originality/value – Users have a high level of flexibility in searching the library content: they can search the library using metadata, or perform full-text search by keywords of their choice. Furthermore, the user’s original query, issued in Serbian or English, can be expanded to the other language, both morphologically and semantically. Thus it offers a novel access to digital content to its users. In addition to that, Bibliša presents an original approach to successful combining of several components: Lexical resources, Library content, Web services and Web interface. Practical implications– Digital library users often need to transform information access into knowledge creation. To that end, Bibliša offers numerous documents from several scientific journals and projects covering various domains. Metadata and full-text search are available within a user-friendly platform, with the possibility for a very high level of search refinement. Bibliša also supports the analysis of concepts and concept structures, identifying terms assigned to concepts, and establishing relations between terms in English and Serbian, which makes it a valuable tool for terminological research.

Purpose – Acquiring of new knowledge is the core process not only in academic, but in entrepreneurial organizations as well. Information technology (IT) offers tools and resources for providing a knowledge acquisition continuum between them. Academic knowledge can be improved with best practice examples from enterprises, while entrepreneurial staff can keep pace with new academic knowledge within the lifelong learning paradigm. Open knowledge resources publicly available on the web play a pivotal role in this approach. In addition to that, Human language technology (HLT) has developed electronic tools and resources for supporting multilingualism in knowledge acquisition. The purpose of this paper is to offer an approach to quality assurance within a multilingual IT supported learning environment. Design/methodology/approach – Following the ‘Case study’ methodology, we used an ongoing project, BAEKTEL (Blending academic and entrepreneurial knowledge in technology enhanced learning) as a ‘polar type’ for the research. The project is aimed at developing a network, and its technology infrastructure, for collecting and sharing open access knowledge assets among various types of institutions, both academic and entrepreneurial, in different countries. For quality assessment of these knowledge assets metrics are needed, often obtained by a set of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which express the periodic achievement of operational goals of particular activities in quantitative form. Originality/value – We propose a set of KPIs developed within BAEKTEL that can be used for quality assessment of multilingual open knowledge resources development, publishing and use. These KPIs can be modified and reused by other similar projects according to their specific needs. To make this adjustment easier we grouped the KPIs into several categories and discussed briefly each of them. In addition to that, we offer a template to be used as a guideline for KPI representation, including specific rules for their calculation. Practical implications – KPIs offer a framework for efficient and structured assessment and subsequent improvement of open knowledge resources. Using IT to support acquisition of knowledge assets can result in significant overhead cost related to technology infrastructure, staff time and expertise. While being a large cost driver, the latter is also of key importance for quality of IT supported knowledge acquisition. KPIs can be helpful in preventing inadequate resourcing and financial management, which can compromise the quality of knowledge assets within the knowledge acquisition process. They allow for precise assessment of cost drivers to the management as a means for their minimization.

Purpose – The paper presents some methodological notes for universities to support the writing of their own sustainability report. Sustainability reports are documents organizations use to report the company’s identity, governance, and values, as well as the impact of everyday activities and topics considered as relevant to sustainable development (Global Reporting Initiative, 2013). In the last two decades the commitment of universities to sustainable development has strongly grown (Adomssent et al. 2007, Velazquez et al. 2006, Waas et al. 2010) and today an increasing number of universities, although still limited, periodically publish a sustainability report (Ceulemans et al. 2014, del Mar Alonso-Almeida et al. 2014, Townsend and Barrett 2013). Extant reporting standards and guidelines (e.g. GRI-G4 of the Global Reporting Initiative) seem to be mainly developed for companies (Lozano, 2006) and often neglect the description of methodological aspects to be adopted for the reporting process, especially in the case of universities. The lack of clear guidelines can affect the quality of the reports and make the comparison of different reports hard. Design/methodology/approach – To develop the methodological notes, we reviewed the literature and analysed the most adopted reporting standards and guidelines. We also analysed the sustainability reports of a sample of ten universities. The sample includes reports from the GRI disclosure database. The report analysis was carried out to assess (i) the standard adopted, if any, (ii) the reporting process carried out, i.e. the set of activities and the procedures performed to develop and publish the sustainability report, and (iii) the information reported. As to the reporting process, the activities related to the identification and interaction with stakeholders as well as the activities performed to identify which indicators to be used are analysed and discussed. Originality/value –The proposed methodological notes integrate those provided by the GRI. We also identified some issues that remain as open problems and should be further analyzed. Practical implications – The paper outcomes can be used by universities that already publish a sustainability report to improve the reporting process. The outcomes can also be used by universities, and any kind of organizations, which intend to start the process of sustainability reporting.

Purpose – Corporate entrepreneurship is an articulated process that originates from creative ideas of managers and employees and ends up in generating innovative results such as new business units and ventures. It is thus a key driver of strategic renewal and business performance for organizations, which need to valorize the creativity of individuals and teams (the internal “crowd”). This article introduces the concept of crowd-venturing as an application of collective intelligence principles in the corporate context. A set of individual and organizational factors supporting the entrepreneurial potential of human resources is defined and used to build a tool for assessing the maturity of crowd-venturing within companies. A classification of organizational archetypes is also proposed. Design/methodology/approach – The study starts from a review of corporate entrepreneurship and organizational creativity literature, with a cross-domain investigation of related areas such as human resource management and collective intelligence. The work of theory review is a basis to define an integrated assessment tool that has been applied in preliminary studies conducted in three big ICT companies. Originality/value – The research proposes a systemic model for the exploration of drivers of corporate creativity and entrepreneurial dynamics. The concept of crowd-venturing is defined, along with an assessment tool useful to evaluate the maturity level of both individual and organizational factors respect to the internal entrepreneurial process. The study can be conceived as a new application of collective intelligence principles in organization-related issues. Practical implications – The article provides managers with a method and an operating tool for assessing the internal entrepreneurship environment and the corporate venturing process. The in-company application of the tool can open new avenues for developing methodologies addressed to activate entrepreneurial dynamics within organizations.

Purpose: If “entrepreneurship has become the engine of world economic and social development” (Audretsch, 2003, p.5), culture is becoming more and more a specific context in which is possible to invest and create new opportunities of labor and value. The principal aim of the paper is to understand how it’s possible for a cultural organization to influence the environment and local development. So, the work wants to highlight – through the analysis of an empirical case of success in Catanzaro’s district – what might be the indicators that demonstrate the virtuous relationships among cultural organization and social and economic context. Design/methodology/approach: We propose an exploratory research approach divided in two main step: the first – on the desk – is finalyzed to understand the Cultural System in Italy, through specific laws and regulations; the second – on the job – is aimed to study and grasp the key factors of a cultural organization, as well as to define and highlight the entrepreneurial characteristics of managers. In order to collect these informations a semi-structured interview was conducted with the managing director of a specific cultural organization belonging Art, Culture and Entertainment Sector, located in Catanzaro’s district (Italy). Originality/value: This methodology aims to highlight the factors able to determin the business success that became from a simple passion an innovative organization focused on local development. The preliminary results, obtained by a single-case study, provide useful information to understand the key characteristics, behavior, performance of companies in the field of art culture and entertainment. But this wealth of information suggests and encourages further reflection on certain aspects or phenomena that may be more attractive in place in the Italian and European panorama. Practical implications: The paper aims to contribute both theoretically and practically on the topic of cultural entrepreneurship. The results of this research can be utilized for further reflections which can later develop a refined frame work with high practical relevance.

Purpose – In today’s globalized, networked and fast-changing environment, knowledge became invaluable asset for everyone – students, workers, and organizations. Life-long learning became crucial to the future of our society. In order to foster more effective and collaborative learning and knowledge exchange it is necessary to utilize modern information technologies and services. If used in the right way, information technology can transform and energize educational process, stimulate learning in anyplace and anytime, promote creative thinking, and make better use of existing individual and organizational resources. The rationale of this paper is to introduce the innovative open educational model and supporting software system which is capable to answer the major challenges of modern education. Design/methodology/approach – Although modern web technologies and open educational resources (OER) have great potential to bring new opportunities for learning and knowledge exchange, at the same time, developing successful OER systems is very challenging. Design of an innovative and open learning software environments needs a holistic approach, which comprises specific methodology, software architecture, and various services, applications and tools. This paper describes methodological approach, software architecture, services and features of the innovative software solution, which address important issues that face organizations when designing and implementing OER systems. The modular design and composite architecture enable flexibility in terms of the infrastructure and platform, available services, scalability, and integration. Originality/value – Traditional educational systems cannot completely meet current educational requirements. On the other hand, many of the existing OER and e-learning initiatives didn’t fulfil high expectations. The OER model proposed in this paper provides a novel approach to design and utilization of different cutting-edge technologies that are seamlessly combined to provide flexibility, scalability, personalization, collaboration, content management, searching, and social networking. The proposed OER model and software platform enables creation of agile and adaptable educational ecosystem that can transform the learning experience, and connect individuals, educational institutions and companies. Practical implications – The presented OER software architecture is multi-layered and seamlessly combines various services and technologies that enable creation of integrated and feature-rich open educational environments. It is a flexible, customizable, and extensible software environment that can support various OER scenarios. The new application model and software solution are architected and designed in such a way to provide the following advancements in terms of: alignment, agility, adaptivity, manageability, functionality, interoperability, performance, and security. This enables establishing flexible, adaptable, cost-effective and sustainable OER environment where individuals, educational institutions, companies and government collaborate, create, share and discover learning resources and knowledge.

Purpose – The globalization of business and education on the one hand, and constant technological development on the other hand, imposes the need for companies to continuously improve the knowledge and skills of their staff. The use of Open Educational Resources (OER) could significantly facilitate and accelerate the development and training of personnel. Using OER employees can gain new knowledge as well as improve their knowledge and skills and to apply them in their work more effectively. The paper aims to provide theoretical and practical insights for the development and implementation of an OER platform for management of academic and entrepreneurial knowledge. Particular attention is paid to the integration of OER with some solutions of the metadata publishing. Design/methodology/approach – Advances in information technology, and especially web technology, have offered many solutions for OER sharing. However, the biggest defect is the weak search ability of these resources on the internet. The amount of resources is increasing every day and users need much more time to find exactly what they are interested in. Because of that, drawing on theoretical studies and practical challenges, the paper deals with the integration of OER platform with some of the solutions for metadata publishing. Metadata should provide greater visibility and availability of resources on the internet. Originality/value – This paper seeks to shed more light on development and implementation of an OER platform intended primarily for academic education but suitable also for use in entrepreneurship. The development and implementation of an effective OER poses several challenges. First, it is necessary to define the objectives and target groups and, in turn the contents which will be published. Second, it is essential to define an appropriate set of metadata that should not be too exhaustive, but sufficient to adequately describe resources. Third it is necessary to explore the available platforms on the market and choose the solution that will largely meet our requirements. Finally it is crucial to adapt existing solutions to our needs. Practical implications – The paper offers a snapshot of some main platforms that are used for OER and point out their benefits and disadvantages. In doing that the study highlights how an OER platform intended primarily for academic education can be adapted for use in entrepreneurship. Moreover the papershows how it is possible to increase the visibility and searchability of resources on the Internet integrating platform for OER and metadata portal.

Purpose – Knowledge Management (KM) in Innovation process (INNOV), is a powerful engine that drives the company towards competitiveness (INSEAD, 2014; WEF, 2014); however, many small and media enterprises (SMEs) in México, ignore it. So, the aim of the present study is to discover the key factors of KM that are involved in the INNOV, prevailing in the field of software sector SMEs in Guadalajara (SSG), Mexico. Design/methodology/approach – This research is a documental study about KM and how is related as driver on the INNOV; to achieve this, it was designed a questionnaire splitted in two parts: the first one, corresponding to KM that involved (5) factors: KM Leadership (KMLD); KM Capture and Acquisition (KMCA); KM Training and Mentoring (KMTM); KM Policies and Strategies (KMPS); KM Communications and Rewards (KMCR) with 23 total indicators as variables. The second one, INNOV that involved (6) factors: Innovation Value Added (IVADD); Innovation Input Items (IIIT); Innovation Process (INPROC); Innovation Output Items (IOIT); Innovation Performance (IPERF) and Innovation Feedback (IFEED) with 39 total indicators as variables. So, we designed a questionnaire (62 variables), as a measurement instrument based on Likert Scale (1to 5 interval) in order to determine the degree of agreement with well Cronbach’s Alpha confidence (0.8432). We proceeded to do a survey to the total 200 CEOs belonging to the SMEs from SSG. The results were analysed using Structural Equations Modelling (SEM) to find validity and reliability of the structure to discover by the system equations, the underlying variables and their interrelationships. Finally, we found most representative KM variables to drive the INNOV, were: KMCA (0.9095); KMCR (0.8845); KMTM (0.8815); KMLD (0.8780); KMPS (0.8235). Finally we solved the (5) hypotheses finding the relationship between the KM factors and INNOV have significant positive effects. Originality/value – It lies in the design of a construct that identify the underlying KM factors and variables sized according an exploratory and multi-correlational study to drive the INNOV. All the factors and variables were collected from the principal theories about both subjects and jointed in a solid set by SEM to find their respective correlations. Practical implications –This study, shall serve to the SSG to identify what variables and factors from KM, are able to drive the INNOV and get a better place for competitiveness.

Purpose – This study has the objective to investigate the role of Islamic culture in marketing because of the large presence of Muslims in the world and, consequently, of the potentialities of this market. This research, considering this introduction, aims to: 1- underline the role of Halal certification in marketing decisions’; 2- identify the most relevant features of Muslims as consumers. Design/methodology/approach – This research is divided into two main parts. In the first one the authors have reviewed some of the most important studies relative to religion and marketing (in particular analysing the relationship between marketing and Islam principles) and those relative to Halal certification. In the second part, finally, this research shows the findings of a preliminary questionnaire administered to a sample of Muslim consumers in Bari, Italy: specifically this questionnaire explores the role and the knowledge of the Halal certification and how their religious principles influence their purchasing decisions. Originality/value – This methodology puts in evidence some important aspects to consider when the target group is represented by Muslim consumers. First of all a large percentage of the sample declared to consider the Islamic religious precepts during the purchasing process, showing that they are fundamental guidelines in their choices; moreover green is the colour they would prefer to identify Halal products. In reference to the Halal certification, data show that it is not much known by Muslims in Bari. The originality of this study lies in the fact that research on religion and marketing has been deepen only by a niche of scholars: religion represent an important cultural factor of peoples so it can have sociological implications also for marketing initiatives. In this perspective this study represents a contribution to understand better Muslims as consumers. Practical implications – The outcomes of the application show that it is essential to study the Islamic culture if marketers want to target Muslim consumers. This market, characterized by a large demand, represents an opportunity for companies in reference to Muslims who live in Western countries. From this point of view the Halal certification could represent an important marketing tool, on the condition that there is a marketing communication strategy, which has to become central to inform consumers, and a deeper survey on the profile of the Muslim consumer, in order to implement marketing initiatives more suitable for them.

Purpose – This work investigates the ‘managerialization’ process of the Italian cultural heritage. The work starts from the analysis of scientific and political debates of the governance’s dynamics of Italian state museums (in particular focusing on the recent reform of the Italian museums’ system – Franceschini’s Decree) from which emerges some recurring themes. In particular the research group focuses its attention on the necessity to ‘modernize’ the process of cultural heritage management, which means ‘managerialization’ and, so, ‘professionalization’ of specific roles in the strategic sectors of heritage’s protections, conservations, and valorization (‘cultural manager’ as directors/executives). Design/methodology/approach – The research group adopts the ‘situationist’ approach, focused on: the concrete context of human action and the role played by directors/executive; the institutional pressure able to orient the conducts of the latter; the activation of isomorphic processes by directors. In particular, this work investigates the presence of normative isomorphism, connected to the professionalization, and its role in the institutionalization of the rules. Based on the assumption that Universities have a crucial role in the development of new skills, we test our hypothesis on a sample of professionalizing master (first/second level) about the professionalization in the field of cultural heritage. Originality/value – The work links the governance of the artistic-cultural heritage with the ‘training process’ that universities make for professionalizing human resources. The current regulatory framework puts at the centre of every strategic board the need to start a training process in collaboration with specialized entities to this purpose: universities and training institutions are, in the opinion of the writes, appropriate as well as necessary. University nowadays are conducting projects training for ‘cultural manager’, sometimes anticipating the decision of Public Administration, trying to condition them (lobbying), sometimes following its strategic directions (conceding pressures). Practical implications – The adoption of this approach, trough the reconstruction of actions actually undertaken by experts for protection and valorization of artistic-cultural heritage (directors/executive), allow us to observe the following: the governance dynamics started by actors responsible for Italian cultural heritage seems, at best, informed at decoupling process, due to strong institutional pressures leading the organizations manager to ‘look like’. The latters, in fact, in an effort to gain social legitimation, decided to adopt strategic conducts of institutional isomorphism. The decoupling should create, for the benefits of those who adopt these conducts, a ‘legitimacy façade’, aimed at achieving results only apparently performing.

Purpose – This article is the result of a research that analyzes the contributions of Knowledge Management for stimulating creativity in organizationsThrough literature review was possible to highlight the importance of the environment, structure and organizational culture so that we can stimulate the creativity and consequently result in the Innovation. Design/methodology/approach – For this research the method used was qualitative, through a systematic literature review. As Creswell (2010), qualitative research is a research employing methods of collection, analysis and interpretation of data, but does not use strategies or uniform concepts. The review initially involved articles and works manually found on the three constructs. In the sequence, it was developed a systematic search in the databases: Scopus, Web of Science and SciELO, in order to map the scientific publications that deal with Creativity and Knowledge Management. Originality/value – The importance of this work is justified in view of the rapid changes in the organizational and social context, where more and more the creative capacity is needed to meet new demands, new needs, new management processes, development of technologies, among others. In this sense, given its characteristics, knowledge management is eligible to be an important vector in stimulating creativity in Innovative organizations. Practical implications – In the present study we sought to examine the connection between Knowledge Management, Creativity and Innovation to identify what are the contributions of Knowledge Management for stimulating creativity in organizations aimed at generating innovation. It was possible, through literature review, to highlight the importance of the environment, structure and organizational culture so that we can stimulate creativity and consequently result in Innovation. Future researches could explore how knowledge management can help in the creation of an Innovation culture in organizations. Further researches could also investigate the impact of each of the basic conditions mapped upon the creative capacity of employees.

Purpose – This paper contributes to our understanding of new product introduction in companies. More precisely the purpose of this study is to highlight a combination of external and internal variables that predicts whether Turkish companies (i.e. family and non-family companies) will introduce new products. The study highlights the importance of location, competition in the sector (external factors), educational level, new approaches to problem solutions and management´s commitment to support new product development both financially and emotionally (internal factors) in order to meet the aim of new product introduction. Design/methodology/approach – Taking the purpose of our study, our research was based on a quantitative research strategy. We collected data from 692 Turkish companies from Turkey and used binary logistic regression analysis to predict the introduction of new products using different predictors. Originality/value – This study provides fresh insights into external and internal factors that influence whether or not new products are introduced. The findings were obtained from Turkish companies, thus we expand our understanding of the topic in different parts of the world and at different levels of economic development respectively. Practical implications – Based on the study’s findings we propose a number of measures to better manage the process of new product introduction. These measures may be useful for companies operating in other industries and countries as well.

Purpose – This work aims at depicting the role of communication practices adopted by firms in taking into account the ecosystem (Iansiti and Levien, 2004). The literature on both ecosystem and practices is flourishing in recent years and a combination among these two topics can be useful to understand through an empirical context the ways in which firms address their approach in different ways and towards several actors. The focus on communication depends on its relation to the ‘micro-macro’ relationships (Schatzki et al., 2001) and it can lead to give evidence to the actors surrounding a firm in an innovation ecosystem context. Design/methodology/approach – We propose a qualitative research design as the most appropriate when dealing with new phenomenon. We adopt a content-analysis approach based on the study of different sources (Bazeley and Jackson, 2013), to give evidence to the actors highlighted by firms and to understand which are the ties emerging among the elements of communication practices (quantitative cluster analysis), with a specific focus on consumers (proximity query). Functional food industry is suitable as in line with the innovation ecosystem literature; the firms considered in this investigation have been selected through Euromonitor Passport platform in the European leading market, namely United Kingdom. Originality/value – This investigation tries to shed some more light on the emerging issue of ecosystem in order to understand how firms are perceiving the context around them and how they interact with actors around them when communicating. By considering firms’ approaches in the way described above, the results can be more reliable, as the analysis is based on what firms do in an innovation-based ecosystem instead of what they perceive in such a context. Practical implications – The first insights from the research approach underline the key role played by communication practices in depicting the ecosystem emerging around innovative firms (Kowalkowski et al., 2012). Scholars can benefit from this approach to deepen the topic of emerging ecosystem and to define practices useful to improve the knowledge about how ecosystems arise (Du Plessis, 2007); while firms can assess the way they approach to their surrounding context if they compare the evidences with their perceptions. Customers play a relevant role in the generation of knowledge and the creation of collaboration practices within innovation ecosystems.

Purpose – The main tenet of this paper is to analyse the contribution given by urban socio-ecological systems (Ostrom & Cox, 2010), such as those created through of platforms of co-design and cooperation linked to public urban space life and transformations, effectively defined as urban living-labs (Concilio & Molinari, 2014) to knowledge-sharing processes and innovations in the city. Against this background, cities are developing collaborative open-innovative (Chesbrough & Appleyard, 2007) and digital environments to boost local competitiveness and prosperity by using knowledge networks and partnerships (Paskaleva, 2009). This paper will describe the process enacted within those initiatives, explaining their relevance in the perspective of urban policy and design. Design/methodology/approach – The authors will firstly identify the general framework of their research through a brief review of literature related to urban living labs, then they will focus on a relevant case-study in order to describe paths of knowledge and value creation process generated by cooperative and shared design projects in the public domain, with the effective support of technologies (Folke, Hahn, Olsson, & Norberg, 2005). They will analyse the Atenistas experience, an ongoing Greek experience, which experiments actions around public space, improving citizens involvement in city life. The conclusion will sketch some emerging tendencies and criticalities arising from the relation between space and organizations, also in comparison with other international mature cases. Originality/value – The absence of a strong frame and objective, the variability of the roles played by actors involved in the decision-making processes about urban environment, and the combination with virtual platform, as described in the cases study, are in our perspective some key factor to open up new paths and process for the design of collective spaces. To analyse existing local based experiences, can help to underline where and how innovative processes can concretize and become value co-creation process with concrete effects on the urban environment. Practical implications – The paper describes some possible outcomes for planning and policy design, identifying some starter device which generate unplanned chains or clusters of process-project that are developing in time. This reveal some eventual opportunities in the way technicians and institution may operate, learning form how the binomial “urban places-cyberspaces relations” is testing new practices. These experimentations can have some economical and governance impacts but make us reflect on the material result in terms of vision, projects and transformation of the space.