Chiara Luisa Cantu

Actors’ heterogeneity and the context of interaction in affecting innovation networks

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to explore the role of actors’ heterogeneity and the context of interaction on collective innovation. Design/methodology/approach – By using the six sources of heterogeneity identified by Corsaro et al. (2012) – goals, competences and skills, knowledge bases, power/position, perceptions and cultures – the authors describe the cases of two consecutive projects – ESASIM and NeWTeC – developed within Kilometro Rosso Science Park. The collaborative innovative outcome (simulation software) developed in the first phase was subsequently applied by each actor in its specific context. At the macro level, the authors define the processes that describe the role of actors’ heterogeneity in both the contexts of innovation development and application; at the micro level, the authors shed some light on the role of the single actor acting simultaneously as a provider and as a user with respect to different contexts. Findings – In this paper, the processes through which actors’ heterogen...

The role of knowledge intermediaries in co-managed innovations

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how technological hubs (THs), defined as knowledge intermediaries, can assist companies in creating successful partnerships to develop innovations. Specifically, the authors ask how THs can help firms connect with horizontal networks and how THs can assist firms on finding suppliers and customers from the vertical network with whom to collaborate. By answering these two main questions, the paper sheds light on the important role of THs and its incubators as knowledge intermediaries in innovation co-creation. Design/methodology/approach – The research is founded on a longitudinal case study of an Italian technologic hub, ComoNExT, that aims to improve the competitiveness of its local economy. Specific attention is given to the role of the incubator that was formed as a joint effort in the technology hub. Findings – The authors find that THs can facilitate networking among tenants and among tenants and external actors within the same epistemic network. T...

A service incubator business model: external networking orientation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers of new incubators’ business model. Several researchers have agreed that incubation is related to the early phase of a venture’s life and identified the incubators as organizations that support start-ups. But only recently has a new generation of incubators emerged. Design/methodology/approach – Using an Italian incubator case study, the research results are mainly ascribable to the ability of the incubator to facilitate not only internal networking, but also external networking. Findings – As described in the findings, the business model of the service incubator is founded on value-added services among networking within incubatees as well as between start-ups and external actors. The service incubator becomes a knowledge intermediary that allows new ventures to identify innovation parties and transform them into innovation partners. Originality/value – The paper investigates the new business model of incubator founded on external networking...

Relazioni di business Italia.Cina: quali opportunità per le piccole e medie imprese italiane

L’affermarsi di mercati quali la Cina apre nuove opportunita nel processo di internazionalizzazione. Per le piccole medie imprese il contesto internazionale rappresenta una sfida da affrontare mobilitando e condividendo risorse e conoscenze di altri attori. Cio e subordinato all’instaurazione di relazioni strategiche sul mercato sia interno, sia estero, che incidano sull’intera supply chain aziendale. La tematica e stata indagata mediante una ricerca su un campione di imprese operanti su o per il mercato cinese. Il lavoro fornisce implicazioni manageriali basate su un modello evolutivo proposto per la lettura dei comportamenti delle imprese sui mercati internazionali.

Discovering the collective entrepreneurial opportunities through spatial relationships

Even if in a traditional perspective the discovery and the exploitation of opportunities are associated to the entrepreneur’s capabilities, a relational perspective is required to better analyze the phenomenon of starting up a new venture. The growing attention to interaction with the external environment has been emerging as a precondition of the entrepreneurial processes as it creates the knowledge and the experience necessary to perceive the opportunity. The entrepreneurial opportunities are created through joint acts with others through social relationships. Shifting the attention from social to business relationships, the main aim of this paper is to investigate the discovery and the exploitation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities in starting up new business. In particular, the purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of relational proximity in the entrepreneurial journey considered as an emergent process of transforming potentiality into actuality.,The paper applied a qualitative methodology (Dubois and Araujo, 2004) and a case study approach (Barrat et al., 2011). The case concerns the dyadic spin-off relationship between the innovative start up, ShapeMode (the generated firm), and the Milan FabLab (the generating firm) located in Lombardy Region (Italy).,The emerging of collective entrepreneurial opportunities could be analyzed at two levels: the first one concerns the dyadic spin-off relationship, while the second one is founded on the business relationships that the start-up can activate with the business partners of the generating firm. The collective entrepreneurial opportunities are positive influenced by jointness of the actors and their co-evolution, founded on the shared values and goals.,Although the case study approach allowed the researcher to gain detailed information about the spin-off relationship, this effort does not measure the performance outcomes of the relationships and actions that were taken to improve the competitiveness of the start-up. Future studies would benefit from a large-scale questionnaire given to the members of the start-up and to the actors of its Entrepreneurial Network, so to analyze all of its performance implications for the start-up and the network as a whole. In addition, it could be of interest for future research to investigate the effects of collective entrepreneurial opportunities in order to examine this topic more deeply.,From a managerial point of view, even if the growing number of start-ups has been associated to a temporary phenomenon, the development of new ventures is now consolidated. A new managerial approach is required to promote the birth and the growth of the start-ups. The development of a new venture requires to shift the attention from the collection of financial resources to the exploitation of entrepreneurial opportunities generated by interconnected business relationships. In this way a relevant attention should be recognized to the new role of organizations that can be considered as facilitators of business relationships, such as the FabLab. This paper sheds light on the relevance of the strategic networking that sustains the generation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities. The networking involves actors that belong to different geographic area and different countries but that are focused on the same business dream related to the exploitation of potentialities of digital fabrication. The policymakers should recognize the role of the FabLab as facilitator of knowledge diffusion concerning digital fabrication.,The entrepreneurial opportunities such as the starting up of a new business and its evolution, are enacted, discovered and exploited through interconnected business relationships. In particular the main entrepreneurial opportunities are generated by the activation of business relationships with new business actors. Focusing on the dyadic spin-off relationship, the exploitation of collective entrepreneurial opportunities depends on the sharing of third actors. The business partners of the generating actor (FabLab) became business partners of the generated actor (start-up). The evolution of the generating firm (FabLab) influenced the birth and the evolution of the generated firms (start-up). The dyadic relationship allows the generated firm to discover entrepreneurial opportunities and to exploit them, accessing to the business partners of the generating firm. The effectiveness of the spin-off relationship sustains the replication of the model of new firm generation, that could benefit from the relationships of the two actors of the dyad. Moreover the strong relationships are founded on relational proximity that is characterized by the sharing of values, vision and business dreams.