Luciana Lazzeretti

Creative Cities, Cultural Clusters and Local Economic Development

This book analyses the economic development of cities from the ‘cultural economy’ and ‘creative industry’ perspectives, examining and differentiating them as two related but distinct segments of contemporary city economies. The authors argue that although they are normally conflated, the first is largely subsidized while the second is highly entrepreneurial hence they actually make very different kinds of contribution to a city’s character, attractiveness and competitiveness.

Do Creative Industries Cluster? Mapping Creative Local Production Systems in Italy and Spain

An important debate on the role of creativity and culture as factors in local economic development is distinctly emerging. Despite the emphasis put on the theoretical definition of these concepts, it is necessary to strengthen comparative research for the identification and analysis of the kind of creativity embedded in a given territory. Creative local production systems are identified, in Italy and Spain, that depart from local labour markets as territorial units and focus on two different kinds of creative industries: traditional cultural industries (publishing, music, architecture and engineering, performing arts) and technology‐related creative industries (R&D, ICT, advertising). The results show a concentration of creative industries in the largest urban systems, although different patterns of concentration of creative industries are revealed between the two countries.

Higher Education Excellence and Local Economic Development: The Case of the Entrepreneurial University of Twente

Abstract By tradition or intellectual necessity, universities pursue a main objective: increasing and transferring knowledge that is internationally relevant for the whole of mankind. But new powerful socio-economic forces are demanding universities to be engaged in regional economic development and their knowledge to be relevant in terms of local employment, university spin-offs and growth. These two objectives are traditionally considered as not complementary or even mutually exclusive. Through a case study regarding the Dutch University of Twente, this article shows that local economic relevance and international excellence are not incompatible objectives: they were not at the University of Twente; they can be reached even in a new born and poor endowed university, located in a peripheral, depressed and not industrialized countryside. This article argues that a strong entrepreneurial vision and the adoption of a different concept of knowledge may be the key for other small and peripheral European universities, in order to reach both local economic relevance and international excellence. The article will contribute and enrich the regional studies debate, introducing to it some higher education policy issues and ideas.

Tourism local systems and networking

Part I - Tourism Local Systems: An Applied Economics Approach. Systemic Approaches for the Analysis of Tourism Destination: Towards the Tourist Local Systems. (F. Capone). Identification and Analysis of Tourist Local Systems: An Application to Italy (1996-2001). (L. Lazzeretti, F. Capone). A Framework to Identify a Localised Tourism System. (G. Maulet). The Destination as a Local System of Innovation: The Role of Relational Networks. (J. Guia, L. Prats, J. Comas). Do Clusters and Networks Make Small Places Beautiful? The Case of Caramulo (Portugal). (Z. Breda, R. Costa, C. Costa). Destination Governance and Contemporary Development Models. (B. Svensson, S. Nordin, A. Flagestad). Tourism Industrial Development and Multinational Corporations: A Case of Productivity Spillovers in Malaysia. (Kong-Yew Wong, T. Baum). Part II - Tourism Local Systems: a Managerial Sciences Approach. Tourism System Dynamics: A Multi-Level Destination Approach. (E. Bonetti, C.S. Petrillo, M. Simoni). Integrated Quality Management as Part of the Strategic Management of Tourism Destinations: a Systems Perspective. (F.M. Dionisio Serra). The Use of Relationship Marketing in Developing Network and Co-operative Links within Tourism Product Marketing Groups (PMGs). (C. Gorman). Information and Communication Technologies Supporting Destination Management: A Multimedia Application. (A. Morvillo, M.I. Simeon, I. Vellecco). Regional Tourism Co-operation in Progress. (T. Soisalon-Soininen, K. Lindroth). Destination Competitiveness and the Role of Destination Management Organization (DMO). An Italian Experience. (A. Minguzzi). The Geographies of Tourism. Organising the Space Between Localisms and Global Networks. (G. Cusimano, M. Giannone). An International Project to Develop Networking for Promoting a Specific Destination: Emigration as a Tool to Enhance Tourism in Cilento Area. (P. Di Martino, C.S. Petrillo).

Governance Shifts in Higher Education: A Cross-National Comparison

The article aims to interpret and compare recent governance shifts in higher education across several countries, both at the central government level and at the institutional or ‘corporate’ level. In order to do that it reviews the most significant literature about alternative theoretical models of governance in higher education and uses these models to interpret changing governance across several nations. It suggests the existence of a general tendency towards a ‘new managerialism’ governance model in Western Europe. In order to explain this tendency special attention is paid to countries in the forefront of governance innovation. The traditional continental European model is a term of comparison.

Desperately seeking serendipity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate innovation practice of small family firms. Top management teams’ styles, their strategic orientations, and perceptions of external environment promote or deter innovation.Design/methodology/approach – Ten Tuscan and ten Californian family wineries are investigated via questionnaire and in‐person interviews to develop longitudinal case studies describing barriers or incentives to innovate.Findings – Changes in processes, products, or market orientations are subordinated to how top managers perceive internal and external pressure to implement innovation.Originality/value – This exploratory research proposes a model depicting the extent to which location impacts the selected variables.

The regional development platform and "related variety": some evidence from art and food in Tuscany.

A recent contribution to the regional/local development is the regional development platform (RDP), a tool of local policy and governance meant for the planning and implementation of a regional innovation system (RIS) with a sustainable and long-lasting competitive advantage. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the debate on local economic development through platforms of regional development, offering some specific cases in which the RDP model is developed not only as a top-down policy tool in support of innovation, but also as a bottom-up governance tool for the relationships among cognitively related industries. We introduce the case of an art and food platform in Maremma (south of Tuscany, Italy), where the related-variety approach is mainly focused on cross-fertilization among related and unrelated resources and sectors and is specifically applied to a rural area.

Mapping and Analysing Local Tourism Systems in Italy, 1991–2001

Abstract The aim of this work is to identify and map tourist localities seen as concentrations of firms specialized in tourism services and to analyse their employment evolution over the last decade (1991–2001). The industrial districts approach is applied to the tourism industry by introducing the concept of the ‘tourist district’ in the literature relating to tourism research. In particular, the focus is on the identification and measuring of ‘tourist places’. The intention is to research Italian tourism systems by using the local labour system methodology typical of district analysis, thus contributing to the debate about whether specific tourism literature should consider ‘tourist districts’. Tourism supply, measured in terms of employees in the sector, is mapped. From the results of the analysis, the geographical distribution of tourism systems, according to the 1991 and 2001 censuses, is drawn, and the main dissimilarities between cities/regions and tourist specializations (such as seaside, mountain or lake tourism) are distinguished. Finally, a taxonomy of the identified tourism local systems is proposed in order to present some policy implications and reflections regarding the recent Italian law on ‘local tourism systems’.

Reasons for Clustering of Creative Industries in Italy and Spain

Creative industries and creative employment tend to concentrate around medium and large cities, forming creative local systems. We follow a multidisciplinary approach, based on cultural and creative economics, evolutionary geography and urban economics, in order to analyse the forces behind the clustering of employment in creative industries in a comparative analysis of Italy and Spain. The results show different patterns of clustering of creative employment in both countries. The historical and cultural endowments, the average size of creative industries, the size of the place, the productive diversity, and the concentration of human capital and creative class have been determined to be common factors leading to a concentration of creative firms and creative employment in both countries.

The geography of creative industries in Europe: Comparing France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain

The research tackles the lack of cross-country comparative studies on the geography of creative industries and provides their comparative geography in four European countries: France, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. We use local labour markets as territorial units of analysis and divide creative industries in traditional and non- traditional. This allows to overcome the limitations of the region as unit of analysis and to better understand the type of creativity embedded in each country and territory. The results reveals differentiate national profiles regarding the type of creativity and its spatial distribution, and that the employment in creative industries is more concentrated than in the rest of sectors. Large creative hubs emerge around London, Paris, Madrid, Milan, Barcelona and Roma.