Silvia Rita Sedita

University of Padova | UNIPD · Department of Economics and Management

Thanks to the pervasive adoption of digital technologies across different industries, “digital-born companies” nowadays play a pivotal role in the current techno-economic scenario. The concurrent sustainability imperative has generated constraints and entrepreneurial opportunities for new ventures. A narrow part of the entrepreneurship literature h...

Over the past 15 years, the discourse surrounding the intersection of fashion and sustainability has transitioned from its nascent stages to garnering significant scholarly attention and research efforts, resulting in a substantial and rapidly expanding body of literature. In light of this, this article aims to conduct a comprehensive analysis of h...

Many international organizations have always shown great interest in the tourism development of the cultural heritage, and, over time, have been able to adapt to globalization and to the evolution of new technologies by responding to new tourist demands through the innovative techniques of digitization or reconstruction, and through more active and...

This work aims to reveal the impact of founders’ networking ability on the innovation intensity of new ventures. Additionally, it sheds light on the underpinning mechanism of this nexus by examining the mediating role of firm collaboration network. The empirical analysis is based on an original survey data of 173 new ventures operating in the Infor...

Purpose This research aims to contribute to the literature on sustainable hospitality and tourism by applying social network analysis to identify sustainable tourism business networks and untangle the role of cognitive and geographical proximity in their formation. Design/methodology/approach Data mining and machine learning techniques were applie...

The innovation performance of regions is increasingly dependent on the capacity of firms to rely on collaborative networks to develop new products, services, and processes. This work adopts a systemic approach to explore the collaborative innovation strategies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), identifying the existence of multiple combination...

Our research emphasizes the need to explore the importance of cross‐country cultural differences in shaping sustainable development. We employ the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to analyze cross‐national data, focusing on the relationship between Hofstede's six cultural dimensions and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) ind...

Smart cities are increasingly keen to establish a fruitful conversation with their citizens, to better capture their needs, and create virtual platforms for stimulating co-creation processes between government and users, with the final objective of increasing the quality of life and well-being. Social media applications provide an opportunity for d...

Purpose This paper explores how exaptive innovation process might be considered a useful innovation model in constraint-based environments. Through an in-depth case study, it illustrates clearly the antecedents of exaptation processes, which are particularly relevant in rapidly changing environments requiring new solutions under time and resource c...

Purpose We address the following research questions: (1) Is the innovation trajectory of the acquirer affected by previous acquisitions? (2) In which direction knowledge recombination from the acquisition is pushed further? (3) Is the technological acquisition more a means for knowledge exploration and radical innovation or, on the contrary, a way...

The digitalization of cultural heritage is crucial for revamping the creative and cultural sectors during a period of stagnation. This work is about the revitalization of the Kyoto kimono cluster through digitalization, which initiated a new exaptive development path for a declining cluster. A growing community of economic geographers and regional...

This work analyzes the impact of university–industry collaborations (UICs) on the innovation performance of a sample of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in Veneto, a region in the north-east of Italy, which is considered particularly representative of the often-cited “innovation without research” model. We consider two aspects of such UI...

This paper explores the emergence of B Corp as a new research field through a bibliometric analysis of the B Corp literature, based on a database of 142 documents collected by Scopus and published between 2009 and 2020. This emergent field is an important component of the structural change occurring in our society, which, in recent years, has seen...

Based on the assumption that capitalism needs to change direction, this research is aimed at analyzing one way to create shared value: social entrepreneurship. In particular, two forms have been analyzed: the Benefit Corporation and the B Corp. In this research, the purpose is to discover the main determinants for social entrepreneurial activities...

Social entrepreneurship and social innovation are key phenomena in interpreting the change towards a sustainable economy. This chapter aims at exploring geographical differences in the structure and characteristics of social initiatives. After having analyzed the role of social entrepreneurship and social innovation in the Global South and in the G...

Promoting the circularity of business practices and product offerings is a pivotal process in increasing the value of circular products, coming with a still underestimated effect on market response and, thus, firm performance. This study investigates the communication intensity of companies adopting circular economy (CE) practices, here with the ai...

Purpose This paper aims to analyze how knowledge networks can be configured within a value chain and provide evidence of the coexistence of multiple knowledge networks in the same value chain. Design/methodology/approach The empirical setting is the Conegliano Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore DOCG wine cluster in the Veneto region of Northeast Ita...

This volume discusses how different geographical spaces can enhance or hinder the capacity of a variety of organizational settings to achieve economic value creation in the pursuit of sustainable regional development. In order to provide the most comprehensive picture of new sources of value creation for sustainable transitions, the book collects c...

The literature on sustainable development has largely focused on investigating the relationship between companies' environmental and economic performance. However, many aspects remain unexplored, and empirical studies are far from reaching a consensus due to the heterogeneity of the environmental and economic measures and methodologies used. This s...

The chapter explores how Industry 4.0 can affect knowledge management practices and innovation processes of companies operating in the creative industry. The analysis was carried out on a sample of 179 ICT (information and communications technologies) startups by administering a questionnaire. Through a cluster analysis we identify three types of c...

Purpose This paper aims to explore if firms located in industrial districts (IDs) have different adoption paths concerning Industry 4.0 technologies and get different results with respect to other similar firms located outside IDs. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a quantitative analysis related to an original data set of 206 Ital...

Purpose For the specific topic of multinationals in clusters, both regional strands and international business and management literatures address the topic from different yet intertwined perspectives. This study aims to facilitate the integration of the conversations and the distinct literatures to produce a clear understanding and conceptualizatio...

This study explores if there is a convergence between the concepts of fashion and eco-friendliness in consumer perception of a fashion brand. We assume that increased eco-friendly perception will influence the brand image positively, with this impact being much higher for luxury than for high and fast fashion brands. The hypotheses are tested using...

Notwithstanding the wide research on clusters and industrial districts, most of the preceding contributions tried to analyse and investigate past research and rarely tried to critique or propose any future trajectories of this stream of research. The aim of this special issue is to identify and discuss the main themes of research that populate the...

This paper investigates the heterogeneity of ways through which a policy innovation affects the structure and the complex interactions taking place within a business ecosystem and how different business ecosystems react differently to a policy innovation, given their structural and behavioural characteristics. The paper focuses on a specific policy...

This entry aims to clarify the origin and development of the notion of innovation districts. The definition includes the recognition of the debate around two of the most relevant concepts in the management and economic geography fields: those of industrial districts and clusters. The content spans from the Marshallian echo to the Porterian view and...

Negli Stati Uniti la performance delle università si misura anche nella capacità di sfornare business importanti. In Italia, invece, il ruolo delle università come culla dell'imprenditorialità non è mai stato sottolineato. In questo articolo ci si domanda se ancora oggi l'università sia un attore marginale o debba altresì cambiare la percezione del...

Il contributo si propone di contribuire alla comprensione della natura dei processi di trasferimento tecnologico, studiando il caso degli spin-off accademici. Sebbene questo meccanismo di trasferimento tecnologico sia tra i più studiati in letteratura, si ritiene che alcune delle sue peculiarità meritino un "plus" di attenzione. In particolare, si...

This paper explores the evolutionary trajectories of cluster research, building upon the sociology of science concept of the invisible college, and it undertakes a core–periphery analysis of the literature. We build a database that includes 8,381 articles, collected from Web of Science, that cite the foundational works of cluster research, and we p...

The chapter explores in an original manner the evolutionary trajectories of the cluster concept over time through the application of analytical tools coming from the realm of bibliometric analysis and social network analysis. In particular, we build on a previous work (Lazzeretti et al. J Econ Geogr 14(1), 21–43; 2014) to observe the evolution of t...

This work contributes to previous research on the relationship between specific features of a regional knowledge space and the technological progress of the region. In particular, the main element of originality of this work is to have singled out the determinants of the technological progress intensity and relevance. We acknowledge the importance...

Looking at the last recession period, this contribution explores the institutional and socio-economic features affecting the resilience capacity of Italian local production systems. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the role played by diversified economy, related and unrelated variety, differentiated knowledge bases – underlying the local speci...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide insights on the relational dimension of a networked business incubator (NBI), by investigating the intermediary role of incubator management in fostering social and business ties linking tenants among each other, with the incubator management and external actors. Design/methodology/approach The pap...

Public procurement tenders (PPTs) represent one of the largest sources of income for construction companies; the identification of factors that could favour the winning of these projects becomes more and more interesting. Our work aims to explore how firm-specific capabilities (project management, project administration and innovation) and the geog...

Nel panorama europeo il Veneto si distingue come regione caratterizzata da una elevata propensione innovativa, per quanto occupi una posizione arretrata rispetto alle variabili di input tradizionalmente considerate importanti per supportare i processi innovativi delle imprese. A partire dai risultati di una ricerca empirica sulle piccolo-medie impr...

The Role of «Ecologies of Value» between Performance and Growth of Italian Local Production Systems: Looking at the last recession period, this contribution explores the institutional and socio-economic features affecting the resilience capacity of Italian local production systems. Specifically, the analysis focuses on the role played by diversifie...

This article attempts to isolate the structural characteristics that affect the resilience of a regional economy. It focuses on the role played by related/unrelated variety and differentiated knowledge bases as drivers for regional resilience and originally explores their interdependences. Italy is the empirical setting, and Italian local labour sy...

Our work aims to analyze the inter-organizational relationships of contractors in public procurement projects. We investigate how a contractor's network position affects his success in winningpublic procurement projects, measured as the average value of projects won. To accomplish this objective, we adopt a social network analysis approach. Our evi...

This article investigates different models of financing firms and firm expansion in the Italian life science sector. Building on a broad secondary data base (“Zephyr”), the authors present a descriptive analysis of 438 financial transactions in which Italian life science firms were involved between 1997 and 2006. The results of this analysis demons...

Wellness tourism provides the visitor with a range of activities and/or treatments which are aimed at developing, maintaining and improving the body-mind-sprit; it covers the broadest scope of engagement: ranging from weekend hotel-SPA (salus per aquam) breaks that include massage treatments, to intensive month-long yoga and spiritual retreats. The...

The purpose of this article is to review cluster research and its evolution by considering the works of the most prominent researchers in the field over an extended period of time using a bibliometric analysis based on statistical analysis and social network tools. The point of departure is an original database, created by the authors, consisting o...

The paper aims to explore the role of exaptation in explaining the evolutionary trajectories of firms. Our contribution is rooted in the evolutionary theory of the firm. This theory has focused on the concept of adaptation, which is the capacity of the firm to develop knowledge and capabilities in response to external changes of the business enviro...

The paper aims to investigate theoretically and illustrate empirically the process of creativity by knowledge re-use, which might lead to novelties and innovations in creative and science based industries through exaptation. This work maintains that exaptation processes can be favored by the fruitful combination of different knowledge bases: synthe...

BELUSSI F. and SEDITA S. R. Industrial districts as open learning systems: combining emergent and deliberate knowledge structures, Regional Studies. This article deepens the theoretical understanding of learning processes in industrial districts by analysing the emergent and deliberate structures that favour knowledge transfer at the local and dist...

The aim of the paper is to analyze the organization of projects considering the importance of the social ties between their participants. The social side of project-based organizations is a rich “humus” to build upon in developing projects. In particular, we focus on the community of practice as a place where social ties are built and maintained ov...

The aim of the chapter is to identify the internationalization models of SME industrial district firms within a very integrated and dynamic Regional Innovation System (RIS) of Italy. By doing so, we investigate which are the strategies of firms embedded in a RIS to access global suppliers and markets. Accordingly, this chapter explores the role of...

The cluster concept has become an increasingly popular topic for researchers and policy makers. Although this concept is not new, its importance increased during the last decades. Following some authors, the persistence of the cluster concept, as well as its diffusion across different contexts and scientific fields, is a result of its fuzziness. Th...

The fragmentation of the production process is a major theme of research in international business. Trade benefits arise from the “slicing up” of the aggregate value chain, as well as the entry of new countries bearing low labor costs. If, initially, multinational corporations (MNCs) relocated only standardized, low-value manufacturing activities i...

The paper investigates the existence of an Open Regional Innovation System (ORIS model). This model is characterised by the firms’ adoption of an open innovation strategy, which overcomes not only the boundaries of the firms but also the boundaries of the region.Using data collected in a sample of life science firms, our research provides the evide...

In this work we discuss the evolutionary paths of industrial districts. We describe a specific case which illustrates an ‘anomalous’ path but is nevertheless of interest, given its possible replicability in other district contexts. In particular, we shall examine the evolutionary path of the tanning district of Arzignano, by analysing the results o...

This article aimed to identify the effect of university–industry (U–I) collaborations on the innovative performance of firms operating in the advanced materials field, and by doing so, it proposed an original classification of the research organization partners. The main contribution resides in the estimation of the role played by collaborations wi...

The aim of this article is to shed light on the evolutionary process of industrial districts (IDs), evaluating the role of path dependence in their growth trajectories. We intend here to identify the districts' life cycles and the factors that influence the origin, development and maturity stages. Following an evolutionary economics approach, we in...

symbiotic' division of labour among the three districts considered: Boskoop, Pistoia and Saonara, which dates back to the international fragmentation of the value chain (Arndt and Kierzkowski, 2001). The governance of the value chain is a key connection between the individual industrial districts and the globalisation of production chains, giving r...

The work presented explore the impact of cultural resources on productivity of the firm, in particular a network firm. Culture resources is considered a primary attractor of competences and generator of new knowledges. Our main aim is to compare formal organization with informal one oriented to bottom up mechanism to decision vs. a hierarchical mec...

The main aim of the paper is to contribute to the literature on project-based organizations (PBOs), concerning how temporary organizations are nested in an organizational setting that involves interpersonal and inter-organizational networks. Special attention is paid to the performing arts. A PBO is defined here as an organization that uses a one-s...

The paper provides some empirical evidence of the effectiveness of the "open innovation" model in the life science cluster of Emilia Romagna (a region of Italy), comparing the network of R&D collaborative activities in public research organisations (PROs) and the network linked to R&D collaborative activities in private firms. By presenting the mai...

1. Managing Situated Creativity in Cultural Industries Fiorenza Belussi & Silvia Rita Sedita 2. Consumer Co-creation and Situated Creativity JasonPotts, JohnHartley, JohnBanks, Jean Burgess, Rachel Cobcroft, Stuart Cunningham & Lucy Montgomery 3. From Fashion to Design: Creative Networks in Industrial Districts Tine Aage & Fiorenza Belussi 4. Inter...

The work presented explore the impact of cultural resources on productivity of the firm, in particular a network firm. Culture resources is considered a primary attractor of competences and generator of new knowledges. Our main aim is to compare formal organization with informal one oriented to bottom up mechanism to decision vs. a hierarchical mec...

Participation to trade fairs is very important for almost every enterprise, not only because it offers the opportunity to implement a specific strategic trade plan, but also because these events constitute a powerful instrument of acquisition and diffusion of information and knowledge, working as key elements in a relational marketing perspective....

The paper aims to provide some empirical evidence to strengthen the debate around the project-based organisation, which tends to qualifies the latter as the dominant organising form among the creative industries. Our focus is the performing music industry. We recur to an unique database we have built on the basis of data provided by ENPALS (Ente Na...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

This article focuses upon the historical development of three ornamental horticulture districts located in the Netherlands and in Italy. The aim of our investigation is to underline the features of a global division of labour, which is driven by the specialisation of production and retailing. Despite the lack of natural resources and unfavourable c...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

La finalité de notre article est de comprendre la nature et la diversité des relations intervenant dans le processus de diffusion interorganisationnelle des connaissances. Notre questionnement porte dans un premier temps sur la nature des dimensions de ces relations et dans un second temps sur leur diversité. L’intérêt est double : préciser et comp...

The aim of this paper is to find a framework that could be useful to evaluate the utility of the concept of "Community of Practice" (CoP) for understanding the dynamics of knowledge creation and sharing in Industrial Districts (IDs). The CoP concept stems from the managerial experience of large corporations, which have found in it a kind of "living...