Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Riccardo Vecchiato Author-Name: Claudio Roveda Title: Distretti industriali e politiche per l'innovazione: il ruolo del Foresight Abstract: Distretti industriali e politiche per l'innovazione: il ruolo del Foresight - Industrial districts and innovation policies: the role of Foresight, by Claudio Roveda and Riccardo Vecchiato It is well recognised that innovation is a systemic process, which involves quite a number of actors with different capabilities, competencies and goals, operating at different levels: national, regional, local. In particular, the local level is receiving a growing attention, due to the fact that, on one hand, innovations tend to be concentrated in localized production systems (clusters) and, on the other hand, they tend to be specialised according to the features of the local systems. Many studies have pointed out that in a local system innovation is the output of exchange of formalised and not-formalised knowledge among various actors, which interact and cooperate on the basis of mutual trust and acceptance of shared values. These actors are basically firms, universities and public and private research centres, banks, trade associations, governmental bodies. Industrial districts are a clear example of the localised nature of innovation. Their economic system strongly interacts with the social system, from which it acquires manpower, know-how, physical and non-physical infrastructures, cultural va lues. These factors are fundamental in creating and disseminating innovations by means of the production of both explicit (or coded) and tacit (or contextual) knowledge and of its integration in a continuous process of socialization, articulation, combination and internalization. Our recent Foresight exercises on the engineering district of Lecco and in the silk district of Como show that Foresight can play an important role in creating and exploiting new knowledge: however, the Foresight methodology has to be properly chosen. Interactive workshops and experts panels, with the participation of entrepreneurs of SMEs and technologists, are more suited to foster incremental innovation, based on the transfer of technologies that have passed through the initial stage of their life cycle. On the other hand, to promote and to foster radical innovation other methodologies are needed, as Scenarios. They are definitely more complex, expansive and time consuming, as they require the wide participation and the active role of the different district stakeholders: firms, centres of research and technology transfer, local governmental bodies, trade associations. On the other hand, these methodologies allow an organic and comprehensive investigation of the economic, social and cultural dimensions of an industrial district, on a long term horizon, as an essential precondition for developing strategies and policies that are really effective with regard to the macro changes brought by the global competition. One of the main results of our empirical research studies, is that Foresight may facilitate the integration of small entrepreneurs, district stakeholders and medium and large companies, driving them to play the critical roles of "frontline employees", "senior managers" and "middle managers" that Nonaka and Takeuchi describe in their Knowledge creating company (1995): the first ones master what the district is; the second ones build the vision of what it ought to be; the third ones serve as a bridge. JEL Classification: O290, O330. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:5-24 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33047&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001001 Number: 1 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Nazaria Solferino Author-Name: Leonardo Becchetti Title: La differenziazione etica del prodotto Abstract: La differenziazione etica del prodotto - On ethical product differentiation, by Leonardo Becchetti and Nazaria Solferino The model investigates contagion effects in the production of fair trade goods within a mixed oligopoly with horizontal differentiation. In our theoretical framework the Hotelling segment is reinterpreted in terms of ethical distance and two producers (a profit maximising one and a fair trader whose goal is maximising inclusion of marginal producers in the South) compete in price and socially and environmentally responsible characteristics of their products. We find that the profit maximising producer (PMP) finds it optimal to reduce price after the entry of the socially responsible producer or fair trader (FT) when the ethical location of the latter is fixed. We further analyse equilibria of the simultaneous game in which the PMP can choose prices and ethical location and a sequential Stackelberg game. Within this framework we show that when consumers? costs of ethical distance are high enough equilibria have three main features: minimum price, differentiation ethical imitation and non minimal product differentiation. We explain the differences between these findings and those from traditional horizontal differentiation games as depending from three main features: i) the different goals of the two (profit maximising and zero profit) competitors; ii) the asymmetry and linearity in costs of "ethical" distance and iii) the lack of independence between ethical location and prices. Keywords: product differentiation, social responsibility. JEL Classification: L11, L31. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:25-52 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33048&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001002 Number: 2 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Bruno Jossa Title: Alienazione e autogestione Abstract: Alienazione e autogestione - Marx?s alienation theory and the firm managed by workers, by Bruno Jossa The paper is about Marx?s theory of alienation and the economics of producer cooperatives. The author argues that alienation has different degrees and that the highest form of it is recorded in capitalism, owing to hired labour. For this reason a labour-managed firm will reduce the alienation. In a system of labour-managed firms, however, alienation will persist, in conseguence of scarsity and the necessity of work for a living. In the paper there is also a discussion of a thesis of Bigo. The last section is about Marx?s idea that capitalism is a world turned upside down. JEL Classification: B14, B5, P13, P14, P2. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:53-74 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33049&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001003 Number: 3 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Gilberto Seravalli Title: Innovazione e sviluppo locale. Concetti, esperienze, politiche Abstract: Innovazione e sviluppo locale. Concetti, esperienze, politiche - nnovation and local development: paradigms, experiences, policies, by Gilberto Seravalli This article offers a review of innovation literature analyzed from the perspective of local development. The idea of comparing and contrasting the processes of local development and innovation, both of which need to be constructive and create generative relationships if they are to be successful, has proved useful and has led to new policy considerations for innovation and development at a European and regional level. The article attempts a definition of the innovation process with some original aspects that contribute to proposing a possible theory of innovation in contexts of uncertainty and to outlining an agenda for innovation policies. The innovation process is seen as a productive application of new ideas; a change from conservative states (discontinuity); an intentional action that takes place through the interaction of forces and agents at different levels; a process change with unexpected outcomes that depend on intermediate ones and, therefore, a "localized" process. Every component of this definition, suggested by similar experience of local development, finds arguments to support it in the literature on innovation. Within the existing literature, the most interesting theory of innovation is proposed by Lane and Maxfield. In their theory, the social construction of meanings (narrative and attributions) and relational subjectivities plays a fundamental role. Conditions (that have been located and recognized) then emerge, they claim, on which the generative nature of relationships between agents in the potential innovation process depends. These conditions, with very interesting parallels in local development processes, may contribute to drafting new policies for innovation compared to the tools that are usually implemented. Keywords: innovation, local development, innovation policies. JEL Classification: O.31-O.32. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:75-106 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33050&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001004 Number: 4 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Giovanni B. Ramello Title: Semiotica, diritti e mercato. Economia del marchio nel terzo millennio Abstract: Semiotica, diritti e mercato. Economia del marchio nel terzo millennio - Semiotics, law and market. Economics of trademark in the third millenium, by Giovanni Ramello This article is aimed at providing an answer, from an economic perspective, to the puzzling Shakespearean question "What?s in a name ?", drawing specific attention to the case of the trademark, a commercial device which has been used since antiquity and has continuously expanded its boundaries. Its advent is connected with the problem of information asymmetries and the need for providing information to assist exchanges so as to avert market failure brought about by adverse selection. However, this information-conveying function was soon accompanied by a differentiation effect, arising from the peculiar power that signs can exert on individuals? preferences. The pragmatic exploitation of differentiation has today given rise to the practice of branding, which ties markets and consumption to the realms of meaning and experience. Further, branding is so all-pervasive in today?s economy that it has somehow transfigured the relationships between signs and goods, to the point that the trademark has become a sort of property right over semantic products. On the whole this opens the door to what could be termed as the new economy of signs and meanings that should be still investigated. Keywords: trademark, brand, intellectual property, economics of information, signs, semiotics. JEL Classification: O31, O34, K10, M30. Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:107-125 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33051&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001005 Number: 5 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Marco Mutinelli Author-Name: Sergio Mariotti Title: Nuove tendenze nell'internazionalizzazione delle imprese italiane Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:127-144 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33052&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001006 Number: 6 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lucia Piscitello Author-Name: John Cantwell Title: How the trend towards competence-creating MNE subsidiary innovation co-evolves with its environments Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:145-154 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33053&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001007 Number: 7 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Fabio Sforzi Author-Name: Andrea Lasagni Title: Le determinanti dello sviluppo locale di attivit? ICT in Italia Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:155-167 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33054&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001008 Number: 8 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Aldo Geuna Author-Name: Ed Steinmueller Author-Name: Juan Mateos-Garcia Title: Creative user engagement and content: innovation dynamics and applications Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:169-183 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33055&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001009 Number: 9 Template-type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: n.d. Title: Recensioni Abstract: Classification-JEL: Keywords: Note: Pages:185-187 Volume: 2008/1 Year: 2008 Issue:1 File-URL:http://www.francoangeli.it/riviste/Scheda_Rivista.aspx?IDArticolo=33056&Tipo=Articolo PDF File-Format: text/HTML Handle: RePEc:fan:polipo:v:html10.3280/Poli2008-001010 Number: 10