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Into cultural and creative industries, the innovation is increasingly realized by a lead creator which is supported by a specific team. Hence, this paper aims to understand the composition of this particular team.

The authors conducted an in-depth case study of “Dal Pescatore”. This is the Italian restaurant keeping the highest award previewed by Michelin Guide from the longer period. The main figures of the restaurant are the head chefs (Nadia and Giovanni Santini) who are continually supported by a dedicated team

The analysis underlines the necessity to create a team which combines aged people linked to firms’ tradition with a low percentage of young foreign apprentices. If the old-timer member assures a deep understanding of the firm’s knowledge base, the young foreign apprentice can show an high learning attitude through which he/she more easily shares their different knowledge.

This study discussed organizational efforts to foster innovation capacities of the main individuals into a firm. However, the present research suffers from some limitations which limits the generalizability of the results beyond the company studied: a single case study on a small and family firm with consolidated organizational routines. In addition, this research does not solutions about the mechanisms of interaction among these different team members.

Recent studies observed how a number of cultural and creative firms innovate through a particular team that develops the ideas of a lead creator. Nevertheless, despite the increasing importance of these teams, their composition remains unclear.

The purpose of this paper is to understand if and how the technological diversifications of collaborating firms and public research organisations (PROs) affect the technological impact of the resulting joint-patented innovations.

The authors conduct an analysis on a database of 590 dyadic joint patents, assigned to both firms and PROs, registered from 1976 to 2010 to the US Patent and Trademark Office and belonging to green technological classes, as defined by the International Patent Classification green inventory.

The study reveals that the assignees’ technological diversification has a significant influence on the impact of the patents jointly developed. Indeed, the results show that the most impactful joint patents result from collaborations involving technologically diversified firms.

This research sheds further light on the establishment of R&D collaborations between firms and PROs to jointly innovate. Specifically, it provides a novel perspective to investigate the impact of joint patents, by focussing on the assignees’ technological profile.

The present work suggests that firms characterised by a higher degree of technological diversification are more likely to co-develop patent of higher technological impact, as resulting from collaboration with PROs.

This study investigates the factors affecting the impact of joint patents resulting from collaborations between firms and PROs. In particular, the present research focusses on the effect of a relevant characteristic of the partners, such as their technological diversification.

The purpose of this study is to explore how luxury companies can use knowledge embedded in tradition to set up effective business models.

Given the limited coverage in previous literature regarding the manner in which tradition can be leveraged by companies to create and capture value, this paper adopts a qualitative approach, i.e. the exploratory analysis of a single case study, namely, that of the high-end Italian hotel Borgo Egnazia.

Within a focus on luxury firms, this paper conceptualizes the tradition-driven business model highlighting activities aimed at creating and capturing value by using knowledge embedded in tradition. Combining value creation and value capture with tacit and codified knowledge, the authors are able to highlight the components of a business model that uses tradition as its main distinctive resource.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore how companies use tradition to create and capture value.

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive academic literature review on the relationship between knowledge management, knowledge transfer and organizational performance in a specific subset of the creative industry, i.e. arts and crafts organizations. Furthermore, this paper analyzes how knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations help increase performance and enhance the value of the activity of the so-called “knowledge workers” (i.e. craftsmen), who are the real knowledge owners in the process of value creation.

The literature review follows the model suggested by Vom Brocke et al. (2009). The review follows a five-phase approach so as to be systematic, transparent and replicable. Academic contributions published over two periods are taken into consideration. The first period covers the years 1990-2000, when the concepts of creative industry and knowledge-based economy were developed. The second period covers the years 2000-2016, when scholars started to investigate how to effectively transfer knowledge (very often in the form of “tacit knowledge”) retained by master craftsmen in arts and crafts organizations and the critical role played by craftsmen in the performance of such organizations.

Three main issues have emerged: how arts and crafts organizations manage and transfer knowledge internally; the effects of these activities on organizational performance; and the prominent role of craftsmen. The literature review shows how in arts and crafts organizations there is a considerable link between the concepts of “performance" and "tacit knowledge", even though addressing such link is somehow hard to realize, for several reasons discussed in the paper. The measurement of performance in arts and crafts organizations has become an area of academic investigation only when both the role of knowledge management and transfer and the role of knowledge workers (i.e., craftsmen) have become evident for obtaining a competitive advantage.

This paper has been an attempt to organize existing studies on knowledge management and transfer and to investigate the relationship existing between knowledge and performance in arts and crafts organizations. Nevertheless, the relationship between knowledge and performance is yet to be explored, as well as the development of techniques for measuring arts and crafts organizations’ performance effectively. The present contribution calls for a systematic reflection on how the transfer of traditional craftsmen’s skills impacts organizational performances in the long run. The definition and implementation of new performance evaluations criteria tailored to enhance the tacit knowledge of craftsmen as a real source of differentiation and competitive advantage for the arts and crafts organizations is somehow still missing.

By pursuing its objectives, the present contribution aims to represent a step toward enabling arts and crafts organizations to play a vital role in the modern society in a more structured way. This would help to build awareness of the potential of arts and crafts organizations for promoting economic growth, proposing a value proposition different from the one dictated by the globalization and by the triumph of product standardization and mass production.

Analyzing the knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations with a historical perspective, it appears that the recognition in academic literature of the centrality of knowledge management and transfer within arts and crafts organizations is only recent (i.e. from 2011 onward). Indeed, for approximately 20 years (i.e. 1990-2010), knowledge has been constantly related to technological paradigms and standardized results, with very little research and debate on craftsmanship and the role of craftsmen. Nevertheless, the research shows that over the years, the focus on knowledge in arts and crafts organizations and knowledge transfer has become progressively more detailed and precise: some authors have studied the role of craftsmen in the knowledge economy according to a historical perspective, while some others have analyzed different types of knowledge more thoroughly. For example, Sveiby (1997, 1996), analyzing the concept of "knowing talent" and "tradition", outlines a more prominent role of craftsmen in the knowledge economy and explain how, in sectors with a strong traditional background, the transfer of tacit knowledge is a meaningful challenge for many organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to shed new light on the role of country of origin (COO) for the competitiveness of luxury restaurants. The main goal is to understand how an haute cuisine (HC) chef can develop a personal cooking style and language based on the exploitation of COO in such a highly institutionalized field.

A single case study methodology is applied based on the analysis of the Italian HC chef Niko Romito.

Findings of this paper highlight the existence of pervasive use of strategies based on the search, recombination and codification of procedure that take direct inspiration by national and regional traditional gastronomic resources and recipes.

Research implications refer to the interpretation of how a chef can work by formulating and developing competitive strategies through the recombination, reinterpretation and codification of local and typical gastronomic resources and cooking recipes.

The paper provides managerial insights into the relative effectiveness to use COO as a strategic resource for HC restaurants.

A model is presented and the three gears that form the COO chain of chef Romito are explained. This model will help academics and practitioners to better understand the ways need to be followed to improve firms’ competitiveness fostering COO.

The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the relationship between three types of process innovations (i.e. innovation in production, IT, and logistics processes) and ambidexterity performance. Specifically, the paper attempts to examine whether changes in business processes help companies to reconcile exploration and exploitation learning activities within the firm domain.

This research is based on data of 2,843 manufacturing firms, whose data are available from the Italian Innovation Survey (period 2010-2012). Hypotheses are developed and tested by using a Tobit regression approach.

Innovation in production and IT processes favors ambidexterity performance, whereas changes in logistics activities, despite being positive, are less relevant.

This is one of the first attempts to offer empirical evidence about the relationship between process innovations and ambidexterity performance (without engaging in domain separation), hence providing additional insights into the ambidexterity literature and the literature on process innovation.

This paper explores how learning processes supported by intensive use of design can favour absorptive capacity in open innovation contexts characterised by the interaction of a high number of diverse stakeholders.

The paper combines the insights from theory with the empirical evidence gathered by adopting a case study approach.

Findings provide evidence about the role of design-based learning to facilitate intra- and inter-organisational knowledge flows and to sustain absorptive capacity through processes of recognition, internalisation and adoption.

The study integrates currently distinct research streams focussing on (1) design research, particularly on how design can support knowledge processes and specific learning processes and (2) open innovation, particularly regarding how to enhance absorptive capacity in those contexts in which a high number of diverse stakeholders interact.

This study can help companies, research institutions and other organisations leveraging open innovation to reflect on the potential of design-based learning processes and on how to deliberately facilitate such processes in their projects.

The original contribution provided by this study is to explore open innovation through some analytical categories elaborated in design research concerning materially grounded forms of design-based learning. In particular, the study investigates how design supports knowledge transfer, sharing, translation and creation.

This paper aims to analyse and discuss five longitudinal case studies in which the authors have investigated how, in a specific subset of the creative industry, i.e. the arts and crafts organizations, knowledge can be systematized and transferred, becoming a real source of competitive advantage.

As no prior empirical research on the relationship among knowledge, knowledge transfer the role of craftsmen is available, an exploratory, qualitative research design seems advisable to study the phenomenon in detail. In setting up a multiple case study, the authors established a sampling frame of criteria associated with the theoretical background and research interest of this study: the case firms had to be arts and crafts organizations well-known for the high quality and value of their artifacts and have a solid reputation for preserving the tradition and the uniqueness of their manufacturing processes.

It has emerged the importance of craftsmen within arts and crafts organizations, whose know-how and technical skills are high valued by colleagues, by the market (customers), within the society and the territory where they operate. The knowledge acquired and retained by the craftsmen becomes therefore crucial for the survival of the arts and crafts organizations and for their profitability in the long term.

From the empirical investigation, it has emerged a certain unawareness at managerial level of the strategic relevance of the craftsmen knowhow and skills and of how to practically and effectively transfer their knowledge to a future generation of young craftsmen to continue to satisfy a unique and exclusive market demand. Furthermore, it has emerged the lack of a common knowledge transfer policy to different organizations. Therefore, it has not been possible to define a standard framework for the knowledge transfer process because it is influenced by the organizational structure, the management style of the organization owner (very often a family that retains the totality of the organization shares/quota), the social context and the territory where the organization is located, as well as the target market and the specific niche of customers who buy the organization’s products. This result represents a potential threat for the survival of arts and crafts organizations in the long run.

A common result that has emerged is that craftsmen play a crucial role for the success of arts and crafts organizations, through the creation and production of exclusive, high value products; hence, it is crucial to preserve and transfer properly their knowhow and skills. This result is particularly relevant for the world of practice: in a time where globalization demands for the relocation of production processes and technology automates several job tasks, the variegated world of arts and crafts, where the handmade abilities and skills of craftsmen cannot be replicate, imitate or standardize, becomes extremely important for the economy of several countries, among which Italy.

At social level, the activity of arts and crafts organizations help preserve the uniqueness and exclusivity of the heritage and culture of the territory where they are located, and reflect the tradition of such territory, the knowhow and ability of its inhabitants and help preserve this unique reservoir of competences and knowhow.

The contribution builds on the lack of practical understanding of the relationship between knowledge and the role played by craftsmen in the knowledge transfer process within arts and crafts organizations, and how effective such process is realized. This because despite the interest of many authors toward both knowledge management and transfer within the creative industry, there is a lack of studies aimed at linking systematically these two research areas. This is a relevant issue since knowledge in creative industries mainly refers to the traditions and values at the basis of an organization’s culture, tends to manifest itself in a tacit way and is difficult to analyze because it mainly exists in the mind of individuals as the result of their working experience not expressed in an explicit form.

This study aims to focus on a key unanswered question about how digitalization and the knowledge processes it enables affect firms’ strategies in the international arena.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review of relevant theoretical and empirical studies covering over 20 years of research (from 2000 to 2023) and including 73 journal papers.

This review allows us to highlight a relationship between firms’ international strategies and the knowledge processes enabled by applying digital technologies. Specifically, the authors discuss the characteristics of patterns of knowledge flows and knowledge processes (their origin, the type of knowledge they carry on and their directionality) as determinants for the emergence of diverse international strategies embraced by single firms or by populations of firms within ecosystems, networks, global value chains or alliances.

Despite digital technologies constituting important antecedents and critical factors for the internationalization process, and international businesses in general, and operating cross borders implies the enactment of highly knowledge-intensive processes, current literature still fails to provide a holistic picture of how firms strategically use what they know and seek out what they do not know in the international environment, using the affordances of digital technologies.