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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 conceptualization of the existent knowledge on the topic, with the aim to foster an integration of those different lines of inquiry on the topic that can advance scholarly research and improve policymaking.

Mixing a robust and longitudinal bibliometric analysis (1992-2018) and a qualitative critical review, the study disentangles sub-conversations on the topic in each literature.

The study encounters commonalities that foster cross-fertilization and blind spots that prevent integration of findings from each literature.

Both literatures need to cross-fertilize and integrate each other’s knowledge.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to integrate literatures using bibliometrics, mapping the existing knowledge on two key areas of competitiveness: clusters and multinationals.

This paper aims to understand the contribution of research and transfer institutes (RTIs) to digitising in traditional Marshallian industrial districts (IDs). This study answers how to digitise small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in IDs capitalising on RTIs? As collective actors, RTIs introduce change in local/regional innovation systems where they are embedded.

This paper uses qualitative evidence based on interviews and secondary data analysis on digitising the Vinalopo Footwear district in Spain.

This paper provides empirical insights about how RTIs perform research and development (R&D) and non-R&D activities to digitise, facilitated by leading firms that frequently engage with RTIs. Subsequently, leading firms interact and diffuse Industry 4.0 within their networks of SMEs. RTIs activate digitising in districts avoiding the manifested reluctance of SMEs to engage with them, capitalising on leading firms’ networks orchestration.

Because of the chosen research approach, the findings are limited to the chosen setting and method.

This paper includes implications for policymakers, responding to the paradox of how to activate knowledge transfer from RTIs to SMEs, when the latter are reluctant to use RTIs.

This paper fulfils an identified need to study how to digitise IDs and clusters.

Industry 4.0 or digitization, from a regional innovation system (RIS) and policy perspective to improve regional innovation, is over-looked. Specifically, this paper aims to focus on analyzing the nascent European Commission (EC) digital innovation hub (DIH) program, designed for fostering transition into Industry 4.0 in regions and facilitating new path development.

Empirically, 10 Spanish DIH is explored through interviews and secondary data analysis.

The results suggest that DIHs despite their emerging and trial-and-error stage are designed for promoting multi-actor collaborative platforms including non-local actors to stimulate transition into Industry 4.0 by promoting place-based collaboration alliances that respond to local/regional contextual specificities and demands. These regional-based platforms facilitate public-private partnerships that co-design policy initiatives resulting from co-participation and negotiation of spatially-bounded oriented initiatives for digitizing.

The authors answer: what are the key characteristics of emerging European-level regional innovation policies aimed at facilitating Industry 4.0 in regions? This is the first study on the topic.

This paper aims to present a focus for identifying the convergence between the theory of the intellectual capital of nations and that of the National Systems of Innovation from the literature of innovation systems, with the aim of providing a more robust theoretical framework to explore the drivers of intangibles and the policies which foster competitiveness through the development of the national intellectual capital platforms.

Selecting 28 indicators which best fit the analyzed theoretic principles and taking into account the member countries of the European Union as a sample (15) with the data taken from the IMD, a simple analysis of the seven‐year (2000‐2006) window was carried out to compare the intangibles pointed out in the two aforementioned perspectives.

The homogeneity of the results using models of measurement of intellectual capital of countries with those obtained through the models of the National Systems of Innovation prove the considerable convergence between these two theoretic fields, validating the hypotheses proposed in the study.

The system provided is not an exhaustive use of all the available measures and countries. A more comprehensive practical application on more countries and indicators would be necessary to validate the model.

The study has implications for the business, politicians and academia. The study opens new lines of research in the sense that it advocates a theoretical approximation and the integration of the abundant literature on the National Systems of Innovation as basic drivers to explain the intangibles at a macro level, their management and politics related to the maintaining and renewal of said assets of intellectual capital.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, so far no study analyzing this convergence has been designed or published. This paper extends and adds robustness to the national IC measurement model to help policymakers and scholars.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse perceptions of institutional pressures on employers to improve the work-life balance in challenging environments with difficult financial and economic conditions and to classify organisations according to these perceptions.

Using survey data from 146 Spanish private firms in different industries, the cluster analysis was conducted.

The analysis clearly shows the existence of three different groups of companies according to their perception of coercive, mimetic and normative pressures, and the different characteristics of the groups. The perceptions of institutional pressures determine the stance of the company with regard to work-life balance.

Despite the changing economic context, it seems important to analyse the existence of environmental pressures to encourage work-life balance.

Spain still has a long way to go in the diffusion of work-life practices.

This paper explores the institutional pressures on employers to improve work-life balance in a crisis context, and in a non-Anglo-Saxon country, showing that companies pay attention to the dynamics of the environment in which the company operates, and do not only consider economic reasons.

The paper seeks to provide a consistent theoretical framework to measure national intellectual capital (IC) and also empirical evidence on the core factors which explain countries' IC stocks.

A multidisciplinary theoretical framework is provided to underpin research on regional/national IC. Empirical evidence through multivariate methodology is used in order to design a method to extract the national IC drivers which can explain countries' IC stocks in OECD countries in the years 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Theoretical bases of IC are presented to contribute to expanding territorial IC fundamentals and a regional/national IC model is developed. Results show that technological capability and the governmental policy oriented to business are both key factors in mapping the position of the nation in the IC ranking and both are mainly responsible for the levels of countries' IC.

The sample was limited to OECD countries.

The paper is a very useful source of information for policymakers. The paper also opens a necessary debate on the critical areas that need to be reinforced in order to develop regional and national knowledge and national IC platforms. The IC index offered thus explains the key areas in need of improvement in order to upgrade the national IC.

To date, no study has identified the critical IC areas, but rankings have been drawn up with no conclusions at all. This exploratory study adds new empirical evidence to fill this gap in the research.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relation between the underlying dimensions of protean (self-direction and values driven) and boundaryless (boundaryless mindset and organizational mobility preference (OMP)) career attitudes (Briscoe et al., 2006) and organizational commitment, within today's unstable and uncertain business scenario.

Data were collected from 167 professionals attending graduate and postgraduate distance learning courses. The hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression analysis.

Research results suggest that protean career attitudes contribute significantly to individuals’ emotional attachment to their employing organization. Furthermore, OMP was found to be significant in predicting both affective and continuance commitment.

First, cross-sectional correlational designs impede conclusive inferences regarding causal relationships among the variables. Second, the use of a sample of professionals attending distance learning business courses could limit the generalizability of the study findings, because the majority of the respondents were homogenous in terms of age and educational background.

Fostering individuals’ self-direction results in enhanced affective commitment to their employing organizations. Workshops oriented at clarifying and communicating organizational values, philosophy and principles can be all beneficial for strengthening employees’ commitment to the organization.

This is the first paper to test the relationship between boundaryless and protean career attitudes and organizational commitment on a European sample.