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The aim of this paper is to present a study performed in conjunction with a branch of the Italian Public Italian Administration, the ISSP (Istituto Superiore di Studi Penitenziari – the Higher Institute of Penitentiary Studies). The study aimed to develop a Transfer of Training (ToT) evaluation methodology that would be both scientifically robust and practitioner-friendly, in an attempt to build a bridge between researchers and practitioners on the topic of ToT process evaluation.

The ToT evaluation system was built using an action research approach, taking into account workplace specifics and stakeholder needs. An “action research” (with the researchers involved throughout the ToT system building phases) and a “Focus Group” (to identify factors influencing ToT and to define items and grids for behavioural assessment) were used.

This study showed that the active engagement of stakeholders (trainees and their supervisors and colleagues) is useful in designing context-adapted tools for ToT evaluation and can help organizations improve the fit between their training activities and organizational goals.

The generalizability of the proposed ToT evaluation methodology is not guaranteed, and the procedure needs to be replicated and monitored in different organizational settings and cultures.

The organization decided to implement the ToT evaluation methodology developed during the course of the study for all future training programmes.

In this study, a ToT evaluation methodology was built that will be both scientifically robust and practitioner-friendly.

This paper aims to investigate factors and weaknesses influencing university–industry interactions diffusion and success by focusing on the research services initiatives because there are limited studies in literature focusing on this specific form of interaction between the two actors.

The authors carried an explorative research based on multiple case studies referring to research services experienced between two big Italian universities and small and medium-sized enterprises located in the same area.

By conducting a cross-case analysis, the authors highlight categories of data in terms of factors influencing interactions’ diffusion and success, as perceived by researchers and by firms; and weaknesses in the interactions process to identify suggestions for improving interactions’ diffusion and success, from researchers and firms.

The outcomes provide managerial implications useful for agencies supporting the diffusion of innovation among firms and firms’ systems for defining new policies and action plans aimed at making the university–industry interactions faster and more effective, improving the innovation processes within firms.

This paper gives new insight in the analysis of factors enhancing university–industry relationships with a focus on research services collaborations and focusing both on university and industry, where large contributions focus predominantly on both groups.

This paper analyses whether the entrepreneurship education centres introduced by the Italian Ministry of Higher Education and Research in 2012 (the Italian Contamination Labs – CLabs) are effectively adopting the emergent digital technologies for nurturing their entrepreneurship education activities and dissemination of knowledge contamination practices among university students.

An in-depth analysis of italian entrepreneurship education centres provides evidence about the direct role played by digital technologies in supporting and enhancing the entrepreneurial processes, as well as on their indirect role in stimulating entrepreneurship activities of nascent student entrepreneurs.

Findings provide some insights into the strategic role of some categories of digital technologies inside the CLabs. The main results show still a weak use of digital technologies in CLabs except for social media and digital platforms, mainly used for promotion scope and communication of the entrepreneurial outputs achieved by the students.

Limitations of the study consist of the need to expand the study to all the other CLabs belonging to the CLabs Italian Network and to derive a set of “invariance” among the cases in terms of digital technologies support for student entrepreneurship.

New ways of managing entrepreneurship centres will involve a more massive adoption of digital technologies to support and transform some processes realized inside the CLabs, even if the governance of such centres must develop new digital skills.

The originality of the work regards the contribution to the emerging role of digital technologies on the student's entrepreneurship.

This research aims to shed new lights on the most shared constructs developed on Innovation Ecosystems, Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and Technology Transfer Ecosystem proposing an additional stand-alone ecosystem.

This research is built upon a qual-quantitative analysis of an empirical case. The latter analysis is performed through a single case study methodology on the San Giovanni Hub of the Federico II University of Naples.

Evidences show how a technological hub orchestrates three main ecosystems for the knowledge exploitation: the technology transfer ecosystem, devoted to gather knowledge form universities' labs towards industries; the innovation ecosystem, able to manage the exploration and exploitation of new knowledge and techniques; the entrepreneurial ecosystem, that supports startup/spinoff creation process.

Limitations mainly concern the fact that it is centred on just one case study.

Practical implications imply new opportunities of collaboration involving different stakeholders as university administrators, researchers, businesses and policymakers, creating a supportive environment for innovation.

The research offers a new vision about the role of Universities as creators and enablers of ecosystems pursuing diverse value propositions. The Academic Innovation Ecosystem is a new conceptualization of this role played by a university, and it can convey innovation and entrepreneurial attitude within its ecosystem leveraging on the transfer of university knowledge and technology.

Startup companies represent a powerful engine of open innovation (OI) processes. The purpose of this paper is to represent a first step in building a map of the state-of-the-art knowledge of the “startups in an OI context” phenomenon. Through the selection and analysis of relevant literature, this study aims at deepening our understanding of the theme and at providing directions for future research.

By using an explicit method for the review (Pittaway et al., 2004) the authors selected a set of papers, which cover the knowledge domain object of this study. In total, 41 articles about “startups and OI” have been selected and the full papers have been analysed.

The analysed literature has been synthesized in seven sub-topics, which have been evaluated as the most relevant in explaining the phenomenon of startups in relation to OI. Implications for research, for managers and for policy makers conclude the paper.

The review produced valuable knowledge for both managers and policy decision-makers. The paper allows a better understanding of the role of startups in OI processes. This improved understanding can help managers of large firms as well as policy makers involved in OI in making their decisions. Besides, implications of OI strategies for startup managers have been singled-out.

Startup companies are intrinsically open organizations, necessarily engaged in innovation processes. Research at the intersection between the themes of OI and startups is gaining momentum. This review of the literature represents the first attempt to organize the scientific knowledge related to the intersection between the startups and OI phenomena systematically.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the debate on exploration–exploitation trade-off in the context of new ventures creation, where, particularly at the empirical level, there is a limited understanding of whether and how this trade-off is achieved and how start-ups performances are affected by the way in which they face the exploration–exploitation dilemma.

A qualitative case study approach has been adopted as a methodology to conduct the research. Six Italian innovative start-ups were selected and analyzed through in-depth interviews with founders and data collection to understand whether and how start-ups adopt exploration and exploitation solutions to face critical events in their business lives.

The most evident result of this study is that start-ups adopt more frequently a temporal separation of exploration and exploitation activities as the preferred mode for balancing learning and innovation tension. They do not seem to exhibit a defined or a common path in the way they realize the temporal separation between exploration and exploitation. Instead, they mostly oscillate. The ambidextrous solution is selected in only a few cases and not consecutively. The pre-entry knowledge profile seems to influence the choice of start-ups at the beginning of their lives.

This research has implications for the whole start-up’s ecosystem, comprising incubators/accelerators, advisors, intermediaries, venture capitalists, new venture founders and policymakers. For example, by knowing the typology of knowledge and competence gaps start-ups usually aim to fill when they face particular events, intermediaries (such as incubators) could better plan initiatives and strategies supporting new ventures in the process of growth and stabilization. Furthermore, the venture capitalists can benefit from this research, by planning specific interventions for each critical event based on specific resources and competencies gaps and guiding for more promising start-ups.

This paper presents a novel application of entrepreneurial learning approach in the context of new venture creation. To reach this aim, a classification of exploration/exploitation solutions has been developed.

Focusing on some relevant constructs defined by the open innovation (OI) literature (i.e. determinants of openness; openness choices operationalized in terms of collaboration depth with scientific and business partners; organizational and social context; innovation performance in terms of novelty and efficiency), this paper investigates the relationships among such constructs. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse two types of relationships: between some contextual factors and firms’ openness choices; and among openness choices, a set of organizational-managerial and social factors, and OI performance outcomes.

The authors carried out a theory testing survey, involving four European countries (Finland, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The authors applied descriptive statistics and a series of regressions.

The authors analysed the impact exerted by external and internal variables on the collaboration depth with scientific and business partners: technological trends are relevant to move firms towards external collaborations, with both types of partners; efficiency goals pursued in collaborations are related to the collaboration depth with both types of partners, while an aggressive innovation strategy is positively related only to scientific-partner depth. Besides, collaboration depths with both partners are positively related to the both sides of innovation performance (i.e. novelty and efficiency), but the organizational-managerial and social contexts emerge as relevant mediator variables. Organizational-managerial and external relational social capital exert a beneficial role on the both types of innovation performance, while internal relational social capital benefits only novelty.

The work shows important limitations such as the low level of the explanatory values in the regression models. Therefore, the results must be considered as preliminary explorative insights that may be useful to encourage further studies.

This work serves to raise managers’ awareness on the opportunity of developing organizational-managerial mechanisms, as well as on the importance of social capital to profit from collaborations.

Although during the last decade many researchers have claimed that we are in the era of OI, empirical works, which provide both a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the phenomenon, are still few. Moreover, the specific action of the context (managerial, organizational and social) as possible mediator of the performance outcomes of openness is empirically under-studied. The authors’ work attempts to fulfil these gaps.

Over the last decades, the importance of entrepreneurial education (EE) for the personal development of young generations has gained momentum among policymakers, practitioners and scholars. This paper offers some insights into the way T-shaped PhD programs can trigger transdisciplinary abilities of STEM students, making them even more ready toward venturing activities.

To achieve the purpose of the study, the effectiveness of a new T-shaped doctoral model was explored, testing it on a sample of STEM PhD students at Polytechnic School of University of Naples Federico II, using a qualitative-quantitative approach.

The results prove the positive influence that the T-shaped PhD program has on students in terms of vertical skills and horizontal capabilities attainment for entrepreneurial readiness.

This study advances interesting managerial and policy implications for activating virtuous collaborations to better respond to the need of current socioeconomic scenarios through academic knowledge.

Despite the growing relevance of EE, research about its influence at PhD level and the effect of different pedagogical methods remains scarce and controversial. Thus, this research explores if EE can support PhD students in science and technology transdisciplinarity terms of innovation management.