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This paper aims to analyse how local agri-food systems (LAFS), compared to other production models, can offer innovative responses to the important environmental challenges facing food production under the twin transition. These responses are more conducive to community inclusion and local development.

The paper combines territorial development, clusters and industrial districts literature with studies on agri-food industry environmental problems and twin transition technologies to develop an agri-food systems typology. This typology is based on a territorial approach to environmental challenges of food production and serves to illustrate the ways in which LAFS can provide innovative responses to these challenges.

The study allows to visualise the differences between LAFS and other agri-food production models, showing how the operationalisation and implementation of digitisation occur at territorial level and how rural communities are involved in the process. The theoretical proposal emphasises not assuming that technology is inherently beneficial but ensuring that its implementation is inclusive and generates social value for the communities.

The paper aims to enrich future research by adopting a territorial perspective to study the twin transition challenges associated with food production systems.

The paper deals with the transformation of local agrofood systems, in the context of the turn to “the economy of qualities” and the rural development paradigm. We will discuss a case study from Italy, specifically an agreement between Slow Food and Coop Italia concerning the Ark of Taste's Presidia, aiming at the protection of typical products and food traditions.

The agreement is analysed as a change of strategy, implying a transformation of the local agrofood system from “local production for local consumers” to “local production for distant consumers”. The change is substantial and implies a restructuring of the entire local food network.

This chapter provides a first systemic analysis of the environment in which small farms operate, hinging on the concept of ‘food system’. Food systems are not detached from the territory: an effective conceptualization must take into account the geographical dimension in which actors operate, originating material and immaterial flows. Thus food systems can be represented according to their functional elements, but also conceptualized and represented in their spatial dimension. This chapter provides a conceptualization of territorialized food systems, seen as a set of relations between actors located in a regional geographic space and coordinated by territorial governance (Rastoin, 2015). In the analysis of a food system in the context of a specific territory, geographical elements like distances, spatial distribution and physical and administrative borders become key factors that influence the systems’ capability to provide sustainable food and nutrition security and to achieve the other socially expected outcomes. Having explored the conceptualization of food systems as systems of actors ad flows in a given space, the chapter ends with a representation of small farms' interaction with the system (taken from a report by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition of the Committee on World Food Security – HLPE), where the specific types of flows they activate are highlighted (HLPE, 2013).

This paper aims to investigate the competitiveness of Russian regional medium-sized oil complexes with relatively small fossil oil reserves. Taking into account the urgency for competitiveness, the authors have developed a specific assessment methodology and competitive development strategy that could be implemented within the framework of a scenario approach.

The suggested methodology for assessing the competitiveness of regional production complexes is based on the pattern method. Validation is provided for a modular structure and an approach to constructing indices of competitiveness of production complexes. A system of competitiveness indicators has been devised in relation to regional oil complexes.

The case study of the oil complex of the Republic of Udmurtia has yielded competitiveness assessment forecast for a variety of development scenarios up until 2025. A methodology of competitiveness assessment is proposed as a result of the analysis of the two cases.

This analysis is based on the oil complex in Udmurtia, Russia. The main limitation of the research scope is the extent and nature of the industrial complex. The proposed design can be used for large industrial complexes operating in the field of industrial production. It needs to be extended to more clusters, more industries and other countries’ settings for the sake of comparison and generalization.

The practical effects of the study suggest a set of strategic development tools of assessment of the dynamics of industrial complexes’ development, identification of competitive advantage and “bottlenecks” and definition of the objectives and programs of their long-term development and justification of policies and programs of perspective development.

This paper reveals specific features of oil complexes’ competitiveness, which has seldom been investigated both theoretically and empirically.

Recent literature on the implications of applying service-dominant (S-D) logic to conceptualise value-creation processes views territory only as an operand resource (a resource upon which an act is performed). This study aims to show that territory is both an operand and operant resource (a resource that acts on other resources) and to examine how this conceptualisation may extend knowledge about co-creation processes between a firm and its territory.

The study develops a conceptual contribution, drawing on previous research and combining managerial thinking with architectural–urban planning thinking, using illustrative examples.

This study shows that the territory actively participates in value co-creation through interactions with other actors (e.g. firms, inhabitants and tourists). The territory is not only an output of human actions but also a process through which its essence and traits emerge over time. It can infinitely inspire firms with ideas, provided they are able to listen to it and recognise its value co-creator nature.

Contrary to the traditional firm location theory, this study highlights that a territory’s attractiveness is related to its potential, active contribution to value co-creation. The study’s arguments provide a contribution to the current debate about territorial servitisation but should be refined through empirical analyses.

The paper provides suggestions on platform-designing methods – supported by technologies – to enable the territory to engage in value co-creation.

While some studies have applied the S-D logic to territories, this study is the first to recognise that the territory has an active role in value co-creation.

The aim of this paper is to propose a novel reference framework that can be used to study how different kinds of innovation can result in better business performance and how external factors can influence both the firm’s capacity to innovate and innovation itself. The value of the framework is demonstrated as it is applied in an exploratory study of the perceptions of public policy makers and managers from two European regions – the Veneto Region in Italy and the East of England in the UK. Amongst other things, the data gathered suggest that managers are generally less convinced than public policy makers, that the innovativeness of a firm is affected by factors over which policy makers have some control. This finding poses the question “what, if any, role can public policy makers play in enhancing a company’s competitiveness by enabling it to become more innovative?”

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and the relevance of knowledge‐based capital as a strategic resource and a source of regional innovation capacity. The paper identifies human, relational, structural and social capital as the four main knowledge‐based categories building the knowledge‐based capital of a region. The role of each knowledge‐based category in determining regional innovation capacity is analyzed. Specifically, the authors discuss the relationships among the knowledge‐based categories and a regional innovation capacity.

The paper is based on an in‐depth literature review of the knowledge management and regional innovation research stream. The fundamental underlying research questions that have driven the research are: “What are the knowledge‐based capital categories affecting a region's innovation capacity?” and “How do knowledge‐based categories influence regional innovation capacity?”. The paper is conceptual in its nature and aims to delineate a theory‐based framework to drive further empirical research.

The paper first clarifies the concept of knowledge‐based capital and of regional innovation capacity. These are two key concepts for understanding the role and relevance of the knowledge assets bundles in the creation, development and management of innovation capabilities at regional level. Then the paper explores how knowledge‐based components affect the innovation capacity of a region. This is an issue of great relevance for both theory and practice. From the theory point of view it allows the identification of the main factors characterising the links between knowledge assets and innovation capacity, while from a practical point of view it can provide implications for policy makers for the definition of policies oriented towards the development of regional knowledge asset domains to develop regional innovation capacity.

The paper provides an answer to the need to develop a holistic view of the links between a region's knowledge‐based capital and its innovation capacity. Indeed, most of the studies in the literature have analysed the links between isolated knowledge asset categories and innovation capabilities. The paper, on the basis of a clear definition of knowledge‐based capital and innovation capacity, analyses why regional knowledge foundations make differences in the innovation capacity of regions.

The purpose of this study is to develop a model for the selection of optimal development projects for an industrial complex (IC), aimed at improving its competitiveness.

Selection of optimal projects for IC development is carried out within the framework of a methodical approach to assessing and forecasting the competitiveness of IC based on the phased implementation of the following steps: assessment of the current level of competitiveness of an IC; optimization of the project portfolio aimed at improving the IC competitiveness; forecasting the IC competitiveness. The methodology for assessing the IC competitiveness is based on a comparative analysis of its activities against those of its leading competitors and evaluates two integral characteristics, namely, the level of current competitiveness and the indicator of the competitive potential. The methodical approach to the selection of the optimal portfolio of projects for the development of competitiveness is based on a step-by-step optimization of the portfolio using a dynamic programming procedure, which takes into account the implementation conditions of the projects, resource constraints and the prioritization of these projects. The targeted benchmark for the optimization is an integral indicator of IC competitiveness, comprising various aspects of its activities.

Method for multi-factor evaluation of IC competitiveness and the impact of a set of factors driving competitive advantage; set of benchmarks of IC competitiveness; the model for the selection and step-by-step optimization of the portfolio of IC development projects, aimed at increasing competitiveness in the context of resource constraints.

Methodology described in this paper was used to assess the competitiveness and optimize the project portfolio of Uralelektrotyazhmash Group of Enterprises (UETM), one of the largest power engineering complexes in Russia. The assessment was carried out in comparison with the leading domestic and global manufacturers of electrical equipment, which form UETM’s primary competition in the marketplace.

The study establishes a method for the comprehensive assessment of IC competitiveness based on the comparison of IC activity indicators with those of leading competitors. The proposed method defines an integral competitiveness index to allow for the quantitative assessment of IC competitiveness, development of measures to improve IC competitiveness and producing a methodology to forecast the impact of such measures; the study proposes a methodical approach to selecting the optimal portfolio of projects for the development of IC based on the stepwise optimization of such a portfolio while taking into account the conditions of their implementation, resource constraints and the impact on the indicator of competitiveness. This approach allows the IC to prioritize the implementation of the development projects and maximize its competitiveness in the context of available resources.

This paper aims to analyse the impact of globalization on the manufacturing operations of industries and industrial districts and how it influences the specialization and diversification of manufacturing decisions.

The sample includes 9,684 Spanish manufacturing textile firms and the analysis is both cross‐sectional and longitudinal.

The results show that globalization tends to diminish the district and subsector effects over time, but they also show the positive impact of specialization on productivity and of diversification on business growth.

The paper indicates to managers that the production function in textile firms has viability in Europe through achieving specialization and efficient operations management.

The paper starts from the increasing spatial and functional fragmentation of value‐added chains, global de‐regulation and dis‐embedding of “markets”, and interdependencies among the Net‐based digital technologies. It develops a socio‐economic setting with ubiquitous direct interdependencies and interactions, Net‐externalities, “strategic” strong uncertainty, and omnipresent collective‐good and social‐dilemma problems. These entail co‐ordination failures, either in the form of conventional market failure (i.e. collective blockages of action) or of “wrong” or outmoded institutional co‐ordination and, thus, wide‐spread technological “lock‐ins” that are indicative of insufficient ability of collective action. This is particularly true for de‐regulated, individualistic cultures. In contrast, sustainable innovation, used in a broad, i.e. technological and institutional, sense, requires an effective collective action competence. This, in turn, requires a new and increased co‐ordination. Against this background, the global corporate economy has spontaneously developed private individualist substitute arrangements to cope with the new complexity, such as local clusters and hub‐and‐spoke networks, which all have severe shortcomings. With reference to what we call the “Linux” paradigm, the paper discusses the possibility of a spontaneous evolutionary, i.e. collectively learned, institutional co‐ordination through emergent collective action and networks with “good” governance. The paper argues that only a hybrid system that consists of “well‐governed” networks and a new approach towards more comprehensive and deliberate “interactive” and “institutional” public policy, supporting collective learning and emergent institutional co‐ordination, is capable of solving the complexity and co‐ordination problems of the “new” economy by increasing certainty, stability and more continuous and comprehensive innovation. This new policy approach is outlined at the end.