Entrepreneurial ecosystems are powerful engines of regional innovation, competitiveness, and transformation. While established hubs like Silicon Valley and Shenzhen are well studied, identifying emerging ecosystems with high growth potential remains a challenge. This study introduces the Surge Ecosystems Index, a forward-looking tool for detecting surging entrepreneurial activity at the sub-regional level. The index evaluates six dimensions - Innovation Capacity, Capital Fluidity, Skills Development, Market Reach, Entrepreneurial Culture, and Visibility - over a five-year period. Using Italian provinces (NUTS-3) as the empirical context, we integrate official statistics and web-scraped data to construct and validate the index. Results reveal geographical heterogeneity, with several provinces showing strong upward momentum despite not being traditional entrepreneurial hotspots. The index correlates positively with high-growth firm density, confirming its potential as an early-stage detection tool for policymakers and investors. This study advances entrepreneurial ecosystem theory by integrating temporal and micro-foundational perspectives, shifting from static assessments to dynamic, predictive analysis. The Surge Ecosystems Index offers a novel approach to identifying and supporting emerging entrepreneurial ecosystems, with implications for both research and policy. Future work should explore cross-contextual validation and refinement for broader applicability.

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether the quality of entrepreneurial ecosystems is associated with prosperity beyond GDP, focusing on territorial social progress. The authors also assess whether ecosystem quality relates to "prosperity coherence," that is, smaller mismatches between social outcomes and what local economic development would predict (including downside shortfalls), and the authors explore the role of productive entrepreneurship and heterogeneity across social-progress dimensions and development levels. Design/methodology/approach The authors study 107 Italian provinces (NUTS-3) using a staged design that separates ecosystem conditions (2021), productive entrepreneurship (2021-2023) and social progress (2024). Entrepreneurial ecosystem quality is captured through a composite index built from multiple ecosystem-condition indicators. Productive entrepreneurship is captured via (i) the density of "PMI innovative" firms and (ii) employment growth in higher value-added sectors. Social progress is measured with the Social Progress Index, both overall and by its three pillars (Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing and Opportunity). The authors estimate cross-sectional models with regional fixed effects and controls for economic development, test an indirect pathway via productive entrepreneurship and operationalize prosperity coherence through measures of underperformance relative to development. The lagged structure aligns measurement with the theoretical sequence, while the estimates are interpreted as conditional associations across provinces. Findings Entrepreneurial ecosystem quality is positively associated with social progress after accounting for economic development and regional structure. At the pillar level, the association is strongest for Opportunity and is also significant for Basic Human Needs, while Foundations of Wellbeing is positive but not statistically significant at conventional levels. Interaction models indicate that the EEQI-social progress relationship is stronger in less-developed provinces, particularly for Foundations of Wellbeing and, to a lesser extent, for Opportunity. Evidence for productive entrepreneurship as a single explanatory pathway is partial: ecosystem quality is positively related to productive entrepreneurship, but this link weakens once economic development is included, and productive entrepreneurship does not retain an independent association with social progress when ecosystem quality and development are controlled for. Finally, ecosystem quality is linked to lower "conversion deficits" (i.e. less downside underperformance of social progress relative to what development would predict), while results are weaker for symmetric mismatch measures. Originality/value This study extends entrepreneurial ecosystem research to non-income prosperity outcomes, introduces a prosperity-coherence/conversion-deficit lens and provides nuanced evidence on mechanisms by showing that the ecosystem-social progress relationship is not fully accounted for by the authors' proxy measures of productive entrepreneurship in this context.

Purpose This paper aims to develop a scalable, patent-based framework to map clusters’ repositioning towards environmental technologies and to distinguish current green technological specialisation from transition readiness. Design/methodology/approach The framework is applied to Italy by combining PATSTAT patent data with the Italian Cluster Mapping Project. Green technologies are identified through CPC-Y tagging. The authors compute cluster-level Revealed Technological Advantage (RTA) in environmental technologies (2000–2019) and estimate Potential RTA (pRTA) as a forward-looking indicator based on technology relatedness networks at CPC subclass level. The authors compare alternative predictive strategies (zero-inflated beta regression, Artificial Neural Networks, Random Forests) and retain the best-performing model to generate pRTA for 2020–2024. Finally, the authors classify clusters into a four-quadrant typology combining RTA and pRTA. Findings Green inventive activity is geographically concentrated in a small set of regions, while it is more dispersed across cluster categories. Current green specialisation (RTA) varies substantially across region–cluster combinations and does not fully overlap with transition readiness (pRTA). The combined mapping reveals four profiles: green pioneers, emerging green clusters, mature green and green laggards, enabling a trajectory-oriented interpretation beyond static rankings. Originality/value The study offers one of the first cluster-level, forward-looking measures of environmental-technology transition readiness in Italy, combining cluster mapping with relatedness-based prediction to support more differentiated research and place-based policy design.

Clusters have been widely recognised, in both academic and policy-oriented literature, as catalysts and supporters of the transition toward social and environmental sustainability. However, connections between the two topics are still not so precise and remains scattered. This paper aims at identifying and depict a landscape of the scientific literature on clusters and sustainable development, through a systematic literature review based on a keyword cooccurrence analysis. Following rigorous selection and screening processes, a total of 245 significant papers were selected for analysis from Scopus database. Findings reveals an increasing interest toward these topics by the academic community and identifies five key research streams, as well as literature gaps opening the way to further research opportunities. This study offers a comprehensive overview of the main insights on which firms, policy makers and institutional intermediaries need to focus in order to allow a real transition towards a more sustainable, cluster-based economy.

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to the debate about creating shared value (CSV) and clusters, by shedding light on how clusters might generate shared value, i.e. cause social and business benefits, hence focusing on the following research question “do clusters create shared value?” Design/methodology/approach The study relied on social network analysis methods and techniques. Data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources, in the empirical context of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna. The authors computed three independent and four dependent variables to operationalize the concept of cluster development and shared value creation. A multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure and, more specifically, the most accurate model of that procedure, that is the double semi-partialling method, has been carried out to answer the research question. Finally, empirical evidence has been complemented with other cluster-level data recently collected by the Italian Cluster Mapping project. Findings The findings confirm how the development of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna contributed to the creation of economic and social growth opportunities for all the actors. The study shows that clusters do create shared value and the chosen cluster development variables do explain much of the business and social impact variables at a very high statistical significance level. Originality/value The paper contributes to the under-explored research on clusters and CSV with a very first attempt in providing quantitative evidence of the phenomenon.

Innovation is deeply rooted in clusters and is strongly related to knowledge exchanges. In literature, scholars have started suggesting that innovation rates are expected to be higher in dynamic networks, where there is variation in roles and knowledge exchanges. This paper contributes to this debate by studying the correlation between knowledge exchange and innovation at the cluster level, with a dynamic view. Using dynamic social network analysis as a methodological approach and the literature on Collaborative Innovation Networks (COINs) and knowledge exchanges as the theoretical framework, we investigated how varying over time cluster members' leadership role and contribution in the flow of knowledge benefit cluster-level innovation. We relied on data collected from a collaborative cluster-based platform, focusing on technological knowledge exchanges. Our findings indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between rotating leadership and innovation as well as between rotating contribution and innovation.

Creating Shared Value (CSV), the managerial concept introduced by Porter and Kramer in 2011, offers companies a framework for identifying opportunities to create economic value in a way that also improves social outcomes for society, fostering regional transition toward sustainability. Recently, there has been an increasing interest in CSV concept from both the academic and the professional world. Several scholars have explored the idea and shared value strategies have been designed and implemented by a number of the world's major MNCs. Nonetheless, much of the scholarly discussion around CSV remains arguably under-theorized and empirical research that might help theorizing on the topic is largely missing. This study provides insights into the successful configuration of innovative CSV business strategies through the case of 21 Invest, an Italian firm operating in the private equity market with a CSV approach. Building on a comparative case study analysis of three of the most successful investments of 21 Invest in Italy, this study makes a step forward in the understanding of how firms translate shared value agendas into actions. Both theoretical and practical implications of the findings for successfully translating shared value agendas into action are discussed.

The debate about Circular Economy (CE) has been increasingly enriched by academics through a vast array of contributions, based on several theoretical perspectives and emanating from several research domains. However, current research still falls short of providing a holistic and broader view of CE, one that combines existing themes and emerging research trends. Accordingly, based on a Systematic Literature Network Analysis, this paper tackles this gap. First, a Citation Network Analysis is used to unearth the development of the CE literature based on papers’ references, whilst the Main Path is traced to detect the seminal papers in the field through time. Second, to consider the literature in its broader extent, a Keywords Co-Occurrence Network Analysis is conducted based on papers’ keywords, whereby all papers in the dataset, including the non-cited papers, are assessed. Additionally, a Global Citation Score analysis is conducted to uncover the recent breakthrough research, in addition to the Burst Analysis used to detect the dynamic development of CE literature over time. By doing so, the paper explores the development of the CE body of knowledge, reveals its dynamic evolution over time, detects its main theoretical perspectives and research domains, and highlights its emerging topics. Our findings unfold the evidence of eight main trends of research about CE, unearth the path through which the CE concept emerged and has been growing, and concludes with promising avenues for future research.

This paper aims at investigating the role of makers in open innovation networks by focusing on whether and how knowledge leaks occur in open innovation networks with makers. In the last years, makers have been widely recognized as conducive to innovation and growth in different fields through a novel and open approach. However, little is known about the role played by makers and, more specifically, about the flow of unintended knowledge – i.e. knowledge leaks. Data have been collected by iteratively deploying a snowball sampling technique in an Italian high-tech cluster with a dense and heterogeneous ecosystem of makers. Data analysis relied on social network analysis method and techniques. Findings shed light on a totally unexplored phenomenon and suggest intriguing implications both for theory and practice on whether and how knowledge is exchanged in innovation networks and how knowledge leaks occur.

Innovation clusters represent a concerted effort to bring together research, industry and government in line with the triple-helix framework. Clusters affect and are affected by their regional context where they are located. From this perspective, clusters are regarded as an integral part of regional innovation systems. A regional renewal based on innovation clusters may end up into incremental change, diversification or radical change and may involve the regional government, regional clusters association and cluster organisations. Nevertheless, little is known about how regions drive the implementation of renewal policies based on innovation clusters, differentiating among regional development paths and levels of regional governance. Hence, we collected data according to an embedded comparative case study research design on Lombardy region, where the regional government promoted a triple-helix inspired policy of implementing nine innovation clusters. Findings have both conceptual and policy implications with regard to triple-helix, clusters and regional innovation systems.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, it aims at reconciling the literature on creating shared value (CSV) with the one on cluster development, searching for complementarities and similarities. Second, it aims at understanding the role of cluster development in CSV. For these reasons, the authors operationalized the general idea of cluster development with the widely accepted concept of cluster initiatives, i.e. systematic efforts aimed at cluster development. The authors focused on exploring the process of launching and supporting local cluster initiatives through empirical evidence. In particular, the authors aimed at analyzing how a CSV strategy can be defined and developed when adopted within a cluster initiative. Design/methodology/approach The research draws on a critical review of the literature focusing on CSV and on a conceptual reconciliation between the literature on the CSV ecosystem with the one on clusters, and more specifically on those initial cluster initiatives. The authors relied on an exploratory case study of an Italian cluster initiative in CSV, i.e. the Science and Innovation Food District (SIFooD) cluster promoted by Whirlpool. Thanks to the richness and great availability of information about the case, this study primarily relied on the use of secondary data. Findings The case of SIFooD has highlighted how Whirlpool promoted the cluster initiative within its CSV framework to achieve sustainable and collaborative innovation in food waste prevention and, conversely, how SIFooD enhanced CSV of its cluster members. To arrange its network development process, SIFooD has implemented all the elements that prior literature has considered fundamental for launching and supporting a successful cluster initiative. On the other hand, SIFooD was able to adopt a collective-impact approach, implementing the five elements needed in its ecosystem to create shared value. Moreover, thanks to all the activities comprised in the SIFooD cluster initiative, shared value was actually created. Research limitations/implications The present paper has some limitations. First of all, the empirical analysis focuses only on one cluster initiative; thus, cross/comparative analyses with other cluster initiatives may illuminate the findings better. Second, the authors relied on a very recent cluster initiative in a particular field (food waste prevention) and in one specific institutional context (Italy); thus, data may suffer from temporal, industrial and geographical biases. Originality/value Literature on the border between CSV and clusters is still in its infancy and almost nothing is known about their relationship, despite them being intimately related since the inception of this field. The paper qualifies for a very first attempt to understand how firms promote clusters, through cluster initiatives, for the sake of CSV and how clusters may enhance CSV of firms.

In this chapter the authors explore the correlation between knowledge brokerage and creativity in a collaborative online innovation network of fashion makers, named Openwear. The fashion industry has recently benefited from co-design and co-creation practices that are accelerated by online platforms of collaboration. The authors selected two knowledge brokerage characteristics: rotating leadership that measures the degree to which, over time, the members in a team vary in how 'central' they are to the team's communications; and rotating contribution that measures the degree to which, over time, actors in a team vary in how much they transmit knowledge versus receive knowledge. Their findings indicate that there is a strong positive correlation between rotating leadership and creativity as well as between rotating contribution and creativity, confirming the general view that creative work requires innovation and breaking known patterns of thought and behaviour through a continuous rotation in brokerage roles and contributions.

The issue of the ability to survive and successfully compete in a turbulent business environment (i.e., resilience) is becoming more and more noteworthy within entrepreneurial, managerial and strategic studies (Pal et al., 2014; Linnenluecke, 2017). Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are defined the backbone of the economy in many countries (Cowling et al., 2015) these are less studied from the resilience angle. While there exists in literature a strong focal point around which definitions and theory building are constructed, there is a lack of empirically testing and demonstrating of such theories. There is little empirical evidence on how organisations, especially SMEs, may achieve degrees of resilience. Thus the purpose of this paper is to skim among all the key enablers that emerge from literature and identify strategic and managerial features that more likely could support SMEs to obtain a certain level of resilience.

Purpose This paper aims to discuss hybrid organizations whose business models blur the boundary between for-profit and nonprofit worlds. With the aim of understanding how hybrid organizations have developed commercially viable business models to create positive social and environmental change, the authors contend that hybrids are altering long-held business norms and conceptions of the role of the corporation in society. Building on an analysis of the most updated literature on hybrid organizations and with the use of case study approach, the purpose of this paper is to derive managerial lessons that traditional businesses may apply to innovate their business models. Design/methodology/approach This paper has a practical focus to help organizations to develop successful business strategies and design innovative business models. It applies emerging thinking on hybrid business models to provide new insights and ideas on the use of business models as tools for innovating and delivering value. To comply with this, first, the authors discuss the distinctive characteristics of hybrids and the hybrid business model through a concise but comprehensive review of all the literature on hybrid organization, which is still very recent. Second, we relied on a short case study that introduces information technology and digital innovation as the premises of the emergence of a new hybrid business model that adds additional elements to traditional business managers on how to learn from hybrid organizations’ avenues to innovate their business models. Findings In this paper, the authors aimed to shed light on the management of any organization or initiative that aims to embrace multiple and competing yet potentially synergistic goals, as is increasingly the case in modern corporations. Spotting hidden complementarities of antagonistic assets can be arduous, time-consuming, costly and risky, but businesses driven by innovation may want to keep a close eye on the expanding hybrid sector as a source of future entrepreneurial opportunities. To this regard, hybrid social ventures have the potential to shed light on ways to innovate traditional business models. The essence of studying hybrids is that firms may learn how to innovate their business models in ways that go beyond current conceptualizations, making their mission profitable, rather than making profit their only mission! The research design (literature analysis and case study) allowed the authors to disentangle different innovative business models that hybrids suggest highlight strengths and weaknesses of such business models, understand strategies and capabilities associated with hybrids and transpose all these lessons learned to traditional business managers who constantly struggle for innovation. Research limitations/implications The main implication is that hybrid organizations may serve as incubators for new practices that can gain scale and impact by infusion into existing corporations. The authors can assist to a process of “hybridization” of incumbent firms, pushing the boundaries of corporate sustainability efforts toward strategies in which profit and social purpose share more equal footing. Practical implications Firms interested in benefiting from antagonistic assets that can have a dramatic impact on their business model innovation may want to consider some lessons: firms can attempt to build antagonistic assets into their mission, asking themselves what activities they can undertake with the potential to create (or erode) social, environmental and economic value and how these activities might be mediated by the context/environment in which they operate; they can partner with hybrids to benefit from them and absorb competencies from them, so to increase their likelihood to generate value-creating activities and to impact on wider range of stakeholders, including funders, partners, beneficiaries and communities; they can mimic hybrids on how to innovate their business model through the use of the “deliberate resource misfit” dynamic capability, mitigating negative impacts and trade-offs and maximizing positive value spillovers, both for the firms themselves and for the community. Social implications Sharing know-how with hybrids opens up to ways to innovate business models, and hybrids are much more open to sharing lessons and encouraging others to copy their approaches in a genuine open innovation approach. Originality/value The main lesson businesses can take away from studying hybrids is that antagonistic assets – and not only profitable complementary ones, as the resource-based view would suggest – do not have to be a burden on profits. Hybrids ground their strategy first and foremost on their beneficiaries, thus dealing with a bundle of antagonistic assets. The primary objective of hybrids is thus to find imaginative ways of generating profits from their given resources rather than acquiring the resources that generate the highest profit. Profit is the ultimate goal of traditional businesses’ mission, but by making profit their only mission, firms risk missing out on the hidden opportunities latent in antagonistic assets. Learning from hybrids about how to align profits and societal impact may be a driver of long-term competitive advantage.

PurposeLittle is known, about the role played by start-ups in open innovation networks. Start-ups – due to their nature of new and emerging companies – can largely benefit from the knowledge that can flow intentionally or unintentionally from external partners during open innovation practices. When open innovation networks are not set among peers on both sides the authors expect to have more unintended knowledge flows. Such knowledge “leaks” – as the authors named them – in open innovation networks are totally unexplored in literature. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to focus “whether and how knowledge leaks occur in open innovation networks with start-ups”.Design/methodology/approachThe research design of this study relies on social network analysis methods and techniques to disentangle the role of start-ups in open innovation networks – in a major Italian aerospace cluster –vis-à-visthe three types of knowledge considered in this study. Then the authors confirmed knowledge leaks to occur through a multiplexity analysis. In the second stage of the research, the authors decided to strengthen the results, making them more vivid and thorough, relying on four case studies.FindingsThe paper sheds light on a totally unexplored phenomenon, theorizing on the role of start-ups in open innovation networks and suggesting intriguing implications both for theory and managers on whether and how knowledge leaks occur.Research limitations/implicationsThe main limitations arise from the specific research context, in fact the study has been conducted in an aerospace cluster. So future studies might consider to explore knowledge leaks in non-cluster settings and in low tech industries.Practical implicationsThe results have practical implications both for policy makers and for managers. First of all, the research confirms how open innovation often originates from a combination of different knowledge types acquired through the collaboration with heterogeneous players, start-ups included. Hence, managers may design open innovation strategies balancing their portfolio of collaborations to maximize the absorption of relevant knowledge and start-uppers may consider to engage in open innovation practices to accelerate knowledge absorption. Nevertheless, the study warns managers against the risk of knowledge leaks, especially in cases like start-ups where the eagerness to participate or the prestige associated with participating in open innovation networks with key players may hamper the control over knowledge leaks.Social implicationsThis opens up for possible interventions for policy makers too. First of all, policy makers may consider incorporating the concept of knowledge leaks in their campaign in favour of open innovation. Second, the study may help policy makers in designing programmes for knowledge transfer partnerships amongst the various players of a cluster in a more conscious way, especially warning new to business companies, like start-ups, about possible leaks. Finally, there is also the need of developing professional figures like consultants capable of supporting start-ups in their open innovation practices.Originality/valueFindings reported in the paper confirm multiplexity and heteromorphism in knowledge exchanges and shed the light on a completely unexplored field (i.e. open innovation and start-ups), focussing on knowledge leaks. Relevant implications for policy makers and managers are included in the study.

Clusters are increasingly seen as change agents able to influence entrepreneurship, innovation and competitiveness of regions and countries.The dynamic development of clusters, and hence their competitiveness, depends on the quality of their entrepreneurial ecosystems.Institutions for collaboration (IFCs) are expected to be central to the formation and the development over time of a strong cluster ecosystem.Nevertheless, cluster literature lacks in-depth studies on this topic.Thus, the goal of our research is to contribute in the broad debate on the role of IFCs in the competitiveness of a cluster, specifically offering an in-depth understanding of the role of IFCs in the formation and development of a cluster ecosystem.The discussion builds on the in-depth case study analysis of the French omega-3 agrifood cluster with a focus on the role played by an IFC, namely Bleu-Blanc-Coeur.