To be inclusive, smart cities should be built on Industry 4.0 technologies within a quadruple helix model involving governments, academia, industry, and citizens. Innovation intermediaries facilitating collaborative innovation could foster this model of smart city. This paper identifies digital innovation hubs (DIHs) as innovation intermediaries that can help build inclusive smart cities. A screening of DIHs in European and extra-European countries through desk research finds 48 DIHs linked to smart city projects or policies, of which 23 are involved in building inclusive smart cities and mostly addressing the areas of smart environment and government. This paper suggests a framework for boosting their functions as transformation leaders, knowledge brokers, and technical mediators to facilitate the use of Industry 4.0 technologies for building inclusive smart cities.
Background: Firms in the Marche Region, Italy, seem to struggle with understanding the importance of Industry 4.0 technologies, including blockchain technology, and delay the adoption of these innovative technologies. Methods: This paper is based on findings of three levels of qualitative analysis: the first one is a literature review; the second uses secondary sources about the diffusion of Industry 4.0 in the Marche Region and the local institutions and policies favouring it, retrieved from institutional websites and web searches; the third uses primary data which has been collected through an explorative survey conducted by sending a questionnaire to local innovative firms between 25th and the 27th of October 2022. Results: The literature review shows that collaboration between triple helix actors can foster innovation in firms. Secondary data about firms in the Marche Region describes an economy made prevalently of micro enterprises not capable of adopting Industry 4.0 technologies, and individuates some institutions located in the region having the role of innovation intermediaries that help firms innovate. Among the secondary sources, the new Smart Specialisation Strategy 2021-2027 of the Marche Region emphasises the role of Industry 4.0 for economic development which requires the involvement of the research and innovation actors present in the region. The survey conducted for this study shows that the firms that adopted Industry 4.0 technologies have strong ties and collaboration with triple helix institutions. Conclusions: Based on the findings, a triple helix model is proposed to foster the diffusion of Industry 4.0 technologies in the Marche Region, where innovation intermediaries are called to manage knowledge flows both among them and between academia, government, and industry, to activate a virtuous cycle of innovation adoption and valorisation.
: This paper describes the opportunities that blockchain technology applied to product traceability might offer to firms of Made in Italy against counterfeiting of their products, and the challenges to the adoption of blockchain technology in these firms, especially SMEs. The focus is on the Italian Region Marche which is characterised by a prevalence of firms specialised in the Made in Italy. The paper proposes a triple helix approach to facilitate the diffusion of blockchain technology in the Marche Region and individuates policies and non-academic actors at the regional level that could help SMEs to know and adopt this innovative technology.
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