Purpose
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.
Design/methodology/approach
Empirically, 10 Spanish DIH is explored through interviews and secondary data analysis.
Findings
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.
Originality/value
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.
Most studies on innovation are aimed at covering technological innovation, neglecting other modes of innovation based on non-technological drivers. The latter, referred to as management innovation, consists of the implementation of new management practices, processes or organizational tasks. This work advances knowledge on the topic by exploring the joint effect of simultaneously introducing technological and management innovations on performance. Based on an analysis of 12,563 Spanish firms drawn from CIS data, our findings suggest that firms frequently pursue the simultaneous or joint introduction of both technological and management innovations and that integration impacts positively on a firm's performance, evidencing an inverted U-shape that suggest positive but diminishing returns. A theoretical framework using the capability-based view embraces the emerging conversation on management innovation issues and its relationship with the well-researched technological one.
In the financial industry, two relationships are well-researched: (i) innovation and financial performance and, (ii) sustainability and financial performance, both focused primarily on Western and advanced countries. The relationship between innovation and sustainability, however, is underresearched. This study's purpose consists of determining whether there is a relationship between innovation and corporate sustainability in the financial industry. In doing so, this study responds to a critical question: are the most innovative firms also the most sustainability-oriented? We empirically explore sustainability-oriented innovation in the financial industry of 11 catching-up countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Using Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data for 2012-2014, this study empirically analyzes a large sample of 1574 firms in the financial industry. Our results suggest that innovation is positively linked to corporate sustainability, pointing out that innovation capabilities are positively related to sustainability. Our study proposes a framework for analyzing innovation and sustainability from a capability-perspective.
This study's objective consists of deciphering whether collocation in MIDs, exerts a potential effect on a firm's discontinuous or radical innovative performance. The study explores and integrates economic geography with innovation literature in order to explore the relationship between Marshalllian Industrial Districts (MIDs) and firm innovation. Specifically, we encompass radical or discontinuous innovation, as opposed to an incremental or imitative one. We build a framework from which MIDs' effect on discontinuous innovation is approached. Using CIS data in Spain in district and non-district firms in a region, our results show that: (i) collocated firms' innovative performance is positively related to the District effect, as long as the innovation pursuit is incremental; (ii) collocation in MIDs does not facilitate the pursuit of radical innovation but mainly supports an incremental one, and (iii) district firms show asymmetric capabilities and innovative output, as long as the innovation pursuit is incremental, nor discontinuous. Implications for the MID framework are discussed.
The aim of this paper is based on understanding how sustainability-oriented transition occurs in clusters. This study focuses on both drivers and actors of that transition. Empirical results based on induction, using mixed-methods on the Serra Gaucha wine cluster in the South of Brazil, suggest that, at the micro-level, the mobility and adoption of knowledge about sustainability and individual awareness will support sustainability-oriented strategies as a new source of competitive advantage. Then, at the meso-level, collective actors’ efforts towards sustainability in the cluster legitimize, disseminate and facilitate the adoption of new sustainable-oriented practices, creating a new cluster sub-identity (sustainability) compatible with the existing one. These actors utilize leading local firms in order to disseminate new practices and signal change in the territory. Lastly, macro-level governmental regulations, market pressures, and other environmental changes facilitate that clusters develop a collective-minded strategy towards sustainability.
The cross-flow microfiltration (CFM) of fruit juices allows obtaining products of high quality by conserving their organoleptic characteristics and microbiological stability during storage. The effect of the main macro-compounds and the transmembrane pressure (TMP) on the process performance with model fluids was evaluated. The model fluids concentration varied between 0.25 and 0.75% for pectin and 0.04 and 0.08% for cellulose. To study the influence of transmembrane pressure (TMP) and concentration on the hydrodynamic properties of the fouling layer ( , diffusivity (D) and the boundary layer thickness ) the Box-Behnken design with three replicas in the center was used. It was found that the CFM process is efficient and commercially feasible when working at a constant TMP of 1.93 bar and at concentrations of pectin and cellulose of 0.25% and 0.0513%, respectively.
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