Papers by Gabriella Levanti
ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speedi... more ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speeding up the development and transfer of technological innovation, particularly in less successful areas. The focus on todays’ knowledge-based economy, has increasingly shown that innovation is a social process (Gibbons et al, 1994; Chesbrough, 2003 and 2011) rooted on the interactions and knowledge exchanges among a variety of actors (such as firms, universities, research organizations, government institutions, and so on). Each of these actors is endowed with idiosyncratic and specialized sets of resources, knowledge and capabilities. As a result, the critical determinants of competitive/innovative advantage rest not only on the innovation capabilities and activities of a single firm, but also on the technological knowledge and capabilities that spread across the environment in which the firm is embedded. In order to shed light on these (internal and external) determinants of innovation, we integrate: i) the viable system perspective (Beer, 1972 and 1984; Golinelli, 2010); with ii) the national innovation systems theory (Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992; Soete, 2007); and iii) the triple helix model of innovation (Etzkowitz and Leyersdoff, 1999 and 2000). More in detail, using the holistic approach provided by the viable system perspective, we see the firm as a viable system consisting of a collection of operational elements which are held together by a meta-system. The meta-system and the operational system continuously interact with the environment and are able to be both adaptive and proactive towards external stimuli. Accordingly, this approach analyzes the influence on a single firm exerted by the overlying systemic entities in the environment (named the supra-systems). The integration of the viable system perspective with the aforementioned innovation theories allows to scrutinize the relationships that link academic spin offs with other actors involved in the innovation process. By doing so, we underscore the context conditions and institutions that support academic spin off emergence and development, as well as those that enhance and speed up the transfer of technological knowledge from university to industry. The second part of the paper is aimed to apply the theoretical framework elaborated earlier to examine the case of the business incubator established by the University of Palermo, named "Consorzio Arca", and the academic spin offs it supports. We analyzes this case study in order to assess the capacity of the depicted theoretical framework to deliver a satisfactory explanation of the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speeding up the development and transfer of technological innovation, particularly in less successful areas.
Contributions to Management Science, 2016
In this chapter, we investigate the drivers of interfirm network structural dynamics and their in... more In this chapter, we investigate the drivers of interfirm network structural dynamics and their influence on knowledge creation and diffusion processes that occur in such networks over time. Interfirm knowledge networks are complex webs of linkages connecting a variety of idiosyncratic firms within and across industries. Aimed to contribute to answer the recent calls for a more dynamic and multilevel view to understand network structures and processes, we leverage the complex network research to formulate a multilevel theoretical framework that clarifies the structural dynamics and knowledge creation and diffusion potential of interfirm networks.
Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, 2015
Purpose– This paper aims to explore the latent structure of the literature on interorganizational... more Purpose– This paper aims to explore the latent structure of the literature on interorganizational network and innovation as well as to map the main themes and empirical advances in this research stream.Design/methodology/approach– Using bibliometric coupling, the authors analyze the citation patterns in 67 management studies regarding innovation networks, published in ISI-journals from January 1996 to October 2012.Findings– The authors identify the conceptual orientations that studies share. Bibliometric analysis allows us to draw an overview of how this field of research has developed, recognizing in essence six main clustered research themes: networks as a framework that sustains firm innovativeness in specific contexts; network dimensions and knowledge processes; networks as a means to access and share resources/knowledge; the interplay between firm and network characteristics and its effects on innovative processes; empirical research on networks in highly dynamic industries; an...
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2014
Obiettivi. Il processo di creazione di nuove imprese risulta particolarmente complesso qualora pa... more Obiettivi. Il processo di creazione di nuove imprese risulta particolarmente complesso qualora parta da idee altamente innovative che trovano difficoltà ad essere percepite come valide dai sovra sistemi. Obiettivo del presente lavoro è dimostrare che gli incubatori accademici svolgono un ruolo determinante per la vitalità di queste imprese. Metodologia. Attraverso un caso studio contraddistinto da un embedded design si analizza l'efficacia del processo di incubazione degli spin-off dell'incubatore del Consorzio Arca. Risultati. L'efficacia del processo di incubazione è dimostrata dall'elevato numero di spin- dagli spin-off. Implicazioni pratiche. Il Consorzio ARCA rappresenta un esempio virtuoso di incubatore accademico; esso è stato in grado di creare un "humus culturale" atto a favorire la diffusione dell'imprenditorialità seppure in un contesto economicamente sottosviluppato (Sicilia). Originalità del lavoro. Molti studi sugli spin-off accademici si ...
This chapter aims to identify the main determinants that define the architectural properties of n... more This chapter aims to identify the main determinants that define the architectural properties of network emergence and significantly influence the dynamics underlying network evolution in time. The identification and analysis of these determinants, as well as the dynamic ...
International Business Research, 2011
This paper aims to detect the crucial determinants and processes that shape the emergence and evo... more This paper aims to detect the crucial determinants and processes that shape the emergence and evolution of interfirm network cognitive morphology. We pinpoint three relatively distinct but coexistent levels which define the fundamental structure of the network: the microsystemic (or the single firm) level; the mesosystemic (or the groups of firms within the network) level; and the macrosystemic (or the overarching network) level. Then, we integrate the complex system perspective (Morin, 1977; Prigogine and Stengers, 1984; Anderson, 1999) applied to networks with studies regarding theoretical models that elucidate network structuring and dynamics cultivated in the new \u201cscience of networks\u201d (Barab\ue1si, 2002; Buchanan, 2002; Watts, 2003) in such a way to typify the mesosystemic level as an accelerating network and the macrosystemic level as a selforganizing network. Finally, we represent multilevel network cognitive dynamics by means of a three-level cognitive shape that we term \u2018network cognitive domain\u2019 and dissect the correspondent multilevel governance scope of the network cognitive sub-domains
ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speedi... more ABSTRACT This paper aims to analyze the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speeding up the development and transfer of technological innovation, particularly in less successful areas. The focus on todays’ knowledge-based economy, has increasingly shown that innovation is a social process (Gibbons et al, 1994; Chesbrough, 2003 and 2011) rooted on the interactions and knowledge exchanges among a variety of actors (such as firms, universities, research organizations, government institutions, and so on). Each of these actors is endowed with idiosyncratic and specialized sets of resources, knowledge and capabilities. As a result, the critical determinants of competitive/innovative advantage rest not only on the innovation capabilities and activities of a single firm, but also on the technological knowledge and capabilities that spread across the environment in which the firm is embedded. In order to shed light on these (internal and external) determinants of innovation, we integrate: i) the viable system perspective (Beer, 1972 and 1984; Golinelli, 2010); with ii) the national innovation systems theory (Freeman, 1987; Lundvall, 1992; Soete, 2007); and iii) the triple helix model of innovation (Etzkowitz and Leyersdoff, 1999 and 2000). More in detail, using the holistic approach provided by the viable system perspective, we see the firm as a viable system consisting of a collection of operational elements which are held together by a meta-system. The meta-system and the operational system continuously interact with the environment and are able to be both adaptive and proactive towards external stimuli. Accordingly, this approach analyzes the influence on a single firm exerted by the overlying systemic entities in the environment (named the supra-systems). The integration of the viable system perspective with the aforementioned innovation theories allows to scrutinize the relationships that link academic spin offs with other actors involved in the innovation process. By doing so, we underscore the context conditions and institutions that support academic spin off emergence and development, as well as those that enhance and speed up the transfer of technological knowledge from university to industry. The second part of the paper is aimed to apply the theoretical framework elaborated earlier to examine the case of the business incubator established by the University of Palermo, named "Consorzio Arca", and the academic spin offs it supports. We analyzes this case study in order to assess the capacity of the depicted theoretical framework to deliver a satisfactory explanation of the role that academic spin offs play in enhancing and speeding up the development and transfer of technological innovation, particularly in less successful areas.
Conference Presentations by Gabriella Levanti
"According to the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), the process of creation of new firms goes throug... more "According to the Viable Systems Approach (VSA), the process of creation of new firms goes through the transformation of new ideas and knowledge into viable systems.
This is a complex process, in particular when it starts from very innovative and original ideas that may be not easily understood by the external stakeholders of the seed firm (supra-systems). The business incubator plays a key role in order to bridge this gap of understanding between the innovating seed and the main actors in its environmental context, creating inter-relational ties and consonance that are pivotal for the competitiveness of the firm.
In this study we analyze spin-offs incubated and generated by the business incubator managed by the ARCA Consortium, located inside the university campus of the University of Palermo in Sicily. We follow the ways how the ARCA incubator selects and supports the development of business ideas coming from university labs and transforms these ideas into viable firms. The analysis of this process according to a viable systems perspective sheds light on a better understanding of the systemic actions that create the prerequisite conditions for the achievement of viability of spin-off firms. "
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Papers by Gabriella Levanti
Conference Presentations by Gabriella Levanti
This is a complex process, in particular when it starts from very innovative and original ideas that may be not easily understood by the external stakeholders of the seed firm (supra-systems). The business incubator plays a key role in order to bridge this gap of understanding between the innovating seed and the main actors in its environmental context, creating inter-relational ties and consonance that are pivotal for the competitiveness of the firm.
In this study we analyze spin-offs incubated and generated by the business incubator managed by the ARCA Consortium, located inside the university campus of the University of Palermo in Sicily. We follow the ways how the ARCA incubator selects and supports the development of business ideas coming from university labs and transforms these ideas into viable firms. The analysis of this process according to a viable systems perspective sheds light on a better understanding of the systemic actions that create the prerequisite conditions for the achievement of viability of spin-off firms. "
This is a complex process, in particular when it starts from very innovative and original ideas that may be not easily understood by the external stakeholders of the seed firm (supra-systems). The business incubator plays a key role in order to bridge this gap of understanding between the innovating seed and the main actors in its environmental context, creating inter-relational ties and consonance that are pivotal for the competitiveness of the firm.
In this study we analyze spin-offs incubated and generated by the business incubator managed by the ARCA Consortium, located inside the university campus of the University of Palermo in Sicily. We follow the ways how the ARCA incubator selects and supports the development of business ideas coming from university labs and transforms these ideas into viable firms. The analysis of this process according to a viable systems perspective sheds light on a better understanding of the systemic actions that create the prerequisite conditions for the achievement of viability of spin-off firms. "