This article emphasises that a key to understanding the (net) benefits of the Internet is to remember that all online activity has an offline context. People live their lives offline. Therefore, the fall in communication costs and the fall in distribution costs associated with the diffusion of...

The aim of the paper is to discuss the new sequential and cumulative approaches of location process based on non-market interactions. We distinguish between the role played by network externalities and the one played by information externalities in order to distinguish locational clusters and...

Les développements régionaux nous ont montré (Ardichvilli 2003) que la créativité d'opportunité d'affaire a un rôle important dans le développement régional. Les acteurs opérationnels que sont les entreprises sont générateurs "d'idéatives", si elles ont à leur disposition une base...

This paper uses Local Labour Market Areas (LLMA) data to investigate the dynamics of employment in the Information Technology (IT) sector in Italy 2001-2005. Adopting the framework suggested by Glaeser et al. (1992) and Combes (2000), the aim is to test if agglomeration forces might...

We study six high tech areas in the Mezzogiorno through in-depth field research. The starting point of these industrial systems is always the opening of a large new plant owned by a large firm. Other large firms follow, together with new locally-owned small and medium enterprises. These...

Trust among agents (or persons) involved in the process of innovation is intrinsic to successful innovation. An examination of the firm’s trust in its agents at various stages of the innovation process will therefore contribute practical insights into best business practices, as well as policy...

The rapid developments in information and communication technologies (ICT) and the increased use of ICT motivate the vision of an evolving digital economy. During the last decade this evolving digital economy has been the pre-eminent driver of structural change and economic growth at both the...

The paper investigates the main characteristics of the most relevant high-tech industrial districts (or clusters) located in the South of Italy and analyzes the public policies that aim to support their development. Section one, which draws on a wide survey to describe both the start-up process...

The “new economic geography” of the IT industry is shaped by two characteristic features of the industry, smaller size of the firms and zero transportation costs of its products that provide its ability of being a ‘footloose’ industry. The IT industry could locate itself in a region on...