Ghinoi, Stefano ORCID: 0000-0002-9857-4736 , De Vita, Riccardo, Steiner, Bodo and Sinatra, Alessandro (2021) Knowledge networks and the role of family firms: The case of an Italian regional cluster. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7 (3):193. ISSN 2199-8531 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/joitmc7030193)

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Abstract

Studies on open innovation (OI) have highlighted the importance of inter-organizational knowledge networks. However, little is known about OI networks established by family firms, and their roles in such knowledge networks. By focusing on one of the most important Italian footwear clusters, this paper applies Social Network Analysis to investigate the role of family firms in exchanging knowledge according to their intra-cluster position and extra-cluster openness. Our results provide novel evidence on the role of family firms in OI networks, as they suggest that family firms mainly operate as gatekeepers in the technological and managerial networks, while they act as external stars in the market and managerial networks.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	open innovation; knowledge network; social network analysis; regional cluster
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce H Social Sciences > HQ The family. Marriage. Woman Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Business Faculty of Business > Department of International Business & Economics Faculty of Business > Networks and Urban Systems Centre (NUSC) Faculty of Business > Networks and Urban Systems Centre (NUSC) > Centre for Business Network Analysis (CBNA)
Last Modified:	07 Sep 2021 15:14
URI:	http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/33722

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