Digital Innovation Innovation Processes in Virtual Clusters and Digital Regions

An exploration of digital innovation. It presents: the results of an empirical analysis of the new phenomenon of virtual clusters (VCs), which highlight the dynamics of these emerging innovation networks in the digital economy - and the challenges that this dynamics represents for the conventional theories, which are unable to define a comprehensive framework that supports the development of these networks; an overview of the most significant theoretical approaches to innovation networks, and their rethinking in the digital economy scenario - following a neo-Schumpeterian approach, a particular focus is on the opportunity to integrate the economic benefits coming from the geographical proximity, with the advantages related to the organizational proximity allowed by the ICT networks; the constituent points of a strategy aimed at sustaining the developing processes of a VC in a drawback region, and a description of the e-Salento project, an application of this strategy to an Italian drawback region, the Salento - some general implications of the project for theory and practice are also discussed; and the architecture and the master plan of two initiatives within the e-Salento proje