Abstract:

In Italy, innovative start-ups are young, high-tech companies with strong growth potential and represent one of the key points of Italian industrial policy [1]. Start-ups represent an important engine of industrial change and growth of economic systems, a strategic source of job creation and technological innovation [2]. The creation of a start-up is not an event, but a process that can take many years to occur [3] and that can be divided into different phases (e.g., birth, growth, maturity and decline [2]) thus determining a life cycle that only for a few start-ups results in success.

The recent literature highlights several factors as determinant for start-ups success. Among these, digitalization and open innovation are attracting more and more attention by both researchers and practitioners (e.g., [4][5]).

Notwithstanding the growing interest towards these topics, the literature is still fragmented, and to our knowledge no studies exist dealing with these three aspects jointly. Thus, the aim of this paper is to investigate the extant literature on start-ups, digitalization and open innovation. To reach this objective, a bibliometric and keywords analysis of the extant literature was carried out. The review resulted in identifying some key aspects and allowed us to articulate the structure of the research field on these topics and to trace its evolution over time [6], as well as to identify the concepts that persist over time, those that emerge with high frequency and those that, instead, have disappeared over the years [7].

References:
[1] Davidsson, P., Lindmark, L., & Olofsson, C., 1994. “New firm formation and regional development in Sweden”, Regional Studies, 28(4): 395-410.
[2] Bigliardi, B., & Galati, F. 2017. “Introduction: Factors influencing the patterns of growth of academic spin-offs”, International Journal of Entrepreneurship and . Innovation Management, 21(4-5): 291-298.
[3] Birley S. 1996. “Start-up”. In: Burns P., Dewhurst J. (eds) Small Business and Entrepreneurship. Macmillan Small Business Series. Palgrave (pp. 20-39), London.
[4] Elia, G., Margherita, A., & Passiante, G., 2020. “Digital entrepreneurship ecosystem: How digital technologies and collective intelligence are reshaping the entrepreneurial process”. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 150: 1-12.
[5] H. Chesbrough, “The era of open innovation MIT Sloan Management Review,” Spring, pp. 35–36, 2003.
[6] Pritchard, A. 1969. “Statistical bibliography or bibliometrics”. Journal of Documentation 25(4): 348-349.
[7] Fadlalla, A., & Amani, F. 2015. “A keyword-based organizing framework for ERP intellectual contributions”. Journal of Enterprise Information Management 28(5): 637-657.

Keywords:

Start-ups, digitalization, open innovation, review.