Urban development, innovation culture and the evolution of entrepreneurship: The opportunity of open innovation in Southern Italy

Urban development, innovation culture and the evolution of entrepreneurship (Abstract). The beginning of the twenty-first century has been characterized by a profound evolution of urban systems; they featured an intensity and a depth similar to those which generated the model of “industrial city” in the past centuries. In fact, a new phenomenon has arisen, i.e. the birth of “megacities” – featuring a propagation and a multitude of areas for living, studying and working as well as a diversification in habits and behaviours – something which allowed (and actually led) many people to belong to more places at the same time, within an increasingly global factual reality This process has produced “urban constellations” dissemination over very large territories, i.e. functionally integrated areas which differentiate themselves economically and socially. Furthermore, innovations in telecommunications, such as the Internet, coupled with the spread of rapid transport systems, have resulted in a new geography of space, more and more dominated by the logic of networks, especially regarding the growth of virtual communities and online sociability. The metropolises, however, have not been erased by the virtual networks: rather, they have been transformed by means of the interaction of cultural content, of the expansion of electronic media and of the development of relations between people, thus generating a unique combination of places, individuals and networks. In such a milieu, the role of business and enterprise, moving over from the hallmarks of the Fordist paradigm and adopting more and more a new set of features, which are linked to the segmentation of markets, represents a key driver for the development of these new urban forms.