A Design-Driven Model for Cooperative Matchmaking in Made in Italy

This thesis addresses a service design problem of coordination: in many territorial contexts, collaboration does not fail because needs or resources are lacking, but because information, contacts, and constraints remain dispersed and do not become an operational pathway with clear criteria, accountability, and verifiable follow-up. To bridge this orchestration gap, the research proposes Digital Enabling Networks (DENs) as a reusable design artefact: not a proprietary platform, but a procedure that combines ordinary tools (short forms, shared spreadsheets, email/messaging) into a replicable workflow—data capture, compatibility rules, targeted activation, handover, and monitoring. The research adopts a design-based research approach with embedded case studies and evaluates the artefact through outcome-oriented indicators, showing—in the implemented case—the difference between generic visibility and outcomes that are actually usable in high-constraint contexts. A second, prospective instantiation explores extending the same grammar toward multi-actor configurations in cultural and tourism ecosystems, clarifying requirements and criteria for future empirical testing. Overall, the contribution is a design grammar for coordinating under scarcity: minimal, explainable, replicable, and open to critique.