The aim of this paper is to provide basic stylized facts about the spatial patterns of location and co-location of clusters of creative industries in Europe. The research proposes a novel methodology for detailing the spatial delimitation of clusters, based on a geo-statistical algorithm and firm-based micro-data. The procedure is applied to a continuous space of 16 European countries and 15 creative industries in 2009. The investigation reveals that creative firms are highly clustered, and that clusters are concentrated in a 'creative belt' stretching from the South of England to the South-east of Germany. These clusters are predominantly metropolitan, heterogeneous, cross borders, and may co-locate to form assemblages. JEL classification: R12, C49, Z0

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Innovation is not just an economic and or technological tool; it is also a social phenomenon. This paper draws together the concepts of creating shared value, the stakeholder theory, and socially oriented innovation to research companies' decisions on asserting socially related objectives when innovating. We examine the extent to which this decision process is bounded by constraints related to information and the characteristics of innovation. To perform this study we used a dataset that monitors the innovation activities of companies. This study offers an empirical analysis of the influence on firms' social innovation orientation. The empirical analysis supports the theoretical framework and identifies the firm's community links as key factors in developing new innovations, process and product-oriented, which have an impact on the social-innovation orientation of the firm. Additionally, it shows how the setting up of social goals when innovating is affected by the information source and the innovation mode being developed.There is a relationship between the creation process (represented by the product and process orientation) and the human-centered focus, represented by the social innovation construct, as highlighted by Brown and Wyatt (2010), confirming the first and second hypotheses.Specifically, the research findings show that the social innovation orientation within a company is influenced by two types of innovation-oriented activities: process-and product-oriented, and that the source of ideas for process and product innovation can be traced to information sources related to the firms' close environment, including clients and customers, their staff, and competitors and firms from the same industry, and the firm's local and close links. This explains how looking for the benefits of the close environment will also benefit the company and vice versa, as the main idea of the stakeholders theory claims (Freeman, 1984).This social innovation construct is based on six objectives: health, safety, employment, sustainability, growth, and environmental concerns (the model was tested on more than 5900 Spanish companies). Thus, it can be expected that firms looking for costs reduction on energy or waste consumption, process improvements, etc., might also be considering increasing or maintaining their market position and therefore their employment. Similarly, companies that search for new markets and products and aim to increase their market share are trying to maintain or increase their competitive position, and consequently their employment level.Moreover, the social-innovation model considers that the internal sources and the information from customers, competitors, consultants, commercial labs, and private R&D institutes are important drivers of both process and product orientation. It can be expected that other sources of information will have a relevant impact and elucidate companies' process and product orientation when innovating. On the other hand, the higher weightings in the model for sources such as customer...

Design thinking with the users, is a new way to understand and create new products and services. This new conception of design is leading to new larger ideas and more complex methods in order to improve this process. The new participatory methods, generates new design concepts and also, different experiences in the project. Since the development of technologies and social media the power of collaboration has become a way of thinking, which is changing the landscape of design. Participation of users and customers in the development of products and services started to be an important issue in Design Management literature in the last years. This paper presents the evolution of the terms related to participation, their use and interrelations. We consider that they are relevant nowadays, for the interpretation and communication of the user's role in the design as developers of relevant innovations in products and processes.Since our aim is to provide and increase understanding of participation in design, across the design community and product development, we want to clarify these concepts.

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