Purpose Industry 4.0 or digitization, from a regional innovation system (RIS) and policy perspective to improve regional innovation, is over-looked. Specifically, this paper aims to focus on analyzing the nascent European Commission (EC) digital innovation hub (DIH) program, designed for fostering transition into Industry 4.0 in regions and facilitating new path development. Design/methodology/approach Empirically, 10 Spanish DIH is explored through interviews and secondary data analysis. Findings The results suggest that DIHs despite their emerging and trial-and-error stage are designed for promoting multi-actor collaborative platforms including non-local actors to stimulate transition into Industry 4.0 by promoting place-based collaboration alliances that respond to local/regional contextual specificities and demands. These regional-based platforms facilitate public-private partnerships that co-design policy initiatives resulting from co-participation and negotiation of spatially-bounded oriented initiatives for digitizing. Originality/value The authors answer: what are the key characteristics of emerging European-level regional innovation policies aimed at facilitating Industry 4.0 in regions? This is the first study on the topic.

Most studies on innovation are aimed at covering technological innovation, neglecting other modes of innovation based on non-technological drivers. The latter, referred to as management innovation, consists of the implementation of new management practices, processes or organizational tasks. This work advances knowledge on the topic by exploring the joint effect of simultaneously introducing technological and management innovations on performance. Based on an analysis of 12,563 Spanish firms drawn from CIS data, our findings suggest that firms frequently pursue the simultaneous or joint introduction of both technological and management innovations and that integration impacts positively on a firm's performance, evidencing an inverted U-shape that suggest positive but diminishing returns. A theoretical framework using the capability-based view embraces the emerging conversation on management innovation issues and its relationship with the well-researched technological one.

In the financial industry, two relationships are well-researched: (i) innovation and financial performance and, (ii) sustainability and financial performance, both focused primarily on Western and advanced countries. The relationship between innovation and sustainability, however, is underresearched. This study's purpose consists of determining whether there is a relationship between innovation and corporate sustainability in the financial industry. In doing so, this study responds to a critical question: are the most innovative firms also the most sustainability-oriented? We empirically explore sustainability-oriented innovation in the financial industry of 11 catching-up countries in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Using Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data for 2012-2014, this study empirically analyzes a large sample of 1574 firms in the financial industry. Our results suggest that innovation is positively linked to corporate sustainability, pointing out that innovation capabilities are positively related to sustainability. Our study proposes a framework for analyzing innovation and sustainability from a capability-perspective.

This study's objective consists of deciphering whether collocation in MIDs, exerts a potential effect on a firm's discontinuous or radical innovative performance. The study explores and integrates economic geography with innovation literature in order to explore the relationship between Marshalllian Industrial Districts (MIDs) and firm innovation. Specifically, we encompass radical or discontinuous innovation, as opposed to an incremental or imitative one. We build a framework from which MIDs' effect on discontinuous innovation is approached. Using CIS data in Spain in district and non-district firms in a region, our results show that: (i) collocated firms' innovative performance is positively related to the District effect, as long as the innovation pursuit is incremental; (ii) collocation in MIDs does not facilitate the pursuit of radical innovation but mainly supports an incremental one, and (iii) district firms show asymmetric capabilities and innovative output, as long as the innovation pursuit is incremental, nor discontinuous. Implications for the MID framework are discussed.