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Francesco SILVESTRI

Ricercatore t.d. art. 24 c. 3 lett. B
Dipartimento di Comunicazione ed Economia

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Pubblicazioni

2024 - Natural parks and sustainable development: a theoretical study [Capitolo/Saggio]
Silvestri, Francesco
abstract

We Analyse the role of natural parks in Europe in mediating among diverging interests on the use of natural resources. Using standard economic concepts, we highlight that natural parks provide different types of goods and act as place-based institutions for sustainable development

2023 - Do informal institutions matter for the economic resilience of European regions? A study of the post-2008 shock [Articolo su rivista]
Prodi, Elena; Ghinoi, Stefano; Rubini, Lauretta; Silvestri, Francesco
abstract

This paper investigates the relationship between informal institutions and resilience across EU regions in the years following the 2008 Great Recession. By using voluntary work as a proxy for informal institutions, we analyse its association with regional resilience over two different periods: the resistance phase (2008–2010) and the recovery phase (2010–2013). Overall, we find robust evidence that voluntary work is positively associated with greater regional resilience. Our results also show that there is a relation between voluntary work and formal institutions, represented by welfare state models. Overall, the effect of voluntary work is always positive for strong welfare states, but its effect is mitigated by the presence of public provisions. Additionally, in regions with a relatively weaker institutional context, informal institutions retain their positive effect. However, in this context, informal institutions appear to take more time to deploy their effects, but their positive impact on regional labour market recovery is even stronger than in other welfare regimes, probably due to the poor public support that characterises this welfare system.

2023 - Italian inner areas' strategic plans - A textual network analysis of the Appennino Emiliano and Madonie case studies [Capitolo/Saggio]
De Vita, Riccardo; Lucio Gaeta, Giuseppe; Silvestri, Francesco; Ghinoi, Stefano
abstract

In 2012, the Italian government introduced the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI accordingly with the Italian acronym). Local authorities and actors in inner areas were involved in the identification of the strengths and weaknesses of their territory and in the definition of development actions. This study proposes a textual network analysis of the strategic plans produced by two areas participating in the SNAI pilot project, one from the Centre-North of Italy (the Appennino Emiliano area) and one from the Southern part of the country (the Madonie area in Sicily). The analysis reveals that similarities between the two strategic plans emerge when the focus is on the territory and economic-related themes. At the same time, differences arise concerning the meaning and importance attributed to networking

2023 - LEADER local action groups and inner areas. An Italian case study [Articolo su rivista]
Barone, Vincenzo; Lucio Gaeta, Giuseppe; Ghinoi, Stefano; Silvestri, Francesco
abstract

In this study we investigate marginality in European rural areas to understand how EU policies for local development can stimulate novel approaches to social innovation and economic growth. The method applied is a Social Network Analysis (SNA) on the call tenders of an Italian Local Action Group managing the LEADER programme in the Piacentino and Parmense Apennine (Emilia-Romagna). The implementation of the Inner Area Strategy in a part of the LEADER territory (11 out of the 59 municipalities of the LEADER area) allows to verify complementarities, interrelations and overlays between the two development policies.

2023 - Local policymakers’ attitudes towards climate change: A multi-methods case study [Articolo su rivista]
Ghinoi, Stefano; De Vita, Riccardo; Silvestri, Francesco
abstract

Local authorities play a key role in tackling climate change by implementing targeted adaptation and mitigation measures. The specific implementation of a mix of adaptation and mitigation strategies is the outcome of the interaction of policymakers through a political debate and their attitudes towards climate change. By concentrating on the political discourses occurring in the Assembly of an Italian region (Emilia-Romagna), we use a multi-method approach of Discourse Network Analysis and Concept Mapping to investigate local policymakers’ positioning. Our investigation shows that actors are grouped not only according to their political affiliation, but also to the debated topics, and this relates to the preference for supporting adaptation or mitigation measures, which characterizes the local policy debate.

2022 - Transizione ecologica nel PNRR: alcune riflessioni sui processi di cambiamento e innovazione [Articolo su rivista]
Silvestri, Francesco; Lepore, Dominique; Spigarelli, Francesca; Rubini, Lauretta
abstract

The covid-19 pandemic caused a great economic and production shock at the global level, against which there has been an equally strong and rapid reaction from governments around the world. The eu has deployed various support tools, the main one being the Next Generation eu. To access this fund each country has been asked to prepare a National Recovery and Resilience Plan (nrrp). This contribution focuses on the Italian nrrp for the part concerning the ecological transition, and in particular Mission 2, «Green revolution and ecological transition». The Mission’s structure, objectives and ability to encourage change and innovation are discussed and implications for both policy makers and future research are proposed.

2021 - Exploring Networking of Third Sector Organizations: A Case Study Based on the Quartieri Spagnoli Neighbourhood in Naples (Italy) [Articolo su rivista]
Lucio Gaeta, Giuseppe; Ghinoi, Stefano; Silvestri, Francesco; Trasciani, Giorgia
abstract

In the last decades, European Third Sector Organizations have been increasingly affected by marketization and the reduction of public resources for social services, hence pushed to develop new strategies to accomplish their social mission while remaining economically efficient. The existing literature suggests that the activation of networking activities can be a strategy to overcome these problems. By using a partially mixed-methods approach, this study investigates factors that stimulate the TSOs’ networking and attitudes toward different types of informal and formal networks. Our results suggest that TSOs try to cope with contextual challenges by activating both formal and informal networks, depending on financial and structural opportunities, but also suggest that the rationalities moving TSOs are highly heterogeneous.

2021 - Innovation in the Solid Waste Management industry: integrating Neoclassical and Complexity Theory perspectives [Articolo su rivista]
Libero Gaeta, Giuseppe; Ghinoi, Stefano; Silvestri, Francesco; Tassinari, Mattia
abstract

Often considered a traditional labour intensive activity, in recent years, the solid waste management (SWM) industry has been largely interested in innovation. Nonetheless, the analysis of innovations in the SW industry is frequently confined to process innovation in the disposal segment, neglecting other kinds of innovation – such as product innovation and organizational innovation – in other segments. While several economic theoretical frameworks have been developed for interpreting eco-innovation in general, a specific analysis of innovation in each segment of SWM is still missing, despite the specificities of this sector. To fill this gap, this paper shows how complexity theory can be profitably used to integrate the more traditional neoclassical approach, offering a comprehensive theoretical framework to analyse innovation in the SWM industry from both a market and firm perspective (the neoclassical approach) and from a social perspective (the complexity theory framework). Four main typologies of the SW market system, exhibiting different kinds of innovation, are outlined: (i) a “traditional” landfill-oriented system; (ii) a modern “waste-to-energy” incinerator-oriented system; (iii) a “light recycling” system with integrated solutions and a selection performance that is lower than 50%; and (iv) a “hard recycling” system.

2021 - Planning sustainable development of local productive systems: A methodological approach for the analyt-ical identification of Ecoregions [Articolo su rivista]
Assiri, Marco; Barone, Vincenzo; Silvestri, Francesco; Tassinari, Mattia
abstract

At the local and regional levels, planning for sustainable development rests on the structural peculiarities of territories following a development model that lays its foundations on the notion of the Marshallian industrial district. Recently, this form of production organization has been recognized as also featuring an organic agricultural sector, where the creation of ecoregions (or bio-districts) emphasizes the territorial dimension of sustainable development. Nevertheless, whilst ecoregions are acquiring substantial relevance at the international level, a comprehensive methodological approach for their analytical identification is still missing, thereby affecting the ability of policymakers to effectively identify territories suitable to enter an ecoregion. The few studies available on this topic adopt a narrow perspective when identifying ecoregions, considering only the dimensions that are strictly related to organic production and ignoring substantial variables that are able to capture the activities and elements that generate positive externalities and feed the economic, social and environmental life of a potential ecoregion. To fill this gap in the literature, this paper makes two innovative contributions. First, the paper discusses the notion of an ecoregion by stressing its relationship with other territorial features (i.e., environmental, social, and economic) that complement the agricultural dimensions. Second, the paper proposes a comprehensive methodological approach for the analytical identification of ecoregions considering not only the biological and agricultural features of territories but also crucial aspects related to their environmental, social and economic contexts. In this regard, the paper develops a new composite indicator, the Ecoregional Vocation Index (EVI) e to assess the vocation of territories to enter an ecoregion. As an illustrative example, the EVI is employed to analyse 29 municipalities belonging to the area of the Bologna Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region, Italy). The results of the analysis provide a ranking that classifies these municipalities from best to the worst in terms of their suitability to belong to an ecoregion. The results are presented and discussed to show how this methodological approach can be generally employed in sustainable territorial planning to support policymakers and other relevant stakeholders in the participatory processes concerning the creation of ecoregions.

2020 - Regional development of Circular Economy in the European Union: a multidimensional analysis [Articolo su rivista]
Silvestri, Francesco; Spigarelli, Francesca; Tassinari, Mattia
abstract

Within the framework of EU policies and measures to develop the Circular Economy (CE) model, the paper sheds light on a relevant and important topic not so well debated in the literature, i.e. the adoption of CE at the regional level. Our key research question is: how do European Regions differ in terms of implementation of the CE? In order to address this question, we build two composite indicators - the Circular Economy Static Index (CESI) and the Circular Economy Dynamic Index (CEDI) - that permitted both a static and a dynamic evaluation of the CE performance of European regions (NUTS 2). This double reading of CE performances has allowed us to classify the European regions into four groups, on the basis of the results of our analysis. The “Never give up” group (1) is characterized by above-median performance for both the composite indicators; this group includes some of the most developed and innovative regions in Europe (including France: Île de France, Belgium: Brabant Wallon, Antwerpen and Région de Bruxelles, Germany: Berlin and Hamburg, and Spain: Catalunya). The group “Satiated and sleepy regions” (2), namely those regions where CESI is performing well, but the CEDI shows low values, incorporates many of the richest regions in Europe, for example, Freiburg, Germany and the Comunidad de Madrid, Spain and includes some of the more developed regions in Italy. The “The best is yet to come” group (3), is characterized by low values for CESI and high performance in CEDI, most of those falling into these groups are regions from Eastern Europe. The “We don’t mind” group (4), is composed of the regions with modest values on both Indexes, and is characterized by the presence of very low performing regions, including the majority of Italian regions. The novelty of this approach with respect to literature and the policy implications of our findings are then discussed.

2020 - The role of local stakeholders in disseminating knowledge for supporting the Circular Economy: a network analysis approach [Articolo su rivista]
Ghinoi, Stefano; Silvestri, Francesco; Steiner, Bodo
abstract

Starting from the lack of empirical evidence on the role of local stakeholders in developing a Circular Economy system, we found that: In a local context, presence of a multifaceted system of relationships according with different fields of CE; Food Waste is more perceived as a social issue rather than environmental at the local level; Central actors act as tertium gaudens rather than iugens; Policymakers could facilitate the emergence of tertium iugens, opening the networks to a wider participation and knowledge exchange, and involving institutions with a higher iungens attitude (e.g. universities)

2020 - Toward the creation of novel food waste management systems: A network approach [Articolo su rivista]
Ghinoi, Stefano; Silvestri, Francesco; Steiner, Bodo
abstract

In light of the global significance of food waste, a greater focus on improving food waste management strategies is called for. Implementing such management strategies requires a better understanding of stakeholder relations. This paper analyses the structure of multiplex relations among stakeholders involved in the creation of a novel food waste management system, investigating the drivers of network formation when multiple collaborations are observed between pairs of stakeholders. We apply Social Network Analysis to study food waste reduction strategies in the City of Ferrara (Italy). Our results provide support for the practical relevance of multiple interactions across dyadic relationships in stakeholder networks. They also suggest that ‘third parties’ are not necessary for an effective networking strategy, and that relationships between stakeholders of similar levels of expertise are not required for establishing multiple relationships, suggesting that functionally diverse coalitions are of greater practical relevance for food waste management strategies.

2015 - Innovation and Technical Change in the European Municipal Waste Industry [Working paper]
Silvestri, F.
abstract

Municipal Waste (hereafter MW) sector is commonly considered an industry dominated by the collection segment and by labour intensive activity, with almost no room for innovation apart from waste-to-energy incinerators. In this work we intend to argue this perception, demonstrating that even when focused on labour intensive activities such as selection and recycling, MW sector is interested by innovation and technical change. But we claim that standard innovation theory developed by Neoclassical economics miss to represent a useful theoretical framework, and that Complexity Theory allows to better interpret innovation in this field.

2014 - Politiche a sostegno del sistema di ricerca e sviluppo in Danimarca, Finlandia, Francia, Germania, Italia, Spagna e Svezia [Working paper]
Russo, M.; Silvestri, F.; Fiordelmondo, V.; Caloffi, A.; Rossi, F.; Ghinoi, S.; Kaulard, A.
abstract

As a complementary research in the project "Poli.in_Analysis and modeling of Innovation Poles in Tuscany", this paper addresses the issue of how are structured policies for innovation in other EU countries and Italian regions that have adopted policies of innovation through the creation of innovation poles. Integrating a research produced by Caloffi, Mariani and Rulli (2014) on innovation policies in the Italian regions, the paper analyses the policies of innovation and technology transfer of some of the major European countries: Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, United Kingdom, Spain, Sweden, and six Italian regions having innovation poles policies. For each country, the survey highlights the following issues. 1. Background: there is a national policy supporting the regional policies? At what level decisions are made concerning technology transfer? What are the infrastructure created at both national and regional levels? 2. Regions: which will be considered and why? 3. Time horizon: in which periods of time are individual policies for innovation active? 4. Financial dimension: what is the budget invested in those policies? 5. Beneficiaries: the aim is mainly to large companies or SMEs? Who are the stakeholders? What are the institutions involved? 6. Hints for the comparison with the policies of the Tuscany Region: what are the issues confrinted in other countries to identify the key players of innovation policy? What degree of similarity have the concepts used in the country compared to those we ientify in Tuscany (technology clusters, innovation poles, competence centers, network of incubators, ...)? For each country sources of information are listed. The paper presents also a review on six Italian regions that implemented policies for in-novation poles.

2014 - Politiche di innovazione e trasferimento tecnologico in Toscana. Ricognizione degli strumenti attivati nel periodo 2000-2013 [Working paper]
Russo, M.; Silvestri, F.; Fiordelmondo, V.; Caloffi, A.; Rossi, F.; Ghinoi, S.; Kaulard, A.
abstract

The survey of innovation policies and technology transfer activated by the Tuscany Region (Italy) in the periods 2000-2006 and 2007-2013 is one of the tools to support the research project "Poli.in_Analysis and modeling of Innovation Poles in Tuscany". In the first part of this paper we present a detailed review of innovation policies in Tuscany, by listing the calls, decrees and infrastructure created by the various policies, from the RIS and RIS +, implemented at the end of the 90s and early 2000s, to the last decrees issued in July 2014 on the basis of policies ERDF 2014-2020. On the basis of the legislation analyzed, we propose a timeline with a graphical representation where we highlight the relationship between the decrees, calls for funding and infrastructure created in the period 2000-2014. Where possible, the financial resources available to the region are reported. To define the purpose, the time evolution and the mutual relations between the entities and the infrastructure is the Glossary containing: the description of the infrastructure that facilitate or promote innovation; some definitions of the key technology transfer system in Tuscany; definitions of the services included in the catalog of advanced and qualified services. The Glossary is divided into three sections: Infrastructure or entities that facilitate or promote innovation; Definition; Qualified services. The sources used to prepare the report and the time line were those provided by the Region and, as a supplement, other documents and decrees that have been sourced from the official site of the Tuscany Region. As for the preparation of the glossary, in addition to the official documents of the Region of Tuscany we used also the corporate websites of the various entities described.

2013 - LEVE. Reti di competenza e sviluppo locale in provincia di Livorno [Working paper]
Russo, M.; Fiordelmondo, V.; Kaulard, A.; Mengoli, P.; Natali, A.; Silvestri, F.
abstract

Il progetto “Leve_Reti di competenze, istruzione e innovazione nella Provincia di Livorno” è uno studio preliminare alla progettazione di politiche per l’innovazione. Il contesto sociale ed economico preso in esame è quello della Provincia di Livorno. Nella ricerca, che si avvale dell’esperienza di ricerca-azione di Officina Emilia (UniMORE). Al fine di valorizzare le sinergie formative e produttive già esistenti e al contempo di rintracciare nuove linee di interazione e collaborazione, abbiamo adottato il modello di innovazione di Lane e Maxfield (1997). I fondamenti teorici di questo studio vedono l 'innovazione come un processo che emerge da interazioni che avvengono entro relazioni generative, cioè relazioni tra attori eterogenei che condividono una visione, che inducono a cambiamenti nel modo in cui essi vedono loro stessi, il loro mondo e coloro con cui si relazionano, determinando innovazioni che si caratterizzano come nuove attribuzioni di artefatti o nuove identità. Questi cambiamenti sono spesso cumulativi, e creano le condizioni perché avvengano nuove relazioni generative. Tali processi di interazione comprendono diversi elementi cognitivi, sociali, tecnici, economici e politici, che si estendono a diversi livelli dell’organizzazione sociale e avvengono secondo scale temporali differenti. Le dinamiche dei processi di innovazione, stimolate da tali relazioni, sono condizionate anche dalla presenza di attori ed istituzioni: creano legami tra agenti ed organizzazioni con competenze simili o complementari, favoriscono la riproduzione di sistemi regolatori e la diffusione di codici di comunicazione condivisi, producono beni pubblici importanti per il funzionamento del sistema economico e sociale.

2012 - Una lettura delle dinamiche dell’industria automobilistica europea in termini di Flying Geese e di Sophistication Index [Working paper]
Silvestri, F.
abstract