Search results

The third sector is a producer of trust and positive social interactions, while the mafias destroy trust and social norms. Confiscation of assets and reusing confiscated assets are important tools from an economic and symbolic point of view for contrasting the mafias and promoting a sustainable and fair economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of the third sector for reusing confiscated assets.

The paper is based on a theoretical analysis of why a third sector role is utilized for reusing confiscated assets, thus focusing on the economic, social and cultural dimensions. Italian legislation and data are presented for showing the relevant and innovative role of the third sector for reusing confiscated assets. A case study of the city of Forlì, based in Northern Italy, is presented and is of particular interest because it is a part of Italy that does not have a historical presence of the mafias. The University of Bologna is now a partner of the project through the Observatory of Legality. Five hectares of confiscated, urban land have been given to two social cooperatives for organic agriculture and social gardening, which are managed by disadvantaged people working in the cooperatives.

The case study offers useful implications for other national and international situations. The results support that the third sector can be an effective partner in managing and restoring the goods to their community.

A suggested focus on a European framework toward a more integrated approach for reusing confiscated assets.

An opportunity for policy decisions to be made toward a stronger approach for reusing confiscated assets via the third sector and civil society actors, starting from positive cases, such as the Forlì case study.

Possibility of a stronger civic engagement for reusing confiscated assets previously owned by mafias.

Scaling up from a pioneering activity to a large-scale network of social enterprises and partnerships could make the difference.

This paper aims at investigating the rather unexplored issue of how green innovators address the knowledge needs emerging when initiating a sustainability path, comparing their knowledge strategies with those of non‐green innovators.

The authors investigate this issue using data from the 2008 Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Focusing on manufacturing firms, they identify the main characteristics and knowledge assets of firms introducing environmental innovations (EIs) as opposed to those of other innovators.

The authors' results suggest that the development of EIs entails a higher recourse to external knowledge, in the form of use of external sources of information, acquiring R&D from external firms and cooperation. Relationships with partners that do not belong to the supply chain – including KIBS, universities, research institutions and competitors – are far more important than for other innovations. On the contrary, differences between the two categories are less marked when it comes to investments in internal knowledge resources. Finally, proactive environmental innovators have very different knowledge strategies than reactive ones, which resemble non‐green innovators.

The main contribution of this paper is that it investigates the unexplored issue of how firms assess and develop the knowledge needed to develop EIs. By comparing them with the strategies of non‐green innovators, the analysis performed in the paper allows understanding the peculiarities of such innovations. Furthermore, the authors contribute to the literature by verifying how knowledge management strategies vary according to the differential importance that sustainability has for the firm's innovative strategy.