Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Algorithms and Industry 4.0 in Firms and Clusters

Luciana Lazzeretti is Full professor of Management at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Italy.Rafael Boix Domenech is Full professor of Economic Structure at the Faculty of Economics, Department of Economic Structure, University of Valencia, Spain.Jose-Luis Hervas-Oliver is Full professor of Management at the Departamento de Organización de Empresas, Universitat Politècnica de València, Spain.Niccolò Innocenti is Assistant professor of Management at the Department of Economics and Management, University of Florence, Italy.

• Introduction: Artificial intelligence, big data, algorithms and Industry 4.0 in firms and clusters 1. The emergence of artificial intelligence in the regional sciences: a literature review 2. Artificial intelligence in hospitality and tourism. State of the art and future research avenues 3. Learning as imitation or mimesis: how ‘smart’ is machine learning for its planning controllers? 4. Does regional innovation policy really work for Industry 4.0? Evidence for industrial districts 5. The actors’ role in industrial districts facing the challenge of technologies 4.0 between absorption and dissemination 6. Robots and the productivity of local manufacturing systems in Emilia-Romagna: the mediating role of occupational similarity and complexity 7. Living innovation machines: modelling innovation in time and space variable-geometry territorial units using machine learning 8. The mechanisms underlying the emergence of innovation ecosystems: the case of the AI ecosystem in Montreal 9. How real will the metaverse be? Exploring the spatial impact of virtual worlds