Research

Creativity is a key element for sustaining the competitive advantages of firms in a global economy. The growing demand for innovative products that respond to the discerning consumer's desire for aesthetics and quality has put creativity and design at the forefront as new drivers of innovative products and services. Italian companies that have been able to create a new link between craftmanship and industrial prouction have become more innovative and competitive, especially those producing Made in Italy wares, such as the luxury sectors of fashion and design. 

In the last years TeDIS has deepened the topic of innovation in Public Administration, and in particular the role of  Information and Communication Tehnologies in supporting strategies and activities covered by public institutions, agencies and single offices, both at national and at local level. The introduction and upgrade of technologies can also sustain the relation among different institutions and the dialogue and interaction with citizens, enterpirses and associations.This area comprehend the following topics:

• e-government
• e-democracy
• technologies and new communication models for Culture and Tourism

TeDIS has been partner of a large number of projects leaded by Local Institutions, whose aims are the research, modelization, experimentation and diffusion of a new use of ICT in the public sector.

Logistics area of research focuses on supply chain management in local contexts and global economy. The social and economic development of Italian and European countries relies on the ability of SMEs to face changes brought about by global, regional and local threats. In this scenario, logistic represents a strategic leverage to compete on global scale since it can ensure the delocalisation of production phases, higher service standards and closer enterprises’ relationships with customers and suppliers. Nevertheless SMEs’ interconnection to logistic networks is not taken for granted: to compete in terms of costs and service quality, SMEs should be equipped with logistic interfaces which can reduce the information gap between them and specialized logistic operators. Research aims at identifying new opportunities of economic growth at local and international level based on innovative logistics services.

A core TeDIS research area was the study of Industrial Districts and SMEs in the local manufacturing contexts and in particular of their approach towards Network Technologies, Internationalization processes and Design.
The objective of the research is to analyse the level of convergence between the district economic model of development and ICT opportunities.
Through its activities, the most important was the TeDIS Survey, a permanent research program that analysed the diffusion of network technologies and the most challenging evolutionary trends within the Italian Industrial Districts according to a quantitative approach. TeDIS SUrvey was launched in 1999, monitoring more than 43 clusters all around the country.

The goal of this TeDIS study program was to describe and to analyze the internationalization trends of Italian SMEs and local manufacturing systems within the global economy scenario. The TeDIS program was based on innovative research methodologies that couple macro-economic analyses, surveys and case studies together.