History, creativity and innovation of the ‘Italia’ network. The case of Russia

Abstract

This article highlights essential issues concerning Italy’s role in the world as a source of innovation and creativity through the analysis of important Russian-Italian relations and cooperation, which date back from the 14th century. The period focussed upon in this paper is the last twenty years. Migration statistics are used to describe the intellectual migration from Italy to Russia in the years from 1997 to 2016. Moreover, a case study of several Italian enterprises in Russia are presented to explain the logic of the paradoxical predominance of the food and fashion industries within Russian-Italian cooperation partnerships. The paper also highlights how the development of high-tech imports from Italy to Russia is hampered by a number of socio-cultural factors. First of all, stereotypes created through the fact that the most important wealth of the Italian economy lies in sectors oriented toward the quality of life, such as the hotel and catering, food and fashion sectors. At the same time, the achievements of the Italian science industry are generally undervalued in the field of innovative technologies in the energy sector, for example as far as “smart cities”, “smart environment” are concerned.