Facing Digital and Knowledge Divide. The Mediterranean School of e-Business Management

ABSTRACT Though Digital and Knowledge Divide represents a crucial multidimensional phenomenon, they are usually investigated in terms of diffusion of ICTs physical infrastructure and access. The rising of the knowledge economy, enhanced by the fast diffusion of ICTs, drives a wider perspective on the divide among Countries, interpreting it more and more as the result of an asymmetry in the access to knowledge and in the readiness to apply it in order to renew the basics of their development dynamics. This asymmetry is particularly evident in the Mediterranean Area: the positive correlation between the Networked Readiness Index and the Global Competitive Index, developed at Global Economic Forum – INSEAD, suggests that the opposite sides of the Mediterranean Sea are performing a development path at two different paces. In the effort to face the challenge of supporting the creation of Intellectual Capital able to apply, diffuse and benefit from e-business, in 2005 the e-Business Management Section (eBMS) of Scuola Superiore ISUFI – University of Salento, Italy launched the “Mediterranean School of e-Business Management” initiative. The present work aims to offer a presentation of its genesis and the School’s most distinctive features, its action plan and the preliminary results of its activities. It also presents the role and the main challenges of the School in addressing the needs of the Mediterranean Countries towards a logic of partnership for the development of their intellectual assets.