Cristina Boari is full professor of Business Strategy at the University of Bologna. She has been the Dean of the Department of Management and the coordinator of the PhD program in Management of the University of Bologna. She was visiting scholar at the Institute of Business Research of the Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo, at the Graduate school of Business of the University of Wisconsin, at the Jaume I University of Castellon de la Plana and at  Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre. Present research interests include the relations between inter-organizational networks, entrepreneurship and innovation, with a special focus on industrial clusters and creative industries.