The Milano Design Week: Events, Operators, Business Models

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to discuss the case of Milan “Fuorisalone” (literally “outside the fair”) - now renamed Milano Design Week - as the result of a long-term transformation that led to its current configuration, characterised by a complex business model (Smith, Binns and Tushman, 2010), where many actors and stakeholders interact in a network of cooperation and competition. The paper highlights how this transformation was led by the design culture (Deserti and Rizzo, 2014; Concilio, Deserti and Rizzo, 2014) as a pervasive character of the city. The analysis of the case compares the Milano Design Week business model with the fair business model, focusing on the elements of differentiation and on the scaling up mechanisms. In addition, the comparative analysis provides lessons learnt on: - The ways of combining bottom up initiatives with the overall innovation strategies of the official fair and of the city; - The ways of building and managing the value chains in the field of CCI; - The effectiveness of the scaling up model of the Milano Design Week.