Tacit knowledge and cultural identity: reframing the managerial core of made in Italy

Purpose The aim of this paper is to develop an integrative conceptual model that positions tacit knowledge as the core resource and cultural identity as a value-translation layer, structured around four governance operations: retention, transfer, recombination and protection/appropriation. This responds to a persistent gap in the Made in Italy (MiI) literature, where MiI advantage is widely discussed through cultural identity and territorial embeddedness, whereas the firm-level mechanisms governing embedded know-how remain inconsistently specified. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a systematic literature review integrating PRISMA-guided screening with VOSviewer text-term co-occurrence mapping. A final Scopus-indexed corpus of 39 publications was analysed through a replicable protocol and title/abstract co-occurrence mapping to identify the field’s main thematic clusters. Findings Five clusters structure the Made in Italy and Italian-origin competitive advantage literature (districts and institutions; competitiveness and internationalisation; SME transformation and digitalisation; territory-university-spin-off infrastructures; collaboration and innovation networks). The mapping highlights an imbalance: knowledge-circulation enablers are well documented, while firm-level governance for mobilisation, renewal and value capture is less clearly specified. Building on the five thematic clusters, the paper proposes five corresponding pathways and integrates them into a theory-building conceptual model. While the mapping reports the field’s thematic structure, the pathways and the model are advanced as an interpretive conceptual synthesis grounded in the reviewed corpus. Originality/value This paper conceptualises Made in Italy as a knowledge-governance problem rather than only a symbolic or territorial label. By distinguishing tacit knowledge as the core resource from cultural identity as a value-translation layer, it develops a theory-building conceptual model that clarifies how embedded know-how becomes strategically consequential under transformation and scaling pressures.