Businesses must digitally transform their organizational mindset to stay competitive and gain sustainable competitive advantage. Previous studies revealed that to achieve digital transformation (DT), organizations require strategic dynamic capabilities (DC) in order to discover new opportunities, sense and measure potential threats, exploit external inputs, and deal with new digital environments. However, the path to a complete theoretical and empirical understanding of the digital DC domain is yet in its early days. Moreover, prior research has largely concentrated on organizational DC internally, thus paying little attention to inter-organizational processes and not considering the requirement of new people for the development of the latter. In recent years, academic research has revealed that collaborations between different parties based on the choice of specific and strategic partner are key factor for the effectiveness of the improvement process of strategic innovation capabilities. Universities, especially entrepreneurial universities, are suitable partners for the transfer of both knowledge and ideas, as well as for the development of business innovation. Framed on these premises and based on a longitudinal case study carried out within an Italian university initiative, the goal of this study is to provide evidence that university-industry collaborations (UICs) are fruitful and key means to support and manage the exchange of stakeholders’ digital knowledge within an ecosystem and to develop digital capabilities across the involved firms. Results show that cross-border academic, industrial, and institutional interactions involve innovative and valuable processes able to develop critical DT dynamic capabilities, also suggesting empirical guidelines to educators, professors, and practitioners to structure and expand the innovation ecosystem between universities, businesses, and institutions. This study also offers managers and SMEs practical advice on digital transformation and an empirical model to help businesses compete and improve their strategic positioning through internal process digitization and business model innovation..

Personal data has become one of the main sources of value in data-driven business. Personal data plays an increasingly important role in building sustainable competitive advantage but also effects both the way services are being created and provided to users as well as how they are being utilized. Business analytics, cloud computing and platform business logic are seen to emerge in the ‘industry of content’, I.e., audio and visual broadcasting. This study explores the platform-based business logic behind user experience centric, data-driven services and illustrates how digital convergence impacts the nature of business in the case of broadcasting industry. We further identify mass personalization as one of the key outcomes for how personal data is used to create compelling user experiences with the use of analytics.

Durability, adaptability, and reduction and valorization of waste are the main goal of the European guidelines on circular design of building. These objectives impose a real paradigm shift in design from the current on-ff logic to a continuum building design that includes preventive and planned maintenance, deconstruction design, selective demolition and up-cycling of materials and building components. In circular design, building is conceived as an organic whole of functional parts, which in turn can be broken down into construction materials. The integrated methodology of BIM and the Material Passport (BIM-MP) is the emerging digital tool both in the perspective of circular design and in the context of the sustainability of heritage conservation interventions. The digitalization of information with the support of BIM-MP tool enables the creation a digital passport for the construction and for single materials. It allows the construction modelling at different scales of detail, from individual components down to materials. The digital passport reports as generalities the initial performance characteristics and updates them during the whole life cycle by making “visas” that indicate transformations and variations of functions and performances. It gives an identity to each component of the construction, which at the end of its life becomes a repository of materials, opening urban mining scenarios that safeguard natural resources and reduce the amount of demolition waste. The provision of a compulsory Digital Product Passport in the European Union for building materials according to the recent Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation will foster the development and adoption of the BIM-MP methodology. The recent European regulatory context and the new approach to building continuum design outline new scenarios of integration between building heritage conservation and new construction with the emergence of a new transversal ethic of sustainability based on knowledge of materials and their circular use in construction. Circular design and building heritage conservation require the same methodological approach with the involvement of different disciplinary fields for the acquisition of a range of information at different scales of detail and different perspectives of analysis. In both cases, the deeper the knowledge of the construction and its components, the greater the possibility of prolonging its life and regenerating its value. Digital tools allow sharing skills and expertise, given the possibility of effectively managing and bringing together roles and professional figures that in the past worked in isolation, with little collaboration. Circular design reformulates the connections imposed by the criterion of hic et nunc between construction and the life of materials that neither begins nor ends with their use in a building. In Italy, many buildings belonging to the built heritage are in a dilapidated state or in many cases to the state of ruins. The implementation of heritage materials passport can transform the loss of building heritage into a potential gain, going beyond the timeline and beyond the confinement of place in a continuous history of use, deconstruction and reuse. Building heritage no longer salvageable can becomes a bank of precious materials as a unique and unrepeatable testimony of cultural heritage.

The importance of right speed, effectiveness, efficiency and learning in Multi Business Model Innovation (MBMI) is vital to meet today’s Volatile, Uncertainty, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) challenges to survive as a business in Business Model Ecosystems (BMES). VUCA events coursed by external and internal sources make some of the big challenges in 2023 to businesses. How can businesses under these “VUCA World conditions” do high quality MBMI and knowledge management? How is it possible to stay positive and influence MBMI participants and teams in these processes to be and stay optimistic, create and capture knowledge – to increase their MBMI output, performance, competence, capability and courageous appetite on doing MBMI? This paper investigates the impact between a positive mindset and knowledge innovation MBMI processes in BMES´s influenced by VUCA Events. The impact of positivity is studied in 3 MBMI cases as competences to endure challenging MBMI processes influenced by different kinds of VUCA Events. From the cases a transfer of knowledge from tacit into explicit and internalized knowledge is outlined. The involved persons demonstrate preference for socialization processes, learning in pairs and groups as learning and creating by doing. They are very easy to internalize what they have learned in the VUCA. This corresponds to the hypothesis that a positive mindset is a predictor for success in MBMI. The research is conducted in the view of Knowledge Management, MBMI and psychological theory – particularly the concept of positivity as fundamental for better creating and increasing learning and knowledge creation – the vital “raw material” in all MBMI and especially in a VUCA world. Our research shows that individuals embedded in networks and teams and with a general mood of positivity strengthens the MBMI processes. The paper finds that knowledge about the impact of positivity is very useful in MBMI processes influenced by VUCA.

Very often, sustainability is rooted in the genes of companies, establishing in-house programmes and projects that aim to achieve a level of sustainability over time that is integrated into corporate strategies. The concept of sustainability initially originated in relation to the environment but recently it has been also implemented in other areas such as social impact and good governance. These three macro aspects are recognised by the acronym E.S.G – Environmental, Social, Governance – and are also indicators that allow to analyse the activity of a company, not only on financial aspects, but also from an environmental, social, and good governance perspective. Companies will have to move from a model in which they simply consume materials, energy, time, and human resources skills to one in which they instead manage a responsible relationship with materials, energy, and people values. It will be necessary to go through a very important transition to prepare their organisation, their production infrastructure, their people, and their governance to support this new model. The role of the PM in these transitions is of fundamental and absolute importance. The research will focus on the following topics: Identification. PM & Sustainability. Environmental. Social. Governance. The purpose of the entire research is to analyse the current situation and to assess the maturity of project managers and organisations with regards to the topic of sustainability, measuring in particular ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) aspects and establishing whether these criteria are used within the project management context. With this data and information, it will be possible to identify which components have the greatest potential for improvement, and it will be possible to make project managers and organisations aware of project sustainability aspects. The Department of Innovative Technologies (DTI) of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI), as a training and research institute, will therefore be able, on one hand, to define courses or study programmes to fill these gaps; on the other hand, to continue to disseminate useful information and content on the subject and to raise awareness in organisations of the importance of sustainability in project management.

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of food safety drivers on food safety climate of Italian agrifood companies. we empirically tested the relationship among food safety driver, leadership, internal communication, resources, and risk awareness. From March to May 2022, we gathered survey information from 168 Italian companies engaged in the agri-food industry. Results suggest that food safety drivers enhance each dimension of the food safety climate. This study is the first one that analyses the impact of food safety drivers on each food safety climate component, deepening the knowledge of the components of food safety climate in the Italian context. The main limitation of the present study is that we collected data from a single European Country and results cannot be generalized.

Circular economy is an economy model aiming to overcome the current linear economy and closing resources loop. Circular economy is still far from being widely widespread and implemented. The transition to circular economy is particularly tough in complex and highly fragmented sectors where information, materials and products’ flows are interrupted multiple times at different stages. Among these complex and fragmented sectors, the building sector stands out given its high resource consumption and emissions. Collaboration is needed to implementation circular economy in the building sector. Indeed, collaboration enables to spot in advance any issues and/or mismatches that may arise along the whole value chain given that the different actors belonging to the value chain jointly collaborate since the starting design phase. We have focused on buildings’ façade, as they are responsible for 10% to 20% of the total embodied carbon emissions of the building and they are external elements easy to be accessed, maintained and assembled. The different actors involved in the façade value chain have been identified, through action research methodology. Besides, the collaboration among the actors involved, on the one side, in the circular product development (i.e. exploration phase) and, on the other side, in the circular business model design (i.e. exploitation phase) have been detected. We posit that (i) collaboration is key in order not to have mismatches along the whole value chain and be able to exploit the potentialities of circular economy, (ii) different actors are involved in exploration and/or exploitation phase performing the same or different roles, depending on their specific skills and resources.

The requirements of building sustainability and the use of information technologies have led to the new vision of continuum building design that considers each stage of a building’s life cycle, including the recovery and up-cycling of materials and building components according to the circular economy models. Continuum building design promotes planned preventive maintenance (PPM) and moves away from the current emergency acting on assets compromised by serious pathologies. It allows the optimisation of time and resources and the durability of interventions through sustainable and effective practices. The paper presents the preliminary results of a research activity aimed at identifying and validating guidelines for architectural heritage conservation through the development of an open knowledge platform to dissemination of the best practices currently available. The main goals are promoting preventive and planned maintenance as the main strategy of conservation of the building heritage and overcoming the fragmentation and scarcity of reliable information of scientific and technical literature for diagnostics, interventions and durability monitoring. The guidelines will cover all stages of the conservation process, from the preliminary phase of knowledge of the building. Moreover, type, extent and cause of degradation will be identified, including their resolution or at least their decrease according to the criterion of minimum intervention and maximum effectiveness with the lowest cost and the lowest environmental impact using sustainable and compatible products. The guidelines of the open digital platform will be identified through the study and critical analysis of interventions on monuments belonging to Italian historical heritage. The monuments chosen as case studies have been affected by various forms of degradation, in many cases triggered by the presence of rising damp. This latter one has been stopped using an already verified economical and sustainable device that uses charge neutralization technology CNT-Domodry®. The research provides for the initial activity of identification of digital standardization protocol, information cataloguing and metadata in order to achieve the final comparison of interventions and the consequent identification of best practices. The cataloguing rules of the ICCD and the digital platform for risk assessment of heritage of the ICR have been taken as a reference. Future developments of the research project will consist in the acquisition and critical processing of information on relevant number of case studies in order to have scientific evidence to proceed toward a Heritage Digital Guidelines in PPM.

In recent years several routes have been entered to face the existing discrimination in the access to credit between male and female. In this framework, the initiatives undertaken by the United Nations and the national governments have shown growing attention in order to alleviate the gender gap in various economic sectors. Among those, the non-performing loan one, given the recent economic and pandemic crises, is registering a fast increase. The objective of this work is to examine if and how gender is considered among the evaluation criteria of non-performing loans (NPLs) portfolios. An inductive content analysis has been carried out on 30 documents relating to NPLs. Specifically, the sample is made up of official publications and reports published on the websites of European and National Institutions, supervisory authorities, main banks groups, specialized sectorial consultancies and leading servicers. The analysis of the documents shows that, at present, gender is not particularly taken into consideration when banks and servicers illustrate their NPLs portfolio. On the contrary, it is possible to find classifications based on other variables (e.g. geographical position, business sector or presence of guarantees). Therefore, it is possible to conclude that gender – so far – does not appear to be an element that is considered when discussing the management of NPLs. This work is the first part of broader empirical research intended to open a debate about the relevance of the gender factor in the management of NPLs. In fact, while the gender variable seems to be taken into account as an element for granting credit, it is not considered for its management.

Nowadays, we are facing a world in social and economic compulsion. Different kinds of crises and shocks in the economic and social systems crashed in our reality. This is creating a chaos and uncertainty environment among leaders, entrepreneurs and organizations. It is precisely in this moment of uncertainty that an innovator and resilient leader can identify new opportunities to integrate emotions around an organization. These innovators and leaders are struggling with this issue and sought ways of working and continue daily activities. In essence, these leaders are adding resilience into the organizational culture using two sides: rational and emotional sides of innovation. For that reason, understanding resilience and innovation as a symbiosis is a guide for modern organization. This relationship is a priority for many organizations, actors and governments in the current scenario of changing. Under this context, having an index that measures dynamics and main practices (rational and emotional sides) around a culture of innovation allows us to know and recognize how does our organization resilience react front a major economic impact. In the case of the study, the application of the instrument was carried out during the months of September to December 2022 to 177 managers and/or founders of small and medium-sized companies in the state of Guanajuato, México. We use a Partial Least Square Equation Model (PLS-SEM) methodology to prove validity into relationships and sample size. We draw on our findings detecting that managers mostly are focused on the rational side of innovation (resources, processes and successes) and less on the emotional side (values, behaviours and work environment). This finding provides an opportunity to improve this emotional side of innovation, because this is a core element to enhance resilience in organization. We recommend further development and evaluation of future approaches about leadership, innovation and resilience.

Although companies frequently make great efforts to encourage workers to share knowledge and voice concerns, many workers intentionally choose to conceal their knowledge rather than share it. This ‘an intentional attempt by an individual to withhold or conceal knowledge that another person has requested” is called knowledge hiding. This review systematically reviews, categorises, and synthesises the current body of literature regarding knowledge hiding. The current literature is categorised based on methods, theories, research context, and geographical distribution. Secondly, the antecedents and outcomes of a KH across the different levels of analysis are mapped using an inductive approach. This thematic map offers a visual guide to KH, placing antecedents and outcomes at different levels of analysis and suggesting where future research in KH might be headed.

The European Agenda for Sustainable Development has set a target of 2030 to achieve 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are: 1: Eradicate poverty; 2: Eradicate hunger; 3: Health and wellbeing; 4: Quality education; 5: Gender equality; 6: Clean water and sanitation; 7: Clean and affordable energy; 8: Decent work and economic growth; 9: Business, innovation and infrastructure; 10: Reducing inequalities;11: Sustainable cities and communities;12: Responsible consumption and production;13: Combating climate change;14: Life under water;15: Life on Earth;16: Peace, justice and sound institutions;17: Partnership for the goals (1/2 – 2/2) and 169 associated sub-goals . This contribution makes a reflection aimed at extending the concept and meaning of sustainability, to speak and bring into play – clearly and explicitly – other mental categories and values such as the human dimension of domestic and urban space, mathematical perfection, roots and historical memory as well as aesthetic quality. Citing some of Italo Calvino’s The Invisible Cities therefore seemed appropriate and pertinent. To emphasise the importance of the role of memory and roots, reference is made to classical mythology to examine two emblematic figures: Ulysses and Aeneas.

The paper examines the role of Public Innovation Labs (PILs) in facilitating the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Public Administrations (PAs) and promoting the principles of Society 5.0. PILs are viewed as an essential management model that integrates an organizational initiative and management toolbox to support the implementation, adoption, and exploitation of enabling technologies, with a particular focus on AI, to improve sustainable value creation dynamics, social innovation, and the transformation of cities and communities. Although many organizations have experimented with innovation labs, there is a lack of understanding of their role, governance models, working mechanisms, and adopted tools in the public sector. PILs offer a space for experimentation and collaboration where PAs can gather feedback from citizens to identify and implement solutions that meet their specific needs, facilitating the adoption of AI in PAs. The paper conducts a case study of a PIL identified as a best practice in supporting PAs in implementing AI-based solutions to improve the urban context and the life quality of communities. The study outlines the management principles of a PIL and provides a roadmap, guidelines, and policy directions to foster the diffusion of PILs among PAs interested in becoming data-driven organizations. Overall, the research contributes to understanding the critical role of PILs in facilitating the implementation of AI in PAs and fostering the adoption of Society 5.0 principles in the public sector. The study provides insights into the benefits and challenges of implementing AI in PAs and how PILs can support overcoming these challenges and realizing the potential benefits. The paper emphasizes the importance of human-centric and user-driven approaches and enabling technologies in tailoring the offer of services and products, improving performance, and creating value for people and communities.

The paper aims to analyze academic literature in the field of digital transformation and business model innovation, with particular reference to the tourism sector, in order to identify challenges, opportunities, and policy directions for stakeholders in the industry to be able to face the challenges of the current socio-economic scenario and gain a sustainable and lasting competitive advantage, as well as to activate development dynamics in the territory. In the digital era, the competitiveness of organizations depends on their ability to adapt and innovate business models to market trends and changing stakeholder needs. These innovations cannot neglect digital dimensions, which have become even more essential after the pandemic situation. However, innovation is not an easy process and presents many risks and barriers, particularly in the tourism sector, which is considered a labor-intensive production sector where the competitive advantage depends on the differentiation of the tourism product and the humanization of the experiences offered. As a result, tourism is often hesitant to embrace digital transformation, fearing it will lead to standardization and loss of appeal to the end customer. Despite the growing relevance of this topic, especially in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been little exploration of ways to support tourism and cultural organizations in embracing digital innovation journeys. This paper, thus, identifies challenges, opportunities, risks, and needs for tourism organisations involved in digital transformation and business model innovation processes, and propose policy recommendations and future research directions to support their transformation of those tourism organizations.

The knowledge-based theory considers that knowledge is the most important resource of an organization, while knowledge management is increasingly more considered a way of ensuring competitive advantage, an effective tool for valorising resources, helping manage change and being more resilient, and determining enhanced performance for organizations. All these aspects are also relevant for effective museum activity. Thus, through three focus groups, the paper sheds a light on challenges and practices that are shaping the environment in which continuity of efforts and sharing of knowledge is ensured amongst museum professionals in Romania. The findings are useful for museum managers to better organize knowledge flows and manage knowledge effectively, while for various museum professionals, they help understand knowledge gaps, the various sources of knowledge available as well as the specific dynamics in the field.

Cities of tomorrow are planning smart urban future, using information and communication technologies to support smart urban innovation by fostering collaborative processes in order to drive sustainable urban growth and improve the quality of life. Cities are becoming smart innovative communities, adopting a smart city framework to urban planning and development. A smart city helps to shape the city of the future as an engine of urban innovation. Sustainable urban future relies on smart cities and communities that support urban innovation for good life, promoting collaborative and multi-actor innovation, following a human-centred approach to smart urban development. As organisational and collaborative spaces, cities are rethinking the urban planning for sustainable future, promoting a smart city vision and developing a smart community. As smart innovative communities, cities are driving smart urban innovation, rethinking the urban future, and planning a smart city view in order to support sustainable growth and construct a wealthy urban future.

Megaprojects stimulate and challenge public opinion mobilizing wide citizens’ reactions. Given their ability to increasingly attract public attention, they may exert an influence on public participation to collective choices and on political decision making. These issues are relevant for the evaluation of a project, but unfortunately, they are rarely debated in the managerial literature. Our paper wishes to open up a debate related to social issues and how they could be considered according to a more managerial discussion.

This paper deals with a case of organisational change triggered by a process of digital transformation. It describes the management of change activated in the Supreme Court of Cassation in Italy. The project involved different actors and one of the main criticalities to deal with was the need of communication among people with different background and languages. We analysed how external consultants acted as knowledge brokers to facilitate the knowledge transfer process in a team. The consultants acted in facilitating the alignment of different languages and lenses using visualising tools and focusing on boundary-spanning activities.

Based on a multiple case study research, the paper aims at providing some first evidence on the adoption of Open innovation and sustainability practices by innovative startups. The focus is on the underlying motivations and the potential effect on startup success of the combined adoption of both types of practices. Following a literature review, an in-depth qualitative analysis has been performed based on five innovative startups based in the Romagna area (Italy) and in the Republic of San Marino. Results highlight that motivations to Open Innovation adoption are classified in necessity-driven and opportunity driven, differentiating among the lifecycle phases. As for sustainability practices, two main attitudes are recognized in startups: reactive and proactive. Finally, no results on the interrelation between Open innovation and sustainability practices adoption can be found in the investigating sample, leaving room for further studies.

This paper reports on results of the SURE facilitation and synthesis research (FSR) project for the funding priority SURE (Sustainable Development of Urban Regions) of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). SURE engages ten collaborative projects which develop concepts and test locally implementable solutions and strategies for sustainable transformation of fast-growing urban regions in Southeast Asia and China. SURE aims to create conceptual, theoretical, methodological, and translational innovations that integrate and move beyond discipline-specific approaches to address issues of sustainable urban development. The paper discusses the application of Natural Language Processing (NLP) as one form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to support data and knowledge synthesis in sustainable urban development research. The abundant urban data and recent advancements in the field of AI have the potential to transform how urban researchers perceive and tackle sustainable development-related problems of cities. The research team employs various NLP algorithms to assess text data with the goal to analyse patterns in order to explore intra-project synergies and research intelligence on future trends. NLP has exhibited an ability to digest copious textual data and improve the usability of urban corpora, improving study scope and reducing resources required for research. However, the implementation of NLP to study issues related to sustainable urban development is a relatively novel. Predominantly used NLP modules are unable to identify contextual relations amongst multiple words which is essential in urban region study. To overcome this issue, algorithms employed were trained to identify various word classifications related to urban study discipline for precise output. We discuss the preliminary results of the ongoing exploration and show how it could contribute to an understanding of large text-based data sets in urban knowledge management. We examine the possibilities and limitations of such an approach and discuss the implications of AI as part of a multi-methodological approach to carry out a synthesis of sustainable urban development research efforts across an entire region covered under SURE framework. The paper also gives an outlook on utilising new AI based algorithms to generate text-based data analysis channel as well as indicate the limits, successes, challenges and constraints of such approaches.