The fight against both air and water pollution has become an obligation for OECD Countries. Particularly, waste collection and disposal are becoming a social problem to be tackled by worldwide Public Administrations through new models able to go beyond accounting for financial inputs and towards outputs (outcomes, impacts and service quality) by a dynamic co-productive scheme. Accordingly, recycling policies based on “door-to-door” collection have become widespread. Nevertheless, changes in waste management (WM) are consequently modifying waste collectors’ working activities, transforming also the risks of accidents at work. Musculoskeletal systems of WM employees are deeply exposed to high bio-mechanic and ergonomic risks caused by repeated movements; thus, WM workers tend to develop a higher risk of both injuries and occupational diseases. In this context, Digital Technologies (DT) seem to be an extremely useful element to optimize public service provision preventing working accidents, and related costs. Thanks to digital wearable health technologies, it is possible to monitor workers’ gestures and correct, in case, their wrong postures taken on during their tasks. This would bring to prevent injuries and its related losses of productivity. Given that no literature has arisen yet about DT impacts on occupational accidents, this study aims at investigating how DT could contribute in improving the WM field, particularly for what regards the prevention of accidents at work together with a reducing of service setbacks. Specifically, this manuscript intends: i) to investigate if DTs allow a better governance in Public Agencies performance by reducing social security costs and by guaranteeing a better continuity of services to citizens; ii) to examine which structural change would be requested in order to make operative this predictive risk model in the real working context. To achieve these goals, this study developed a qualitative inquiry based on face to face interviews with two high-qualified experts about DTs and wearables e-tools. Findings demonstrate a positive impact of DT in detecting critical operating issues in WM services. Particularly, information obtained by digital infrastructures allow management to make more efficient the work of the organization, reducing potential loss due to waste of time and/or physical resources; moreover, wearable technologies allow to prevent injuries by modifying the workforce management (work shifts, rests, tasks). Finally, this contribution fosters the debate about the potential role of digitalization in Public Administrations and Policies. Particularly, this research shows how innovations based on Internet of Things could potentially improve the whole value-chain of public services’ provision.

The term eHealth includes multiple components, like the Mobile Health (mHealth), the Health Information Systems (HIS), the Telemedicine and the Distance Learning (eLearning). With the aim to explore some of the main eHealth governance issues at stake and the challenges faced at national and global levels, for the purposes of this paper, authors propose an integrative review on crosscutting eHealth governance issues and call for the development and adoption of appropriate policies and an international well-coordinated governance. Although eHealth projects and initiatives are growing, worldwide scenario is still one of piecemeal implementation often lacking a system approach at national level and coordinated governance internationally. The trend toward Health 4.0, extending eHealth to the Internet of Things in health, will require a deeper analysis on what is really at stake in terms of human rights, universal access to health services and further commodification of health needs, in that sense due to the global nature of the Internet, national policies will necessarily need to be part of a global governance framework based on solid international cooperation.

The study of company dynamics is increasingly influenced by the role that the analysis of cash flows assumes, as these play a central role both for the company’s economic performance and in predictive terms. However, the literature on the predictive capabilities of cash flows is scarce both in terms of number and depth of research, the samples that have so far been analyzed have limited dimensions. Taking advantage of the power and opportunities offered by digitization, which allows immediate access to data and information in ever greater quantities, our work has the aim of studying the relationships between cash flows (of different management areas) and the economic performance of the company using a complete sample of Italian listed digital firms in the 2008-2019 period with more solid statistical tools compared to previous studies. The choice of the database, to collect all the necessary balance sheet data, fell on Amadeus of the Bureau van Dijk platform, which already shows reclassified and easily comparable balance sheets. To assess whether our cash flow proxies could be strong predictors of future cash flow and, consequently, of business performance, we will use correlation analysis and multiple regression.

In the wave of upper echelons theory, scholars have devoted an increasing interest towards the implications of top managerial characteristics on company outcomes, especially in terms of professional expertise and experience. However, less attention has been paid to the contribution that the female managers’ background can offer to the board decision-making. With this in mind, the aim of the paper is to explore whether and how the functional expertise of female directors affects the company innovation. By relying on the classification of functional expertise provided by Hambrick and Mason (1984), the article empirically examines a sample of Italian firms belonging to technological industries through ordinary least squares regression analyses. In particular, it tests the effects of the expertise of female directors in throughput, output and peripheral functions on innovation in terms of R&D. The empirical evidence documents that the functional expertise of women directors influences firm innovation in given circumstances. More specifically, female directors with throughput functional background increase company innovation, while peripheral functional expertise of female directors limits R&D. Different results are reported for the output functional expertise, as female directors with such background seem to not affect company innovation. The paper enriches the existing debate on the managerial expertise of female directors as it disentangles the effect of the three specifications of managerial functional expertise for innovation. At the same time, the paper has significance for practitioners as it suggests companies to promote the appointment of female board members directors according to their functional expertise.

Long-lasting family businesses are usually equipped with dense storytelling about the foundation and the development of the firm. These narrations are implemented through various techniques and carry on much information about heritage, values and people who made the longevity and the success of the firm. From the cultural point of view, family businesses are particularly interesting organisations as their operations are strictly linked to personal stories of owners and founders. In this vein, we performed a qualitative analysis to understand how women’s role is described in narratives of firms. The research aims to analyse such narrative information to (1) verify the presence of a description of women’s role, (2) individuate the temporal location of women’s role narratives (period and/or business phase), (3) understand which values (e.g. ethical, human, etc.) are currently linked the women’s role. The first step of the research consists in the selection of a panel of long-lasting family businesses. For this purpose, we considered Italian firms associated with the Henokiens (https://www.henokiens.com/index.php) an international association between bicentenary family companies. The Henokiens Association has been founded in 1981 to promote the concept of family businesses as a viable alternative to multinational corporations; it currently gathers 49 members (12 Italians, 15 French, 9 Japanese, 4 German, 3 Swiss, 2 Dutch, 2 Belgian, 1 English and 1 Austrian). The (qualitative) research is designed as a multiple case study by using secondary sources (websites, papers, newspapers, magazines, etc.). Limitations: The research only considers firms that are associated with the Henokiens Association but other long-lasting family businesses (at least bicentenary firms) may likely exist over the countries represented in the association. Further perspectives: The research considers Italian family businesses. Further developments may include an analysis of the other countries’ perspective as well as a comparison between them.

This paper is examining investment and financing structures’ effect on the return over equity. It also compares relevant financial indicators of the Ecuador Coast and Sierra regions. We analyze this effect from the resource-based visión (RBV). For this proposal, we use a sample of Ecuadorian food and beverage service companies. Different methods have emerged about potential factors that condition investment and financing structures. These conditions have a regulatory effect on profitability. Empirical evidence has shown that those theories are complementaries. Yet, financial management is systemic, and it follows the main aim of optimizing profitability. To answer research questions, we use an unbalanced panel data sample of 146 companies into a period 2011-2017, specifically food and beverage services, located in Ecuador. We take data from reports published by the Superintendence of companies, securities, and insurance (SC) of that country. We test the hypothesis using multiple linear regression through the STATA program. Ecuador is an emerging country with little research around financial management, which seeks to boost private investment in the tourism sector as a development strategy. This research helps to understand how the management of assets and financing structures influences the financial performance of the companies in the sector studied, exploring the behavior of their economic indicators over a specific time contrasting them according to the geographical location of the companies. Following other research focused on the effect of resources on business, we hope that the results will contribute to the theory of resource-based vision in the context of Latin America’s emerging economies, specifically Ecuador. By establishing the level of determination of the assets and financing structures on profitability, the importance of financial capital and the return on equity in differentiated areas, this research provides valuable information to both entrepreneurs as well as to domestic and foreign investors exploring financial performance trends to make investment decisions.

The present study investigates individual improvisation and perceived other person’s affective passion and cognitive passion as predictors of short-lived co-creation in a dyad. The study takes a quantitative survey research strategy. Suggested research model was tested utilising SEM-PLS analysis with the dataset comprising 336 respondents. The data were collected from twelve co-creative events during 2017-2019, in which participants conducted a highly creative co-ideation task within limited time in dyads. The results show support for our hypotheses. Specifically, we find that individual improvisation and perceived affective and cognitive passion directly affect co-creation. In addition, we found that cognitive passion moderates between improvisation and that moderation is negative. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of our results.

In the last years, with the overwhelming explosion of medical devices and lack of resources in healthcare among scholars there has been an emerging and growing interest towards the medical equipment inventory management in hospitals. This paper aims at designing a tool of Replacement Priority Index (RPI) to measure the technical variables “technical RPI” through the development of a digital tool and the clinical opinions of users through the development of “professionals’ Knowledge RPI” by means of structured elicitation of experts’ judgement (clinicians). The technical RPI is based on literature review considering: support availability; reliability; maintenance expenses; age; functional criticality. The RPI based on professionals’ knowledge of medical equipment resulted into an index consisting of information about the status (performance, quality, urgency), criticalities (uniqueness; faults; functional criticality), degree of use (frequency of use; volume of performance), ease of use (knowledge; degree of learning; interface), new equipment impact (staff availability, advancement of technology). The RPI tool has been pilot applied in a leading Italian hospital. The study offers an original and relevant contribution to the development of domain-specific knowledge and, as such, to fostering the diffusion of studies about Technology management in hospital in particular to facilitate the Investment Plan and guarantee the improvement of quality and safety of care.

In recent years, the National Healthcare Services worldwide are forcing to implement spending review processes, to improve inefficiency areas and free up economic resources. Thus, the purchasing process, which have been centralized at regional and national level, require an in-depth optimisation. The present contribution aims at investigating the knowledge assets that might influence the design of a Complexity Index for Tender Procedures (CITP), useful to manage this topic in the public healthcare sector. A literature review was performed for the identification of all the relevant assets to be considered in the design of a model for the CITP in healthcare. At first, a focus group, with 7 domains experts and 3 academic researchers was conducted, in order to define the variables affecting the CITP. A Delphi method was also implemented, to decline the variables and their relationships, thus defining the contribution of each variable and item, useful to develop the CITP framework. Once having created the CITP construct, a hierarchical sequential linear regression model was implemented to define the predictors of the dependent variables and validate the model. The evaluation of the robustness of CITP result was assessed by means of a bootstrapping approach. According to the above, the presence of a tender preliminary phase, the number of batches and companies involved in a tender procedure, as well as the award criteria and the tender economic amount, were the main knowledge assets impacting on the CITP design. Results show the robustness of the CITP framework developed, with an Adj R² always higher than 80%: in particular, the tender preliminary phase, the number of companies, the economic amount, as well as the moderator effect of the criteria award on batches dependent variable and number of companies, mostly explained the complexity of tender. The CITP could be a useful support for any kind of technological batch tenders, given the variation lower than 5%, for any typology of batches. The present study also confirmed the possibility to create validated scales by means of sum of items explaining the same topics as happened in other operational and innovation settings.

The presence of comorbidities and multiple chronic diseases, and the related prescription of complex medications, as well as concerns in therapies changes, present many professional challenges in the clinical decision-making process. Multiple medications’ use (i.e. polypharmacy), is common in this population, and could be associated to adverse outcomes and presence of drug-drug interactions. The present study aims at investigating the variables impacting on the clinical choice, and the potential support of digital innovation and other knowledge asset, such as IntercheckWEB and/or guidelines, to optimize the prescription decision making process in older and frailer patients, in polytherapy. A review on the topic is performed for revealing the principal social and clinical factors, impacting on the clinicians’ propensity to chance the patients’ therapy. An observational study was conducted, involving head physicians and clinicians (N=35) referring to the Internal Medicine wards, of five Italian medium size hospitals. In June 2019, each clinician completed a questionnaire, aimed at evaluating 15 clinical cases, thus defining if in case of specific information derived from IT systems (such as INTERCheckWEB), they would have changed the patient’s current therapy, during an Internal Medicine hospitalization. Data were analysed considering three methodological approaches. i) Relationships between variables, were investigated to test the existence of correlations among them. ii) A hierarchical sequential linear regression model was implemented to define the predictors of the clinician propensity to change therapy. iii) A Qualitative Comparative Analysis – QCA, was implemented, in order to complement previous statistical approaches, with a comparative-configurational one. Results reported that patient’s age (β = 0.505

Blood Supply Chains (BSCs) are a complex set of actors, facilities and relationships, whose role is to manage the entire flow of blood units, from donors to patients, and to ensure that the total demand of blood is met (i.e. the self-sufficiency goal). To this end, the support of Voluntary Associations (VAs) is crucial, as they contribute to new donors’ recruitment and, possibly, can perform collection activities. In Italy, BSCs operate within the national health system. Data provided by the Central Government reveal that significant differences, in terms of self-sufficiency, exist across regions. In such a context, the scope of this paper is to investigate what are the organizational factors that can affect BSCs performance at the regional level. In particular, we focus our attention on two main aspects: i) the adopted organizational model, which can vary in dependence of the role played by VAs; ii) the spatial distribution of BSCs over the territory. Indeed, as blood is donated on a voluntary and non-remunerated basis, it is likely that the spatial organization of BSCs is fundamental to attract donors. With these aims in mind, we realize a field analysis, by interviewing regional managers from the main Italian association of donors. As a result, we identify the organizational models currently adopted by a sample of Italian regional BSCs. This classification is then used to perform a quantitative whose results highlight that regions adopting an Associative model, i.e. where VAs actively contribute to collection activities, tend to achieve better operational performances. Moreover, some preliminary findings from a spatial analysis seem to confirm that these performances are positively affected also by a widespread diffusion of collection facilities over the regional territory. In practice, ensuring good accessibility conditions to potential donors, through an appropriate and coordinated organization of all the actors involved in the BSC, emerge as a consolidated recommendation to decision and policy-makers.

Universities play a crucial part in maintaining, creating and sharing knowledge in different ways for the society. Nowadays the amount and complexity of information required from different stakeholder groups for universities is increasing. In this context universities should be leaders in managing the knowledge within the institution. One way of doing that is to align the universities strategic priorities with the demands of the society, industry and government. In this research paper the authors are focusing on understanding what is Knowledge Management (KM) in the university perspective, how it can be integrated in the university development strategies and how KM elements are structured and measured beyond universities. The purpose of this research paper is to find out how KM elements can be integrated into university strategic management systems. The authors have conducted a literature review on KM, by analysing different definitions formulated by researchers. The definitions have been analysed in the context of university’s role as a contributor to creating and sharing knowledge. The authors have analysed the main outcomes from integrating KM elements into university strategic management. In addition, the authors have contributed to this research by analysing strategic management trends of universities in Latvia and how they integrate KM elements, by analysing their institutional strategies. The research includes universities in Latvia, at the European level only the requirements of the EUA were analysed and at the global level the requirements of THE World Rankings, QS World Rankings and U-Multirank were taken into account. This limitation was based on the availability of the necessary information and the scope of the study. Another limitation regarding the research is that only university strategic performance indicators were selected for in-depth analysis in this paper. The research includes the analysis of previously defined KM definitions by researchers, compiles the main positive outcomes from KM integration in university strategies and gives insights to the analysis of performance based indicator groups at the national, European and global levels. While identifying how KM elements are integrated the research also provides more insight into higher education strategic performance measurement systems.

The UNESCO site “Ivrea, industrial city of the 20th century” is a large urban area designed and developed under the leadership of Adriano Olivetti. It consists of more than 100 private buildings, valuable examples of Modern Heritage, and more than 60 elements related to public and private infrastructures and green areas. Currently the whole site necessitates to be redeveloped: the assets are mostly unused or underused and the streets and green areas condition does not foster the acknowledgment of the site’s value, as well as its accessibility and enjoyment. Its enhancement and future management is a great challenge for the Municipality of Ivrea and a dynamic GIS developed, improved and implemented by the Politecnico di Torino over the last few years may effectively support this delicate phase. The aim of this paper is to highlight how the activation of a knowledge exchange process between the Politecnico di Torino and the Municipality of Ivrea may support the sustainable economic development of the Ivrea UNESCO site. In particular, it wants to demonstrate some potentialities of the GIS not only for the Knowledge Management, but also for the cost management of a series of redevelopment projects concerning both the buildings and the grey and green infrastructures of the UNESCO site. The redevelopment projects of streets, squares, car parks and public green areas constitute urgent and priority actions that the Municipality may quickly and directly activate in parallel with the ongoing mediation process with the buildings’ private owners and other territory stakeholders. The positive impacts that the redevelopment of these infrastructures could generate go beyond the site’s enhancement. Their improvement is able to foster the real estate market trends, supports the economic operators that currently operate in a rather fragile context and produce benefits for all the citizens (in terms of increase of the welfare, urban services equipment and the environmental condition). The Municipality of Ivrea could steer numerous strategic actions in this direction by investing in public projects able to generate positive impacts on the community. To achieve this important and ambitious goal, a knowledge exchange process should be activated between the Municipality of Ivrea and the Politecnico di Torino, which aims to be ever more proactive in its third mission activities, to further customize the current version of the GIS. By this way, the case of Ivrea could become a best practice of territory sustainable development and an example of fruitful collaboration between Public Administrations.

A two-way dialogue between universities and public and private organisations, in the context of stable relationships and collaboration, enhances their processes and orients research and education programs. Different mechanisms can be used to create and exchange knowledge but in practice some of them are not always feasible. For this reason, some specific approaches were implemented at the Politecnico di Torino. The paper presents the main practices of knowledge exchange and share between this university and the territory stakeholders that were involved in the education process in the past. Now the COVID-19 emergency forces all of us to re-think procedures and processes on the basis of a solid past experience, a networking approach to the problem and the aid of the digital transformation tools.

In this paper, we share our experience in applying Design Science Research (DSR) for knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the context of source water protection (SWP) in the province of Quebec, Canada. This research is motivated by the challenges, faced by various stakeholders, of implementing Quebec’s new provincial regulation for SWP, adopted in 2014. In fact, SWP implementation is complex due to multiple stakeholders, multiple jurisdiction levels, complex tacit and implicit knowledge and external factors (social, environmental, political contexts). Our goal as university researchers is to contribute to improving the general understanding of Quebec’s water governance and to facilitating the knowledge transfer in environmental decision-making processes. In order to attain our goal, we focused on designing a knowledge-based decision support system (DSS) prototype using Case-Based Reasoning (CBR). The methodology included a survey and interviews with over 200 respondents in order to identify knowledge sources, gather and structure knowledge and capture the requirements for a DSS.

The purpose of this paper is to grant insights into airport customers’ perceptions regarding the use and appropriateness of digital features. It is worth to examine whether sharing these findings with experts in the context of knowledge management activities reveal strategies and processes to be adjusted on corporate level. The question is whether defined strategies always respond to actual customer expectations and if sharing digital intelligence on a collaborative level could prevent airports from choosing inadequate concepts and process optimisation models. A qualitative approach has been applied to assess airport specific digitalisation features including airport staff s’ expertise compared to the perception of airport passengers and their demands. In order to contrast realistic customer experience with internal views primary data has been collected in the form of airport manager interviews and passenger questionnaires. Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Machine Learning as well as Internet of Things being constantly developing and dynamic topics require organisations to exchange knowledge and data with customers. The main outcome revealed airport managers’ assumptions differ from passengers’ needs and interests. Key findings of the paper revealed that top priorities perceived by passengers are not represented by entertainment and shopping facilities whereas airport professionals tend to focus a lot on these features. Process optimisation and simplification of check in and boarding activities play a much more important role to airport customers. This also implies that strategy definition processes can be performed more efficiently when considering and communicating consumer-oriented needs. Since the paper deals with strategic management and service operations these widely discussed and on-going topics are worth to be improved and optimised using knowledge management instruments within the organisations and its collaboration with customers.

The digital economy has strongly impacted the complexity of the worldwide economy. The rapid advancement of digitization and the impact of digitalization have led to different dynamics of competition and new venture creation. The external environment moves so fast that companies can no longer rely only on their own forces to react and create an offer that is attractive. They need the support of an external, open, digital ecosystem to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage: open source becomes the best option to survive. Big data and the digital ecosystem make it possible for companies of all sizes to work and compete internationally and create scalable products. In this paper we observe the digital transformation through the lens of the “economics of complexity” proposing a new theoretical paradigm to study the phenomenon. Additionally, we analyze the relationship between digitalization and international entrepreneurship focusing on cognitive computing, artificial intelligence and data mining. We then introduce the Italian Cognitive Computing Community and suggests the need to re-shape traditional education contents and dynamics to develop new professional skills and keep firms competitive.

This paper investigates entrepreneurial roles on digital platforms and platform ecosystems. We draw on research on dozens of industry platforms and products to offer a framework for building a successful platform-dependent entrepreneurship built around a multi-dimensional platform ecosystem based on platform stack and on the digital value creation framework. The outcomes of the research could be used for planning, oversight, and control over ecosystem management and the use of digital platform entrepreneurship ecosystem’s knowledge-related resources for research purposes.

Responding to recent calls in literature, this article aims at investigating the effect of information and communication technologies (ICT) on job crafting, a proactive behaviour defined as work personalization or individual job redesign. More specifically, through a qualitative pilot study, we examine the attitudes toward technology – namely the individual’s collection of beliefs which determines whether or not to engage in certain related behaviours – leading to these “do it yourself”, unstructured, and self-targeted practices at work. This inductive qualitative research with 28 interviews suggests the mediating role of two variables in the smartphone usage and general social media usage. Implications for theory and practice, suggesting optimal behaviours and functioning within organizations arising from positive and proactive attitudes and traits of individuals, are discussed.

The paper aims to gather information about if and how organizations address supply chain risk management. To do so the paper provides findings of a pilot study involving Estonian and Swedish organizations and their approaches to supply chain risk management. More precisely, findings regarding how these organizations manage supply chain risks and what tools and methods are used to manage these risks are presented. This research continues with the main study involving both a larger sample and additional countries.