The paper contributes at the debate on circular economy as emerging paradigm aimed to promote sustainable development patterns, by focusing on the issues of the innovation ecosystems and quintuple helix. Despite the topic of innovation results to be intrinsically linked to the paradigm of circular economy and the dimension of environmental sustainability is more and more recognized crucial into the debate on innovation ecosystems through the quintuple helix, the exploration of their meaning and dynamics in the perspective of circular economy is under-researched and calls for a deeper comprehension. Framed in the above premises, this paper presents the evidences of a single and extreme case study related to the Italian Circular Economy Stakeholder Platform (ICESP), as good practice of a digital platform for stakeholders’ engagement supporting the creation of an innovation ecosystem focused on the circular economy.

Sustainable development requires the creation of sustainable innovation ideas (SIIs), but also that these ideas are selected and implemented into new products and services that are more sustainable than the products and services they substitute. Although the increasing use of online idea management system (IMS) enables firms to have more opportunities to search and develop SIIs, the survival of these ideas appears to be highly uncertain due to the diverse contributors and complex contributions to ideas. Arguably, effective organizing of the search of SIIs is potentially critical but firms face significant challenges to advance the searched SIIs across various innovation processes in online IMS due to the far limited extant knowledge. This study aims to explore the role of different online search patterns for SIIs. It does so through an empirical study based on data from an online IMS in a large Swedish company. On this basis, several types of analyses are performed in order to identify different types of SIIs and explicit search patterns, as well as the role of different explicit search patterns in the management of different SIIs. The results show that the different explicit search patterns along one or more different dimensions of sustainability have influence different types of SIIs differently. The study contributes to both the literature on innovation and sustainability, shedding new light for management on knowledge search patterns, and thereby offering potential improvements to the approaches used to manage SIIs in online IMS.

This study aims to examine the relationships among intellectual capital, customer value creation, employee job satisfaction, and market performance of firms in the Chinese context. A questionnaire survey was administrated with data collected from email, field visits, and an online platform. The hypotheses test and analysis were conducted with structural equation modelling. Human capital is significantly related to structural capital and structural capital positively influences both internal and external relational capital. There is a positive relationship between internal relational capital and employee job satisfaction. A positive relationship exists between external relational capital and customer value creation as well. Both customer value creation and employee job satisfaction positively affect the market performance of firms. This is one of few studies that explore the relationship between intellectual capital and market performance through internal factor: employee job satisfaction and external factor: customer value creation.

The paper reviews, reflects on and critically analyses the intellectual capital (IC) accounting literature to examine whether the way we conceptualize IC is a possible cause for the stalemate in the field. Future avenues of research are suggested by looking into the practices of integrated reporting and big data technologies for pragmatic solutions to IC problems. The literature review takes a structured approach and uses Alvesson and Deetz (2000) critical framework for analysis in order to reveal the hidden structures behind the literature and to bring further insights into the different dimensions of IC. Two types of literature review are brought together to deepen the analysis and provide an account of what is already known within IC accounting literature and map what is yet to be uncovered, while reflecting on the limitations of past efforts. The study identifies gaps of knowledge where more research would be useful by grouping the literature into specific themes of interest that problematizes the IC research: knowledge, classification and categorization, accounting measurement and performance. The paper is relevant to researchers working within the IC field and connected areas, such as integrated reporting and sustainability accounting. Various avenues for resolving the issues which have placed IC at a cross-roads point are suggested to revive the field and to prevent others from facing the same problems.

Traditional intellectual capital (IC) frameworks are often too broad to provide actionable recommendations for managers. To overcome this limitation, it has been suggested that more contextually informed frameworks could be developed. Accordingly, the aim of this paper is to identify and classify the knowledge resources that shape IC in the marketing function, as well as to test the content validity of the proposed framework, and to diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of Spanish firms in terms of marketing-related knowledge resources. To identify and classify knowledge assets in the field of marketing, we followed a literature-grounded approach. More precisely, we set out from the IC categories identified in the global IC literature (namely, human capital, organizational/structural capital and social/relational capital) and tried to identify the specific content of each of them in the marketing function, based on its characteristics and recent evolution. Afterwards, we tested the content of the new framework in a group of companies with different profiles (manufacturing/service, B2B/B2C, high-tech/low-tech, large/mid-sized) and carried out a survey in a representative sample of Spanish firms with at least 100 employees to diagnose their situation in terms of marketing-related IC. As a result, this paper presents a marketing-related IC architecture made up of three main categories, nine subcategories and eighty items. Moreover, the survey results demonstrate that marketing-specific human capital is the most developed knowledge resource in Spanish firms, followed by marketing-specific relational capital. On the contrary, marketing-specific structural capital presents the lowest level of development.

In this paper, we provide practical decision support to managers in firms involved in Industrial Symbiotic Relations (ISRs) in terms of strategy development and test the hypothesis that in the long-term, playing a fair strategy for sharing obtainable ISR-related benefits is dominant. We employ multi-agent-based simulations and model industrial decision-makers as interacting agents that observe their history of cooperation decisions in ISRs. The agents are able to: learn from their past, deviate from relations in which their partner plays unfair, and change their strategy to reach higher long-term benefits. Results show that in a long-run industrial decision makers learn to play fair in ISRs. In addition to managerial support for developing long-lasting ISRs, our work introduces the concept of learning as a notion that links the micromotives in ISRs to their macrobehavior.

This paper proposes a linear programming model to design industrial symbiosis synergies in eco-industrial parks based on the exchange of waste energy among different companies. The model allows to fill two important limitations of previous studies: (1) it uses a multi-objective optimization perspective that considers economic and environmental issues simultaneously; (2) the integration of two decision-support tools, the former able to assess the amount of waste that can be effectively exchanged among companies, the latter able to suggest how to share the infrastructural costs arising from symbiotic synergies so that the economic benefits are fairly shared among the involved companies. A numerical case example is presented to show how the model works. The case highlights several applications of the model, which contribute to confirm its usefulness for companies, industrial symbiosis facilitators, and policymakers.

A business ecosystem that plays an important role in the transition towards a circular economy is the supply chain. Performance measurement of supply chains is a key enabler for this transition. Studies addressing performance measurement of circularity at a supply chain level appear to be scarce. Therefore, this paper aims to develop a performance measurement system for supply chains in a circular economy. To develop this performance measurement system, a design science research methodology is applied. First, the requirements for an effective performance measurement system were identified. Subsequently, a performance measurement system that meets these requirements was developed. Finally, the performance measurement system was tested in a case study. To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the first and only tested performance measurement system of circular supply chains. The test showed that the performance measurement system meets most of the requirements. Additional tests will have to be performed to determine whether the performance measurement system meets all requirements.

Sharing and collaborative economy concepts, based on product use optimization, are always more considered by enterprises as a potential eco-innovative and competitive factor. Those principles also match with circular economy EU goals of waste prevention, reduction and resources valorization and efficiency. Present work attempts to build a theoretical framework for collaborative and circular business models (CCBM’s) by integrating both circular and sharing purpose. Those models aim at overcome waste and inefficiencies of actual linear economy, encouraging the transition from a “thrown away society” to a “regenerative society” in which instead products seller we have a service provider and where goods became much more a dematerialized value though for a need satisfaction. While today different CBM’s and sharing models have been arranged, their integration through CCBM’s lack of a clear harmonization and schematization order to support all stakeholders (organization, consumer and policy makers) in its understanding, and implementation, especially producers who are claimed to make a disruptive change in their way of think at their business.

The paper discusses the bottom-up approach and PPPs in the creation of sustainable tourism products, with reference to projects managing the natural resources and protected areas of a typical community destination in northern Italy. We introduce the aims and features of a Reserves Network (RN) and analyse (1) whether and how stakeholder collaboration on projects aimed at conserving and valorising the destination’s landscape and environment stimulate the creation of sustainable tourism initiatives; (2) the roles played by public and private actors in the definition of the projects; (3) if the projects’ contribution – if any – to the destination’s economic, social, and environmental sustainability. The paper illustrates the results of a survey of 167 local stakeholders and 9 phone interviews with DMO members. We reconstruct the profiles of public and private stakeholders through multiple correspondence analysis and use content analysis to investigate the link between the RN and the development of sustainable tourism products. The stakeholders recognise the RN’s role, both in the creation of sustainable tourism products and in fostering/enabling local development. Differences, however, emerge between public and private actors regarding the economic, environmental and social sustainability of the RN projects. The originality of the research lies in its managerial implications and contribution to the theoretical background.

Interest for sustainability issues is rising in the business strategy and management disciplines. At the same time, sustainability-related practices are actualized by companies within economic, social, and environmental perspectives. For instance, enterprises working in the tourism industry are moving towards sustainability objectives, such as preservation of biodiversity and inclusive value creation. The aim of this research is thus to develop a framework based on sustainable business model archetypes, to be applied in tourism industry. The research question is: Which sustainable business model archetypes could be developed and implemented by tourism enterprises and how? At first, three archetype-based frameworks are compared to identify how a sustainable approach could be developed and adopted on the basis of company dimension and industry. Afterwards, a systematic literature review is conducted to collect examples of sustainable business model in tourism, with a special focus on practices oriented to business model innovation. The research shows how former studies provide practices according to the three different lines of sustainability (i.e. economic, social, and environmental). The results display a variety of possible initiatives that may be adopted by tourism enterprises. Indeed, the study provides a new set of archetypes for sustainable business model innovation in tourism industry. As such, the paper contributes to the existent knowledge on sustainable business model by classifying and analysing actual chances of business model implementation from the sustainability viewpoint. The new set could be useful to both practitioners and academics in designing innovative paths for sustainable concrete enactments. Moreover, it offers the ground archetype-based framework for tourism management researchers to be tested in future studies.

The paper intends to examine factors that mainly influence the creative process of celebrity chefs and culinary students. By using primary data obtained through an ad-hoc survey built by reviewing prominent literature focused on creativity and innovation in the haute cuisine context, we performed a discriminant analysis to compare the two different groups. Findings provide a better understanding of the origins and the main factors that drive creativity in haute cuisine. Outcomes of this study highlight the main differences that separate chefs in training from top chefs in terms of their creativity. Theoretical implications contribute to shed light on how creativity is influenced by both individual features and environmental/social components. Practical implications suggest which set of managerial capabilities chefs in training and, in turn, professional high schools of cooking have to develop in order to stimulate and sustain creativity in their educational programs. The study contributes to the academic debate on creativity and innovation in haute cuisine context, by suggesting key factors that effectively stimulate actions and behaviours leading to a continuous flow of novel and useful ideas.

The rapid evolution of tourist demand pushes the tourism sector to innovate and to meet the requests of the most demanding customers, generating innovative and higher quality services based on authenticity. This is the philosophy of the innovative hospitality system called Albergo Diffuso (AD). The typicality of this new form of hospitality concerns services linked to the authenticity of the territory. This way, tourists, like temporary residents, can fully immerse themselves in the culture of the territory they are visiting. We aim to identify the business model of the AD that has influenced the development of sustainable tourism through the regeneration of historic villages and the recovery of cultural and territorial heritage. We used an exploratory analysis based on a multi-case. We analysed 19 ADs. An open questionnaire was administered to the managers. The questionnaire was then supported by a short interview with the manager. Our results confirm that the Albergo Diffuso is very appreciate by tourists and emphasize how this innovative model is leading a reversal of the current tourism business logics. The results show that the main factor of success is the experience that tourists experience in the territory, understood as a combination of local cultural traditions and knowledge. The key success factors of the operators’ business models are the local area, its products and its best quality traditions but these are not sufficient to guarantee the sustainability of the AD model: solid management skills are also required. The ability to retain customers, invest in staff training and extensive communication channels are strategic management tools that companies must use efficiently to achieve success. This study identifies the main characteristics of business model of AD, pointing out how the rediscovery of the territory and its authenticity (socio-cultural and environmental), involvement and relationships with local communities are the key factors for the creation of a competitive advantage. It is critical for decision makers to know how own business is structured and which aspect are more appreciated by customers.

Today, the evolution of Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) and the widespread use of mobile devices are pushing tourists to a continuous interaction among themselves and with service providers during every stage of the holiday experience. Therefore, the DMOs – the bodies responsible for tourism development and the tourist companies – must offer through the Web an increasing number of services, even in situ ones. Some of them have the aim of improving destinations’ accessibility by means of geolocation marketing strategies. The aim of our research is to show how the GPS geolocation of points of interest can become an instrument to promote destinations and to enhance their accessibility together with tourists’ levels of satisfaction – improving tourist flows in a specific area through structured information.

Integration of advanced 5G technologies in future business models will enable businesses to offer new disruptive, virtual and persuasive business models (BMs) that business community and society have never seen before. With this comes new and disruptive ways to download, see, sense, generate, capture, deliver, receive and share knowledge between BM´s, humans and machines. Advanced, changed and new approaches to knowledge sharing in multi Business Model Innovation (MBMI) will hereby be a reality. These approaches to knowledge and knowledge sharing will play important role in future business model ecosystems (BMES) “life” and “sustainability”. Future Knowledge based Business Model Ecosystem (KBMES) will enable creation of of BM´s operating within real time, anywhere, with anybody and with anything. They will be operating proactive and not just reactive – and they will be formed persuasive to knowledge creation, capturing, delivery, receiving and consumption. The paper investigates some of our first investigations on these 5G knowledge based business models and systems. The paper examine how advanced 5G MBMI technologies will impact knowledge sharing and knowledge generation in multi business model innovation (MBMI) in the future. The paper present a conceptual framework on how to facilitate knowledge sharing in MBMI with advanced 5G technologies for the purpose of “creating, capturing and delivering BM´s to KBMES with high quality, effectiveness and efficiency in a time where the “life” of BM´s continuously diminishes and demands change in realtime.

The dynamic environment that firms face forces them to respond quickly and flexibly to market changes in order to survive the competition. Proof of this is the call from different political, economic, social and academic institutions to companies to increase their efforts in the social and environmental fields, through the development of three essential pillars: economic, social and environmental (Triple Bottom Line). Based on these ideas and with the purpose of linking the management of sustainable intangible assets with the performance of the firm, in this research we define sustainable intangible capital as the set of knowledge that a company can take advantage of to carry out an economic, social and environmental management that allows it to achieve competitive advantages. Although in recent times intangible assets are considered the basic factor of production, it is necessary to show that the mere possession of them will not guarantee a superior performance. For that reason, the objective of this work is to analyse the dynamic role that the corporate social responsibility and the strategic knowledge management exert in the relationship between sustainable intellectual capital and firm performance. To analyse the objective proposed, three hypotheses were proposed, which were tested using a quantitative methodology based on PLS on 120 Spanish hotels with three or more stars. Findings do not support H1, which indicates that sustainable intangible capital does not influence hotel’s performance in a significant way. On the contrary, the mediating hypotheses H2 and H3 have been supported, showing that corporate social responsibility and strategic knowledge management exert as mediator dynamic capabilities and a multiple mediation effect exists. This means that those capabilities create the values, the philosophy and the necessary foundations for sustainable intangible capital to influence on performance from a significant point of view. With this research theoretical and practical contributions are made.

Our paper consist of a literature review about business model research in academia, which represents a premise to identify the main topics, as well as the evolution of the studies. As for the methodology, we used EBSCO database, searching for academic papers having “business model” in the title and in the abstract published from 1975 until now. This paper contributes to the literature in two ways. First, it provides a wide analysis of the extant literature on business models. Besides the classification by main topics, we aim to outline the trend of these studies over time. Moreover, by this review we propose to understand how much literature has already investigated, and to identify new roots for future research on empirical and practical application of business model in business studies. Our work is the first step of a project. In order to contribute to previous literature, we propose to view corporate business models as the crossroads of different disciplines, as management and accounting and finance are. Further developments of our research, actually, could concern the study of the characteristics of sustainable business models applied by firms, in order to select which key factors of firms’ business model positively affect their performance and their value.

Our investigation proposes a preliminary analysis on the diffusion of digital technologies in Entrepreneurship centers as emerging mechanisms to deliver entrepreneurial activities. Our research question is: how entrepreneurship research centres (Italian Contamination Labs) are adopting digital technologies to support the variety of entrepreneurial activities they deliver? An explorative study of 12 Entrepreneurship centers named “Contamination Labs (CLabs)” is conducted. Empirical evidence will provide evidence about the role that Digital technologies could play in supporting and enhancing the processes that the Italian Contamination Labs could play (e.g. presenting their own programmes and activities) and their indirect role (e.g. undertake joint programmes/activities with other faculties) in promoting enterprise and entrepreneurship activities of the academic entrepreneurs.

Despite their heterogeneity, Industry 4.0 enabling technologies have been recognized as a unique multi-faceted set of innovation that is able to provide disruptive innovation and define a new industrial paradigm, whose pervasiveness is experienced irrespective of sector, company size, or adopted business model. In this paper, we present the preliminary results of an analysis, based on case studies retrieved in extant literature on this topic, aimed at investigating whether and in which way Industry 4.0 enabling technologies impact on companies’ sustainability, especially with respect to the environmental and social dimensions. The goal is to contribute to provide an overall view wherein the different Industry 4.0 technologies are analyzed in terms of their implications on the social and environmental dimensions of sustainability.

Since technology, institutions and markets continuously change, business models are also dynamic configurations that evolve through micro- adaptations and/or disruptive changes. This dynamism enables economic resilience, that is, the (re)generation of system-level economic sustainability, mainly through the mechanism that in the entrepreneurship literature is called “creative destruction”. But what about social and environmental resilience? How, and under what conditions, can business model dynamics contribute to the (re)generation of environmental and social sustainability, as well? Even if business model (re)generation is today recognized as a key force to the resilience (and fragility) of social-ecological systems, we have scant understanding of how its actual contribution to sustainability could be assessed and maximized (Schaltegger & Wagner, 2011). This study contributes to addressing this challenge by developing the Common-Good DPM approach. This approach results from the cross-fertilization between Dynamic Performance Management (DPM), which is a system-thinking based method, the theory of the commons, and institutional theories. The Common-Good DPM approach is a sustainability-oriented tool for sense-making, monitoring, testing and designing around the dynamic link between business models and sustainable development models, thus leveraging business model evolution for sustainability transformations. The Common-Good DPM approach is conceived to concretely enable participatory and adaptive modelling, in which sustainability-relevant knowledge is collectively co-created through feedback based learning. In addition, the Common-Good DPM approach is data-driven, and may both enable and leverage effective big data management.