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 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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

We have in this paper looked into what forms the knowledge worker in the future both on a corporate level and a societal level. We have interviewed researchers working with these issues in the Swedish telecommunication company Telia and the Norwegian telecommunication company Telenor. These are both companies making their living of understanding the future both on a corporate level and a societal level. We have concluded that robotics and AI will be more advanced, but neither the way we are working nor the way we are organizing work will change much in the years to come. The processing of information will be an even more critical work task either in itself or integrated into every work task. Every knowledge worker will have to try to see and think through what will be happening today and tomorrow. The past, present, and future will merge into a working reality. There will be dynamic scenarios together with the corporate, team and individual networks. Those grasping and understanding the situations working in professional and organizational networks will be the winners. They will be the bottom-up needed for corporate success still working in a top-down hierarchy delivering products and services through a global logistics. We have found that the one key for any organization in the future will be an analytical eye-toward-the-future where anything happening is analyzed and reported to the top management and coordinated into future deliveries. The key employees will be those implementing AI-based products and services on demand to advances customers. They will have a bottom-up understanding that is not needed in the eye-towards-the-future system and the top management system. The problematic issue for future work is the need for bottom-up understanding, sideways understanding and senior management based strategy and organizational coordination where project teams are coordinated working in collaboration. The main finding is the slow change in Telia and Telenor towards a real knowledge worker using more of his working time to significant business issues. We will get a framework where a professional knowledge worker is using his qualifications or what he is educated for and where his professional experiences and attitudes are used in a positive way for delivering excellent results. The framework for the future will be ordinary people achieving extraordinary results in teams owing to their education, experiences, and attitudes. According to Telia and Telenor, we will take the environmental issues much more seriously, and large corporation together with the dominating economic powers will make the necessary starting steps to save the world. The saving of the earth represents a concentration of both corporate and national power. Neither Telenor nor Telia plan to reduce the number of employees, but will deliver higher profits and much higher sales per employee. Neither Telia nor Telenor look upon the AI technology as a threat only as many possibilities. This study concludes that there will be many small positive corporate and societal steps for each year towards 2030 improving the way we are living and working together with environmental improvements. The reconstruction of the middle class is also emerging — neither a perfect nor imperfect world.

In the modern society organization’s ability to manage its information and knowledge resources is critical. The purpose of this study is to design and test a profiling model for information and knowledge management, which can be used both for frequent monitoring for trend analysis and in-depth analysis of factors supporting contemporary knowledge and information management practices of the organization. The proposed model combines the aspects of knowledge-based management and information management and it is developed by following design theory principles. The model is designed for public sector, especially for those organizations, which purchase and are responsible for the provision of public services. These organizations are in a critical role in developing and aligning information and knowledge management practices of regional ecosystems. They also serve as employer for great number of knowledge workers regionally. It can be argued that this kind of maturity model can also support the performance of knowledge workers operating in the public sector as it offers a route towards the development of more functional information and knowledge management practices within and across the public organisations.

Customer value is a key element for any organization, especially to give direction to different facets of an industrial organizations. By developing Knowledge Management and knowledge-sharing practices, the value creation potential could be improved in organizations. However, in practice there are several barriers that hinder effective knowledge sharing. In this paper focus is set on the knowledge-sharing barriers typology synthesized by Riege (2001), which are then applied in an exploratory case study of an industrial organization in Finland. Based on Riege’s typology, the major knowledge-sharing barriers are identified in the case organization, and their role in hindering work performance and value creation is further analysed. Finally, development actions are proposed based on the empirical findings. Our findings in this study argue that effective knowledge-sharing practices among employees is a key enabler for successful value creation in an industrial organization.

The issue of urban waste has become a priority from a social and environmental point of view and in literature there are various papers studying technological and economic solutions to overcome these problems. For this reason, important strategic choices are needed, with the goal to increase the recovering of waste separate collection (to reduce waste landfilled) and to increase energy recovery from waste value chain. The aim of the paper has been to assess the environmental impacts of a pilot plant from RDF (refused derived fuels) to syngas, through the LCA methodology to create innovative network of sustainable business closing the loop in terms of circular economy. Syngas is a gas obtained from a pyro gasification process, which converts carbonaceous material into simpler molecules of CO, CO2, hydrogen and methane (syngas) to be reused to feed small engines or to produce other chemical intermediates. The case study presented, offers the possibility to evaluate an alternative option to reduce waste landfilled, creating in the same time new business and a new model of “share” in knowledge ecosystem perspective. Considering the circular economy aspect, the use of RDF to produce syngas, can represent a goal to be pursued. The environmental analysis shows that a small plant to produce syngas, if well managed, can represents an important choice for the environmental performance. On the basis of data and considering that a percentage of 20-30% has lost in the Biological and Mechanical Treatment, in Puglia there is potential RDF-end of waste in the range of 374 – 428 millions of kilograms per year. Hence, according to the provincial areas of Apulia, almost six plants would be implemented, creating replicable models with the final aim to “quickly” re-use waste and re-invent industry.

The improvement of knowledge worker performance with reference to the workload is a great challenge to most economies and their firms. In many knowledge-intensive organizations, the key cost component is the worker’s worktime. Recent research has demonstrated that a worker’s dual temporal experience gives rise to an unconditional Cognitive Time Distortion (CTD), understood as the relation between perceived time and physical time, for a given event. By reducing and controlling for CTD significant knowledge worker performance improvement can be achieved. We have, however, little knowledge about how to decrease the knowledge worker’s level of CTD while doing knowledge work. In this study, we test different feedback techniques in a laboratory experiment aiming at influencing and controlling the CTD of individuals. The context of the experiment is worker performance feedback, with regard to worker’s self-assessment of worktime for a given work conducted. One group (n=32) receives performance feedback contenting monetary reward information only, whereas a second group (n=31) receives performance feedback containing only information on the level of worker’s CTD. The results show that the provision of feedback of CTD produces different self-assessments of worktime, as compared to the group that only received monetary-related feedback. The group with feedback information about the level of CTD manifests a significantly lower variance of CTD in their time assessment than did the group that received monetary reward information only. These results suggest profound implications for the performance feedback practices for knowledge workers performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the complexity of designing knowledge ecosystems for business education based on the theory of knowledge fields and knowledge dynamics. That means to change the paradigm of university education based on the traditional rigid curriculum into a new paradigm based on adequate knowledge ecosystems. The new paradigm reflects the needs of developing a personal learning environment in a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environment. Business education should adapt its design to the complexity of the real business environment dynamics and to the need of strategic thinking. The present paper integrates results from a qualitative and a quantitative research performed in the period January-March 2019. Qualitative research is based on the critical analysis of literature dedicated to business education and on the theory of knowledge fields and knowledge dynamics. The theory assumes that knowledge can be understood as a spectrum composed of rational, emotional and spiritual knowledge fields which interact continuously. Each form of knowledge can be transformed in any other form of knowledge, as energy forms in thermodynamics. Thus, business education can integrate all of these forms of knowledge and develop a deeper understanding of the complexity of the real world. Quantitative research is based on a survey done with students enrolled in business administration program. We got 269 valid questionnaires and then we processed them by using the specialized software package SPSS. The knowledge ecosystem is conceived as a learning environment where students can benefit both of the university knowledge transfer and mind developing processes, and of internship programs in some companies which provide direct business experience for them. The design of the knowledge ecosystem considers also some other types of business activities like business clubs, entrepreneurship incubators, workshops and leadership summer schools. Strategic thinking integrates all these forms of knowledge and creates a support for long term decision-making.

Nowadays, Logistics has become one of the most strategic areas for organizational performance, becoming progressively more and more challenging with the birth of new regulations, innovative technologies, and new customer demands, particularly related to the spreading of Industry 4.0 and the rise of new sustainability issues. The numerous changes that have been occurring in the sector are making it a priority for educational institutions to provide students and workers with high-quality competences and skills that businesses require in order to keep pace with the market. This paper presents some findings and perspectives from a European research project called “FRAMELOG, European Framework for ‘Knowledge Triangle’ in the Logistics Sector”, which is focused on the knowledge dynamics of the so-called Knowledge Triangle (hereafter, KT). The KT is considered a suitable framework for defining a macro knowledge ecosystem which links educational organizations, research institutions, and for-profit entities with the common scope of creating high-quality competences. In this macro perspective, we first performed a multiple case study analysis at European level to identify some effective methods and tools used to implement dynamic knowledge-creating connections among cross-sectorial key organizations in the logistics area. Subsequently, following a literary review and focus group activities, we identified a panel of indicators that can be used to assess and guide the building of collaboration between organizations, according to the Deming Cicle. In addition, some “Methods”, “Tools and Actions” and “Guidelines” were created to help organizations working in the KT ecosystem to effectively set up those steps needed to increase collaboration within it. From the early findings of the FRAMELOG Project, it appears that conjoint knowledge-creating dynamics, such as the sharing of good practices, the use of different guidelines and the application of stakeholder engagement techniques, can contribute to stimulating proactive relationships between organizations, in the common objective of creating high-level skills on logistic topics and for the overall logistics sector. Reducing the distance between organizations working in the fields of education, research, and business can enable the implementation of virtuous spirals of knowledge creation in all three areas, leading to the formation of an effective knowledge ecosystem for the logistics area; by extension, this can also foster an increase in the productivity of the whole industry and greater well-being at regional, national, and European levels.