This study takes the British equity crowdfunding platform Crowdcube as the research object, and explores the impact of the persuasive language style on the final performance of equity crowdfunding. This study uses the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count Dictionary (LIWC) to carry out classification and frequency of vocabulary in the text. The results show that emotional language style has a significant positive impact on equity crowdfunding performance, which demonstrates that using positive emotions of entrepreneurs can most arouse investors’ empathy and then invest. Besides, social discussion provides positive signals for investors and is positively associated with equity crowdfunding performance. However, there is no significant impact on emotional language style on the crowdfunding performance. Finally, the study suggests writing styles of project content for entrepreneurs who raise funds through equity crowdfunding to reduce information asymmetry with investors, and at the same time use rhetorical techniques to improve their persuasive language and improve their fundraising performance. For example, it is suggested that entrepreneurs should make more use of emotional rhetoric when writing ideas, which can improve empathy and reduce psychological distance, so that investors can be more sure of the value of equity crowdfunding projects and attract more investment.

The need for environmental awareness and green management in business and management arenas has led to green becoming a vast field that needs to be parcelled out to identify the green shoots. Knowledge is emerging as the key factor in developing a green awareness in companies, which has come to be called green intellectual capital (GIC). The objective of this research is therefore twofold. First, to identify and map the existence of active research fronts in the field of green through a bibliometric analysis (bringing green shoots to the surface); and second, to analyse in depth the GIC research front previously identified in this paper (one of the green shoots that emerged) and to offer new insights into it. We analysed 4,180 articles (4,142 for the identification of green research fronts and 38 for GIC) from WoS published between 2008 and 2022. Amongst the potential contributions made by this study include characterising 19 of the most active research fronts on green in business and management, as well as to know what advances have been made (and what remains to be done) in the literature on GIC.

The process of synthesis is key for the consolidation of new insights from existing bodies of knowledge, information, and data. In connection to other knowledge processes, e.g., inspiration, research or analysis, synthesis – as an activity of connection and convergence – is central to creating meaning and understanding. It builds upon principles of integration, unification, and generalisation as prerequisites for the inference of reliable and replicable knowledge. Synthetic processes are significant when dealing with large data sets or disparate and heterogeneous information. Especially in explorative research projects, the synthetic integration of a multitude of inputs is crucial to generating valuable and applicable knowledge output. As a key idea, the paper puts forward the concept of a Knowledge Synthesiser as a heuristic device to shape the knowledge generated in larger research programmes. Resting on general models of information processing and knowledge life cycles, the Synthesizer is conceptualised as a system that generates meaningful knowledge output by interconnecting different functional layers and modules, e.g., for knowledge collection, structuring, or integration. The specific case at stake is the German funding priority “Sustainable Development of Urban Regions” (SURE). Ten projects with approximately 150 partner institutions generate a large body of research about urban sustainability and innovation. The Synthesizer has been conceptualised to facilitate the convergence and integration of this knowledge and to create insights about the SURE funding priority and about future urban development in general. Specifically, the Synthesizer has various practical purposes for the research programme: Structuring and safe-keeping the results from the ongoing research. Allowing easy access to the research findings. Enabling deep analysis of the collected data and information. Linking information to create new insights. Outlining future trends in urban sustainability research. Supporting research policy-making. In response to the overarching research programme and its purposes, a system architecture has been created to be implemented as a prototype tool for the SURE funding priority. From the variety of functional and technical requirements, an overall schematic design has been created that eventually led to a Minimal Viable Synthesiser concept – the outline for the technical implementation of the key features and functionalities the Synthesizer needs to supply to the SURE funding priority.

This paper discusses the co-creation process that led to Dresden city’s smart city strategy, channelling the contributions from various stakeholder groups – politics, administration, science, civil society, and industries – into one vision for integrated and sustainable digitalisation-based urban development. This co-creative strategy process aims to overcome technology-centred smart city approaches that often fall short of generating public value, and therefore lack of public support. As part of the federal funding priority “Model Projects Smart Cities”, Dresden’s municipal administration and members of the Technical University Dresden started a 1-year strategy creation phase in 2021. The resulting smart city strategy forms the basis for a subsequent 4-year implementation phase during which specific measures and projects work towards an overall smart city vision. To this end, the strategy phase had to result in a comprehensive innovation agenda for transforming Dresden towards a smart and sustainable city (i.e., Dresden’s smart city strategy). Moreover, Dresden´s application for the federal smart city programme centres on providing digital solutions to neighbourhoods to invigorate the urban society and locally create new qualities for living and working. Pursuing this goal requires a comprehensive strategy based on local stakeholders’ needs and resources. In the project’s first step – the strategy phase – we devised a novel co-creative process that integrated approaches from innovation and creativity management (“Double diamond”), participation and co-creation research (“Quadruple helix”), as well as IT and software development (“Agility”) into one methodology. This new approach effectively guided the strategy-making process from a comprehensive status quo analysis through creative “visioneering” towards an outline of strategic fields of action and specific measures. By combining these approaches, we ensured a dynamic, iterative process that a) effectively involves all relevant stakeholder groups, b) resulted in innovative concepts and implementation measures, and c) created a robust onward momentum leading to a feasible and context-sensitive urban development strategy in a short time.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.