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

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

Local governments can have a prominent role in steering local level actions for sustainable development. To actively pursue sustainable development, local governments need to not only to generate sustainability performance information to target their actions and demonstrate their effects towards sustainability but integrate it as part of their managerial practices and consider sustainability performance information as part of their routine management and decision-making. Due to the complex and ambiguous nature of sustainability as well as institutional features of the local government organizations – and the contradictions and tensions between these two – the integration of sustainability performance information as part of managerial practices of local governments can be challenging. We interviewed 46 key individuals who had played active roles in the integration process of sustainability performance information into the management practices of 18 different local governments in Finland and used the interview records to explore why is it challenging to integrate sustainability performance information into managerial practices in local government. Through our data, we outline five common challenges in the integration of sustainability performance information as part of the managerial practice: (1) Ambiguity and multiplicity of sustainability performance, (2) Cultural barriers and politicization of performance, (3) Siloed organizational structure and practices, (4) Unclear role of sustainability performance information, and (5) Techical difficulties in performance measurement and management

Under current conditions, the development of digital technologies is largely supported by modern universities (University 3.0), which are of particular importance in the formation of digital potential. Within the framework of the presented research, the role of modern universities in achieving the goals of digitalization is considered, taking into account the current knowledge dynamics. In the context of this work, universities 3.0 refers to universities that include educational, research and an entrepreneurial functions. The entrepreneurial function is the missing link in the innovation value chain. Thanks to it, modern universities are a source of digital transformation of the economy, which is reflected in the results of the study. The emphasis on the entrepreneurial component of the universities makes it possible to reveal their role in the process of digital transformation of the economy to a greater extent.

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

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

COVID-19 pandemic significantly has changed the behaviour of customers and businesses, and influenced the development of technologies. Technologies that provide opportunities for remote interaction in various spheres of human activity have gained unprecedented scale, including FinTech technologies. COVID-19 has accelerated digital trends, as well as significantly changed the behaviour of customers who began to prefer digital payments, banking applications, etc.. Companies around the world have rethought the value of modern technology, with a huge potential to create a unique personalized offer in a time and place convenient for the client. Obviously, new opportunities have emerged for the FinTech industry. Current market conditions and social distancing practices have impacted each category of FinTech companies differently, with unique challenges that need to be addressed. The unique strengths, knowledge and skills of FinTech companies give them great advantage and flexibility to overcome challenges. The question is how FinTech companies can use their unique knowledge to take advantage of new opportunities in the future. It is interesting to analyze the most recent data available in order to understand in which direction FinTech technologies are moving. FinTech is constantly evolving, adding new technologies and opportunities. The purpose of the work is to identify the most promising technologies in the field of FinTech. To do this, it is important to analyze the views of the scientific community through an analysis of the latest research in this area. The business view of technology has been analyzed by studying the dynamics of patents in this area.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of digitalization (DG) and knowledge sharing (KS) on the financial performance (FP) of French companies, with a focus on the mediating role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). A survey was conducted among a sample of French companies, and the data was analyzed using structural equation modeling PLS. The results of the study indicate that DG and KS have not a positive impact on the FP of French companies. Furthermore, CSR completely mediates the relationship between DG and FP. These findings suggest that French companies should focus on improving their digital capabilities and promoting KS among employees, while also paying attention to their CSR activities, in order to enhance their FP.

The objective of this study is to determine the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in Romania and whether the government’s interventions and imposed policy measures helped to maintain economic equilibrium. The crisis generated by the coronavirus pandemic has compelled the authorities to take measures to aid first the health system and then the national economy. During the lockdown, production ceased and economic activities were suspended, resulting in a fall in the volume of trade. In this context, the paper’s goal is to determine whether the applied measures were beneficial for the economic system and whether Romania is on the path towards recovery, but it will also analyse if it is necessary to establish a policy framework to prevent potential future exogenous shocks and what regulations could be adopted for a sustainable recovery that would help the economy, providing support for the future complementary approaches to monetary and fiscal policies. The empirical analysis has been carried out for the period 2020:1 to 2022:9 on monthly frequency data for Romania. The model employed is a BVAR (Bayesian Vector Autoregression) that provides a simple yet effective way of modelling interactions between macroeconomic variables. In order to analyse the consequences of the mix of implemented policies, we examined and considered as exogenous shocks the NBR’s monetary policy rate, the evolution of energy product prices, and the number of new COVID-19 cases. The crisis caused by the COVID-19 is perceived as a health crisis that necessitates adjustments to public, fiscal, and monetary policies. Although the costs may be high at the moment, the changes will be effective in the future and may result in economic consolidation and a higher level of economic resilience for the Romanian market.

The study of a country’s environmental sustainability is an important topic because it allows an understanding of the causes and possible solutions for protecting the environment, human health, and natural resources. Among the drivers of sustainable development, there is also the national culture of the countries, which can play a significant role in the implementation of policies aimed at environmental sustainability and which has been the subject of several scientific studies. This paper is aimed at studying how national culture impacts a country’s sustainability performance, starting from Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence). Unlike previous scientific literature, this work considers religiosity as one of the cultural variables that can impact a country’s environmental performance. In particular, the two most widespread religions worldwide, Christianity and Islam, were taken into consideration. To evaluate the environmental performance of countries, we utilized the Environmental Performance Index (EPI), since it provides a data-based overview of the status of sustainability worldwide, using performance indicators related to climate change, environmental health, and ecosystem vitality. Additionally, our analysis incorporated socio-economic variables as normalizing factors, including gross domestic product per capita, employment rate, and educational level. Our research investigates 96 countries across the globe, with 1,056 country-year observations taken into consideration for the period between 2011 and 2021. The study employs a dynamic panel data model that involves a two-step system-GMM. Our results suggest a strong relationship between cultural dimension and EPI.

Recently, the positive role of digitalization capabilities in supporting organizational resilience has been stated, but there is still little empirical research focusing on how this relationship happens in practice. This study aims to explore how digitalization capabilities can support organizational resilience through a qualitative approach. A single explanatory case study has been conducted two years after the COVID-19 pandemic in a big international company operating in the jewellery & fashion industry to identify the key practices adopted and the main digitalization capabilities developed during the emergency period. Interesting solutions, which helped the company in facing the emergency and seizing new opportunities through digitalization, emerged from the results and include, but are not limited to: the usage of AI and automation in operations management and the introduction of a Digital Innovation Department, which significantly redesigned the organizational structure and the strategic direction.

It is contested whether or not developing countries can achieve economic prosperity through shifting from agricultural to industrial societies. In the face of uncertainty surrounding economic and technological development, policy makers in many developing countries formulate ambitious goals for digitalization and its positive impacts on accelerating structural change [Matthess et al, 2020]. With regards to digitalization, a wealth of studies investigates the relationship between digital technologies and their economic impacts, e.g., on productivity [Qiang et al, 2009], employment [Ju, 2014], or manufacturing [Kohtamaki, 2020]. The article is focus on the analyses of the capacity of a developing country as Republic of Moldova is to adopt and implement digitalization policies. In this regards we highlight that in recent years, the governmental e-Development efforts of the Republic of Moldova were guided by the national strategies “Electronic Moldova” (2005), the e-Transformation program (2011), Strategy of development of the ecosystem of the IT industry and digital innovation 2018-2023 and “Digital Moldova 2020” Strategy (2013), which aims to increase the competitiveness of the ICT industry at the regional level and improve the climate for digital innovation. Why does the information technology sector represent an engine of social innovation and multilateral development of the country? How necessary are e-Government services for the citizens from the poorest country in Europe? In an attempt to answer these questions, the article will emphasize that in the Republic of Moldova, the ICT sector has become the main engine of digitization and innovation, and it is growing rapidly. In 2020, the IT industry reached a share of more than 3% in GDP, the share of the ICT sector in GDP being more than 7%, and the share of innovative enterprises represents 12.6% of the total number of enterprises. The share of ICT service exports reached 5% of total trade and surpassed traditional export fields (wines, textiles, etc.) in 2020, up 23% from 2019 and 184% from 2015; the sector employs approximately 1% of the total population of Moldova. It is little, but at the same time it is a very attractive sector for young people. (Strategy, 2022) With reference to the Electronic Government Agency, it is worth to mention that from 2011 until now, more than 100 e-Governance products have been successfully created within more than 20 e-Transformation and modernization initiatives of public administrative services, building a sustainable platform for the modernization public services and other innovations in governance.

Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) companies have long been recognised as key players in the modern economy since they positively affect the innovativeness of businesses and societies. Their business activities are mainly based on knowledge, which is both the input and the output of their production processes. Despite their small average size, the vast majority of KIBS companies are aware that knowledge is their most crucial competitive resource. However, they often manage their cognitive assets in a substantially informal and undeliberate way. Indeed, such companies face difficulties and obstacles typically associated with a limited size, such as, e.g., scarcity of human and financial resources, lack of time, and short-term orientation. Furthermore, KIBS SMEs face specific challenges, mainly caused by the intangible and knowledge-intensive nature of their business processes. A key issue concerns knowledge documentation and storage, which is essential to make the retrieval and reuse of possessed knowledge easier for existing and newly hired employees. In spite of the above, research about how small and medium sized KIBS companies manage knowledge documentation and storage processes is still limited. To help fill this gap, this paper examines the main difficulties that KIBS SMEs face when documenting and storing their knowledge and how they try to face and overcome these difficulties. In particular, the paper illustrates and discusses the findings of an empirical investigation that involved 13 Italian KIBS SMEs belonging to different sectors. The decision to adopt a multiple case study approach was induced by the exploratory nature of the research. The study revealed that knowledge documentation and storage is a widespread activity among the investigated companies, which confirms the relevance of these processes. The investigated companies are aware that poor documentation generates several problems that result in late responding to client requests. Furthermore, the study allowed identifying some shared challenges that concern the entire document and storage process, as well as collecting useful indications about how companies deal with them. The study has the usual limitations of a case study methodology, and especially the difficult generalisation of the results. This paves the way for future research devoted to confirm what emerged from the present analysis, for example, by means of surveys.

Firms use business analytics to improve their decision making. Analytics applications are increasingly used for decision automation regarding routine processes, and business analytics models and tools have been created for supporting firms in future planning and prediction. While benefits of using analytics to monitor, develop and improve daily operations have been reported by many scholars, the role of business analytics in improving non-routine decisions has remained somewhat uncharted. Top manager role often requires making non-routine decisions. Using thematic analysis of 12 interviews conducted in large Finnish firms, this paper outlines the perceptions of top managers on using business analytics when making decisions. It contributes to the currently ongoing academic discourse on information technology business value and business analytics business value by demonstrating how firms apply business analytics in top management decision-making activities.

Heritage-specific intervention projects, through the use of the Building Information Modeling (BIM) methodology, are being continuously implemented at the level of data computerisation and process automation, across all BIM dimensions and project stages. In particular, through the 4D HeritageBIM (HBIM) phase, it is necessary to take into account specific classes of intervention of the asset and, specifically, to consider its phases of evolution through the different historical epochs. This is of considerable interest because it allows the reconstruction of the constructive evolution of historical assets. The geometric-informative model can be simulated and computerised to identify situations of degradation and weaknesses, caused by anthropic and non-anthropic factors. In this regard, the present study proposes a Knowledge Management (KM) framework for the 4D HBIM domain, with focus on a bi-directional interoperability component and the “time” variable, which can be implemented through BuildingSMART’s open-source IFC (Industry Foundation Classes) format and standard and, moreover, the tasks scheduling in an upstream structured Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), also considering the Critical Path Method for process optimisation. IFC format files were applied for 4D, through the Heritage-specific tasks and their timescales, in order to describe the HBIM entities and relations. Through the implementation of 4D HBIM, it is allowed to share the same model with AEC stakeholders, exporting prepared charts and technical diagrams, obtained in the open-source exchange format to allow interoperability of related data and metadata, between different information and technology systems. The combination of KM techniques and BIM methodology is growing and has enormous potential. Many authors have focused their research on the specific topics of knowledge organisation and structuring, using ontologies, semantic networks and various types of data mining and machine learning algorithms. The work presented, and the related KM framework, is intended to provide new research insights specifically for 4D HBIM.

Following recent research calls that highlight the need for a more contextual approach to the study of intellectual capital (IC) that could provide managers with more fine-grained and actionable insights and recommendations, and considering recent concerns regarding the contribution of the marketing function to firm performance in the age of data, this paper aims at analysing how investments in marketing-specific structural capital and relational capital contribute to enhance marketers’ knowledge (i.e., marketing-specific human capital) and lead to superior organizational marketing capabilities (i.e., product, price, place, and promotion) that translate into superior market performance and, ultimately, competitive advantage (i.e., superior financial performance). Based on survey data from 346 Spanish firms over 100 employees and using structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS), we find that both marketing-specific structural and relational capital are positively and strongly related to marketers’ knowledge and that all marketing-specific IC categories (human, structural, and relational) are positively and significantly associated to marketing capabilities. At the same time, capabilities are strongly and positively related to market and financial performance. While marketing-specific structural capital is related to financial performance only indirectly (i.e., via human capital, marketing capabilities, and market performance), human and relational capital are both directly and indirectly related to financial performance. Our findings also reveal what specific knowledge resources within each IC component are the most relevant, thus offering specific guidelines to improve marketing-related resource allocation decisions.

Global warming, pollution and the rapid absorption of natural resources require swift and immediate action to limit and reverse their impact on the environment. Circular economy offers a clear solution to addressing these global challenges. Therefore, measuring the circularity of one’s organization should be the fundamental objective of all companies intending to apply circular economy. Otherwise, the effort made cannot be evaluated and the results achieved cannot be quantified. The agri-food sector is considered one of the main challenges related to the achievement and application of Circular Economy (CE) strategies, therefore this study is aimed at developing a multilevel framework for assessing circularity in agri-food industries, by providing the user with a step-by-step approach. The framework is composed of four stages. In the first stage, a circular economy theoretical model, based on four criteria, was implemented and adapted to agri-food sector. In the second stage, a set of indicators capable of measuring each criterion was collected. In the third stage, a weight is assigned to each indicator using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Lastly, an Axial Distance-based Aggregated Measurement (ADAM) model is used to normalize, assess, and aggregate the results and produce final circularity scores. The model can be a useful tool to support corporate decisions concerning the circular economy, making entrepreneurs aware of their starting level. It indicates the extent to which companies are implementing circular business models across different dimensions, and thus where they are still lacking.

Sustainability-oriented open innovation (SOI) has gained significant attention in recent years. However, there is a lack of evidence on the actual outcomes of this paradigm across enterprises. Thus, this study aims to investigate the implementation of SOI in the energy sector. A thematic analysis (TA) approach was adopted to analyse 64 sustainability reports from energy sector enterprises worldwide. The findings of this study identified five key themes, with three related to the sustainability outcomes of SOI, including “Empowering Business and Increasing Economic Prosperity”, “Environmental Stewardship and Conservation”, and “Building Sustainable Communities.” The remaining two themes focused on how these outcomes were achieved, including “SOI Advancing Measures” and “SOI Facilitating Measures”. By providing practical insights, this study aims to bridge the gap in the current body of knowledge on SOI.

Visual frameworks can be essential tools for service process management and innovation as long as they succeed in representing certain key features. Firstly, they should make it possible to visualize all the steps that make up the processes. Second, they should enable representing customer interaction (i.e., the interaction between customers and service providers) and customer participation (i.e., customer contribution to service production and delivery). Third, they should help identify interacting stakeholders and assess their role in the value (co)creation process. Fourth, they should allow identifying non-value-added steps. Finally, they should provide information about the duration of process steps and the channels through which the service is delivered (e.g., face-to-face or telephone). Several visual frameworks have been developed (Business Process Modeling Notation, Service Blueprinting, etc.), but Process Chain Network (PCN) Diagrams are the most comprehensive. Unfortunately, those diagrams have some limitations. First, PCN diagrams assume that a process begins when the customer expresses a need and ends when the need is satisfied. However, this choice may be inconvenient or impossible. In addition, they usually group stakeholders. This grouping is generally functional, but sometimes more detail is needed. In addition, the description of non-value-added steps could be refined. Finally, they do not provide an understanding of the duration of process steps or the channel through which the service is delivered. These limitations are significant in complex and lengthy processes such as health services. Taking PCN diagrams as a reference, this paper proposes PCN 2.0 diagrams to overcome these limitations. We first conceptualized the elements a visual framework should include reviewing widely used ones. Then we refined our framework by representing actual service processes. Finally, we demonstrated the power of our framework through its application to the televisit service offered by one of the leading children’s hospitals in Europe. This study contributes to the existing literature by presenting an improved version of PCN diagrams. Our framework could support researchers and practitioners in service management and innovation for its completeness and clarity. Although we show an example drawn from the health sector, the framework is assumed to be generalizable.

Measuring Intellectual Capital (IC) is essential for contemporary firms. To succeed in a radically changed economic environment, organizations must develop reliable measures of IC. Yet existing studies focused on this topic missed evaluating the uncertainty sources. To our knowledge, we performed the first systematic literature review with thematic analysis to understand which IC measurement model works better in the following uncertainty areas: digital transformation, environmental impact, financial crisis, social impact and turbulent environments. We searched three databases and included quantitative peer-reviewed articles relevant to IC measurement methods in business uncertainty. This yielded 2,709 studies, of which 27 were eligible and included in the final sample. Our study found no agreement on the best IC measurement tool for uncertain times due to varying firm characteristics, including location, industry, size, and performance dimensions. Additionally, included studies emphasized the importance of human capital in enhancing company competitiveness and profitability. However, investing in IC alone cannot ensure agility and resilience in the digital era. Firms must effectively manage intangible assets like innovation, R&D, and employee knowledge and skills to drive growth. For future research, we recommend focusing IC measurement research on under-investigated industries, such as automotive, transportation, and hospitality, which require tailored IC measurement solutions. Furthermore, to highlight the broader societal benefits of effective IC management, research should also focus on measuring IC’s impact on social development goals, such as ecological sustainability, fair employment and gender parity.