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Crowdfunding (CF) is a digital-financial innovation that, bypassing credit crisis, bank system rigidities and constraints of the capital market, is allowing new ventures and established companies to get the needed funds to support innovations. After one decade of research, mainly focused on relations between variables and outcomes of the CF campaign, the literature shows methodological lacks about the study of its overall behavior. These reflect into a weak theoretical understanding and inconsistent managerial guidance, leading to a 27% success ratio of campaigns. To bridge this gap, this paper embraces a “complex system” perspective of the CF campaign, able to explore the system's behavior of a campaign over time, in light of its causal loop structure.

By adopting and following the document model building (DMB) methodology, a set of 26 variables and mutual causal relations modeled the system “Crowdfunding campaign” and a data set based on them and crafted to model the “Crowdfunding campaign” with a causal loop diagram. Finally, system archetypes have been used to link the causal loop structure with qualitative trends of CF's behavior (i.e. the raised capital over time).

The research brought to 26 variables making the system a “Crowdfunding campaign.” The variables influence each other, thus showing a set of feedback loops, whose structure determines the behavior of the CF campaign. The causal loop structure is traced back to three system archetypes, presiding the behavior in three stages of the campaign.

The value of this paper is both methodological and theoretical. First, the DMB methodology has been expanded and reinforced concerning previous applications; second, we carried out a causation analysis, unlike the common correlation analysis; further, we created a theoretical model of a “Crowdfunding Campaign” unlike the common empirical models built on CF platform's data.

Given the evolution that knowledge management (KM) has undergone since the advent of the digital transition, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate how KM processes have changed as a result of agile organisations’ adoption of digital technologies.

Years have passed since the onset of the fourth industrial revolution, and the technologies unique to this revolution have permeated every organisation to varying degrees. Whether organisations have been at the forefront of technological innovation or have had to adapt to much more advanced digitised processes, they have had to change how they manage operations internally and with the remainder of the supply chain they serve. These changes have been much more significant for agile organisations, which rely heavily on digital systems and have strong supplier and customer interactions. Due to the large amount of data generated, these organisations are referred to as knowledge-intensive businesses, and as a result, their KM processes are of the utmost importance. For this reason, a multiple case study with a grounded theory approach has been implemented to carry out a field analysis.

The results show that Industry 4.0 technological advances can be included in the scientific debate on KM and agile innovation, given the effects that such technologies have on organisations.

In today’s increasingly connected world, these findings have the potential to generate significant economic value by improving coordination and collaboration in KM processes.

This study demonstrates how artificial intelligence (AI) shapes the strategic planning process in volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business environments. Having adopted various domains of the Cynefin framework, the research explores AI's transformative potential and provide insights regarding how organisations can harness AI-driven solutions for strategic planning.

This conceptual paper theorises the role of AI in strategic planning process in a VUCA world by integrating extant knowledge across multiple literature streams. The “model paper” approach was adopted to provide a theoretical framework predicting relationships among considered concepts.

The paper highlights potential application of the Cynefin framework to manage complexities in strategic decision-making process, the transformative impact of AI at different stages of strategic planning, the required strategic planning characteristics within VUCA to be supported by AI and the attendant challenges posed by AI integration in the uncertain business landscape.

This study pioneers a theoretical exploration of AI's role in strategic planning within the VUCA business landscape, guided by the Cynefin framework. Thus, it enriches scholarly discourse and expands knowledge frontiers.

Our study examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance decision-making processes to promote circular economy practices within the utility sector.

A unique case study of Alia Servizi Ambientali Spa, an Italian multi-utility company using AI for waste management, is analyzed using the Gioia method and semi-structured interviews.

Our study discovers the proactive role of the user in waste management processes, the importance of economic incentives to increase the usefulness of the technology and the role of AI in waste management transformation processes (e.g. glass waste).

The present study enhances the circular economy model (transformation, distribution and recovery), uncovering AI’s role in waste management. Finally, we inspire managers with algorithms used for data-driven decisions.

This study aims to discuss the contribution of street art projects to the place-making of villages and the effects it generates for local stakeholders.

A conceptual framework is developed based on the main characteristics of the place-making process, street art, creative place-making, as well as place identity, revitalisation and regeneration. This framework defines a set of thematic categories for the qualitative content analysis of online information, e.g. websites, media and blog posts, as well as in-depth interviews with local stakeholders.

This research presents the contribution of street art in place-making involving citizens, local businesses and international artists in a collective act to preserve local identity and revitalise and regenerate villages.

The research is focused only on villages. Cities are not considered in the research.

Street art projects provide villages with several opportunities, such as stimulating place regeneration and revitalisation, giving new shape and decoration to neighbourhoods and streets and attracting visitors and business. Moreover, street art is commonly used to communicate local history, culture, traditions and social and political facts, helping places to vehiculate their identity and their messages to the next generations. Street art is also used as a part of a place branding strategy.

The village gets the opportunity to exploit the street art value proposition to stimulate the restocking of the place, if the primary stakeholders of the place are ready to invest in the new place identity giving trust to the street art project.

Street art projects contribute to the place-making of villages. They are used to communicate place identity, fostering cooperation between local stakeholders and economic and social development.

It was to investigate whether gender diversity – gender balance – within political municipal government teams affected the municipal indebtedness. Government ideology, the gender of the mayor and the wealth of the municipal environment were considered as moderators.

We used GMM estimators on two dynamic models and a sample of 144 Spanish municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the period 2013–2022.

Gender diversity within government teams reduces the municipal debt. Furthermore, the government right-wing ideology and the female gender of the mayor are robust moderators of the effects of the gender diversity within government teams on institutional indebtedness.

The differences in financial autonomy and powers to apply public policies by municipalities in the different countries, as well as some differential aspects within the right-wing ideological spectrum, may condition our findings. Within relational demography, gender diversity impacts municipal performance, opening the way to explore other relations in future research.

The tendency to implement legislation to try to achieve high gender balances within political decision-making bodies generates higher gender diversity, and our research shows that it leads to a better financial performance, a matter of transcendental importance for EU, credit rating agencies, and lenders.

This study provides new knowledge about the effect of gender within political decision-making bodies on municipal budgetary management. It is the first research analysing the impact of gender balance in the strict sense within decision-making bodies on municipal indebtedness.

Scholars increasingly focus on digital transformation as a key strategy for incumbent firms to gain competitive advantages. Meeting digital transformation commitments presents challenges, requiring the application and the reconfiguration of dynamic capabilities. To address this need, this research proposes a framework of dynamic capabilities and its microfoundations to assess the opportunities and challenges regarding digital transformation, involving three dimensions: Digital sensing, digital seizing, and digital reconfiguring.

This study employed a descriptive qualitative empirical approach, encompassing a sample of eight companies. Data triangulation was achieved through a combination of in-depth semi-structured interviews and secondary data.

The research provides evidence that data-driven culture fosters digital transformation and proposes the following new microfoundations: “Analytics for the customer experience journey” and “Digital analytics innovation management”, the internal barriers “Leadership without digital skills” and “Lack of strategic human resources management for digital transformation”, and the internal enablers “Defined strategy for digital transformation” and “Data-driven culture”. Finally, based on empirical results, it was possible to gather clues that link dynamic capabilities with digital maturity.

The application of the proposed framework in companies enables them to develop a roadmap for the digital transition oriented towards their business and management strategies.

This paper contributes to the literature on dynamic capabilities for digital transformation by proposing new theoretical constructs that unearth their microfoundations, barriers, and enablers.

This research examines the impact of integrating lean manufacturing (LM) principles and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) into the product development process (PDP) of manufacturing companies in southern Brazil, with the objective of improving market performance (MP).

A survey was conducted with 110 product development managers to evaluate the level of LM and I4.0 principles, PDP phases, and the improvement of MP. Quantitative analysis was employed to analyse the data, including confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and ordinary least squares (OLS) hierarchical regression.

The study reveals that integrating LM and I4.0 principles in the PDP enhances product development and positively impacts the MP of manufacturing companies. Additionally, I4.0 partially mediates the LM-PDP relationship, while LM partially mediates the I4.0-PDP relationship, highlighting their interdependence rather than one being a prerequisite for the other.

The study has limitations regarding its narrow focus on product development managers in Brazil and the absence of multiple case studies.

The study emphasises the importance of coordinated efforts in manufacturing companies to adopt and manage both LM and I4.0 principles, as they positively impact all phases of the PDP and ultimately contribute to the overall MP of the companies.

The novelty of this study lies in its systemic approach, examining the relationships and effects of LM and I4.0 principles on the PDP, and demonstrating how these effects manifest in manufacturing companies.

In this chapter, we review the historical development of elite theory, and then we propose a way forward beyond it. Elite theory emerged as a critique of democracy in the late 19th century. Although it used historical materials illustratively, it tended to be ahistorical theoretically because its primary aim was to demonstrate the perdurance of elites even in conditions of mass suffrage. Lachmann was the first scholar to develop elite theory as a truly historical and explanatory framework by combining it with elements of Marxism. Even Lachmann's theory, however, remained inadequate because it did not rest on a fully articulated theory of power. In this introduction, we suggest a “relational power theory” as a remedy to this situation, and we use it to formulate a general heuristic for the study of elites, nonelites, and their interrelationships. To illustrate its utility, we show how it can illuminate the chapters in this volume (though they were not necessarily written for these purposes).