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Worldwide challenges impose public organizations to rethink their processes and satisfactorily meet citizens’ needs. Process mining (PM) techniques enable organizations to objectively analyse and improve their processes, by providing higher process transparency and efficiency. However, extant literature on PM applications in the public sector reveals there is still limited evidence on the opportunities and challenges perceived from PM introduction in the public sector, and on PM potential to enhance public sector digital transformation: this study aims to fill these gaps.

Based on Business Process Management and digital innovation fields of research, we administered a questionnaire to a sample of Italian civil servants working in different public organizations to investigate their perceptions of PM opportunities and challenges and the extent to which it can support public sector digital transformation. A three-level analysis was conducted to inspect findings with different levels of granularity, and results were analysed both descriptively and quantitatively.

We found a positive attitude towards PM introduction in the public sector, and perceived opportunities and challenges related to both the technical and the social systems. The triangulation between close-ended and open-ended questions suggests that PM could be the missing link between public sector digitalization and digital transformation. These findings can be used by policymakers to develop the best strategies to introduce PM into public organizations and support its adoption, and by researchers to further explore PM role in public sector digital transformation.

Despite PM claiming to push digital transformation, it is not clear if it is also true for public sector organizations. This paper addresses this gap and it is among the first attempts to explore PM from civil servants’ viewpoint to investigate their perceptions of PM opportunities and challenges, as well as the variables that influence these perceptions.

This study aims to apply Process Mining (PM) techniques to identify the critical elements that primarily affect the trials’ duration and suggest the best practices to enable their more efficient execution, reduce their duration and, consequently, create public value, through a case study conducted in an Italian Civil Court.

Through PM analyses and in-depth discussions with the court staff, we analysed the trials with the longest duration and those belonging to a specific subject matter to identify peculiar features and inefficiencies that prolong the trials’ duration.

Our results highlight how innovative tools like PM can revolutionise the judicial system by providing judges with objective trials data that can support and facilitate the entire trials’ definition. However, many issues, especially related to the little spread data culture and process-oriented approach in courts, are highly present, leading to data inconsistencies and subsequent difficulties in trials’ analysis and interpretation.

Little research has devoted attention to the PM potential to enhance the judiciary. Our study contributes to this strand, yet adopting a different approach: it investigates the trials’ excessive length by focusing on bottlenecks and inefficient activities that slow down trials and identifies activities’ thresholds to monitor the trials’ execution and limit delays.

To fill the gap in the literature with regard to public value measurement (PVM) and to provide a model for measuring public value at an individual organizational level, based on managerial control systems (MCS).

This article helps review the literature on PVM and propose a model for measuring the value generated by individual organizations. Measurement challenges and potential solutions are investigated.

Public value generated by an individual organization can be calculated by measuring if and to what extent the organization’s outcomes and objectives have been achieved. Public value production and measurement are part of a wider PVM process, which is congruent with the major elements of MCS, from planning to operations, and measurement to evaluation.

This article provides knowledge to support the measurement of public value produced by public sector organizations. However, the suggested use of MCS for a comprehensive measure of the public value produced by a public body does not allow for a comparison of the public values generated by different organizations, as the value is calculated against the objectives set by that specific organization. More research is needed in order to fully utilize this model in practice.

The findings may help public sector organizations, policymakers and public managers measure the public value produced by a public organization as a whole.

This article may help citizens and other stakeholders understand the public value produced by a public organization.

This article is based on an original research undertaken by the author and faces the relatively neglected issue of PVM. It suggests the use of public value MCS as a model for measuring public value produced by individual organizations.

This chapter contributes to the Public Value (PV) literature in relation to accounting by providing evidence on its content's operationalization through performance measurement. In particular, it establishes the link with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which may work as guiding principles of a public organization’s action. Accordingly, organizations embedding SDGs include them in their strategic decisions and disclose them through performance measurement and narratives.

The SDGs' presence is explored in the PV of a sample of Italian health institutes through documentary analysis of their performance plans. The aim is to verify if and how SDGs are pursued and whether the COVID-19 pandemic has affected PV content.

Besides Goal No. 3 (Health), the PV content of the investigated institutes contains various SDGs. Before the pandemic, their PV was aligned with SDGs mainly related to prosperity, economic growth and social inclusion. In the following period, the number of SDGs increased, introducing planet and environmental protection dimensions. No one explicitly mentions pursuing SDGs, revealing a non-institutionalized sensitivity of managers towards SDGs. The analysis distinguishes between ‘core’ SDGs, revealed mostly by traditional performance measures disclosing the achievement of institutes' mission, and ‘complementary’ SDGs, expressed mostly through narratives. This can derive from performance measurement, which employs the language of performativity, while the contribution to society is relegated in the narratives, making them less incisive.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contribution on the role of European R&D projects (ERDPs) on small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) resource development.

This paper adopts a qualitative methodology based on a longitudinal case study. The case analysis concerns Gamma, a small high-tech firm based in Italy, active in nanotechnologies since 2005 as a research spin-off and since its establishment active in ERDPs. The analysis is developed along three main phases of development where the company participated to different ERDPs.

The empirical analysis highlights that since its establishment, Gamma has been able to increasingly exploit participation in ERDPs, in order to gain access to financial and technological resources. Such active and continuous participation fostered the development of both advanced technological and organizational resources, which then allowed the company to survive and play a growing role as a well-known technology partner in the nanotechnology field in Italy and Europe.

Adopting an IMP perspective, the paper provides a contribution on the managerial dimension of SMEs’ participation in ERDPs – which represents a neglected topic in the existing literature – on two distinct grounds: resource development process and networking processes. With respect to resource development processes in ERDPs, this case study underscores the relevance of ERDPs for developing both technological and organizational resources, highlighting the relevance of project management-related knowledge. In terms of networking processes, this paper highlights the need to fully understand the interplay of ERDP networks and business networks.

The purpose of the present research is to explore the current situation and future expectations on whether to self‐manage or outsource logistics operations in centralized healthcare networks, and to analyse and quantify the relationships between logistics outsourcing, costs and performance.

The paper is based on a thorough study of a local Italian healthcare network, which evaluated the economic sustainability of logistics outsourcing. The data were collected using interviews, documentation and observations in hospital pharmacies and wards, and by referring to public information available on the internet. A system dynamic simulation followed by a sensitivity analysis was used to investigate the impact of changing key variables as well as the advice of logistics providers.

The sensitivity analysis demonstrates that logistics outsourcing is often the most economical choice.

Performance‐oriented concepts applied to healthcare have many pros in terms of sustainable delivery of quality healthcare at affordable costs.

While there are numerous studies on logistics outsourcing in many industries, when it comes to the healthcare sector literature is scarce, probably due to the great changes this sector has faced in recent times: thus, the paper's quantitative findings should be seen as a first attempt to assist the “make‐or‐buy” decision process toward sustainable development of the healthcare sector.

The purpose of this paper is to classify research on information and communication technology (ICT) for logistics and freight transportation on the basis of the main themes and methods and proposes directions for future research.

The review is based on 44 papers published from 1994 to 2009 in international peer‐reviewed journals. The academic papers are analysed and classified according to the research methodology adopted and the themes addressed.

While there are many contributions taking the “public transportation” perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of public stakeholders), papers focussing on the “private transportation” perspective (i.e. the viewpoint of the private companies offering logistics and transportation services) are fewer and relatively more recent. Additionally, even though in recent years researchers have also started to examine the decision‐making process of ICT adoption, many themes are under‐represented in literature, such as the subject of integration among different application types, empirical research on ICT adoption and the role of technology providers in the adoption process. As far as the methodology is concerned, the review revealed that many of the papers examined are either conceptual papers or empirical studies (i.e. mostly based on surveys, or else on case studies or interviews), while simulation and modelling are rarely present.

While efforts were made to be all‐inclusive, significant research efforts may have been inadvertently omitted. However, the authors believe that this review is an accurate representation of the body of research on ICT for logistics and transportation companies published during the specified timeframe, and feel that confidence may be placed on the resulting assessments.

The paper offers a guide for the review of previous research on this topic and identifies the most important issues that need to be addressed in future research.

Companies in the freight transportation industry can currently make use of an increasing number of applications based on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to improve the performance of their processes. Although these applications have become more widely used in recent years, there is still little research focussing on the actual adoption rate. The present study aims to fill this gap and provide a broad empirical analysis of the use of ICT‐based applications in the freight transportation industry in Italy.

The analysis uses multiple‐case studies. It is based on semi‐structured interviews with the management of leading Italian companies involved in transportation processes.

The study provides an insight into the current adoption of ICT applications among companies involved in freight transportation activities in Italy. The results point out the most used functions in each application area and the level of integration across these application areas.

The sample of companies examined in this study was selected by expert assessment, and is biased towards companies willing to provide data and share results. However, the findings provide some interesting results on how and where investments in ICT can be suitable for companies in the logistics and transportation industry.

The paper fulfils an identified need for in‐depth case studies focussing on the adoption level and the implementation process of ICT applications in transportation, and it is of interest to researchers and practitioners in the field of logistics and transportation management.

There are very few individuals who have studied the question of weights and measures who do not most strongly favour the decimal system. The disadvantages of the weights and measures at present in use in the United Kingdom are indeed manifold. At the very commencement of life the schoolboy is expected to commit to memory the conglomerate mass of facts and figures which he usually refers to as “Tables,” and in this way the greater part of twelve months is absorbed. And when he has so learned them, what is the result? Immediately he leaves school he forgets the whole of them, unless he happens to enter a business‐house in which some of them are still in use; and it ought to be plain that the case would be very different were all our weights and measures divided or multiplied decimally. Instead of wasting twelve months, the pupil would almost be taught to understand the decimal system in two or three lessons, and so simple is the explanation that he would never be likely to forget it. There is perhaps no more interesting, ingenious and useful example of the decimal system than that in use in France. There the standard of length is the metre, the standard of capacity the cubic decimetre or the litre, while one cubic centimetre of distilled water weighs exactly one gramme, the standard of weight. Thus the measures of length, capacity and weight are most closely and usefully related. In the present English system there is absolutely no relationship between these weights and measures. Frequently a weight or measure bearing the same name has a different value for different bodies. Take, for instance, the stone; for dead meat its value is 8 pounds, for live meat 14 pounds; and other instances will occur to anyone who happens to remember his “Tables.” How much simpler for the business man to reckon in multiples of ten for everything than in the present confusing jumble. Mental arithmetic in matters of buying and selling would become much easier, undoubtedly more accurate, and the possibility of petty fraud be far more remote, because even the most dense could rapidly calculate by using the decimal system.