Alessandro Lo Presti, Amelia Manuti, Assunta De Rosa and Angelo Elia
The current study makes two main contributions: one theoretical and one methodological. First, it investigated the theoretical prepositions of career sustainability perspective…
Abstract
Purpose
The current study makes two main contributions: one theoretical and one methodological. First, it investigated the theoretical prepositions of career sustainability perspective, which appears particularly suitable for examining project managers' careers' dynamics and patterns, featured by explicit and recursive interactions between individual, temporal and contextual factors. Second, the study aimed to adopt a qualitative approach to this topic as to allow a deeper understanding of individual narratives about careers, highlighting underexplored issues and peculiarities that future research could further examine through quantitative methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
Project managers' careers are still an under-researched topic, especially through qualitative methods. The study applied career sustainability theory to the realm of project management, moreover, adopting a socio-constructivist perspective. Participants were 50 Italian project managers who were involved through a narrative in-depth interview that focused on career and career success. Their answers were analyzed through thematic analysis of contents and diatextual analysis.
Findings
Results showed that project managers' career could be a prototypical example of sustainable career, basically described in terms of four basic constitutive dimensions as follows: time frame, social space, agency and meaning. Implications for both future theoretical expansion of career sustainability theory and project managers' career management interventions were also discussed.
Originality/value
The originality of the paper could be found in the effort to adopt a socio-constructivist perspective to investigate the topic of career sustainability taking the exemplary case of project managers' career.
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Gianluca Elia, Alessandro Margherita, Alessandro Massaro and Angelo Vacca
The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a global movement of open innovation initiatives aimed to provide knowledge and tools to support policy decisions and actions in the emergency…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic has stimulated a global movement of open innovation initiatives aimed to provide knowledge and tools to support policy decisions and actions in the emergency scenario. The authors describe an open innovation process aimed to build an information coordination system to reduce the infection diffusion within the population.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use coordination theory principles to elaborate a framework of activities, resources and dependencies among information resources and producers in the COVID-19 emergency. The framework was applied to develop a case study aimed at describing a health emergency system implemented by Dyrecta Lab (a research laboratory on computer science) and CITEL (a medical research center).
Findings
The authors describe the existence of relevant “flow,” “fit” and “share” dependencies within the activities of infection containment and medical treatment. The authors identify eight key resources and a number of actors involved in those activities, and describe a platform able to gather a multitude of epidemic-related metrics with the purpose to address dependencies and support decision making.
Research limitations/implications
The authors provide insights for advancing the academic discussion on process coordination principles in time-constrained, volatile and highly demanding scenarios.
Practical implications
The value of the authors’ research can be identified for practitioners engaged to develop innovative development projects for public utility. The authors provide a contribution also for first responders and health operators involved in management of the current and future emergencies.
Originality/value
The adoption of process coordination principles is a relatively new and powerful approach to analyze and optimize the processes that characterize the management of emergency scenarios. Besides, the study and application of open innovation in healthcare are partially limited.
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Giuseppe Galassi and Richard Mattessich
The paper offers a survey of major Italian accounting scholars and their work for the period from 1900 to 1950. Apart from the late works of Rossi and Besta, the main focus is on…
Abstract
The paper offers a survey of major Italian accounting scholars and their work for the period from 1900 to 1950. Apart from the late works of Rossi and Besta, the main focus is on the contributions by Zappa, who undoubtedly dominated the scene. In this period, as well as later, most Italian accountants and “aziendalisti” adopted the so‐called “income system”. Although its premises originated with Fabio Besta, master of the so‐called “patrimonial or proprietorship system”, the Italian School under Zappa gave this system a new theoretical basis that differed fundamentally from that of Besta. Zappa also developed the dynamic aspect of accounting and business economics that still prevails in Italy. The paper also devotes attention to other Italian scholars, less well‐known abroad. In the area of cost accounting it concentrates on the views of De Minico and his disciple Amodeo, but also mentions other contributors. The final Section deals with Italian contributions to accounting history during this period
Lorenzo Ardito, Viviana D'Angelo, Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli and Enzo Peruffo
This paper adopts an intellectual capital perspective to investigate the role of owners who are ethnic minorities in the foreign market expansion performance of SMEs, and in…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper adopts an intellectual capital perspective to investigate the role of owners who are ethnic minorities in the foreign market expansion performance of SMEs, and in particular considers the human capital dimension of intellectual capital.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the empirical investigation of a sample of 10,326 small- and medium-sized US high-tech manufacturing enterprises, the authors’ results reveal a positive relationship between the number of foreign markets where these SMEs operate and their financial performance, and that this effect is reinforced by the presence of ethnic minority owners, as ethnic minorities constitute a valuable source of intellectual capital which bring value to firms.
Findings
The authors’ findings reveal the importance of intellectual capital in an SME’s leadership position, specifically in terms of having individuals from normally disadvantaged groups as owners. In this sense, policymakers are crucial in supporting the inclusion of ethnic minorities in SME ownership, through advantageous treatment in firms, for example.
Practical implications
The study presents practical implications for managers seeking foreign market expansion. In addition, when defining ownership structure (e.g., in the start-up phase), the role of human capital, in the form of ethnic minorities, should not be neglected, especially if an SME intends to operate or is already operating in different national contexts.
Originality/value
The authors’ results provide important insights into the positive effect of human capital on SME foreign market performance. The idea of a moderating role played by owners from ethnic minorities suggested here contributes to the literature on human capital and is one of the first attempts to consider this moderating factor in this relationship, especially in the SME context.
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Kai Wang, Massimiliano Matteo Pellegrini, Kunkun Xue, Cizhi Wang and Menghan Peng
Digital technologies over time are becoming increasingly pervasive and relatively affordable, finding a large diffusion in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) also for…
Abstract
Purpose
Digital technologies over time are becoming increasingly pervasive and relatively affordable, finding a large diffusion in Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) also for internationalization purposes. However, less is known about the specific mechanisms by which this can be achieved. Specifically, we focus on how SMEs can face the international environment, leveraging digital technologies and thanks to their intellectual capital (IC).
Design/methodology/approach
We analyze the relationship between digital technologies and the internationalization of SMEs, exploring the mediating role of IC in its three dimensions: human, relational and innovation capital, and assessing the possible moderating effects posed by international institutional conditions, specifically the Sino-US trade frictions. The relationships are tested using a sample of companies listed on China’s A-share Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) from 2010 to 2021.
Findings
Digital technologies help to internationalize SMEs. However, this positive relationship is affected (mediated) by the presence of an already consolidated IC. In addition, the institutional conditions of the international market, such as the Sino-US trade friction, moderate the components of IC differently. Specifically, the overall mediating effect of human and relational capital is boosted, while this does not happen for innovation capital.
Originality/value
First, this study contributes to the literature on organizational resilience, especially digital resilience, confirming its validity in the context of internationalization and, in particular, those processes adopted by SMEs. Second, we clarify the mechanisms through which digital technologies exert their impact on the process of internationalization and in particular the prominent necessity of having IC. Third, our conclusions enrich the understanding of how IC components react to turbulence in international markets.
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Michele Posa, Ivano De Turi, Antonello Garzoni and Gianluca Zanellato
The rising focus on effective pathways to sustainable development has led to the conceptualization of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as an institutionalization of public…
Abstract
Purpose
The rising focus on effective pathways to sustainable development has led to the conceptualization of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) as an institutionalization of public value. However, further exploration of public value creation processes, particularly through the lens of public (dis)value, is now advocated by scholars and policymakers. This study aims to understand the role of local ecosystems in enabling sustainable development within local communities through a public value regeneration process.
Design/methodology/approach
This research uses a case study methodology to examine Fattoria dei Primi, a social agriculture and urban regeneration initiative led by the Italian social cooperative Semi di Vita, with the mission to transform confiscated assets into new public goods.
Findings
A framework is developed to facilitate practices of public value regeneration and sustainable development. This framework offers a structured approach to understanding the actors, roles and stages involved in the regeneration process, identifying enablers and triggers across the stages of (1) value destruction, (2) value regeneration and (3) new value creation.
Practical implications
The findings offer valuable guidelines for public administration managers, institutions and policymakers to support public regeneration initiatives and progress toward the sustainable development in alignment with the UN Agenda 2030.
Originality/value
This study provides an initial examination of the mechanisms driving public value regeneration, demonstrating how collaboration among various stakeholders, including public, private and hybrid organizations, can facilitate regenerative processes and advance the SDGs.
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Angelo Rosa, Alessandro Massaro, Giustina Secundo and Giovanni Schiuma
This study aims to provide a methodology and tools to design new organizational processes and artificial intelligence (AI)-based scoring to optimize the resources management in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a methodology and tools to design new organizational processes and artificial intelligence (AI)-based scoring to optimize the resources management in healthcare units.
Design/methodology/approach
Process design and process data-driven simulation: the processes are designed by the business process modeling and notation and the unified modeling language standards. Data processing is performed by Correlation matrix analysis and by Fuzzy c-Means data clustering. The matching between the two methods provides the most indicated final corrective actions of the “TO BE” organizational model.
Findings
This proposed method, experimentally applied in this work merging the lean management model (LMM), process mining (PM) and AI methods, named process mining organization (PMO) model (Rosa et al., 2023 (b)), is able to improve organizational processes of a hospitalization unit (HU) by developing three propaedeutic phases: (1) analysis of the current state of the processes (“AS IS”) by identifying the critical issues as bottlenecks of processes, (2) AI data processing able to provide additional classified and predicted information allowing the “TO BE” workflow process and (3) implementation of corrective actions suggested by the PMO in order to support strategic decision-making processes in the short, medium and long term by classifying an order of priority about the healthcare procedures/protocols to perform.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the proposed case study is in the limited number of available digital data to process. This aspect reduces the capability to interpret result. In any case, the proposed methodology is a “launch” work to define a new approach to integrate organizational processes including workflow design and AI scoring. Future work will be focused on managerial implications due to use of the discussed method: design and development of new human resource (HR) organizational protocols following data analysis to optimize costs and care services and to decrease injury compensation claims.
Practical implications
Main implications are in healthcare managerial scenarios: design and development of new HR organizational protocols following data analysis to optimize costs and care services and to decrease injury compensation claims.
Social implications
Care services optimization is addressed on HUs.
Originality/value
The design of HR organizational processes integrates AI-driven data decision-making processes. This case study examines AI-based innovation analytics addressed on resource efficiency.
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Alessandra Costa, Angelo Presenza and Tindara Abbate
This work aims to offer a better understanding of the inevitable challenges related to the digital transformation in the family-owned low-tech SMEs, examining the role assumed by…
Abstract
Purpose
This work aims to offer a better understanding of the inevitable challenges related to the digital transformation in the family-owned low-tech SMEs, examining the role assumed by familiness in this specific context. To this end, it examines the main factors that influence the adoption and implementation of digital technologies in the family-owned low-tech SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses a multiple case studies approach, by investigating the case of family-owned low-tech SMEs operating in the winery sector and located in the South-Italy area.
Findings
Based on the empirical evidence, findings show how familiness influence the digital transformation of family-owned SMEs and highlight three main factors – individual, process and organization – relevant for the introduction and use of digital technologies in the productive and innovative activities of these organizations.
Originality/value
This paper fills the research gap existing in the literature on the family business. Firstly, it focuses on the digital transformation phenomenon and underlines how familiness, within family-owned low-tech SMEs, can differently influence the firm's innovation processes primarly based on the use of digital technologies oriented to enable business improvements. Then, it identifies diverse dimensions that can act as “barriers” or “facilitators” for adopting advanced digital technologies within the organizations here examined.
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Manlio Del Giudice, Elias G. Carayannis, Daniel Palacios-Marqués, Pedro Soto-Acosta and Dirk Meissner
Vinicius Elias Villabruna, Cleiton Hluszko, Daiane Rossi, Murillo Vetroni Barros, Jasmine Siu Lee Lam and Fernando Henrique Lermen
Seaports are vital in facilitating sustainable development, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors significantly impact an organization’s performance. Therefore…
Abstract
Purpose
Seaports are vital in facilitating sustainable development, and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors significantly impact an organization’s performance. Therefore, this study aims to identify and evaluate barriers and strategies of green investments to promote ESG practices within the seaport sector.
Design/methodology/approach
To fulfill this aim, a systematic literature review, interpretive structural modeling and the matrix of cross-impact multiplications were applied to classification analysis.
Findings
12 barriers were prioritized and categorized by experts in a focus group to optimize efforts and define the materiality of these barriers in implementing ESG strategies within seaport companies.
Practical implications
The implications of this study provide an alternative approach for ESG management in the context of seaports that can be applied in different regions by experts' opinion assessment.
Originality/value
No prior studies assessed the barriers and strategies for green investments in ESG from the port sector perspective.