Davide Rossi and Angelo Di Iorio
The purpose of this paper is to design and evaluate an authoring tool to support users in documenting knowledge using social software-based platforms in order to improve…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to design and evaluate an authoring tool to support users in documenting knowledge using social software-based platforms in order to improve information sharing within organizations. Facilitating the creation of such content has been identified as a critical point for the acceptance of similar platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a general framework to design and assess technological solutions that positively affects users’ contribution – and, as a consequence, users’ engagement – when knowledge is externalized, made persistent and shared by using semantic wikis. The definition of the framework has been derived from a case study on operational knowledge management. This framework revolves around interaction with actual users for both design and evaluation. The latter exploits usability tests based on the System Usability Scale and analysis based on the grounded theory.
Findings
The framework proved to be effective when applied for a solution for the authors’ case study. The results of the designed tool were well accepted, and the tool was characterized by its users as having high usability. A limitation that emerged is related to the ability to support authors not just in creating documentation but also in maintaining it, an aspect that needs to be better addressed in the future.
Originality/value
The presented framework can be instantiated for similar platforms and provides a common ground for assessment of tools. The produced tool significantly simplifies the production of documentation related to community best practices. Valuable user feedbacks were collected about possible improvements for tools supporting authors.
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Anna Roberta Gagliardi, Giuseppe Festa, Antonio Usai, Davide Dell'Anno and Matteo Rossi
Using an abductive perspective, this study aims to review the scientific literature about the governance and management of the digital supply chain (DSC) in the context of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Using an abductive perspective, this study aims to review the scientific literature about the governance and management of the digital supply chain (DSC) in the context of the business organizations, providing an overview of the state of the art of the research and outlining a future research agenda with a knowledge management (KM) focus.
Design/methodology/approach
After investigating the Scopus database, 54 articles were identified as relevant and then subjected to an initial discernment. After this assessment, 34 articles focusing on operations management were further analyzed through both a bibliometric analysis and a content analysis.
Findings
The DSC represents a research area of increasing attention, with relevant contributions to several aspects of the field, as well as about KM. At the same time, the results show that the scientific literature on DSC models, solutions and applications is fragmented. Although the analysis has found a heterogeneous literature, two main streams of research seem to emerge: KM in the business culture development about DSC and KM in the business technological evolution about DSC.
Originality/value
Although there exists growing interest in the scientific community, or perhaps because of this, area of research remains fragmented and under-theorized, thus requiring more systematic studies considering both economic and social aspects of the DSC. This study aims to provide innovative insights about this evolution, especially highlighting the two main contributions of KM in DSCs that have been revealed (business culture development and business technological evolution).
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Lorenzo Pelizza, Ursula Zambelli, Enrico Rossi, Germana Verdoliva, Davide Maestri, Ilaria De Amicis, Cecilia Paraggio, Amir Zaimovic, Bruno Veneri, Beatrice Urbani, Diana Gran Dall'Olio, Adriana Adriani, Stefania Cutrino, Silvia Bertoli, Giuseppina Paulillo and Pietro Pellegrini
Mental health interventions for Italian prisoners with mental disorders remain a problematic issue, despite radical changes in general psychiatric care and a 2008 major government…
Abstract
Purpose
Mental health interventions for Italian prisoners with mental disorders remain a problematic issue, despite radical changes in general psychiatric care and a 2008 major government reform transferring mental health care in prison to the National Health Service. The aim of this study is to describe the mental health intervention model implemented since January 2020 for prisoners allocated in the Parma Penitentiary Institutes (PPI). This approach is specifically based on specialized, “person-centered” and “person-tailored” therapeutic-rehabilitation plans in line with psychiatric treatments usually provided in community mental health-care centers of the Parma Department of Mental Health.
Design/methodology/approach
All the processes and procedures included in the PPI intervention model were first carefully illustrated, paying special attention to the service for newly admitted prisoners and each typology of specialized therapeutic-rehabilitation treatment potentially provided. Additionally, a preliminary descriptive process analysis of the first six months of clinical activity was also performed.
Findings
Since January 2020, 178 individuals entered the PPI service for newly admitted prisoners. In total, 83 (46.7%) of them were engaged in the services of the PPI mental health-care team (35 with pathological addiction and 48 with mental disorders): 56 prisoners were offered an integrated mental health intervention and 27 exclusively an individual psychological or psychiatric treatment.
Originality/value
The results support the potential applicability of an integrated mental health intervention in prison, planning a person-tailored rehabilitation in close collaboration with the prisoners, their families and the local mental health/social services.
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Davide Eltrudis, Patrizio Monfardini and Anna Francesca Pattaro
This paper employs the Biondi and Lapsley (2014) accounting information transparency model to investigate whether effective transparency can be achieved through digital platforms…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper employs the Biondi and Lapsley (2014) accounting information transparency model to investigate whether effective transparency can be achieved through digital platforms for popular reporting. In order to address the limitations in previous research, which predominantly targets non-expert users, this is attained by focusing on the perception of local government auditors. By engaging auditors who are experts in accounting, the study aims to investigate if any cognitive biases in the design of online platforms could impact the achievement of a sophisticated understanding with shared meanings among citizens.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopts an explorative and inductive approach, semi-structured interviews and an online survey among the Italian local governments’ Professional Auditors’ Association (ANCREL). Auditors assessed the OpenBDAP (https://openbdap.rgs.mef.gov.it/) platform in facilitating the comparison and analysis of the budgets and financial statements of Italian public sector organisations.
Findings
The results present a nuanced assessment of OpenBDAP, highlighting a general consensus on its ability to enhance the access and understanding of financial data and the appreciation of the utility of infographics in understanding financial data. Therefore, a clear challenge emerges in achieving active engagement of stakeholders. Despite expectations expressed during interviews with the Italian National Accounting Office regarding the design of custom APIs to meet user needs, our findings indicate the potential presence of cognitive biases in the design of the online platform as key obstacles.
Originality/value
By extending the application of the Biondi and Lapsley (2014) model on digital platforms for popular reporting to local government auditors, this study highlights the potential presence of cognitive bias in the design of online platforms that may impact the achievement of effective transparency, an aspect not previously identified in existing research. Finally, it suggests that these popular reporting platforms may evolve beyond mere transparency tools, assuming a broader role as potent learning instruments. This transformation could help to address the inherent complexity of accounting information, which is the real obstacle to achieving transparency.
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Davide Giacomini, Diego Paredi and Alessandro Sancino
This paper aims to understand stakeholders' sentiments with respect to company policies in the water utilities (WU) sector and to explore if and how these sentiments could be a…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to understand stakeholders' sentiments with respect to company policies in the water utilities (WU) sector and to explore if and how these sentiments could be a source for organisational learning.
Design/methodology/approach
This study investigates the use of social media in WUs’ and stakeholders’ reactions as a source of data for organisational learning. This paper relies on a mixed-methods approach based on sentiment analysis of Facebook (FB) pages and semi-structured interviews with sustainability managers from a sample of Italian WUs.
Findings
Findings show that WUs increasingly use FB mainly to promote and disclose environmental issues and as a source of information for organisational learning. A longitudinal analysis of environmental disclosure via FB reveals a growing trend of both companies’ posts and stakeholder interactions and significant differences among organisations in their ways of using information and knowledge obtained from social media.
Originality/value
Theoretically, this paper builds an original link between disclosure via social media and organisational learning processes. Empirically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to identify the quantity and quality of environmental disclosure via FB and the related stakeholders’ reactions.
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Kausar Yasmeen, Mustafa Malik, Kashifa Yasmeen, Muhammad Adnan and Naema Mohammed Al Bimani
Tourism, Technology and Climate Change: The tourism industry is indispensable both for its socio-cultural offerings and its profound economic implications. The economic multiplier…
Abstract
Tourism, Technology and Climate Change: The tourism industry is indispensable both for its socio-cultural offerings and its profound economic implications. The economic multiplier effects inherent in the drivers of tourism can stimulate the regional economy even before these areas emerge as tourism meccas. While vast amounts of research have detailed tourism's overarching significance, there is an evident void in understanding its multifaceted impacts, particularly where technological advances, environmental performance (EP) and economic benefits converge. A thorough examination of 907 research records led to this chapter, which identifies these gaps by referencing nine observational and 11 intervention studies. Achieving a Cohen's kappa value of 0.75, the authors note a strong consensus among reviewers, adhering to Cohen's (1940) standards. The findings from the first quarter highlight several areas within the tourism industry that have been under-researched. Particularly, the integration of technology, from ATM infrastructures enhancing tourist financial experiences to digital platforms elevating traveller education and awareness, and tech-driven solutions addressing demographic and ethical considerations in tourism, remains insufficiently explored. Additionally, the authors recognise an existing gap in knowledge regarding the nexus between tourism development and its climatic repercussions, especially before tourism ventures are fully realized. This chapter aims to channel future research into these lesser-trodden areas, fostering a comprehensive grasp of tourism's evolution in the face of rapid technological advancements and its interplay with environmental shifts.
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Davide Crivelli, Giulia Fronda, Irene Venturella and Michela Balconi
The purpose of this paper is to test the potential of an innovative technology-mediated mental training protocol for the empowerment of stress management and neurocognitive…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to test the potential of an innovative technology-mediated mental training protocol for the empowerment of stress management and neurocognitive efficiency in highly stressful professional contexts, with people who occupy top management positions. The innovative protocol specifically combines mindfulness practice and a wearable neurofeedback system managed via smartphone.
Design/methodology/approach
The longitudinal research included pre- and post-training assessment steps in order to test training effects with respect to subjective level and physiological markers of stress, anxiety and mood profiles, cognitive abilities and markers of neurocognitive efficiency.
Findings
Results showed decreased stress, anxiety, anger and mental fatigue; increased participants’ information-processing efficiency; increased electrophysiological markers concerning the balance and reactivity of the mind-brain system; and improved physiological markers of vagal tone.
Research limitations/implications
Though further investigation and replication with larger samples would strengthen present findings, the authors suggest that observed outcomes, together with the limited duration of the overall protocol and of daily practices, make the training a potentially valuable tool especially for people whose professional position imposes time limitations and elevated job duties, thus increasing the risk of drop-out from traditional stress management programs.
Originality/value
The combination of mindfulness-based mental training with the advantages offered by a novel brain-sensing wearable technology allows for overcoming the weak points of traditional approaches (e.g. notable time expense) and optimizing training opportunities and outcomes. Furthermore, this is, to the authors’ best knowledge, the first systematic report of the application of such methodology in an organization and with top management professionals.
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Patrizio Monfardini, Silvia Macchia and Davide Eltrudis
Knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs henceforth) rely heavily on knowledge as the primary resource to provide public services. This study deals with a specific kind of…
Abstract
Purpose
Knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs henceforth) rely heavily on knowledge as the primary resource to provide public services. This study deals with a specific kind of KIPO in the judiciary system: the courts. The paper aims to explore the court’s managerial and organisational change resulting from the national recovery and resilience plan (NRRP) reform in response to Covid-19, focussing on how this neglected KIPO responds to change, either by showing acts of resistance or undergoing a hybridisation process.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a qualitative research design, developing an explorative case study to investigate the process of a court’s managerial and organisational change caused by NRRP reform and to shed light on how this neglected KIPO reacts to change, showing resistance acts and developing the hybridisation process. Thirty-one interviews in six months have been conducted with the three main actors in Courts: judges, clerks and trial clerks.
Findings
The paper shows that in this understudied KIPO, judges fiercely resist the managerial logic that decades of reforms have been trying to impose. The recent introduction of an office for speeding up trials (Ufficio Per il Processo (UPP)) was initially opposed. Then, the resistance strategy changed, and judges started to benefit from UPP delegating repetitive and low-value tasks while retaining their core activities. Clerks approached the reform with a more positive attitude, seeing in UPP the mechanism to bridge the distance between them and the judges.
Originality/value
Considering their relevance to society, courts must be more addressed in KIPOs' studies. This paper allows the reader to enter such KIPO and understand its peculiar features. Secondly, the article helps to understand micropractices of resistance that may hinder the effectiveness of managerial reforms.
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Davide de Gennaro, Francesca Loia and Gabriella Piscopo
The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, and it has exacerbated the existing gender inequalities that have affected women. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The sudden outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has affected millions of people globally, and it has exacerbated the existing gender inequalities that have affected women. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceptions of women concerning gender inequality in the workplace during the current pandemic. The goal is to give women a voice so they can explain their feelings regarding the problems they face in a pandemic world.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, four poetic inquiries were developed to investigate how the lives of working women were changed during the pandemic in Italy. Poetic methodology is a creative and aesthetic representation of qualitative research that is capable of reporting data with more fluidity and freedom.
Findings
The results suggest that the gender gap is increasing and is embodied in a series of relational and economic problems related to remote work, in difficulty in reconciling private and work life and in a series of new telematic violence against women.
Practical implications
This study offers practical implications for policymakers by suggesting the application of diversity management initiatives to remove barriers to gender equality.
Originality/value
This study, through a poetic approach, is the first to investigate women's perceptions during the pandemic related to difficulties experienced in the work sphere.