Magda Di Renzo, Viviana Guerriero, Massimiliano Petrillo, Lidia Racinaro, Elena Vanadia and Federico Bianchi di Castelbianco
The assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in childhood has two essential aspects: the identification of the risk (under 30 months of age) and the definition of a diagnosis…
Abstract
Purpose
The assessment of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in childhood has two essential aspects: the identification of the risk (under 30 months of age) and the definition of a diagnosis that takes into account its core areas as well as further non-specific aspects. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach that considers the combination of clinical evaluation with the use of tools that analyse the various levels of the child’s functioning as fundamental.
Design/methodology/approach
The comprehensive assessment at the Institute of Ortofonologia in Rome provides the ADOS-2 and the Leiter-R for the evaluation of the symptomatology, the severity level, the non-verbal cognitive functioning and the fluid reasoning; the TCE and the UOI are used to identify, respectively, the child’s emotional skills and the ability to understand the intentions of others, as precursors of the theory of mind. Within this assessment, the Brief-P, the Short Sensory Profile and the RBS are also included for the evaluation of executive functions, sensory pattern and of restricted and repetitive behaviours, as observed by parents.
Findings
How to define a reliable development profile, which allows to plan a specific intervention calibrated on the potential of the child and on his development trajectory, is described. Two clinical cases are also presented.
Originality/value
The entire process is aimed both at a detailed assessment of the child’s functioning and at identifying a specific therapeutic project and predictive factors for achieving an optimal outcome.
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Michele Moretti, Federico Bianchi and Nicola Senin
This paper aims to illustrate the integration of multiple heterogeneous sensors into a fused filament fabrication (FFF) system and the implementation of multi-sensor data fusion…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to illustrate the integration of multiple heterogeneous sensors into a fused filament fabrication (FFF) system and the implementation of multi-sensor data fusion technologies to support the development of a “smart” machine capable of monitoring the manufacturing process and part quality as it is being built.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting from off-the-shelf FFF components, the paper discusses the issues related to how the machine architecture and the FFF process itself must be redesigned to accommodate heterogeneous sensors and how data from such sensors can be integrated. The usefulness of the approach is discussed through illustration of detectable, example defects.
Findings
Through aggregation of heterogeneous in-process data, a smart FFF system developed upon the architectural choices discussed in this work has the potential to recognise a number of process-related issues leading to defective parts.
Research limitations/implications
Although the implementation is specific to a type of FFF hardware and type of processed material, the conclusions are of general validity for material extrusion processes of polymers.
Practical implications
Effective in-process sensing enables timely detection of process or part quality issues, thus allowing for early process termination or application of corrective actions, leading to significant savings for high value-added parts.
Originality/value
While most current literature on FFF process monitoring has focused on monitoring selected process variables, in this work a wider perspective is gained by aggregation of heterogeneous sensors, with particular focus on achieving co-localisation in space and time of the sensor data acquired within the same fabrication process. This allows for the detection of issues that no sensor alone could reliably detect.
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Carmine Bianchi, Graham Winch and Federico Cosenz
The purpose of this paper is to frame the potential benefits of lean dynamic performance management (PM) systems for small and micro-enterprises. Such systems may exploit the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to frame the potential benefits of lean dynamic performance management (PM) systems for small and micro-enterprises. Such systems may exploit the entrepreneur’s tacit knowledge and build on managerial competencies, by incorporating individual attributes into organisational routines.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper suggests the use of insight models based on the combination of lean PM tools and system dynamics (SD) modelling. Based on a number of exemplary cases, the paper discusses the potential benefits of these models, in respect to four specific contexts: artisan, new company start-up, established firm and micro-giant company. Related to such contexts, the research identifies: needs or priorities, and obstacles or impediments to pursuing business survival and development.
Findings
The conceptual framework discussed in the paper discloses a quite original empirical basis to outline lean dynamic PM systems that may provide entrepreneurs with a set of key-performance drivers that help them to prioritise action, in each of the four analysed contexts.
Originality/value
Growing interest in adopting lean PM models in small and micro-firms appears in the recent PM literature with research highlighting strengths and shortcomings. However, few attempts have been produced to overcome such limitations, while the adoption of SD is relatively new in supporting lean PM system design.
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Guido Noto and Federico Cosenz
Lean Thinking is an operation management discipline which aims to identify, map and analyse the activities forming a process to detect “value waste” and outline the most effective…
Abstract
Purpose
Lean Thinking is an operation management discipline which aims to identify, map and analyse the activities forming a process to detect “value waste” and outline the most effective flow of activities to execute in sequence. Process mapping is often developed in lean projects through the use of the Value Stream Map (VSM). Like many other management tools, the VSM adopts a static and non-systemic perspective in the representation of an organizational process. This may result in the implementation of Lean projects inconsistent with the overall organizational long-term strategy, thus leading to dysfunctional performance. In order to overcome this limit, the paper suggests combining VSM with System Dynamics (SD) modelling.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a review of the literature on VSM. This review is matched with an analysis of SD modelling principles aimed at explaining the practical and theoretical contribution of this approach to operation and strategic management practices. An illustrative case study is then provided to explore the practical implications of the proposed approach.
Findings
Our results show that SD modelling provides robust methodological support to VSM and Lean Thinking due to its inner characteristics, namely: simulation, systemic view, explicit link between system structure and behaviour and effective visual representation.
Originality/value
This research proposes a novel approach to design VSMs aimed at fostering a strategic perspective in Lean Thinking applications. Such an approach connects two fields of research and practice – i.e. VSM and SD modelling – which have traditionally been kept separated or, at least, partially combined for specific organizational sub-systems, thereby neglecting a broader strategic view of the entire process system.
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Guido Noto, Anna Prenestini, Federico Cosenz and Gustavo Barresi
Public health strategies and activities are intrinsically complex. According to the literature, this “wickedness” depends on the different interests and expectations of the…
Abstract
Purpose
Public health strategies and activities are intrinsically complex. According to the literature, this “wickedness” depends on the different interests and expectations of the stakeholders and the community, the fragmented governance of the related services and the challenges in measuring and assessing public health outcomes. Existent performance measures and management systems for public health are not designed to cope with wickedness since they are mainly focused on inputs and outputs, neglecting broader outcomes because of their long-term impact and the poor accountability of results. This research aims to tackle this shortfall by adopting a dynamic performance management (DPM) approach.
Design/methodology/approach
This research explores the case of the vaccination campaign of a Regional Health System. Through the analysis of an illustrative case study, the research discusses both opportunities and limits of the proposed approach.
Findings
This research highlights that DPM supports performance management (PM) in wicked contexts, thanks to the adoption of a system-wide perspective and the possibility of using simulation to experiment with alternative strategies and benchmarking performance results with simulated trends.
Originality/value
This article tackles a gap related to the management of wicked problems both from a theory and a practical perspective. In particular, this research suggests the adoption of DPM as an approach that may support policymakers in tackling social pluralism, institutional complexity and scientific uncertainty all at once.
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Federico Cosenz, Davood Qorbani and Yokei Yamaguchi
The purpose of this paper is to experiment a dynamic performance management (DPM) approach to explore and assess the business dynamics of digital ride-hailing platforms with a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to experiment a dynamic performance management (DPM) approach to explore and assess the business dynamics of digital ride-hailing platforms with a focus on both supply and demand sides, and related interplays.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adopts the DPM framework supported by simulation-based experimentations for developing a systemic case interpretation of Uber Inc. and its specific business complexity.
Findings
The emerging scenario analysis reveals that changes in the commission percentage for drivers and cutting prices for customers (car hailers) by competitors have significant impacts on the car-hailing industry.
Originality/value
DPM and associated simulation-based analysis of the ride-hailing business may provide significant managerial decision insights and a ground base research in a relatively less-explored field within the strategic management domain.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore how system dynamics (SD) modelling can provide a methodological support to business model (BM) design with the intent to better communicate…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how system dynamics (SD) modelling can provide a methodological support to business model (BM) design with the intent to better communicate business strategy and manage performance.
Design/methodology/approach
After a literature review of the field and an analysis of the strengths and limitations of conventional BM frameworks, the paper illustrates and discusses an approach that combines such a framework with SD modelling. A single-case study design was selected to explore the implications and limitations of using this combined approach to business modelling.
Findings
The methodological support provided by SD to BM design may effectively improve business strategy communication and performance management through both the adoption of a systemic and flexible perspective able to identify and analyse the main cause-and-effect relationships between the key-elements of the business strategy, and the use of a simulation technique that contributes in understanding how a firm operates, and its prospective performance over time.
Originality/value
Growing interest for BMs appears in the recent strategic management literature with research highlighting strengths and shortcomings. However, few attempts have been produced to overcome such limitations, while the adoption of SD is relatively new in supporting BM design.
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Mattia Bianchi, Anthony Di Benedetto, Simone Franzò and Federico Frattini
The purpose of this paper is to bring new empirical evidence to the controversial role of early adopters in the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to bring new empirical evidence to the controversial role of early adopters in the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply an actor market configuration perspective to the analysis of four longitudinal case studies regarding the commercialization of new products in the textile, plastic and energy industries.
Findings
The diffusion of innovation is an interactive and iterative process where the commercializing firm engages in repeated interactions with different categories of companies that are targeted as potential early adopters. This process ends when the commercializing firm identifies a category of early adopters that can stimulate subsequent acceptance in the later market, by playing one of the following two roles, i.e. word-of-mouth trigger and industry benchmark. During this process, through which the role of the early adopters is constructed proactively by the commercializing firm, the product innovation is also subject to changes to provide a better fit with the selected category of early adopters.
Research limitations/implications
The paper calls for a re-conceptualization of the diffusion process, from a passive identification of early adopters to an interactive process that entails a trial-and-error approach in the targeting and involvement of different categories of early adopters, which ends when the innovation reaches the desired levels of diffusion.
Practical implications
The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for selecting the most proper category of early adopters for their innovations, depending on the role they are more likely to play and the influence they will exert on subsequent acceptance in the later market.
Social implications
The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for targeting, through a trial-and-error process, early adopters and working with them to champion the dissemination of new technologies.
Originality/value
This paper significantly adds to existing literature on the diffusion of innovation, which has up to now conceived early adopters as static and given entities, which cannot be proactively selected by the commercializing firm, and innovation as an immutable object.
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Over the past 20 years, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have emerged as a significant research field, inspiring several scholars to provide valuable contributions. The chapter…
Abstract
Over the past 20 years, entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have emerged as a significant research field, inspiring several scholars to provide valuable contributions. The chapter aims to map the current state of literature by highlighting the most prominent research strands and the main theoretical lenses employed in the research field. By carrying out a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, the study examines articles published over a period of 27 years. The time frame from 1996 to 2023 offers an extensive outlook of the field’s evolution and current trends, resulting in the identification of five research strands and different future research avenues. From the analysis of prior research works, this study provides an in-depth examination of the complex nature of EEs. The results hold theoretical and practical implications. From the scholars’ point of view, they offer future research directions to move the current level of knowledge forward. From the entrepreneurs’ perspective, they provide valuable insights to address ongoing challenges and catch new opportunities within the dynamic panorama of EEs. Therefore, the insights are poised to drive future research, inform policymakers, and enhance business strategies aimed at fostering resilient EEs. In other words, the purpose is to provide readers with a well-rounded understanding over the state of the literature on EEs and the research strands that deserve further exploration.
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Luigi Lepore, Sabrina Pisano, Assunta Di Vaio and Federico Alvino
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the degree of disclosure about compliance with corporate governance code and the explanations provided by Italian firms and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the degree of disclosure about compliance with corporate governance code and the explanations provided by Italian firms and second, to analyze the relationships between this disclosure and different variables of ownership structure.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample was composed of 75 non-financial companies listed in Italy in 2016. Content analysis of the corporate governance statement and ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression models were used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
Companies tended to comply with the corporate governance code and to disclose this information, but when they decided to not comply, they did not provide adequate explanations. Findings revealed a negative relation between ownership concentration and the disclosure analyzed. Results also highlight that a more equal distribution of shares among larger shareholders is beneficial for disclosure. Moreover, the presence of a dominant financial shareholder at a high level of ownership concentration creates inefficiency of the degree of adherence to the comply-or-explain principle.
Originality/value
This study examines in depth the underexplored issue of “explanation” and exceeds the issue of ownership concentration, which has already been examined extensively, raising the issues of counterweight power and shareholders’ identities, which remain underexplored. In this way, results presented contribute to explaining some causes of the diverse findings that research has found about the relationship between ownership concentration and voluntary disclosure, demonstrating the importance of counterweight power and largest shareholder’s identity. Consequently, when self-regulating initiatives are designed and implemented, legislators, regulators and managers should not ignore the characteristics of the firms’ ownership structure.