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Although research on smart technologies explains their critical importance in sustainable business models (SBMs) (Mikalef et al., 2017), it remains unclear how organisations can embrace smart technologies to create and/or improve their sustainable business models. The purpose of this paper is to unravel and address the challenges of smart technologies to build and maintain a sustainable business model for organisations.

The research develops an empirical analysis through a case study approach. We have investigated the case of ENAV – an Italian air navigation service provider – and how this firm uses smart technologies in the creation of its successful SBM. After constructing a basic theory, the authors moved to evidence collection. The data analysis has adopted a qualitative approach based on a thematic analysis of the transcripts and related documents.

The findings from the case study support the idea that the business value and the strategic relevance of smart technologies still remain largely underestimated in SBM adoption (Mikalef et al., 2017). Case study findings suggest that until today smart technologies have played a minimal role in SBM adoption. However, the smart technologies show the potential to inform the SBM adoption process by contributing to corporate communication for external stakeholders and to the main dimensions of SBMs such as safety and security or the respect for social and environmental criteria in the supply chain.

This study seeks to support organisations and their directors to build and improve sustainable business models through smart technologies to maintain their competitive advantages. Specifically, our findings suggest that smart technologies can help organisations bridge the design–implementation gap of sustainable business models.

This research advances our understanding of the role of smart technologies by explaining how they can enhance sustainable business model adoption. Indeed, we offer a comprehensive view of the integration of insights from three different but related literature streams such as sustainability strategies, smart technologies and change management studies.

Several causes may induce firm managers to analyze the actual technology condition of patent portfolios, among which is the need of exploiting patents strategically. In this paper, the question of how to support intellectual property (IP) managers of large high technology companies in their strategic decision-making process of evaluating patents is examined. The purpose of this paper is to provide a decision support framework that suggests the suitable exploitation strategy for patents.

The paper proposes an audit framework able to point out whether patents are aligned to the overall business strategy, to select those that are not aligned, and to identify the most appropriate exploitation strategy for each patent of the portfolio. The framework is structured into two phases: in the first one, patents are selected through the analysis of four dimensions that characterize the value of patents effectively; in the second one, a questionnaire is distributed to IP managers in order to support their decision on patents. The paper illustrates case-based applications of the framework.

Results of applications show that the framework is able to suggest IP managers the suitable exploitation strategy on four possible alternatives (maintaining, licensing, selling, abandoning) for each patent of their portfolios.

The framework is an innovative and valuable tool to IP managers, and besides its structural formulation, it is appreciable in terms of application expedition and efficiency of performance.

The purpose of the paper is to advance a framework that can assess and analyze the value of patent portfolios. On this purpose, the framework develops a conceptual and comprehensive index, the patent portfolio value index (PPVI), to assess the patent innovation level and suggest economic-strategic guidelines.

The authors have designed and applied a framework that synthesizes into a single index the results of a multiple criteria approach, based on information derived from quantitative objective data (claims, citations, and market coverage), information related to qualitative determinants (strategic positioning and economic importance), and information derived from decision makers’ perceptions and judgments.

The authors have applied the PPVI to the 3,532 patent portfolio documents in an Italian worldwide player in aerospace and defense market. The combined analysis, provided by the PPVI and a qualitative synoptic representation, has made it possible to understand the strategic positioning and alignment of patents with the core business of the company. The results of the analysis have provided managers with the necessary suggestions regarding action items to be performed: to reinforce, license, try to dismiss, or sell some of the examined patents of the portfolios.

The PPVI supplies a quick procedure to ascertain the profitability of patents and accounts for the value of a patent portfolio from an internal business perspective.

As it is built and defined, the PPVI shows elements of novelty compared to the other indexes existing in the literature, in that it follows a multiple criteria approach by merging quantitative and qualitative information.

The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize Total Quality Management (TQM) in the light of service ecosystem view through the identification of dimensions underlying both the approaches and a clarification of the relationship between the two theories.

An overview on service ecosystems and on TQM is conducted, with particular focus on the main dimensions of the two frameworks derived from extant research. Consequently, an assessment of the key features of both theories is performed.

The work identifies four recurring dimensions in TQM, suggesting their rereading in the light of the assessed five recurring dimensions of service ecosystem. Moreover, a reconceptualization of TQM in the light of service ecosystem view is proposed.

This paper compares and proposes an integration between TQM and service ecosystem view. Such a reinterpretation of “traditional” view of quality management in the light of current trend of Service-Dominant (S-D) logic can represent a starting point for further research aimed at analysing the mechanisms underlying joint production of value in service delivery.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework to analyze the intellectual capital (IC) of new generation business incubators.

The paper carries out a literature-based analysis of the different components of the IC of business incubators and develops a conceptual framework that links the business incubators’ IC to the IC of incubated firms.

The paper provides an analytical model able to support practitioners and scholars to better understand and evaluate the IC criticalities and requirements of incubators. The notion of incubation path is developed.

The paper contributes to the extant literature about the intangible assets of business incubators by analyzing in detail how these structures use their IC to perform their activities.

This study aims at rereading public governance (PG) and public value management (PVM) in the light of viable systems approach (VSA). Starting from the common points and the dissimilarities between the two theories, an integrated framework for pinpointing the key drivers leading to the emersion of public value co-creation in a public system conception of governance is elaborated. An overview on the emersion of PVM and PG is conducted in order to identify the main features of the new mindset. Then, VSA’s assumptions also are analyzed (with particular focus on their managerial implications) and then subdivided into four macro-areas.

The combination of the two theories allows recognition of four levers (with relative postulates) for fostering public value co-creation: (1) strategic selection of actors; (2) establishment of system and relational boundaries; (3) pursuit of the fit strategy-tactics; (4) system governance diffusion. From a theoretical point of view, the study provides suggestions for the creation of a public system theory of governance. Regarding managerial standpoint, revealing the drivers for public value co-creation can aid managers to better elaborate strategies for stimulating actor’s engagement in order to challenge complexity and user’s demands variability.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a theoretical framework which defines, analyses and assesses the intellectual capital (IC) value drivers (VDs) to increase the value creation of an organization.

The proposed framework is composed by an arrangement of procedural steps. In the first step IC VDs are selected by reason of their relevance and of their occurrences in recent literature. Then, an assessment of the VDs is carried out on the basis of their strategic importance and of their inter-relationships with otherVDs. Finally, an index is constructed from the combination of the static and dynamic characteristics of the selected VDs.

This integrated framework provides managers with the possibility of monitoring the response of IC performance to their strategic decisions and helps them to adjust and improve measures to reach the prefixed objectives. Managers’ perception is the fundamental input to the assessment of the contribution of the IC to the value creation process.

The modality of building the proposed synthetic index innovates the assessment of IC from a quantitative point of view. The framework offers a high degree of flexibility both in defining and managing IC and in assessing each IC value driver in dependence of any variations in market scenery and of any external or internal input of innovation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a methodology to assess the capacity of communities of innovation (CoI) to improve the value creation process. The methodology consists of a sequence of successive steps, which aim at identifying the characteristics, the influence, and the relationships between the intellectual capital (IC) elements, and finally evaluating their performance.

The proposed methodology has been defined through the joined activity of academic researchers, experienced consultants, and community managers and is grounded on an interview‐based approach. The methodology has been implemented into the CoI of Finmeccanica, the Italian leading company in the industry of high technology for aerospace, defence and security.

The methodology has been shown to be suitable in singling out the factual contribution of every IC element and its direct and indirect influence on the economic performance of the CoI.

The implementation of the methodology into the CoI of Finmeccanica has encouraged the development of a more distributed leadership which has supported the dissemination of new knowledge. The building of a sort of “knowledge marketplace” has aimed to foster a systemic open innovation by exchanging continuous learning activities from inside and outside the organization and attracting excellence into the network of CoIs.