Eleonora Bottani, Gino Ferretti, Roberto Montanari and Giuseppe Vignali
– The purpose of this paper is to propose an empirical investigation targeting companies operating in Northern Italy and focusing on some main topics of maintenance.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose an empirical investigation targeting companies operating in Northern Italy and focusing on some main topics of maintenance.
Design/methodology/approach
Through a combined application of factor analysis and cluster analysis, the paper first identified the main approaches implemented by Italian companies with the purpose of preventing failures and reducing their consequences. Then, the paper grouped companies on the basis of such approaches, and derived the profile of each cluster, in terms of both the company's characteristics and some key maintenance elements, including the maintenance policy or the use of advanced techniques to make maintenance interventions more effective.
Findings
Results of this study suggest that the approach to maintenance management could be related to the implementation of specific maintenance policies, as well as to other topics, such as the company characteristics, the use of advanced techniques for enhancing maintenance effectiveness and the criteria used for selecting the maintenance policy.
Research limitations/implications
The sample of companies investigated in this study is quite limited, and prevented the possibility of providing statistical evidence of all outcomes.
Practical implications
The outcomes of this study can be useful for practitioners to understand the positioning of companies towards the implementation of maintenance policies, as a function of their approach to maintenance management.
Originality/value
This study complements previous empirical works on maintenance by exploring the relationships between maintenance management, maintenance policies, the application of different tools and techniques for maintenance management, and the criteria adopted for the maintenance policy selection.
Details
Keywords
Paola Cillo, Joseph C. Nunes, Emanuela Prandelli and Irene Scopelliti
Mastering aesthetics is a precious source of competitive advantage in creative industries. In fashion, innovation is reflected by how and how much styles change. Elite designers…
Abstract
Mastering aesthetics is a precious source of competitive advantage in creative industries. In fashion, innovation is reflected by how and how much styles change. Elite designers claim to be the only endogenous force shaping fashion innovation season by season. Yet, each season, fashion critics vet the new collections these designers introduce, assessing what is original as opposed to reworked and uninspired, in this way playing a fundamental role as gatekeepers in setting taste within the industry. In this research, we document how stylistic innovation, vis-à-vis the styles premier design houses introduced each season, is impacted, among the others, by the specific exogenous force of critics' assessments of designers' past work. Our data, which include 61 measures detailing the styles introduced by 38 prestigious Italian and French design houses over a nine-year period, suggest designers move further away from styles reviewed less favourably while adhering more closely to styles reviewed more positively. Additionally, the styles a designer introduces are shown to depend on critical assessments of competing designers' styles, revealing how design houses attend to each other's work. This work documents the strong correlation between style dynamics and critics' feedback. It also has important implications for any company trying to find a balance between independence and conformity in setting its own unique positioning into the market.