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This study aims to investigate the impact of technologies on the knowledge transfer process. In particular, the authors aim to analyze the topic of knowledge brokers and the relationship between broker and digital tools in the knowledge transfer process in the sport context. The study developed, therefore, aims to investigate the creating of this environment for knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing between man and machine, looking to improve the planning of technical sports projects of the clubs.

This paper presents a qualitative approach aimed at analyzing how platforms and the players’ agents can be useful tools in the knowledge transfer process. The research was conducted through a survey with a structured questionnaire via e-mail to 64 managers at the head of clubs playing in the Italian Series B basketball in the 2021–2022 championship. The total number of questions administered is 21.

The results demonstrate how sports directors, for the construction of a technical sports project, in addition to learning off the pitch by interactions with media, fans, pressure management, leadership skills, positive attitude, tolerance, understanding of other opinions, background and cultures, see the athletes’ agents as the main stakeholder of the managers. The research resulted, by the clubs’ managers, in both formal learning and informal-type learning. Informal learning, by far the most frequently used and most important in the general learning process of executives, is identified in the use that executives make of information available on digital platforms and of the fiduciary relationships that management has with players’ agents.

The results demonstrate the valuable opportunities for executives, coaches, managers and clubs to strategically manage learning and knowledge sharing. Improving and managing knowledge-sharing strategies would help increase knowledge, not only of the sports directors but also of the entire club, thus improving the absolute quality of the game within the Italian basketball divisions. The authors have developed an innovative framework regarding the construction of a “typed sports technical project”, and the authors have identified a series of crucial phases capable of determining the creation of a new roster of athletes.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between popularity in a social media network and a company’s revenue, expenditure and market value. Additionally, social media networks are analysed as tools for both voluntary and involuntary intellectual capital (IC) disclosure.

These aims are analysed in the context of the football industry. An empirical analysis evaluates the correlations between team and player social media metrics from Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram and their football club’s market value, revenue and player transfer fees. Examples of timely IC disclosure are also reported.

The results indicate that popularity metrics in social media are determinants of the value of human and relational capital in professional football clubs. Popularity in social media positively correlates to market capitalisation, revenue and player transfer fees. Additionally, examples are provided to show how social media can be a tool for disclosing IC information in a relevant and timely manner.

From a strategic management perspective, the authors find that there are economic opportunities to be gained from managing social media platforms appropriately and that knowledge derived from social media needs to be used effectively by club managers, so that fans and followers can be transformed into consumers. One practical implication of this research is the need to hire social media experts that are able to develop, coordinate and manage digital communication strategies.

This paper presents an analysis of emerging changes in technology and communication platforms and different types of disclosure. It aims to demonstrate that the metrics derived from social media can be used as tool to disclose voluntary and involuntary information about IC – information that is particularly useful to investors because their shortage of tangible assets can make football clubs difficult to evaluate.

With the increasing pressures towards global sustainability and the transition to Industry 4.0 (I4.0), the collaboration between firms and other key stakeholders is essential. Value is no longer created by firms acting autonomously, but rather by firms acting together with external parties. Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the potential contribution of capability providers to a Sustainable I4.0 Environment as an additional perspective regarding the management decisions of a smart and sustainable business model (SSBM) transformation of big corporations.

An in-depth qualitative case study of Futuryng INC., which is a company based in Silicon Valley, New York and Italy, is presented and analysed through interviews, secondary sources and using a triangulation approach. The company is a Connected Technologies Ecosystem, which acts as a provider of technology building blocks (capability) able to design and release end-to-end Information Technologies–Internet of Things–Operational Technologies (IT-IoT-OT) Solutions.

From the case study, the authors determine that the success of big corporations' SSBM transformation requires a Sustainable I4.0 Environment approach where capability providers play a relevant role and act as enablers. Then, the authors develop a framework by adopting an actor perspective, called the Sustainable I4.0 Environment, highlighting the contribution of the capability provider in the sustainable I4.0 business model transformation of a big corporation.

The authors’ analysis clarifies that the successful execution of a sustainable I4.0 business model transformation requires integrated thinking for management decisions and a co-creation approach with capability providers, along with an open innovation process.

In the analysis of I4.0 and sustainability issues, previous studies only focus on implementing firms and view the environment merely as a background in which act forces of sustainability and I4.0. A comprehensive overview of the Sustainable I4.0 Environment, which considers actors and their contribution, is lacking. By integrating the literature review with the case study, the authors’ research proposes a comprehensive framework to guide the decision process of transformation from a traditional business model (TBM) to an SSBM and considers one of the key actors involved, the capability providers.

There is a lack of research proving how electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is a valuable source of information in the hospitality industry for developing hotels' intellectual capital. To fill this gap, this study aims to examine hotel managers' decision-making processes regarding the acceptance and management of eWOM and its impact on the Italian hotel ecosystem.

This work takes advantage of the previous contributions to present a hotel's decision-making process model regarding structural capital. It includes eWOM as a context variable and changes implemented as a dependent variable in a comprehensive model. The structural equation modelling applies to a database obtained through a survey addressed to Italian hotel managers.

The results show that eWOM plays an essential role in managers' motivations to explain hotel changes implementation. The hotel leverages eWOM information and interaction through structural, relational and human capital to enhance products, services and strategies.

This work contributes to the extant literature by providing a comprehensive framework to explain the consequences of eWOM knowledge management from the intellectual capital view in the Italian hotel ecosystem.

For practitioners, this research demonstrates how hotel managers should accept and manage eWOM knowledge through intellectual capital to make determinant decisions that improve hotel performance.

There is a scarcity of research on modelling the acceptability and management of eWOM in the hotel ecosystem from practitioners' perspectives. This work is the first attempt to determine how eWOM knowledge management boosts hotel intellectual capital and improves service innovation and performance.

Nowadays, international healthcare agendas are focused on patient centeredness. Policies are aimed at improving patient’s satisfaction by enhancing patient empowerment and value co-creation. However, a comprehensive model addressing the relationships between these constructs has not so far been developed. The purpose of this paper is to develop and test a model which explains the effects of patient empowerment and value co-creation on patients’ satisfaction with the quality of the services they experience.

The links between patient satisfaction, empowerment and value co-creation are theoretically outlined via an in-depth literature review. The resulting model is tested through a survey administered to 186 chronically ill patients. The results are analyzed through covariance-based structural equation modeling.

The results show that patient empowerment positively influences value co-creation which, in turn, is positively related to patient satisfaction. In addition, the analysis reveals that patient empowerment has no direct effects on satisfaction.

Although the cross-sectional design made it possible to clearly estimate the relationships among variables, it overlooked the longitudinal dimensions of co-creation processes.

The study provides practitioners with suggestions to design patient-centered healthcare services by leveraging on patient knowledge, participation, responsibility in care and involvement in the value-creation process.

Over the last decade, healthcare management literature has shifted its focus from healthcare organizations to patients. The number of contributions about patient satisfaction, empowerment and value co-creation exponentially increased. However, these dimensions are often studied separately. This work advances available knowledge by clarifying and testing the relationships between these three constructs.

Assuming that knowledge management is a pivotal issue in business to improve and maintain competitive advantages, this paper aims to investigate how knowledge management is useful to face challenges about the integration of environment, social and governance (ESG) factors, filling the gap in the literature regarding knowledge management and ESG in the banking world by considering a real case.

Starting from the analysis of the more relevant literature on the topic, this paper describes an illustrative real case through interviews with the credit department of an Italian bank that has adopted a specific sustainability approach. This paper discusses this case in the context of the outlined theoretical background to explore the trends and challenges of ESG integration. The case study allows us to evaluate and expand our theoretical framework, leading to a greater understanding of the complex phenomenon under investigation.

Based on the analysis of the literature combined with the insights that emerged from the experience of the real case, this study shows that there are three primary factors to consider: data issues, competencies and workflow. This study outlines an enhanced knowledge management framework displaying the complexity emerging from the integration of ESG into a bank’s credit department and identify the best practices to pursue.

Given the increasing pressure toward the incorporation of ESG factors into the banking sector, the practical implications of the study are relevant as they provide guidelines for action. Specifically, the practical problems highlighted by the real case, like the priority on themes such as questionnaires, the need for ad hoc commissions and workflow, drive the attention of decision-makers on key aspects to effectively adopt an advanced knowledge management approach aimed at improving the ESG integration. Considering the effect of the banking system on the economy, the best practices this study has identified can also have a positive impact on society as a whole.

The proposed enhanced knowledge management framework offers a guideline to orchestrate ESG integration into banks’ credit departments, considering the increasing need to frame a sustainability-oriented strategic approach that emerges from academic and practical enquiries. This research represents an initial attempt to investigate the integration of ESG factors in the banking system through the lens of knowledge management. The strategic nature of the ESG approach clearly appears in a dynamic environment where stakeholder pressures and regulatory evolutions are strong.

This study aims to empirically examine the influence of management control systems (MCSs) on knowledge acquisition from innovation failure (KAFIF), which further impacts empowerment, creativity and organizational innovation. This study argues that enabling an MCS positively influences KAFIF, whereas controlling the use of an MCS negatively influences KAFIF. Further, KAFIF positively impacts empowerment, creativity and organizational innovation.

This study aims to create a comprehensive stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) framework. This framework includes an MCS (belief, interactive, boundary and diagnostic) as a stimulus, KAFIF as an organism and creativity, empowerment and organizational innovation as responses. The data were gathered using an online survey administered to a sample of 321 employees working in India’s micro, small and medium enterprises and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling.

The results indicate that there is no correlation between belief control and the acquisition of knowledge from the failure of innovation, interactive control has a positive association with KAFIF and boundary control has no relationship with KAFIF. Diagnostic control has a significant negative association with KAFIF. Further, this study found that KAFIF positively associates with empowerment, creativity and organizational innovation.

This study is among initial studies that examine the influence of MCSs on KAFIF, which impacts empowerment, creativity and organizational innovation. Further, it helps be one of the initial literature on studying KAFIF rather than innovation success.

Given that environmental issues have become increasingly critical in business operations, from the lens of guanxi, this study explores the impact of relational capital on green innovation in a knowledge-driven context of new energy enterprises. Additionally, the moderating effect of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on the above relationship is analyzed.

This study takes 162 Chinese new energy enterprises from 2010 to 2020 as the research sample. For empirical analysis, factor analysis is adopted to comprehensively measure relational capital, while green innovation is embodied in two dimensions, namely radical green innovation (RGI) and incremental green innovation (IGI).

Relational capital significantly promotes RGI and IGI. Moreover, it is found that implementing CER strengthens the positive relationship between relational capital and RGI but weakens the positive relationship between relational capital and IGI.

It is evident that existing literature on green innovation mainly focused on a single perspective rather than from different dimensions. In addition, few scholars have drawn from stakeholder theory to elucidate the interaction of relational capital with corporate responsibility practices. In this regard, this study examines the link between relational capital and green innovation while examining the moderating effect of CER, which provides valuable insights for future research on relational governance and innovation management. Furthermore, this study innovatively centers on new energy enterprises in China, which are pioneers and facilitators of green development, as the research subject. Considering relevant studies are still nascent in this domain, our empirical results are of extensive practical guidance for managers and practitioners to promote environmental sustainability.

The Internet of Things (IoT) represents the network connection of people, processes, data and things. Due to the relevant position that this intelligent infrastructure is acquiring, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of IoT on the companies’ value, with specific reference to the intellectual capital value.

The methodology is based on a single case study approach with an empirical analysis which aims to analyse whether and how the introduction of the IoT’ innovations influences the value of the intellectual capital owned by a company. The evaluation method used for the empirical analysis is the Economic Value Added. The application is carried out on the company “Cisco Systems Inc.” by analysing the company’s financial reports covering the period 2007-2014.

The paper demonstrates the impact of the innovation of IoT on intellectual capital owned by a high intensity cognitive company by determining its economic value. The results demonstrate that the introduction of projects involving the use of the IoT has increased the value of intellectual capital over the years.

As the IoT can guarantee efficiency, social and individual benefits, the effects of the IoT on company performance and, particularly, on intangible corporate dimensions are analysed. Hence, the paper is directed to fill the literature gap on the analysis and evaluation of the IoT’ impact on intellectual capital owned by high intensity cognitive companies. The research proposes strategic advice for decision making of companies interested in new technology investments.