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The purpose of this paper is to describe how the patent planning and patent evaluation processes might be redesigned for firms intending to move from a mere accumulation of patents to a more thoughtful patent management approach that couples protection with the reduction of cost related to patent file and maintenance.

An Action Research project was carried out in close collaboration with a firm. This approach was adopted since it allows generation of new scientific knowledge from the observation and direct intervention on a specific situation.

Results underline the importance of structuring and formalising the patent planning and patent evaluation processes within the firm. Moreover, it is suggested that the patent planning process should be integrated into the development of a new product/technology since its initial phases.

The paper contributes to filling the gap regarding the practical implementation and improvement of patent planning and patent evaluation processes, coupling protection with the minimisation of costs related to patent file and maintenance. However, as the results of Action Research studies are specific to the context where they took place, result generalisability is limited.

This paper provides managers with a valuable example on how to structure the patent planning and patent evaluation processes. The introduction of specific analyses into these processes allows limiting the decision-making subjectivity and, consequently, enhances the accuracy of firm investment in filing and maintaining its patents.

Providing a practical example of the actual implementation and improvement of the patent planning and patent evaluation processes, this paper responds to the recent call for more qualitative studies on intellectual property management.

Currently, the expectancy that surrounds the Fourth Industrial Revolution, commonly referred to as Industry 4.0 (I4.0), is huge. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to unveil whether and how organizational and managerial practices are associated to different levels of adoption of I4.0 technologies.

To reach this aim, the authors carried out a survey involving Italian manufacturing firms. Then, the authors used a cluster analysis and t-test to analyze data.

Results show that two clusters of firms based on their level of adoption of I4.0 technologies (high vs low) can be identified. Then, using a t-test, the authors found statistically significant higher levels of a number of organizational and managerial practices for firms with a higher level of adoption of I4.0 technologies.

This paper contributes to the debate surrounding I4.0 by stressing the organizational and managerial challenges that firms willing to undertake an I4.0 transformation have to face, which goes beyond the sole application of I4.0 technologies.

Entrepreneurs and managers need to be aware that the path toward I4.0 requires not only focusing on the application of the I4.0 technologies, but also on the development of a series of organizational and managerial practices that become key to face the fourth Industrial Revolution.

The authors posit here that I4.0 requires firms to bridge the capability gap, as well as overcome cultural barriers preventing entrepreneurs and managers to change their way of doing business. To this regard, this study highlights I4.0 is an all-encompassing paradigm that involves many dimensions of the firm.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the association between the strength of intellectual capital (IC) and small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) innovation performance.

Primary data of 150 SMEs belonging to manufacturing medium-high tech industries were collected through a survey. The methodology consists of a confirmatory factor analysis and a cluster analysis, complemented by a t-test, to assess whether there is a significant difference in terms of innovation performance of SMEs characterized by a different strength of IC.

Overall, the findings show that SMEs of the sample can be divided into two groups characterized by a different strength of IC, and those SMEs disclosing a higher strength of IC, in terms of human capital, innovation capital and relational capital, exhibit a significantly higher radical and incremental innovation performance.

The present study provides SME entrepreneurs and managers with an empirical evidence that possessing strong IC in its three dimensions seems to help SMEs reinforce their ability to generate both radical and incremental innovation. This calls that SME entrepreneurs and managers need to identify and effectively manage IC in order to strengthen and effectively leverage their investments on IC.

This study is particularly relevant because, instead of focusing on single categories of IC as previous studies mainly do, it adopts an overarching perspective of the dimensions of IC and their impact on both radical and incremental innovation performance. Moreover, it focuses on the SME context which has been less investigated than large firms within the domain of IC.

Suggests a conceptual model for operations that can be utilized in identifying the most significant opportunities and decisions in order to obtain competitive advantages in global industries. The model considers the following elements: competitive advantages, the performance of the operating system (as sources of competitive advantage) and the four phases of the so‐called operation value chain: design, purchasing, production and distribution. The study of the implications on production strategy deriving from globalization is carried out using three groups of strategic decision categories: organization and management, management systems, technologies. The crossing of the three groups of strategic decision categories and the four operations phases identifies a matrix with twelve areas of opportunities and decisions for realization of global‐type strategies. The proposed model makes it possible to identify the emergence of three paradigms in global industries regarding performance and behaviour of companies: time and cost compression, agreements and coalitions, and transfer.

Reports on the current operations management situation in Italy. Includes a brief historical review looking back to the 1950s. Considers the development of research and education in the field since the 1980s. Gives listings of key institutions, personnel and events relating to operations management in Italy.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of product modularity on new product development (NPD) time performance, and the moderating effects of interfunctional integration and supplier involvement on the product modularity‐time performance relationship.

The paper analyzes data from a sample of 186 manufacturing plants settled in several countries, and operating in mechanical, electronic and transportation equipment sectors. Three hypotheses are tested through a hierarchical regression analysis.

Data analyses show that product modularity has a direct positive effect on NPD time performance, and that interfunctional integration positively moderates the product modularity‐time performance relationship. Finally, this research does not support the hypothesis that a positive interaction effect exists between product modularity and supplier involvement.

Future research should replicate and extend the model to samples drawn from other industries. Moreover, analyses carried out provide some interesting directions for future research on the effect of supplier involvement on NPD time performance.

The practical implication for managers is that NPD time performance reduction requires levering simultaneously on product modularity and interfunctional integration to foster their interaction, rather than investing and acting on product modularity only. In addition, before deciding to invest on product modularity, managers should ascertain the level of interfunctional integration. In fact, it acts as prerequisite for the successful implementation of product modularity.

Empirical studies on the impact of product modularity on NPD time performance are really scant. This research empirically analyzes this effect, and contributes to the advancement of theory by investigating the effect of product modularity and integration practices in NPD in a comprehensive way.

Looks at the improvement initiatives which companies implement in operations, in the areas of design, supply and production. A number of initiatives are considered, including design computerization, flexible automation, linkages with suppliers and JIT. In the literature these initiatives have been given different names, such as technical and organizational innovations or best manufacturing practices. Using survey data, the paper examines the question of the existence of different sequences followed by companies to innovate their operations. A sample of 125 US, Japanese and Italian companies belonging to the electronics, machinery and transport industries is analysed. On the basis of the initiative start‐up year, four different sequences have been found. They are different in terms of two dimensions: one is the type of initiatives launched at the beginning, and the other is the level of selectiveness of the companies in launching the initiatives. The sequences have been labelled Hard Full Adopters, Hard Discriminators, Soft Full Adopters and Soft Discriminators. Company characteristics, such as the country of location, and context factors such as export, and length of product life cycle have emerged as discriminating factors between the sequences.

The aim of this paper is to propose a novel reference framework that can be used to study how different kinds of innovation can result in better business performance and how external factors can influence both the firm’s capacity to innovate and innovation itself. The value of the framework is demonstrated as it is applied in an exploratory study of the perceptions of public policy makers and managers from two European regions – the Veneto Region in Italy and the East of England in the UK. Amongst other things, the data gathered suggest that managers are generally less convinced than public policy makers, that the innovativeness of a firm is affected by factors over which policy makers have some control. This finding poses the question “what, if any, role can public policy makers play in enhancing a company’s competitiveness by enabling it to become more innovative?”

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often do not have slack resources with which to develop internally a broad spectrum of capabilities and to observe in depth the firm's environment. Therefore, they need to carefully develop abilities to absorb knowledge from outside the firm's boundaries so as to have access to cutting-edge knowledge in spite of limited resources. One strategy is to establish knowledge management (KM) projects for this purpose. In this paper, we describe how KM projects and subsequently emerging KM routines in SMEs facilitate the enhancement of the firm's absorptive capacity (AC; i.e., the ability to recognize, capture, and assimilate external knowledge). Our results indicate the importance of recognizing potential knowledge providers prior to any absorption of knowledge from external sources. Furthermore, we emphasize the relevance of routines for absorbing knowledge and we distinguish between KM routines that are deliberately developed for absorbing knowledge and KM projects where knowledge absorption happens unconsciously. Finally, we point out that different stages of an AC process follow different logics (exploration vs. exploitation) and, thus, a skilful management of the AC cycle is necessary to leverage externally absorbed knowledge.