Micro-level measurement of the circularity of organizations: the Italian innovative standardized approach applied to a public sector case study

This study analyses the implementation of a circularity measurement methodology at the University of Piemonte Orientale (UPO) in the early stages of the development of the UNI1608856 project “Measuring circularity - Methods and indicators for measuring circular processes in organisations, the first attempt to assess an organisation’s circularity under a standardized framework in an Italian University. The single-case study examines the organisation’s framework implementation, followed by an in-depth discussion of the phenomenon under study. The circularity measurement metrics applied to the UPO case have been extracted from a draft standard prepared by the Italian standardization body (UNI). The UPO case study considers the draft's general propositions with a focus on the metrics related to the management of human resources, assets, policy, and sustainability. Some useful insights emerge from the critical analysis of the norm proposal, both regarding adopting different types of measures and implementing the circularity measurement in terms of the organisation’s readiness to collect data for the metrics. As this study deals with a new framework applied to a public Organisation, several issues come to light. The first implementation of UNI1608856 allows discussion of the effective measurement of circularity at the micro level and how an organisation’s managerial processes need to evolve to provide the data required to measure circularity

The Role of Professionalization and Managerialization in Family Business Succession

This paper aims to analyze the role of professionalization (the involvement of professional non-family managers) and of managerialization (the use of managerial mechanisms) in the family firm\u2019s succession process. In the light of the scarce literature on such issues, it aims to \u201copen the black box\u201d, giving some insights on the relationship between the involvement of non-family managers, the use of managerial mechanisms, such as strategic planning (SP) and management control systems (MCSs), and family business succession. This is an explorative paper aimed at developing a theoretical framework on the outlined issues. The research method is based on the longitudinal analysis of a case study of a European medium-sized family firm, that made different choices in terms of: 1) how to cope with the family succession, 2) the involvement of non-family members, and 3) the role assigned to SP and MCSs. The longitudinal analysis of the case study shows that non-family professional managers may have a relevant role in the family firm\u2019s succession, but in particular former employees of the company. A significant role of both family and firm governance mechanisms is also showed. Instead, managerial mechanisms, such as SP and MCSs, are introduced mostly to cope with firm\u2019s and environment\u2019s complexity and agency conflicts. Consistently with research findings, we propose a research framework, articulated in a few propositions, concerning the role of professionalization and managerialization in helping family firms to overcome generation succession