Eco‐Holonic 4.0 Circular Business Model to Conceptualize Sustainable Value Chain Towards Digital Transition

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize a circular business model based on an Eco-Holonic Architecture, through the integration of circular economy and holonic principles. A conceptual model is developed to manage the complexity of integrating circular economy principles, digital transformation, and tools and frameworks for sustainability into business models. The proposed architecture is multilevel and multiscale in order to achieve the instantiation of the sustainable value chain in any territory. The architecture promotes the incorporation of circular economy and holonic principles into new circular business models. This integrated perspective of business model can support the design and upgrade of the manufacturing companies in their respective industrial sectors. The conceptual model proposed is based on activity theory that considers the interactions between technical and social systems and allows the mitigation of the metabolic rift that exists between natural and social metabolism. This study contributes to the existing literature on circular economy, circular business models and activity theory by considering holonic paradigm concerns, which have not been explored yet. This research also offers a unique holonic architecture of circular business model by considering different levels, relationships, dynamism and contextualization (territory) aspects

Standardization Framework for Sustainability from Circular Economy 4.0

The circular economy (CE) is widely known as a way to implement and achieve sustainability, mainly due to its contribution towards the separation of biological and technical nutrients under cyclic industrial metabolism. The incorporation of the principles of the CE in the links of the value chain of the various sectors of the economy strives to ensure circularity, safety, and efficiency. The framework proposed is aligned with the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development regarding the orientation towards the mitigation and regeneration of the metabolic rift by considering a double perspective. Firstly, it strives to conceptualize the CE as a paradigm of sustainability. Its principles are established, and its techniques and tools are organized into two frameworks oriented towards causes (cradle to cradle) and effects (life cycle assessment), and these are structured under the three pillars of sustainability, for their projection within the proposed framework. Secondly, a framework is established to facilitate the implementation of the CE with the use of standards, which constitute the requirements, tools, and indicators to control each life cycle phase, and of key enabling technologies (KETs) that add circular value 4.0 to the socio-ecological transition

Think Local-Act Local: Is It Time to Slow Down the Accelerated Move to Global Marketing?

In view of the accelerated move of great corporations towards global marketing, the strategic changes of such companies raise interesting questions. Is marketing globalization reaching its limits after years of implementation? Is it time for companies to rethink their strategies and move back, like Coca-Cola, to a multi-domestic marketing approach?Global Marketing, Multi-Domestic Marketing Approach, Brand Equity, Drawbacks of Marketing Globalization, Coca-Cola

Climate action through transnational city networks : lessons from Oslo

Cities have emerged as imperative actors in the global effort to address climate change, independently and collectively in transnational city networks. This study delves into Oslo's ambitious climate goals, analyzing its climate initiatives and collaborations with transnational city networks. Oslo's commitment to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—targeting a 95 % cut by 2030—is supported by a polycentric multilevel governance approach, engaging actors from various sectors, including international entities. These collaborative dynamics have positioned Oslo as an international climate-leading city, particularly within networks like C40 and Eurocities. Political leadership, especially from the Red Green Coalition, has accelerated the city's climate strategy by pushing forward the original target from 2050 to 2030. Instrumental tools like the Climate Budget have been central to these efforts, ensuring that climate considerations are consistently integrated across sectors. Oslo's leadership in a pilot project with the C40 network on implementing climate budgets and its ambitions for a zero-emission zone underscores the city's active standpoint on climate issues. While some projects face challenges, notably from national regulations, Oslo continues to innovate, focusing on sectors like construction and public transportation. The study concludes that while Oslo offers valuable insights for global urban climate action, the transferability of its strategies requires an understanding of the specific institutional settings of other cities.M-I

Innovation in Marketing Channels

In more recent years, the context of globalization in which market channel structures and strategies are developing is bringing to a more complex concept of marketing channels, with disintermediation or reintermediation, multichanneling and new roles/specializations that are emerging as new issues.In this context, innovation in marketing channels becomes a complex, multiorganizational, multidisciplinary activity that requires collaboration and interactions across various entities within the supply chain network. In recent years, the innovation processes in marketing channels have occurred with high intensity and speed, especially following the changes spurred by technology that allowed the adoption of more efficient organizational solutions.Retail; Channel Structure; Innovation in Marketing Channels; Retail Technological Innovation; Global Markets

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation: An Innovative Advancement of Regional Cross-Border Governance but Still Far From Being a Panacea. European Diversity and Autonomy Papers EDAP 01/2020

To overcome the detrimental impact of the so-called “border effect”, the European Union and its member states established the INTERREG programs in 1990. The issue of a persisting “institutional void” hampered, however, substantially the actual policy impact of these cooperation over the years. In order to tackle this issue, the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) regulation was finally adopted in 2006 and amended in 2013 and provides since then a comprehensive institutional framework for cross-border cooperation. Through an analysis of the regulation and a comprehensive assessment of the various monitoring reports, two particular added values can be identified. First, while national governments maintain their role as gatekeepers of Regional Cross-Border Governance, the EGTC enables its members to exploit the newly provided supranational legal and institutional framework for cooperation. At the same time, institutional flexibility and various diversification opportunities concerning the policy, polity, and politics dimensions are implemented, which allows the creation of innovative and place-based territorial cooperation structures. A central conclusion of this article is that despite the EGTC regulation’s added value, this instrument constitutes no panacea concerning Regional Cross-Border Governance. Cooperation is still primarily dependent on the individual commitment by the members to create sustainable results, which is still the most decisive factor whether a cooperation succeeds or not

Research and Design in Unified Coding Architecture for Smart Grids

 Standardized and sharing information platform is the foundation of the Smart Grids. In order to improve the dispatching center information integration of the power grids and achieve efficient data exchange, sharing and interoperability, a unified coding architecture is proposed. The architecture includes coding management layer, coding generation layer, information models layer and application system layer. Hierarchical design makes the whole coding architecture to adapt to different application environments, different interfaces, loosely coupled requirements, which can realize the integration model management function of the power grids. The life cycle and evaluation method of survival of unified coding architecture is proposed. It can ensure the stability and availability of the coding architecture. Finally, the development direction of coding technology of the Smart Grids in future is prospected

The world's largest oil and gas hydrocarbon deposits: ROSA database and GIS project development

This article proposes the use of Big Data principles to support the future extraction of hydrocarbon resources. It starts out by assessing the possible energy-system transformations in order to shed some light on the future need for hydrocarbon resource extraction and corresponding drilling needs. The core contribution of this work is the development of a new database and the corresponding GIS (geographic information system) visualization project as basis for an analytical study of worldwide hydrocarbon occurrences and development of extraction methods. The historical period for the analytical study is from 1900 to 2000. A number of tasks had to be implemented to develop the database and include information about data collection, processing, and development of geospatial data on hydrocarbon deposits. Collecting relevant information made it possible to compile a list of hydrocarbon fields, which have served as the basis for the attribute database tables and its further filling. To develop an attribute table, the authors took into account that all accumulated data features on hydrocarbon deposits and divided them into two types: static and dynamic. Static data included the deposit parameters that do not change over time. On the other hand, dynamic data are constantly changing. Creation of a web service with advanced functionality based on the Esri Geoportal Server software platform included search by parameter presets, viewing and filtering of selected data layers using online mapping application, sorting of metadata, corresponding bibliographic information for each field and keywords accordingly. The collected and processed information by ROSA database and GIS visualization project includes more than 100 hydrocarbon fields across different countries

Industry 4.0 & Servitization: Role and impact of digital servitization strategies in international industrial markets

Il presente progetto di ricerca riguarda l'indagine di due fenomeni principali, la digitalizzazione e la servitizzazione, e la risultante ‘servitizzazione digitale’, all’interno dei mercati industriali. L'obiettivo principale di questo studio è contribuire alla generazione di nuova conoscenza circa i fenomeni indagati e fornire a manager e professionisti validi suggerimenti su come affrontarli con successo. La digitalizzazione e la servitizzazione digitale sono ambiti di ricerca recenti ma in forte crescita, attorno ai quali sta convergendo l'attenzione di numerose figure accademiche e professionali. Nonostante il grande dinamismo che caratterizza tali fenomeni, le imprese industriali si trovano ad affrontare ancora oggi diverse sfide nel tentativo di implementarli. In effetti, le aziende manifatturiere dimostrano di percepire barriere elevate all'investimento in strategie digitali. Adottando un approccio alla problematizzazione, è possibile notare come sia necessario sviluppare ulteriori conoscenze circa i processi di digitalizzazione e servitizzazione al fine di comprendere al meglio i vantaggi e le sfide ad essi connessi. Partendo dall’identificazione di una serie di nuove aree di ricerca ancora poco studiate, questa tesi analizza empiricamente i fenomeni di digitalizzazione e servitizzazione. A tal fine, il presente lavoro di ricerca è strutturato in cinque capitoli principali. Il Capitolo I – Fondamenti teorici e note metodologiche – passa in rassegna la letteratura disponibile su digitalizzazione e servitizzazione digitale e fornisce chiarimenti sulle note metodologiche adottate in questa tesi. Lo scopo del capitolo è fornire un'analisi teorica preliminare sulla digitalizzazione e la servitizzazione. Il Capitolo II – I meccanismi di diffusione della conoscenza di Industria 4.0 nei distretti industriali tradizionali: evidenze dall'Italia – indaga empiricamente la digitalizzazione a livello di analisi contestuale. Il capitolo esamina il contesto e i meccanismi attraverso i quali si stanno diffondendo le tecnologie di Industria 4.0. Il Capitolo III – Verso una prospettiva multilivello sulla servitizzazione digitale – studia empiricamente i percorsi di servitizzazione digitale di due aziende manifatturiere a livello intersettoriale. Il Capitolo IV – Tensioni intra e interorganizzative di una strategia di servitizzazione digitale: evidenze dal settore meccatronico in Italia – è uno studio empirico circa le tensioni emergenti legate alla servitizzazione digitale. In particolare, il capitolo implementa un'indagine approfondita su un'azienda industriale esplorando longitudinalmente le fasi del suo percorso di servitizzazione digitale al fine di districarne la complessità. Il Capitolo V – Osservazioni conclusive e percorsi di ricerca futuri – traccia le conclusioni della ricerca e fornisce linee di ricerca future. I principali contributi di questo lavoro di ricerca possono essere riassunti come segue. Questa tesi evidenzia la stretta connessione tra i fenomeni di digitalizzazione e servitizzazione e prova che la digitalizzazione può essere ‘un’arma a doppio taglio’. I risultati empirici raccolti descrivono la servitizzazione digitale attraverso la sua natura multilivello, che si manifesta su tre livelli: micro (individuale), organizzativo e di network. Inoltre, sottolinea l'impatto del networking nei processi di digitalizzazione e servitizzazione; nuovi attori entrano a far parte della catena del valore e possono influenzare l’andamento dei due fenomeni. Infine, la complessità dei processi di digitalizzazione e servitizzazione è provata empiricamente e si propone evidenza delle difficoltà incontrate dalle aziende manifatturiere nel tentativo di realizzarli