Industrial Policy and Structural Change Sustainability. Theories and Practices in the Contemporary International Context

The collection of six papers presented in this thesis focuses on selective industrial policy, here conceptualized as public interventions governing the process of structural change affecting contemporary production systems towards desired societal goals. In particular, the papers have explored, both from a theoretical and an empirical angle, how contemporary real-world industrial policy practices can ensure that such structural transformations are economically and socially sustainable. Specifically, the research contends that, within the current debate on industrial policy, new conceptual framework and analytical tools oriented towards a structural change sustainability should emerge and be discussed to support policymakers in governing socio-economic transformation towards desired societal goals, while mitigating the rise of government failures. This collection of papers is structured as follows: The first paper (“Industry 4.0 policy from a sociotechnical perspective: the case of German competence centers”) explores how the German policy initiative “Mittelstand 4.0: digital production and work processes” has enabled across SMEs a complex sociotechnical transition characterized by dynamic interactions between human actors, institutions and technologies. Empirical insights on Industry 4.0 policy design and implementation are presented. The second paper (“Structural Change and Industrialization in Ethiopia: Lessons from the Agro-Industrial Parks Initiative”) analyses the process of the design and implementation of the Ethiopian Integrated Agro-Industrial Parks Initiative, targeting a structural transformation of the agricultural sector. The article highlights how a change in the political regime occurred in 2018 opened a window of opportunity for new stakeholders to enter the phase of policy implementation and thus partially correct the policy trajectory, departing from its dirigiste, top-down approach and shifting towards a multi-stakeholder and participatory initiative. The third paper (“Local public spending, electoral consensus, and sustainable structural change”) explores the idea that, to govern structural change in a sustainable way, policy initiatives should reconcile juxtaposed interests, to avoid the exacerbation of tensions and system’s collapse. Specifically, the paper contends that local public spending represents a channel through which reconciling such juxtaposing interests. The results yield implications for policymakers to garner the electoral consensus they need for governing structural change in a sustainable way. The fourth paper (“Do informal institutions matter for the economic resilience of European regions? A study of the post-2008 shock”) has explored the relationship between informal institutions and “resilience” across EU regions in the years following the 2008 Great Recession. Policy implications have been drawn from the results and discussed. The fifth paper (“Conceptualizing and measuring “industry resilience”: composite indicators for post-shock industrial policy decision-making”) deals with the question: can resilience be a relevant concept also for industrial policy? Theoretically, we frame postshock industry resilience as a conceptual framework shedding light on how different sectors react to unforeseen shocks and thus enabling policymakers to craft industrial initiative to encourage structural change sustainability. Methodologically, we develop a composite indicator allowing to visualize and compare sectoral performances dynamically and we apply it to the US post-2008 shock. The sixth paper (“Does Industry Resilience matter for post-shock Industrial Policy? A focus on tourism related industries”) fine tunes the composite indicators-based methodology and applies it to the Italian case, showing to what extent sectors have reacted heterogeneously to the 2008 shock.La raccolta di sei articoli presentati in questa tesi si occupa di politiche industriali selettive, concettualizzate come interventi pubblici di governo dei processi di cambiamento strutturale dei sistemi produttivi verso obiettivi sociali desiderati. In particolare, i contributi hanno esplorato, sia da un punto di vista teorico che empirico, come le pratiche di politica industriale contemporanee possano garantire che tali trasformazioni strutturali siano economicamente e socialmente sostenibili. In particolare, la ricerca sostiene che, nell'ambito dell'attuale dibattito sulla politica industriale, dovrebbero emergere ed essere discussi nuovi strumenti concettuali e analitici orientati alla sostenibilità dei cambiamenti strutturali, per supportare i decisori politici nel governare le trasformazioni socio-economiche verso gli obiettivi sociali desiderati, mitigando al contempo l'aumento dei fallimenti di governo. Questa raccolta di articoli è strutturata come segue: Il primo articolo (“Industry 4.0 policy from a sociotechnical perspective: the case of German competence centers”) esplora come l'iniziativa politica tedesca "Mittelstand 4.0" abbia consentito alle PMI una complessa transizione sociotecnica caratterizzata da interazioni dinamiche tra persone, istituzioni e tecnologie. Vengono presentati spunti empirici sulla progettazione e sull'attuazione delle politiche per Industria 4.0. Il secondo articolo (“Structural Change and Industrialization in Ethiopia: Lessons from the Agro-Industrial Parks Initiative”) analizza il processo messa a punto di una rete di parchi agroindustriali in Etiopia, finalizzati alla trasformazione strutturale del settore agricolo. L'articolo evidenzia come il cambio di regime politico avvenuto nel 2018 abbia consentito l'ingresso di nuovi stakeholder nella fase di implementazione della politica e quindi per correggere parzialmente la traiettoria dell’intervento, allontanandosi dall’ approccio dirigista e top-down diventando invece una iniziativa partecipativa e multi-stakeholder. Il terzo articolo (“Local public spending, electoral consensus, and sustainable structural change”) esplora l'idea che, per governare il cambiamento strutturale in modo sostenibile, le iniziative politiche dovrebbero conciliare interessi contrapposti, per evitare l'esasperazione delle tensioni e il collasso del sistema. In particolare, il contributo sostiene che la spesa pubblica locale rappresenti un canale attraverso cui conciliare tali interessi contrapposti. I risultati producono implicazioni per i decisori politici che si debbono preoccupare di ottenere il consenso elettorale necessario per governare il cambiamento strutturale in modo sostenibile. Il quarto articolo ("Do informal institutions matter for the economic resilience of European regions? A study of the post-2008 shock") esplora la relazione tra istituzioni informali e "resilienza" nelle regioni dell'UE negli anni successivi alla Grande Recessione del 2008. Il quinto articolo ("Conceptualizing and measuring "industry resilience": composite indicators for post-shock industrial policy decision-making") sviluppa il concetto di resilienza industriale post-shock. Concetto che consente di fare luce sulla eterogeneità con cui i diversi settori reagiscono agli shock imprevisti, consentendo così ai decisori politici di elaborare iniziative industriali per incoraggiare la sostenibilità dei cambiamenti strutturali. Dal punto di vista metodologico, viene sviluppato un indicatore composito che consente di visualizzare e confrontare le performance settoriali in modo dinamico e lo applichiamo agli Stati Uniti dopo lo shock del 2008. Il sesto articolo ("Does Industry Resilience matter for post-shock Industrial Policy? A focus on tourism related industries") mette a punto la metodologia basata su indicatori compositi e la applica al caso italiano, mostrando in che misura i settori hanno reagito in modo eterogeneo allo shock del 2008

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse

Enterprise architecture for small and medium-sized enterprises : CHOOSE

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a coherent whole of principles, methods, and models that are used in the design and realization of an enterprise’s organizational structure, business processes, information systems, and IT infrastructure. EA is used as a holistic approach to keep things aligned in a company. Some emphasize the use of EA to align IT with the business, others see it broader and use it to also keep the processes aligned with the strategy. Recent research indicates the need for EA in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), important drivers of the economy, as they struggle with problems related to a lack of structure and overview of their business. However, existing EA frameworks are perceived as too complex and, to date, none of the EA approaches are sufficiently adapted to the SME context. Therefore, in this PhD, we present the CHOOSE approach for EA for SMEs. The approach consists of four artifacts: a metamodel, a method, software tool support, and a visualization. The approach is kept simple so that it may be applied in an SME context and is based on the essential dimensions of EA frameworks. Five steps were taken: first, the problem of EA in SMEs was extensively analyzed. Next, the CHOOSE metamodel was developed during action research in SMEs. Then, action research in six companies was used to develop an adequate method (consisting of guidelines, a roadmap, and stop criteria) and to further refine this CHOOSE metamodel, while different types of software tools (PC, iPad, Android, ...) were developed to enable the evaluation rounds. Finally, a proper visualization was established

Frameworks and models to identify and increase the success potential of e-services

EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Proceedings of the 10th international conference on energy efficiency in motor driven systems (EEMODS' 2017)

The 10th International Conference on Energy Efficiency in Motor Driven Systems (EEMODS'17) was be held in Rome (Italy) on 6-8 September, 2017. The EEMODS conferences have been very successful in attracting distinguished and international presenters and attendees. The wide variety of stakeholders has included professionals involved in manufacturing, marketing, and promotion of energy efficient motors and motor driven systems and representatives from research labs, academia, and public policy. EEMODS’15 provided a forum to discuss and debate the latest developments in the impacts of electrical motor systems (advanced motors and drives, compressors, pumps, and fans) on energy and the environment, the policies and programmes adopted and planned, and the technical and commercial advances made in the dissemination and penetration of energy-efficient motor systems. In addition EEMODS covered also energy management in organizations, international harmonization of test method and financing of energy efficiency in motor systems. The Book of Proceedings contains the peer reviewed paper that have been presented at the conference.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Mythe ou réalité de la nouvelle économie des pays en voie de développement : les conditions nécessaires aux affaires électroniques au Vietnam

Cette recherche étudie l'émergence et le développement des affaires électroniques dans le contexte d'un pays en voie de développement. Elle vise à mettre en lumière la relation entre le contexte national et le potentiel de développement des affaires électroniques et poser des questions sur ce qu'on appelle « les conditions nécessaires » aux affaires électroniques. Pour réaliser cette recherche, nous avons étudié des cas complexes, soit celui d'un pays (le Vietnam), d'une industrie (les fournisseurs de contenu Web) et de trois modèles d'affaires (la musique, les journaux et les jeux en ligne). Nous avons confronté la réalité d'un pays en voie de développement avec les expériences théorisées des pays développés dans le domaine des affaires électroniques. Le résultat de l'analyse du cas du Vietnam nous permet de soulever plusieurs questions théoriques et managériales relatives aux affaires électroniques dans les pays en voie de développement. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Affaires électroniques, Modèle d'affaire, Contexte national, Pays en voie de développement, Vietnam