La dimensione intangibile della Corporate Governance nei Family Business. Risvolti empirici della Emotional Ownership negli assetti proprietari delle imprese familiari.

La presente tesi di dottorato analizza la centralità della governance familiare all’interno dei processi di gestione delle imprese italiane. Punto di partenza del presente studio è la riflessione teorica sulla family soul. Hubler (2005) definì l’anima dell’impresa familiare come motore essenziale per lo sviluppo e la sopravvivenza della stessa. Tale riflessione fu ampliata da Astrachan e Jaskiewicz (2008) che teorizzarono il rilievo dell’emotional return e degli emotional cost nelle family business, ponendo le basi teoriche per le riflessioni indotte sulla presenza e sul valore dell’Emotional Ownership, quale fattore intangibile. A seguire Björnberg e Nicholson (2007; 2012) analizzano l’E.O. non più solo quale elemento immateriale ma anche da una prospettiva materiale/tangibile. È proprio sulla scia di tale presupposto che è stato costruito il disegno di ricerca, a seguito di un importante lavoro di revisione teorica degli assunti della corporate governance nei family business, seguendo l'approccio Sistemico Vitale, giunge empiricamente, e articolato da una rete di correlazioni tra variabili latenti e variabili manifeste, misurate attraverso l’applicazione della metodologia quantitativa di regressione multipla, strutturata sui modelli di equazione strutturale, giunge a dimostrare l'incidenza della proprietà emotiva negli assetti proprietari delle imprese familiari, nei passaggi transgenerazionali. È risultato che l’Emotional Ownership è essenziale per garantire all’impresa una valida prospettiva di continuità, puntando soprattutto sul valore dell’aspetto affettivo/emotivo nel rapporto con le generazioni future ed in visione prospettica, guardando alla successione

The role of digital knowledge servitization in supply chain management

Purpose This paper aims to contribute to overcoming the gap existing in the supply chain literature related to digital servitization by bridging digital servitization with knowledge management and identifying the rise of digital knowledge servitization as a driver for changes in the supply chain business model towards open innovation. Design/methodology/approach The study follows an inductive grounded theory approach for theory building. To analyse the impact of digital knowledge servitization, in-depth interviews of managers in the main business units of the Volvo Group supply chain ecosystem were carried out. Findings The results show how the digital servitization process affects the supply chain business model, highlighting the central role of knowledge in the service ecosystem and the rise of the theoretical concept of digital knowledge servitization. In particular, through the Innovation Lab (Volvo Group) study, the paper contributes to bringing together the theoretical knowledge-based view of servitization with the digital servitization concept, which demonstrates the role of this combined perspective in the transformation of the supply chain; this is carried out by introducing a new business model based on open innovation in inbound and outbound processes. Practical implications The research offers interesting insights from a managerial perspective, as increasingly advanced and complex digital solutions require shorter times in supply chain management (SCM). Companies need to be able to quickly manage information and knowledge flows deriving from internal and external interactions and involvement with external actors upstream and downstream of the supply chain ecosystem. Therefore, the digital knowledge servitization of the supply chain also highlights implications for managers in terms of human resources management. Originality/value The novel research goal is to contribute to the supply chain literature by integrating the digital servitization with the knowledge view and analysing the impact on the inbound and outbound supply chain through the introduction of an open innovation business model

From Sustainability coercion to Social Engagement: The turning role of Corporate Social Responsibility

As widely recognized, sustainability is a multi- and trans-disciplinary domain potentially able to influence actions, decisions, and behaviors at all the levels of socio-economic organizations. Reflecting upon the pervasive nature of sustainability domain, the paper proposes an overview about the evolutionary path of strategies and approaches for sustainability. Adopting a deductive approach, the main purpose of the paper is to underline in which ways the shifting from a coercive approach to a participatory approach in strategies for sustainability - made possible by the spread of Corporate Social Responsibility practices - has contributed to the emergence of sustainable innovation domain. The concept of Social Engagement in sustainability debate is proposed with the aim to underline that sustainable innovation is effectively possible only in the case in which all the levels of socio-economic organizations are engaged in the debate about sustainability and - as a consequence - they are effectively able to understand and promote the value of an innovation able to combine and satisfy society, economy, and environment needs

Knowledge management behaviors in venture capital crossroads: a comparison between IVC and CVC ambidexterity

PurposeInstitutional venture capitalists (IVCs) and corporate venture capitalists (CVCs) deploy analogous activities but adopt different approaches to financing innovation and value creation for venture-backed firms. Thus, this paper aims to investigate their potential ambidexterity as a result of knowledge management (KM) strategies and processes.Design/methodology/approachAfter a focused literature review showing evidence of KM behaviors as a source of potential ambidexterity for IVCs and CVCs, descriptive, inferential and discriminant analyses on the 15 most active IVCs and CVCs in the world in 2019 are presented. Correlations between numbers of deals, prevailing entrepreneurial intensity and potential ambidexterity are investigated.FindingsSpecific differences are analyzed from a KM perspective, revealing that the number/percentage of operations per round can result as a misleading criterion of knowledge accumulation. Finally, a theoretical model for ambidexterity for venture capitalists is developed.Originality/valueThe study shows that IVCs act with greater investment capacity because of their organizational structure and purpose and focus on financial goals; moreover, they are ambidextrous, although their exploration may more frequently entail exploitation than "real" exploration. CVCs tend to invest in sectors related to their core business, coherent with their strategic purpose and more oriented with KM strategies for accumulating intellectual capital

Geochemical characterization of bauxite deposits from the Abruzzi Mining district (Italy)

The Abruzzi bauxite district includes the deposits located on the Campo Felice plateau and those of the Monti d'Ocre, which had been mined in the first part of the 20th century. Bauxite is of the karst type, with textures ranging between oolitic and oolitic-conglomeratic, the latter suggesting a partial reworking of evolved lateritic soils. The high contents of Al2O3 and Fe2O3 (average values 53.76 and 21.76 wt %, respectively) are associated with the presence of boehmite, hematite, and minor goethite. SiO2 and TiO2 have average values of 7.79 and 2.75 wt %, corresponding to the presence of kaolinite, anatase and rutile. Among the minor so-called "bauxitophile" elements V, Co, Ni, Cr and Zr, the most enriched is Cr, with an average value of 0.07 wt %. Nickel has an average value of 210.83 ppm. Vanadium shows an average value of 266.57 ppm, whereas the average Co concentration is 35.89 ppm. The total rare earth elements (REE) concentration in the sampled bauxite sites is variable between ca. 700 and 550 ppm. Among REEs, the most abundant element is Ce, with Ce anomalies commonly associated with authigenic REE-fluoro-carbonates, probably produced after the REEs remobilization from primary detrital minerals and their precipitation in neo-formed phases during the bauxitization process. Scandium and Ga occur in small amounts (57 and 60 ppm, respectively), but geochemical proxies of their remobilization and uptake in neo-formed minerals (Feand Al-(hydr) oxides, respectively) have been observed. The mean Eu/Eu* and Al2O3/TiO2 ratios and the Ni-Cr contents of the Abruzzi bauxites suggest that the parent rock of these deposits was a material of acid affinity, likely corresponding to volcanic tephra or eolic loess-type sands

Exploring the impact of big data analytics capabilities on business model innovation: The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation

Big Data Analytics Capabilities (BDAC) represent critical tools for business competitiveness in highly dynamic markets. In this connection, by leveraging on the Dynamic Capabilities View (DCV) this study analyses the relationship between BDAC and Business Model Innovation (BMI). It argues that the impact of BDAC (a lower-order dynamic capability) on BMI is mediated by Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO; a higher-order dynamic capability). The proposed model is assessed by PLS-SEM (symmetric) and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (asymmetric) methods using survey data from 253 UK firms. Our findings demonstrate that BDAC have both direct and indirect positive effects on BMI, with the latter being mediated by EO. These results enrich the innovation management literature on Big Data (BD) by showing that BDAC influence company strategic logics and objectives, rather than depending on them, thus playing a significant role in creating value for companies and their stakeholders