Guest Editorial: Knowledge and trust in data-rich business environments

The goal of the Special Issue is to investigate how knowledge and trust can be developed, employed, diffused, and protected in business ecosystems, where data are the main asset for several actors. The issue contains six papers who have investigated these topics from different theoretical perspectives and by means of different methodological approaches. They represent an interesting combination of theoretical essays, research reviews and empirical studies. In addition, some of them focus on firms, some on consumers, and others on researchers who, like other actors today, need to find their way in the abundance of data and methodologies

Atypical Manifestations in Classic Kaposi Sarcoma: Case Series of Two Patients HIV - Negative

BACKGROUND: Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) is a tumour of endothelial, blood and lymphatic cells, caused by an infection with human herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8). The skin lesions of KS, especially of the classical or Mediterranean variant (CKS), are represented by red-purple macules, plaques and nodules, localised mainly on the extremities. CASE REPORT: This case series intend to describe multifocal atypical kaposian manifestations in two HIV negative subjects, affected by CKS, treated with successful chemotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Although atypical manifestations are extremely rare events, we suggest an accurate, objective examination because a prompt diagnosis can lead to a vital intervention in the patient's health and sometimes to the identification of the disease itself

Direct-acting antivirals and hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis C: A few lights and many shadows

With the introduction of direct-acting antiviral agents (DAA), the rate of sustained virological response (SVR) in the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) has radically improved to over 95%. Robust scientific evidence supports a beneficial role of SVR after interferon therapy in the progression of cirrhosis, resulting in a decreased incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, a debate on the impact of DAAs on the development of HCC is ongoing. This review aimed to analyse the scientific literature regarding the risk of HCC in terms of its recurrence and occurrence after the use of DAAs to eradicate HCV infection. Among 11 studies examining HCC occurrence, the de novo incidence rate ranged from 0 to 7.4% (maximum follow-up: 18 mo). Among 18 studies regarding HCC recurrence, the rate ranged from 0 to 54.4% (maximum "not well-defined" followup: 32 mo). This review highlights the major difficulties in interpreting data and reconciling the results of the included studies. These difficulties include heterogeneous cohorts, potential misclassifications of HCC prior to DAA therapy, the absence of an adequate control group, short follow-up times and different kinds of follow-up. Moreover, no clinical feature-based scoring system accounts for the molecular characteristics and pathobiology of the tumours. Nonetheless, this review does not suggest that there is a higher rate of de novo HCC occurrence or recurrence after DAA therapy in patients with previous HCV infection. \ua9 2018 The Author(s). Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved

The Role of Market Knowledge in Sustaining Innovation. Evidence from the Fashion Industry

Literature on the relationship between a firm’s market orientation and innovation has so far primarily analyzed the content of market knowledge. This paper is instead focused on the organizational mechanisms and processes that are at the foreground of market knowledge absorption and diffusion within the organization. Through an in-depth qualitative analysis of three case studies, the paper contributes to the literature in three areas. First, companies differ in the way they manage market knowledge and in their way of being market oriented. Second, it highlights that organizational mechanisms differ according to the type of market orientation adopted within the company. Finally, it suggests that different ways of using market knowledge might drive different innovative performance. After discussing the core implications of the study, the limits of the analysis and directions of future research are presented

La variabile critica nelle scelte di innovazione

In un numero sempre più vasto di settori, l’imperativo dell’innovazione spinge le aziende a perseguire politiche di cambiamento continuo nei propri prodotti e servizi, nelle modalità di comunicazione e coinvolgimento del cliente e, più in generale, nei processi aziendali. Il settore della moda non è esente da questa esigenza di cambiamento, anzi la moda è considerata il contesto del cambiamento per eccellenza. Il fenomeno caratterizzante il settore è infatti quello comunemente definito dell’obsolescenza pianificata, ossia del cambiamento deliberatamente indotto dalle imprese sul mercato

Fostering Market Knowledge Use in Innovation:: The Role of Internal Brokers

Is market knowledge useful in generating innovation and why are some companies able to use market knowledge to generate innovation more than others? This article presents in-depth data on four companies facing the challenge of continuous innovation in different industrial settings and shows how companies rely on the use of internal knowledge brokers to: (a) absorb market knowledge; (b) drive knowledge sharing, and (c) favor the process of innovation. The empirical analysis allows us to make a detailed taxonomy of brokers that might achieve different objectives for firms bent on innovation.Market knowledge Innovation Knowledge brokers Knowledge use

Come la critica influenza le scelte di cambiamento delle imprese: un'analisi longitudinale sull'innovazione stilistica nel settore della moda

Innovation is typically considered as one of the main sources of a company’s competitive ad-vantage. However, within symbolic industries, innovative behavior also represents a threat to a specific company identity, which is one of its core assets in order to gain domain consensus. Innovation menaces existent identity and fashion companies need to avoid diluting their iden-tity while innovating. Fashion companies are strongly facing a trade-off between “disrupting” and maintaining a consistent fit with the needs and expectations of consumers, or “keep” their own identity and avoid brand dilution. From this viewpoint, the presence of a strong stylistic identity might act both as an advantage and a constraint that affects the evolution of business. In this paper, we aim at clarifying if and when companies are more reluctant to change in order to preserve their own identity. The common assumption is that the older an organization, the greater is its reputation, the lower its orientation to pursue radical innovation in order to preserve its own identity. In this paper we test this hypothesis and show that older and better-established companies might actually have huger incentives to innovate compared to younger and smaller organizations, which still struggle to affirm their own identity. Older and better-established companies are more positively oriented towards continuous change, not only because they have more means to finance it, but also because need to pursue innovation in order to enhance market opportunities and create new needs in their targeted segments of customers. In other words, they need to purposefully aliment planned obsolescence, to sustain their economic performance over tim

Whatever you want, whatever you like: how incumbents respond to changes in market information regimes

How do incumbents respond to a market information regime change? We employ literature on product portfolio strategies and capability adaptation to analyze the information regime change induced by the advent of streaming in the U.S. music industry. Our findings highlight first that an information change impacts the strategy of organizations. We then observe that the inclusion of streaming reveals increasing demand for novelty and variety. Finally, we identify breadth of experience as a driver of the type of innovation adopted. Incumbents with broader experience proliferate across-niches. Incumbents with focused experience increase the novelty of their offerings. Overall, incumbents with higher breadth of experience perform better than others. We discuss the implications of these results in literatures of environmental changes, capability adaptation, product proliferation, and democratization induced by new technologies