Regulations and Measurement of Human Capital Resources: The Impact of MLC in the Seafarers Control and Management Systems

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European IoT Use in Homes: Opportunity or Threat to Households?

The residential sector is characterized by new digital challenges. The Internet of Things (IoT) is a key-driver of innovation and operations management. This study aims to measure and assess IoT devices at the level of individuals, which are households, in European countries. For this scope, through the multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), we analyse data from Eurostat providing a mix of indicators allowing information to be aggregated at the level of individual Europeans and disaggregated by age group. The results highlight that only four countries (Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Malta) are classified as a high cluster in the examined scenarios. The 16-24 age group is the most involved in the uses of IoT devices, but the previous three northern European countries also show very high values for the 35-44 age group. IoT devices serve as a springboard for achieving a powerful propulsion toward technological innovation in the new business models, identifying opportunities and being a way to make many routine tasks more agile. Training programs and awareness campaigns are policy suggestions for the development of IoT devices favouring a cultural change on their use. However, there is an emerging need for studies that monitor environmental health impacts to prevent possible threats

Measuring the sustainable behaviour and satisfaction with services in cruise tourism: a Naples case study

The main aim of this paper is to analyse cruise tourists’ sustainable behaviour and their level of satisfaction in Naples as one of the main Mediterranean ports receiving this type of tourism. The usage of a semi-structured questionnaire, administered to 1180 cruise tourists, allows us to group cruise tourists into clusters and analyse all the elements of two alternate types of behaviour: environmental and social. We have developed an IPA analysis and use ordered logit models to assess which aspects are influencing the general satisfaction level. Our findings highlight that over 80% of visitors indicated that they are highly aware of the need to dispose of trash in a sustainable way, as well as differences between different cluster preferences. The findings, although drawn from only one destination, may be useful for practitioners and policy makers by allowing them to pinpoint and understand specific determinants of the socio-economic effects of cruise tourism on a destination, by taking into account the role of sustainable services

Governance and efficiency of Mediterranean cruise terminals

Over the past 25 years the cruise industry has witnessed considerable growth. The increasing size and passenger capacity characterizes the maritime industry, e.g. new vessels can accommodate more than 3000 passengers. Cruise production is concentrated in the hands of a few players, in fact, 77% of capacity (calculated in terms of berths) belongs to the top five world cruise companies (Carnival Corporation & PLC, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line Ltd, Star Cruises Ltd – NCL, Louise Cruise Lines and MSC Crociere S.p.A.). During the growth phase of the cruise industry, the Mediterranean has gained an increasingly competitive position. It has become one of the top destinations chosen by cruise companies for its position, temperate climate, historical-artistic resources, and political stability, but the importance of Mediterranean cruise ports also depends on services that ports offer to the cruise shipping enterprise. Moreover, the features of ports and passenger terminals have attracted cruise companies to this area and they have also influenced the decision of cruise operators to invest in cruise infrastructure. The characteristics of the partnerships between Port Authorities, Cruise Terminals and Cruise Companies play a significant role in investment and management decisions of every shipping player. Cruise shipping lines in this context are faced with a make or buy decision to directly control some specific operations and to obtain preferential port spaces in order to gain competitive advantage over cruise competitors. The aim of the paper is to measure the impacts on performance of cruise terminals when public- private partnership is implemented. Despite the spread of public-private partnerships in the management of cruise terminals, there are few studies dedicated to this topic

Challenges and Opportunities in the Performance Measurement and Control Systems of Human Resources Management for the Services Industry - www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/specialissue/176002

Preface In the last decades, the services industry has faced new challenges in the global economy recognizing more and more the crucial role of the human capital. Globalization of the market, internationalization of the firms, high innovativeness in the products and processes, dematerialization of the production process represent only a few challenging phenomena that the services firms have to manage. Human resources in the services industry play always a key role but, in most cases, they still have been conceived merely as costs within the accounting information systems. In this context, it seems necessary to identify and investigate a set of tools able to support the strategic human resources management suggesting the right direction in their improvement and evaluation. Innovative and sophisticated strategic andmanagerial tools are needed to harness the great potential of the human resources significantly contributing to the firm performance. On one side, scholars and practitioners tend to adapt the potential of human resources to the organisational needs increasing their level of stress with high burnout risks; on the other side, human resources operate in a more technological and competitive workplace and need continuously to enrich and change their skills and competences. The aim of this special issue is to extend the conceptual and empirical research on the Human Resource Management (HRM) focusing on the strategic and managerial tools that allow either improving and assessing the human resources or measuring and monitoring the specific contribution of human resources to the performance. Top management can be supported from these tools developed thanks to data and information systems. The services industry represents an interesting research area to investigate the described phenomena due to its specific characteristics and challenges. The following sectors have been analyzed in six manuscripts in this special issue: the health care setting, the maritime industry, the public administration, and the software industry. The first two papers provide applications in the health care setting, investigating two specific topics, on one side, the human resources evaluation system through a qualitative approach, and, on the other side, the implementation of IT for the assessment in the development of the health care professionals. Instead, the maritime industry is examined in the third manuscript, which concerns the role of management and control systems in the implementation of international regulations about the safety and welfare of workers on board ships. Furthermore, the forth manuscript applies the Balanced Scorecard to measure and evaluate human resources performance in the US public sector. Then, the fifth paper regards the study of the impact of management accounting for the improvement of the human resources management in the software industry. Finally, the sixth one examines the disclosure on human capital in the Italian listed public utilities. The conceptual and empirical manuscripts in the special issue represent significant contributions in which different research perspectives of analysis have been adopted developing specific topics, such as performance assessment and measurement in HRM; implications of innovative managerial tools and information technology in the improvement and evaluation of human resources; planning, control systems and reporting in HRM; human capital in the financial statements. Indeed, the special issue evidences a multidisciplinary research approach, in which several research areas have been involved: the business administration, the managerial accounting, the organization science, and the management information systems

Ship-line combination risk: S.N.A.V. S.P.A. case

The shipping companies’ risk system basically refers to two risk categories: technical risks (shipwreck, grounding, fire, etc.), and economic risks. As to the first category the attempt is made to minimise risks by transferring its effects to third parties (insurance companies), or to other forms of self-insurance creation of specific funds. With respect to the second category, as the risk effects cannot be transferred to third economies, causes are analysed to minimize the effects themselves. The aim of this paper is to verify how cost accounting-based approaches, methods and tools can support the management to understand the causes of the ship-line combination risk. Such a risk leads to higher cost levels than the ones expected by the company and its interpretation does not imply a mere recording of cost variation only, but also an analysis of all tools that make management “aware” of its existence. The aim is to provide sufficient methodological supports (to be further refined) for an “aware” choice in favour of ship-line combinations, analysing their modes of use and, whenever possible, operating on the cost areas. This paper includes a first chapter where the risks system of the line shipping companies is outlined and a second chapter on the ship-line combination risk. In conclusion the case study of S.N.A.V. S.p.A is illustrated that, as result of the first research findings, enables us to have a better understanding of the relationship between risk and cost accounting tools highlighting the points of strength and points of weakness in the knowledge of the causes generating a ship-line combination risk

IL RISCHIO DI COMBINAZIONE DELLE RISORSE ECONOMICHE. IL CONTRIBUTO DELL’ANALISI DEI COSTI.

Il tema dei rischi legati all’azienda si presenta particolarmente interessante soprattutto alla luce dei profondi cambiamenti e delle significative evoluzioni che il contesto economico subisce. Negli ultimi anni, i numerosi fenomeni economici, fautori dei processi evolutivi a livello internazionale, hanno infatti contribuito a trasformare profondamente i contesti nei quali le aziende si trovano ad operare, rendendoli più complessi, dinamici e incerti. In tale direzione, la domanda di ricerca non si riferisce, come avveniva in passato, all’identificazione e allo sviluppo del meccanismo di gestione più efficace al fine di prevenire i rischi di azienda, ma alla necessità di identificare la migliore combinazione di logiche e strumenti di analisi dei costi per consentire al management di agire in modo consapevole circa la scelta della combinazione di risorse economiche particolarmente "complesse". Il lavoro svolto dall’autore si colloca in questo filone di ricerca, con l’obiettivo di avanzare un contributo indirizzato a ridurre i gap che si creano tra la disponibilità di risorse economiche, scelte di gestione e performance conseguite. Lo studio fornisce, sulla base di una approfondita review della letteratura sui rischi di azienda, le principali logiche e i possibili strumenti di cost accounting adottabili evidenziando le "vie" per una gestione consapevole delle aziende

Public and Private management and efficiency index of cruise terminals

The cruise industry has grown considerably over the past 25 years. Within this context, the ports and passenger terminals’ organization and services offered to the cruise line companies has subsequently undergone a substantial transformation. We can observe that at present an increasing number of cruise terminals are managed or partially managed by the cruise line companies, so the possible partnerships between private and public actors (port authorities, cruise terminals, cruise line companies) play a significant role in the management decisions and in the level of efficiency and performance of cruise terminal operations. The aim of this paper is to measure the performance of the main cruise terminals in the Mediterranean Basin and in the world when public and private actors participate in the management of terminals. Cruise terminal performance will be measured by the calculation of the production function with a multi-output set-up. We will apply stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) based on the distance function. The study results will suggest new avenues to streamline the organizational and governance criteria of cruise terminals managed by public and private partnerships

Cruise passengers value in seaport destination: an empirical analysis

The relentless growth of the cruise passenger flows that in the past years has invested the Mediterranean area has required the improvement of seaport infrastructures. The port reforms have fostered the involvement of cruise companies in the management of maritime stations, in order to enhance port efficiency and service quality, as well as to decrease costs and prices. This condition if, on the one hand, ensures traffic flows to seaports, on the other, it could dissuade the cruise companies that are not shareholders of the cruise terminal concessionaire to include the port in their own itineraries. The knowledge of the passengers’ satisfaction and their expenditure on the port destination becomes a fundamental issue for the concessionaires of maritime stations that want to assume an active role in the increase of the traffic flow. The purpose of this paper is to identify the main drivers of cruise passengers’ satisfaction and to measure the value created by cruisers in a specific destination. The work wants investigate these dimensions in smaller ports where the maritime stations are managed by concessionaires that do not have cruise companies in the ownership structure. More specifically, it will provide the knowledge on the passengers value of cruise companies that will not become shareholders of the concessionaire if the maritime station is entrusted to other cruise companies. The measurement of value creation is conducted through the elaboration of structured questionnaires submitted to a sample of passengers on one of the main cruise companies operating in Mediterranean