Can Information Technologies Affect Social Capital?

The ability of employees to interact and work together as a team is essential for the functioning and survival of organizations. Social capital, as a social network, has the propensity to enhance the quality of interactive relation- ships within organizations but physical interaction was defined as a crucial re- quirement for the development of generalized trust and other pro-social attitudes and behaviours. The introduction of IT (Information Technologies) change the way of information flow using innovative means of communication. The purpose of this paper is to examine the possible influence of IT on social capital. Through a qualitative approach, we collected data from a survey involving 63 employees, users of LinkedIn, working at banking and telecommunications companies in It- aly. The findings show that IT can either support or hurt existing social capital within organizations and the variety of its influence depends on social network perspectives such as bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. IT develop and improve bonding social capital because the common backgrounds in IT capabil- ities perform to handle accordingly and for the right reasons the new information systems and means of communication. In contrast, IT hinder bridging and linking social capital because of weak trust, egocentric attitudes, perceived indifference to teamwork and fear of mistakes to interact online with a high-level member of the team. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of this research and provide suggestions for future research

Temporary Project Network and Innovation: a Research on Italian Regional Wine Industry

This study aims at exploring the characteristics of the Temporary Project Networks (TPNs) in small and medium-sized wine producing enterprises, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. It aims to discuss different types of temporary inter-firm collaboration clusters both in terms of structural/organizational features and in terms of innovation tasks development. It also aims to develop an empirically derived taxonomy of TPNs within the Sannio wine industry

Bridging business model and inter-organizational coordination mechanisms in the Italian wine industry

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to interpret the concept of a business model from the pattern of coordination mechanisms used by an Italian wine cooperative to manage its inter-organizational relationships. Design/methodology/approach – The business model is taken as the structure and governance of the relationships between the focal firm and its exchange partners. The empirical analysis is based on a qualitative investigation, analyzing material collected at the Farming Cooperative Gran Cru. Findings – Several different coordination mechanisms were used to rethink the firm customer value proposition, showing a very complex and dynamic inter-organizational system: process control mechanisms, knowledge suppliers and clan control mechanisms. The combination of mechanisms enables the firm to govern the extreme complexity of external complementarities and interdependence among activities and resources. Practical implications – The study is particularly helpful to managers because wine entrepreneurs and managers can influence their networks’ features and strategies, as well as the mechanisms for governance of the relationships and extracting customer value. Originality/value – The study seeks to enrich the debate on the strategy/structure fit by shifting the focus from the organizational to inter-organizational level of analysis. The analysis centers on boundary-spanning relationships between one wine firm and its partners and knowledge suppliers. This perspective brings business model analysis and inter-organizational design closer because variables of the business model – such as customer value – can be seen as combinations of inter-organizational coordination mechanisms

Understanding knowledge translation in university–industry research projects: a case analysis in the automotive sector

Purpose – In this paper, we depart from extant conceptualisations of knowledge translation mechanisms to examine projects as a way to achieve effective knowledge transfer. Our empirical analysis focused on a university–industry research project in the automotive industry. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical analysis was based on a qualitative investigation. We analysed material collected within a research project involving a partnership between two universities and Fiat-Chrysler Automotive (FCA), a multi-brand auto manufacturer with a product range covering several different market segments. We used three data collection techniques: internal document analysis, participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Findings – Our findings show that, in a U-I research project, goals represent a key dimension to support knowledge translation. Defining the goal implies an ongoing negotiation process, where researchers and company employees work together, in order to converge towards a shared meaning of the goal. In this sense, goal orientation and goal-based interaction have significant implications for knowledge translation processes

La gestione delle risorse umane non è un affare per pochi: il ruolo dei manager di line

Lo Strategic Human Resource Management è un'attività complessa che coinvolge una pluralità di stakeholder e può produrre risultati importanti per l'azienda al di là di quelli strettamente legati alla "produzione" di benessere organizzativo. La sua efficacia non è legata solo alle capacità di progettazione della Direzione Risorse Umane ma anche all'effettiva cooperazione dei manager di line nell'implementazione del bundle di azioni disegnate