A taxonomy of competition-based approaches as innovation policy measures to foster external knowledge search

Purpose: This paper aims to provide a comprehensive view of the different competition-based approaches that policymakers can exploit to foster external knowledge search and their positioning among innovation policy measures. A growing number of companies have implemented initiatives to access external knowledge to increase their innovativeness, consistently with the open innovation paradigm. Competition-based approaches have received increasing attention by the private sector as a way to access external knowledge. However, despite their potential role as innovation policy measures, a limited attention has been devoted so far to investigate them from the policymakers’ perspective. Design/methodology/approach: To this aim, a two-stage empirical analysis has been carried out to develop a taxonomy of competition-based approaches. The first stage leveraged a multiple case study methodology including a sample of 20 competition-based approaches, while the second one leveraged interviews with Italian and European key informants. Findings: This paper proposes a novel taxonomy including eight competition-based approaches, which differ among each other in terms of policy strategy, scope breadth and output required. Moreover, this paper enriches a well-established taxonomy of innovation policy instruments with the identified competition-based approaches. Originality/value: This study contributes to the current debate on innovation policy by providing a taxonomy that includes eight competition-based approaches that can be exploited by policymakers to foster external knowledge search as well as their positioning among the innovation policy instruments. The taxonomy will hopefully support policymakers in identifying of the most suitable instruments in the light of their policy strategy and objectives

The environmental impact of electric vehicles: A comparative LCA-based evaluation framework and its application to the Italian context

In the last years a progressive shift from the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) toward electric vehicles (EV) has been observed, which has as primary objective that of favouring a sustainable mobility. Indeed, one of the most important topics tightly linked with this alternative refers to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced along the entire vehicle's life cycle. The aim of the present work is to develop an emission-model that is able to calculate the CO2 emissions produced along the entire vehicle's life cycle, so to estimate EV CO2 emission values and compare them with those of ICEV. The emission model, developed leveraging on a thorough literature review on the topic, is then applied to the Italian context, to enable a comparison of the emission results for EVs and ICEVs taking into account the peculiarities of such country. It emerges that overall CO2 emissions associated to EVs are lower than the ones associated to ICEVs. A significant portion of emissions arising from the manufacturing of the battery pack still represents the main gap to be filled with respect to ICEVs. Evaluating both vehicle typologies and based on different assumption in terms of the geographical locations in which the stages of the vehicle life cycle take place, it emerges that EVs show a consistent CO2 emission reduction ranging between-11% to-50% compared to ICEVs over the entire vehicle's life cycle. The most relevant contribution for such performance is due to the cleaner energy mixes on which some countries can rely on compared to others. Given that the most impactful phase-in terms of CO2 emissions-is represented by the vehicle use, it has been performed a sensitivity analysis on the energy mix used for vehicle's charging. Results show that coupling of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and EVs can be a key factor for achieving very low emission values

The Economic Evaluation of Energy Efficiency in Industry: an Innovative Methodology

An empirical research involving 130 Italian industrial firms showed that the economic viability of energy efficiency projects is mostly evaluated through indicators like Pay-Back Time (PBT) and Internal Rate of Return (IRR), whose acceptability thresholds are affected by decision makers’ risk propensity and other contingencies (such as competing priorities). However, this approach hinders the adoption of several energy efficiency technologies - such as CHP, electric motors, inverters -, which provide economically viable results from a lifecycle cost perspective. This paper addresses this issue by identifying an innovative evaluation method for energy efficiency investments. Inspired by the lifecycle economic assessment methodology for energy production plants – the so-called Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) or Levelized Energy Cost (LEC) - our indicator, called Levelized Energy Efficiency Cost (LEEC), correlates the energy savings that can be achieved through the implementation of an energy efficiency technology and the total costs incurred throughout the entire technology lifecycle (e.g. initial investments, O&M, disposal). A technology can be considered as economically viable if the LEEC is lower than the energy price incurred by the firms, because in that case the economic benefit of the saved energy is higher than the sustained cost to obtain it. The application of such methodology in different Italian energy-intensive industrial sectors (e.g. automotive, cement, iron&steel and pulp&paper) demonstrates that most of the considered technologies are economically viable. Therefore the LEEC is a clear and simple tool for companies’ decision makers to evaluate energy efficiency projects

Performance Measurement of Collaborative Research and Development: An Exploratory Analysis

Collaborative research and development (RD) requires specific management approaches in several aspects including the measurement of RD performance. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on how performance of different types of collaborative RD activities should be measured. To this end, we conduct an exploratory research based on case studies, involving four cases of multinational companies in different fields. We show that firms use performance measurement systems for collaborative RD which are different compared to the ones used for non-collaborative RD. Furthermore, such performance measurement systems differ depending on the type of collaborative RD projects that companies are involved in

Enablers and Barriers for Circular Business Models: an empirical analysis in the Italian automotive industry

Research stream on Circular Business Models has recently emerged within the management research to address the concept of Circular Economy from a business model perspective. Several studies in this stream have identified and analyzed a set of managerial practices that can be adopted by companies to design Circular Business Models. However, current research still falls short to provide a systematic view of the enablers and barriers for the design of Circular Business Models and the adoption of related managerial practices. The paper addresses this research gap in two ways. First, it provides a reference framework of enablers, barriers, and contextual factors affecting the design of Circular Business Models. Second, it presents the results of a survey involving 66 companies operating in the Italian automotive industry, bringing into light the relative importance of the identified enablers, barriers, and contextual factors in this industry. Finally, our research provides practical suggestions and recommendations for properly approaching the design of Circular Business Models in the automotive industry

Unravelling the design process of business models from linear to circular: An empirical investigation

In the last years, circular economy has represented one of the most-debated topics in management research. Although the understanding of this industrial paradigm has significantly improved over the last decade, a number of important research questions still remain unanswered. Among them, the design process of business model through which established firms evolve from being linear to circular deserves further investigation. Existing research still falls short to investigate how companies design the dimensions of value creation, value transfer, and value capture of their business models to launch circular products into the market. By leveraging a multiple case study analysis of four companies in the paper and beverage industries that have launched six circular products, the paper examines the process that these companies have followed to face the transition toward a circular business model. The paper contributes to the research field in the intersection between new product development and circular business models, by showing that the process toward a circular business model occurs along three major phases, that is, idea generation, product development, and commercialization. In each phase, companies implement peculiar managerial practices for launching circular products into the market, which typically address all the dimensions of the business model and follows a recurrent path over time

How Digital Technologies Enable Business Model Innovation in the Energy Sector: An Empirical Study of Italian Energy Service Companies

The evolution of digital technologies has been expanding the business opportunities that firms can tap by leveraging such technologies. Business model innovation triggered by digital technologies allows firms to extend the scope of products and services they offer and create new markets. This trend is particularly relevant in the energy sector. However, little is known about how actually energy firms’ business models evolve because of the adoption of digital technologies. Therefore, this article aims at shedding light on the business model innovation process enabled by digital technologies in the energy sector. To this aim, eight Italian energy service companies that innovated their business model by adopting digital technologies are analyzed. The empirical analysis allows to spot an archetypal business models innovation process enabled by digital technologies in the energy sector. The study contributes to the literature on business model and business model innovation by highlighting how digital technologies may promote the evolution of business models and by spotting an archetypal business models innovation process that can be implemented accordingly. It also contributes to the emerging literature on digital transformation, by showing how digital technologies can be exploited by energy firms to improve their value creation, delivery, and appropriation mechanisms

How incumbents manage waves of disruptive innovation: an empirical analysis

Innovation scholars have long looked into the managerial practices that incumbents should adopt to promptly respond to disruptive innovations (see, e.g., Christensen, 1997; Birkinshaw and Gibson, 2004). These practices include, among the others, the use of an open innovation approach or the establishment of ambidextrous organizations. However, this body of research has not analysed how these practices develop and unfold over time, although very often incumbents are confronted with waves of disruptive innovations that cyclically take place along the lifecycle of an industry (Moreau, 2013). This paper investigates this issue through a historical analysis (Gottschalk, 1969) of the global music industry. For each wave of disruptive innovation that hit this industry over the last fifteen years (digital music distribution, permanent digital download and streaming), we analyse the reaction of incumbents and develop a model suggesting how incumbents develop over time managerial practices to respond to cycles of disruptive changes.19-22 June 201