Knowledge Management in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: Mapping the Literature and Scoping Future Avenues

Due to increased competitive pressure, modern organizations tend to rely on knowledge and its exploitation to sustain a long-term advantage. This calls for a precise understanding of knowledge management (KM) processes and, specifically, how knowledge is created, shared/transferred, acquired, stored/retrieved, and applied throughout an organizational system. However, since the beginning of the new millennium, such KM processes have been deeply affected and molded by the advent of the fourth industrial revolution, also called Industry 4.0, which involves the interconnectedness of machines and their ability to learn and share data autonomously. For this reason, the present study investigates the intellectual structure and trends of KM in Industry 4.0. Bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review are conducted on a total of 90 relevant articles. The results reveal 6 clusters of keywords, subsequently explored via a systematic literature review to identify potential stream of this emergent field and future research avenues capable of producing meaningful advances in managerial knowledge of Industry 4.0 and its consequences

Entrepreneurial approach for open innovation: opening new opportunities, mapping knowledge, and highlighting gaps

Purpose – Since the first definition of Open Innovation (OI), the indivisible relationship between this concept and entrepreneurship was undeniable. However, the exact mechanisms by which an entrepreneurial approach may benefit OI processes and vice versa are not yet fully understood. The study aims to offer an accurate map of the knowledge evolution of the OI-entrepreneurship relationship and interesting gaps to be filled in the future. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a bibliometric analysis, coupled with a systematic literature review performed over a data set of 106 peer-reviewed articles published from 2005 to 2020 to identify thematic clusters. Findings – The results show five thematic clusters: entrepreneurial opportunities, organisational opportunities, strategic partnership opportunities, institutional opportunities, and digital opportunities for OI. Investigated each of them, the authors created a framework that highlights future avenues for further developing the topic. Originality/value –This study is the first of its kind to systematise, analyse and critically interpret the literature concerned to the topic of the OI-entrepreneurshi

The Human Side of Open Innovation Adoption in SMEs: A Configurational Approach

SMEs' willingness to adopt Open Innovation largely depends on managerial cognitive configurations. The present study inquiries a scarcely explored aspect of Open Innovation, namely the human side of Open Innovation. As a result, we study the cognitive configurations leading toward willingness or unwillingness of OI adoption, specifically focusing on the cognitive side of the decision-makers. In doing so, we explore the role of Rational and Intuitive cognition, together with the NIH and NHS syndromes. Also, we study the effect of perceived barriers and perceived benefits that are able to affect the decisional outcome of managers in deciding to adopt, or not, Open Innovation. The present is grounded in a survey among 442 qualified and experienced managers working in SMEs. Results of a fsQCA analysis outlines different decisional profiles associated with willingness and unwillingness to adopt OI

Unleashing open innovation in the public sector: a bibliometric and interpretive literature review

Purpose Institutional, economic, social and technological advancements enable openness to cope with wicked public management issues. Although open innovation (OI) is becoming a new normality for public sector entities, scholarly knowledge on this topic is not fully systematized. The article fills this gap, providing a thick and integrative account of OI to inspire public management decisions. Design/methodology/approach Following the SPAR-4-SLR protocol, a domain-based literature review has been accomplished. Consistently with the study purpose, a hybrid methodology has been designed. Bibliographic coupling permitted us to discover the research streams populating the scientific debate. The core arguments addressed within and across the streams were reported through an interpretive approach. Findings Starting from an intellectual core of 94 contributions, 5 research streams were spotted. OI in the public sector unfolds through an evolutionary path. Public sector entities conventionally acted as “senior partners” of privately-owned companies, providing funding (yellow cluster) and data (purple cluster) to nurture OI. An advanced perspective envisages OI as a public management model purposefully enacted by public sector entities to co-create value with relevant stakeholders (red cluster). Fitting architectures (green cluster) and mechanisms (blue cluster) should be arranged to release the potential of OI in the public sector. Research limitations/implications The role of public sector entities in enacting OI should be revised embracing a value co-creation perspective. Tailored organizational interventions and management decisions are required to make OI a reliable and dependable public value generation model. Originality/value The article originally systematizes the scholarly knowledge about OI, presenting it as a new normality for public value generation

Mapping the State of the Art to Envision the Future of Large-Scale Citizen Science Projects: An Interpretive Review

Citizen science, i.e. citizens' involvement in research activities, is achieving an increasing relevance across disparate scientific domains. However, literature is not consistent in arguing citizen science's attributes and implications when large-scale projects are concerned. The paper systematizes extant scientific knowledge in this field and identifies avenues for further developments through a bibliometric analysis and an interpretive review. Various approaches to citizen science are implemented to engage citizens in scientific research. They can be located in a continuum composed of two extremes: a contributory approach, which serves research institutions' needs, and an open science approach, which focuses on citizens' active participation in knowledge co-creation. Although contributory citizen science paves the way for participatory science, it falls short in empowering citizens, which is central in the open science approach. Interventions aimed at enabling citizens to have an active role in co-creating knowledge in a perspective of science democratization are key to overcoming the understanding of citizen science as a low-cost model of scientific research and to boost the transition towards an open science approach

Aiming at inclusive workplaces: A bibliometric and interpretive review at the crossroads of disability management and human resource management

Inclusive workplaces rely on the joint optimization of disability management and human resource management. However, disability management has been predominantly investigated as an independent issue, overlooking its interplay with human resource management. The article delivers a bibliometric and interpretive review of the scholarly debate falling at the crossroad of disability management and human resource management, mapping the state of the art of this study domain. Departing from a knowledge core of 91 papers, 6 research streams were identified through bibliographic coupling. They account for the evolution of disability management from a fix-it initiative aimed at fostering return to work of people with disability towards a holistic management approach targeted at inclusiveness. Aligning the hard and the soft sides of disability management and embedding it in the organizational culture are crucial to enact inclusive workplaces and make organizations able to engage people with disability at work

What makes work smart in the public sector? Insights from a bibliometric analysis and interpretive literature review

Debate on smart working in the public sector is rich, yet poorly systematized. The article fills this gap through a domain-based literature review. A bibliometric investigation enabled us to cluster 72 relevant papers in 5 research streams based on bibliographic coupling. An interpretive approach was undertaken to analyse key themes addressed within and across the clusters. A blurred account of smart working emerged. Despite the triggers fostering the transition towards smart working, its contents are ambiguous. Smart work arrangements fall short in augmenting the individual control over job and impair interpersonal relationships at work, paving the way for dumb work

Unpacking business, management, and entrepreneurship education online: Insights from a hybrid literature review

Business, Management, and Entrepreneurship (BME) education uncovers a valuable learning space within the online environment. Scholars and practitioners have embraced distinctive per-spectives to exlpore BME education online. This led to a fragmentation of approaches and practices aimed at recontextualising BME education online. The article intends to overcome such fragmentation. For this purpose, it undertakes a hybrid literature review, consisting of a biblio-graphic analysis to map the scholarly debate on BME online education, and an interpretive review to systematize contemporary scientific knowledge. Drawing on a knowledge core of 106 articles, six clusters were identified through bibliographic coupling. The research streams embedded by the clusters deal with the challenges faced in the implementation of BME online education, such as the arrangement of online learning spaces, the promotion of collaboration among learners, the empowerment of instructors to address the learners' evolving needs, and the structuring of virtual educational institutions. Tailored interventions are required to avoid that BME online education paves the way for anomic learning. Virtual learning spaces should enrich interpersonal ex-changes, engaging learners in co-creating value with instructors. Digital technologies enact un-precedented opportunities for online learning, leveraging rich social connections and expanding the reach of educational activities

A round of dancing and then one more: embedding intuition in the ballet of entrepreneurial decision making

The dance metaphor allows us to figuratively depict entrepreneurial decision making processes. Being conventionally conceived of as a sequence of purposeful behaviors rooted in a rational cognition process, entrepreneurial decision making can be featured as a 'ballet'. This interpretation puts in the background the improvisational nature of decision making, which revokes 'lindy hop' as a dance style. The article intends to illuminate the role of intuition, highlighting its overlap with rationality in the entrepreneurial decision making dance. For this purpose, a bibliometric analysis followed by an interpretive literature review advances a comprehensive report of 66 peer-reviewed journal articles published from 1995 to 2019, constructing evidence on the nature of entrepreneurial decision making and on the interplay between intuition and rationality. Literature is categorized in five clusters, which are reciprocally intertwined. Firstly, intuition is unconsciously used as a strategy to deal with the uncertainty that inherently affects entrepreneurial ventures. Secondly, intuition is rooted in the entrepreneurs' impulsivity, that echoes the role of emotions in decision making. Thirdly, the merge of rationality and intuition improves the entrepreneurs' ability to keep up with the erratic rhythm of the decision making dance. Fourthly, the mix of intuition and rationality serves as a catalyst of entrepreneurs' ability to thrive in complex and unpredictable environments. Fifthly, intuition generates drawbacks on entrepreneurs' meta-cognitive knowledge, which should be carefully recognized. Embracing the dance metaphor, intuition turns out to be crucial to make entrepreneurs able to fill in the gap between rationality and uncertainty

Exploiting Inter-Organizational Relationships in Health Care: A Bibliometric Analysis and Literature Review

Inter-organizational relationships are high on the health policy agenda. Scholars and practitioners have provided heterogeneous views about the triggers of collaborative practices and the success factors that underpin the sustainability of inter-organizational relationships in the health care domain. The article proposes a literature review aimed at systematizing current scientific research that contextualizes inter-organizational relationships to health care. A mixed approach was undertaken, which consisted of a bibliometric analysis followed by a narrative literature review. A tailored search strategy on Elsevier’s Scopus yielded 411 relevant records, which were carefully screened for inclusion in this study. After screening, 105 papers were found to be consistent with the study purposes and included in this literature review. The findings emphasize that the establishment and implementation of inter-organizational relationships in health care are affected by several ambiguities, which concern both the governance and the structuring of collaborative relationships. The viability and the success of inter-organizational relationships depend on the ability of both central and peripheral partners to acknowledge and address such ambiguities. Failure to do so involves an opportunistic participation to inter-organizational relationships. This endangers conflicting behaviors rather than collaboration among partners