Guardrails for the future:how digital humanism guides responsible technological convergence

Through the lens of Digital Humanism and technological singularity, the study critically examines the role of dynamic capabilities (DCs) of Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) and their influence on triggering digitalisation and accelerating technological convergence through clients and employees. This is evaluated by employing a single case study approach of a multi-award-winning technology solution company, namely Kubenet, based in Scotland. Their partners are Cisco and Microsoft to guarantee global access to clients’ applications. They own the ‘next generation network’ which allows flexibility, safety, and resilience supported by ISO, ITiL and Cyber Essentials accreditations. The analysis of the Kubenet has allowed us to notice that CDOs assume a relevant role in disseminating the principle of digital humanism which even if the technologies are completely in the organizational settings, human skills still have a central role in the whole organizational life. Creativity and innovation cannot be replaced by technologies which denote an integration of digital humanism accompanied by technology singularity

Two decades of the Journal of Intellectual Capital: a bibliometric overview and an agenda for future research

Purpose: The Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) is one of the leading academic journals in the field of business and management, with an impact factor of 3.744, according to Journal Citation Reports from Clarivate Analytics, 2019. This study reports the results of a content analysis of the JIC articles that have been published since the journal was founded in 2000, in order to highlight its significant contribution and identify potential future research avenues within the business and management field. Design/methodology/approach: Scopus database, complemented by the Web of Science (WOS) Core Collection, was used. Furthermore, this study graphically maps over 20 years' worth of bibliographic material, using the visualization of similarities (VOS) to present an overview of the journal and identify future research avenues. Findings: The paper provides an overview of a total of 700 articles and editorial notes, authored by leading authors from various universities, as well as collating the research themes explored during the 20 year period between 2000 and 2019. The prestigious positioning of this journal is evidenced both through the increasing number of citations received from other highly regarded journals and through its impact upon the establishment of new streams of research. Practical implications: By applying a bibliometric analysis, this paper offers an overview of past and current themes on intellectual capital (IC). Originality/value: This article delivers an in-depth and rigorous analysis of the fields and research streams interrogated by the JIC over the last 20 years and offers potential topics for future research, which could stimulate authors and inspire advancements in research for years to come.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Barriers and paradoxical recommendation behaviour in online to offline (O2O) services. A convergent mixed-method study

Mobile apps offering online to offline (O2O) services act as aggregators providing interface for delivery of required products and services at a preferred location. Despite offering multiple affordances, many O2O services have not diffused as anticipated, indicating the existence of consumer resistance towards them. One such example is that of food delivery apps (FDAs), which are experiencing resistance at both the pre-adoption and post-adoption stage. However, there are scarce empirical findings explicating the pre-and post-adoption barriers perceived to be associated with FDAs. The present study addresses this gap by utilising the Innovation Resistance Theory (IRT) and a convergent mixed-method study design to examine the barriers that existing FDA users face and how these impinge on their trust and valence of recommendation behaviour (positive and negative word of mouth). The study not only extends the classic IRT barriers to the FDA-context by identifying three key barriers (economic, efficiency, and experience) but also offers empirical evidence to support the negative association of barriers with trust and paradoxical recommendation behaviour by analysing data collected from 303 FDA users through Prolific. The findings also support the mediation effect of trust and the moderation effect of advertisement overload on the identified associations, making interesting theoretical and practical contributions.publishedVersio

Influences of Cognitive Dimensions on the Collaborative Entry Mode Choice of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Purpose – Our paper addresses internationalisation of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by specifically focusing on collaborative entry modes. Despite significant research done on market entry strategies of firms, the use of collaborative entry modes by SMEs during internationalisation has not received a lot of attention. We contribute to foreign market entry literature by analysing the influences of cognitive dimensions on collaborative entry mode choice (equity vs. non-equity modes) of SMEs in their international markets. Design/methodology/approach – We analyse the influences of cognitive dimensions on the choice between equity-based vs. non-equity-based collaborative entry modes. Our empirical sample consists of 345 Italian SMEs, where we used a questionnaire to collect the data. We use structural equation modelling (SEM) to analyse influences of factors like asymmetric information, informal institutional distance, time trends of country, perception of size and resources of potential host country partners, and perception of host country partners’ power on this important market entry mode. Findings – Our results show that high informal institutional distance leads to preference of non-equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. We also find that positive time trends of the host country, positive perception of size and resource of the local partner, as well as the local partners’ power leads to preference of equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. Originality/value – This study focuses on an ignored aspect of market entry strategies, i.e., equity vs. non-equity collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs. We use insights from resource based view and cognitive dimensions literature, to address the influences of five cognitive dimensions on the collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs during their internationalisation

From Sustainability coercion to Social Engagement: The turning role of Corporate Social Responsibility

As widely recognized, sustainability is a multi- and trans-disciplinary domain potentially able to influence actions, decisions, and behaviors at all the levels of socio-economic organizations. Reflecting upon the pervasive nature of sustainability domain, the paper proposes an overview about the evolutionary path of strategies and approaches for sustainability. Adopting a deductive approach, the main purpose of the paper is to underline in which ways the shifting from a coercive approach to a participatory approach in strategies for sustainability - made possible by the spread of Corporate Social Responsibility practices - has contributed to the emergence of sustainable innovation domain. The concept of Social Engagement in sustainability debate is proposed with the aim to underline that sustainable innovation is effectively possible only in the case in which all the levels of socio-economic organizations are engaged in the debate about sustainability and - as a consequence - they are effectively able to understand and promote the value of an innovation able to combine and satisfy society, economy, and environment needs

Responsible I(m)ovation in Asia Pacific regions

Over the past 20 years, a debate has developed on the differences between innovation and imitation strategies as mechanisms by which businesses operating in the Asia Pacific region may gain a competitive advantage. The current research contributes to this debate from a different perspective by exploring some of the challenges and opportunities associated with the combination of both strategies into what has been defined as imovation. Imovators and imovations do not stand alone in business ecosystems. Rather, they should be embraced in the context of sustainability-related virtues and emerging capabilities, such as ethical behaviour, co-responsibility and positive social impact. Taking dynamic capabilities as a theoretical lens, this paper conducts an empirical investigation of responsible imovation in a sample of 180 enterprises operating in the Asia Pacific market. In particular, this research evaluates the relationship between dynamic capabilities and imovation capabilities using a logistic regression analysis whereby we correlate the three main features of imovation strategies: strategic alliances, strategic decision-making and product innovations. To the best of our knowledge, ours is the first study to focus on responsible imovation in the Asia Pacific market from an empirical perspective. The research highlights the key organisational and individual actions with the potential both to preserve existing capabilities and to create and integrate new ones. Our findings highlight the importance of technology adoption for responsible imovation to become more effective and accessible to imovators in the Asia Pacific business ecosystem. We conclude that responsible imovations combined with product-level innovations and core dynamic capabilities pave the way towards more rapid growth and a more sustainable competitive advantage.publishedVersio