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In this article, we define four technological strategies by analyzing two dimensions in the exploitation versus exploration choice: knowledge base and technical application. The relationships of technological strategies with the quality of invention are investigated. The operationalization of strategies through patent data is provided, using knowledge field combinations as the unit of analysis. Patents filed by worldwide top R&D spending technology hardware and equipment companies are analyzed. A 2 × 2 matrix is suggested, defining four strategies: strengthening, enrichment, resettlement, and venturing. Mixed effects regression models are used to investigate the effects of such strategies on invention quality, providing positive relationships in relation to the first two strategies.

PurposeThe paper presents a research methodology that could be used to carry out a systematic literature review on the current state of the art of the technological development in the field of the digitalization and unphysicalization of supply chains (SCs). A three-dimensional conceptual framework focusing on the relationship between Digital Technologies (DTs), business processes and SC performance is presented. The study identifies the emerging practices and areas of SC management that could be positively affected by the implementation of DTs. With this in mind, the emerging practices have a high probability to be considered future best practices.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review was conducted on DTs in SC management. The methodology used aims to algorithmically and objectively standardize the information incorporated into thousands of scientific documents. Selected papers were analyzed to investigate the recent literature on SC digitalization and unphysicalization. A total of 87 DTs were selected to be analyzed and subsequently grouped into 11 macro-categories. 17 business processes linked to SC management are taken into account and 17 different impacts on SC management are presented. From a set of 1,585 papers, 5,060 emerging practices were collected and singularly summarized combining DT, business process and impact on SC performance.FindingsA unique analytical perspective provided represents an important evolution when trying to organize the current literature on SC management. The widely used DTs in the practices and the most considered business processes and impacts are highlighted and described. The three-dimensional conceptual framework is graphically represented to allow for the emergence of the best combinations of DT, business process and impact on SC performance. These combinations suggest the most promising areas for the implementation of the emerging practices for SC digitalization and unphysicalization. Additional findings identify and define the most important contexts in which Big Data contributes to SC performance.Originality/valueThe research methodology used is offering progress through which to systemize the current practices as well as detect the potential of digitalization and unphysicalization under the three-dimensional conceptual framework. The paper provides a structured proposal for promising future research directions, assuming that the five research gaps as findings of this research could be the basis for prescriptions, as well as a future research agenda and theory development. Moreover, this research contributes to current managerial issues concerning SC management, referred to data and information management, efficiency and productivity of SC processes, market performance, SC relationship management and risk management in SC.

This article aims to identify the features of sustainability-oriented innovation starting from the content analysis of patent abstracts. An automatic tool was developed capable of finding the keywords, or groups of keywords, related to the 169 targets of sustainable development goals (SDGs). Once the patents deemed useful for pursuing SDGs were selected through the tool, they were analyzed to obtain information on their features in terms of breadth, scope, novelty, openness, prior art and scientific base. Among the most significant results, it is found that a larger number of applicants, suggesting the adoption of “open innovation” strategies, contributes to sustainability orientation. Moreover, patent originality contributes to the probability of pursuing sustainable objectives, especially related to environmental issues. On the contrary, claims are inversely correlated with the attitude to pursue SDGs, i.e., the larger number of areas in which a patent claims to intervene, the lower the probability that such innovation is sustainable. The results obtained by adopting a quantitative approach are in line with suggestions proposed by the literature and, so far, only supported by logical arguments or case studies. The potential of the tool developed, applied to the field of innovation and sustainability, is demonstrated as significant.

Blockchain has recently been associated to Supply Chain Management to solve several problems and change operations management processes. The study proposes to analyse three different scenarios of the Parmigiano Reggiano supply chain considering blockchain technology as an enabler for the use of other technologies such as RFID and the Internet of Things (IoT) and for the exploitation of the Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) strategy. The study is based on the evaluation of three agent-based simulation scenarios, a traditional "as is" scenario, a second "to be" scenario implementing emerging technologies including blockchain, and a third “to be” scenario that combines the second one with the VMI optimization strategy. The results show how the combined adoption of these technologies improves the procurement process and customer satisfaction. Findings highlight the impacts that the different scenarios have on the supply chain operations in a quantitative way and allows to evaluate the changes in supply chain processes. By employing emerging technologies, order management activities are more automated and time to order and lead time order preparation are reduced. However, to achieve these performances, other data capture tools such as RFID and IoT are needed. Finally, the introduction of the VMI strategy, when enabled by blockchain technology, improves the procurement performances and significantly reduces unfilled orders.

Digital technologies could be key to solving several open issues in the context of supply chain management (SCM) and sustainable development. The purpose of this article is to investigate the linkage between digital technologies and sustainable practices in SCM. Through a systematic literature review, the article aims to identify which technologies favour sustainable emerging practices considering the triple bottom line (3BL) perspective. In particular, the following 11 technologies were considered: 3D printing, artificial intelligence, blockchain, computing, digital applications, geospatial technologies, Internet of Things, immersive environments, open and crowd-based platforms, proximity technologies and robotics. For the purpose of this research, 5011 peer-reviewed scientific articles were analysed and a comprehensive overview of the use of digital technologies in SCM to favour sustainable emerging practices was proposed. Therefore, four indices that measure the environmental, social, economic and total 3BL sustainability of each technology were used to assess sustainable emerging practices. This study could be useful for both academics and practitioners. For the former, it provides a comprehensive understanding of the application of digital technologies in sustainable emerging practices for SCM. It highlights potential research gaps by proposing scenarios of future research developments. For the latter, the article aims to identify opportunities for the implementation of digital technologies within own company to improve operations management and, at the same time, promote sustainable development.

The aim of the research was to present the state of the art on the use of open and crowd-based platforms and the advantages in terms of business performance that emerging practices employing such technologies are able to provide. The analysis was performed by extracting information on emerging practices from the repository Business Process Framework for Emerging Technologies developed by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno (Italy). Contingency tables allowed analysis of the association of such practices with industry, business function, business process, and impact on performance. From the analysis of the results, many implementation opportunities emerge, mainly in manufacturing, healthcare, and transportation industries, providing benefits not only in terms of efficiency and productivity, cost reduction, and information management but also in product/service differentiation. Therefore, the research provides an overview of opportunities for organizations employing open and crowd-based platforms in order to improve market and organizational performance. Moreover, the article highlights in what specific business contexts these technologies can be mainly useful.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible improvements in the pursuit of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) by multinational enterprises (MNEs) through an analysis of the literature. Design/methodology/approach A critical framework based on Gleicher’s formula for change is provided after conducting a systematic literature review. Findings The best way to pursue the SDGs is through an integrated approach that recognises the importance of MNEs in terms of possibilities and power of action. Working towards the SDGs appears to be largely limited by three aspects of the problem: its complexity and wickedness, the genuine interest in reaching some SDGs, at the expense of profit and low foresight. Research limitations/implications A fundamental limitation of the study concerns, as in most of the literature on the matter, the impossibility of providing an optimal solution to the problem of meeting the SDGs, given their nature. However, formulating the best definition of the problem and its characteristics can contribute to making its management better. Social implications This study has social implications due to the extreme importance that many SDGs have with regard to democracy and social equity, beyond their environmental and economic aspects. Originality/value The claimed contribution is the value brought by the synthesis of several points of view, through the interdisciplinary analysis of the research question. The novelty consists in organising the literature according to the formula for change.

This paper aims at analyzing sustainable practices that can be implemented within supply chains, linking them to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to show the performance achieved by SDG-oriented supply chains. Sustainable practices were collected from the repository “Business Process Framework for Sustainability” owned by the Department of Industrial Engineering of the University of Salerno (Italy). By using literature research and descriptive statistics, there emerges a positive relationship between sustainable development and SC performance enhancement. From the study of the practices that can be implemented for cooperation activities with upstream and downstream supply chain partners, it emerges that companies have many opportunities of both supporting the 2030 Agenda and enhancing their market and organizational performance. The research demonstrates that both procurement and distribution processes could be reengineered by implementing sustainable approaches considering all three dimensions of sustainability. Differences emerge in terms of number of opportunities, depending on motivations for implementing them, industry and supply chain processes, performance achieved, and SDGs pursued.

The digital transformation of supply chains should revolutionize entire management processes and improve various aspects of sustainability. In particular, the plans of Industry 4.0 aim towards a digitization of several procedures by exploiting emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things, RFID and blockchain. The purpose of this study is to highlight how order and disruption events processes can be improved with the adoption of emerging technologies and how this reflects on the improvement of sustainability aspects. The study is based on the comparison of two simulation scenarios between three actors in the cheese supply chain. In particular, a first traditional scenario “as is” is simulated without the use of new technologies and is compared to a second scenario “to be” that adopts IoT, RFID and blockchain. The results show an improvement in time performance for managing both perfect and non-compliant orders. The developed framework highlights the impact of new technologies on sustainability aspects, showing further managerial implications.

The paper aims at analysing the relationships between technological strategies, open innovation adoption and type of innovation output obtained after the knowledge-based perspective. Six hy...

PurposeThe paper aims to present a systematic literature review (SLR) showing the benefits, challenges and future research of blockchain technology (BT) for the supply chain (SC), also suggesting how the features of BT can change the organizational aspects of the SC.Design/methodology/approachAn SLR has been conducted to detect papers that contained the word “Blockchain” in their titles, keywords or abstracts. Consequently, a second filter to analyze BT papers for the SC was applied.FindingsThis paper shows through 31 variables classified into positive, negative and future directions of technology for the SC. For instance, BT will reduce time consuming of operations management and payments using smart contracts. In addition, integrating BT with other technologies will allow product tracking and sustainable production management.Research limitations/implicationsThe selection of papers is limited to Scopus database and specifically to the Management Journal.Practical implicationsBT creates collaborative peer-to-peer and business-to-business markets. The technology automates several tasks such as order management, payment for goods, waste reduction and process control. Therefore, its use within the SCs will improve the productivity and profits of the participants.Originality/valueThis paper is focused on BT for the SC area with 60 articles analyzed. In addition, 13 variables on benefits, eight variables on challenges and 12 points on future research directions were analyzed. This work will help researchers and entrepreneurs to deepen about the changes that BT offers in SC.

The paper analyses the supplier-side of buyer-supplier relationships examining the linkage of innovation performance and strategies with suppliers' market performances. The research has been conducted on the smartphone industry. A patent-based framework allows the investigation at the product level using techniques deriving from content analysis. The methodology is tested on a sample of 100 couples' component supplier gathered from the Nomura report. Results confirm the positive relationship between suppliers’ market shares and innovation elements. First, the market performance of suppliers depends on the performance of R&D activities carried out to develop smartphone-related technologies. Second, when companies adopt specialization strategies, concentrating on the end product the development of component technologies, the market shares are higher. From the methodological point of view, the work suggests how to operationalize patent data to perform analyses at the product level. The suggested framework can be employed by companies as a managerial tool.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a patent-based framework for investigating the effect of previous and current open innovation (OI) adoption on firms’ knowledge management strategies and type of innovation output. Design/methodology/approach Patent data are employed for gauging innovation practices, exploitation vs exploration strategies, specialization vs diversification choices and type of innovation. The study is performed on a sample of 1,280 patents granted to 66 top R&D spending bio-pharmaceutical companies. The year of analysis is 2010. Findings The previous recourse to specific innovation practices influences the current practice selection. R&D collaboration, outsourcing and mergers and acquisitions are employed to pursue exploration. Past purchase of patents increases the likelihood to achieve architectural and radical innovation in current activities. Research limitations/implications The work recommends the use of patent data to gauge many key elements for knowledge and innovation management. Results exhort scholars to investigate innovation practices at the knowledge domain level in order to detect specific behaviors. Practical implications The study provides a methodology for supporting decision-makers in assessing firms’ OI adoption, also performing the benchmark with competitors and R&D partners. Given the high computational effort required for applying the methodology, the authors are planning to give access to the software specifically developed for this study. Originality/value The work contributes to the current debate considering the effect of a combination of innovation practices on knowledge management strategies and type of innovation output, with a particular focus on OI activities. Moreover, the separation between the impact of previous and current innovation practices provides useful insights.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodological framework for evaluating the impact of open innovation (OI) adoption on start-up ventures at the knowledge domain level, taking into account the technological specialization and the quality of innovation output. Design/methodology/approach The framework employs patent data for investigating joint development activities between start-ups and partners, thus defining an openness degree of R&D. The partner typology and the levels of specialization on the knowledge fields affected by each invention are investigated. The methodology is tested on a sample of bio-pharmaceutical start-ups. Findings On average, the openness level in the start-up phase is higher than the consolidation one. Furthermore, the higher the level of openness during the start-up phase, the higher the propensity to collaborate with scientific organizations. And yet, the occurrence of R&D collaborations is positively correlated to the level of specialization on the knowledge fields involved in joint development activities. Practical implications OI strategies are valuable for start-ups, particularly in the bio-pharmaceutical industry, since their adoption improves the quality of innovation output. This is particularly true when R&D collaborations are established with scientific entities. Originality/value This work investigates the impact of OI adoption on start-up ventures at the knowledge domain level, by employing objective and standardized data. Hence, the methodology can be considered as a first step in developing a useful tool for managers, researchers and business analysts.

The growing attention to emerging technologies has raised several doubts regarding the sustainability aspects. Among the new technologies, blockchain has laid the foundations for a revolution in the financial field but also in the energy, tourism, medical, industrial and supply chains sectors. Through a systematic literature review, 37 documents were analyzed to describe the sustainable aspects generated using blockchain in supply chains. Therefore, the results achieved provide two levels of analysis. The former highlights the impact of the adoption of blockchain in supply chains based on the three dimensions of sustainability: environmental, economic and social. The latter shows the positive and negative impacts of each form of sustainability. The purpose of the work is to summarize the current state of the art in order to propose a future development agenda based on the need to simulate and define a measurability for each dimension of sustainability. Finally, the study provides a broad overview of practical and managerial implications for entrepreneurs and researchers. On the one hand, the work shows how the use of blockchain improves the profits and reputation of companies. On the other hand, it highlights several research gaps to be investigated and considered by researchers.

The paper presents an analytical method to define innovation behaviours and technology strategies of companies using patent data.The framework can be used to: 1) analyse single innovation behaviours, 2) map innovation strategies defined as combinations of different innovation behaviours, and 3) describe the patterns of technological evolutions over time. The methodology is tested on a sample of 133 top research and development (R&D) companies belonging to technology hardware & equipment industry, by analysing their patents applied from 2008 to 2012. From the analysis of the behaviours, a preponderance of exploitation strategies that lead to radical outputs is detected. We also uncovered a growing adoption of open innovation and an increasing concentration of R&D efforts on radical outputs.

This study provides a patent-based framework, investigating the relationship among the relevance of the technological domains, the exploitation vs. exploration strategies and the choice of open innovation practices. Specifically, this work presents five levels of open innovation adoption and analyses the reason why firms open up their innovation boundaries. The methodology is tested on a sample of 240 companies belonging to the bio-pharmaceutical and the technology hardware & equipment industries, by examining their patents filed in 2011. Results show that the relevance of the knowledge domain affects the choice of the innovation strategy; also, non-equity alliances are preferred in explorative activities and equity alliances in exploitative ones.

The paper describes five open innovation business models - collaboration, outsourcing, licensing, trading and incorporation - defined on the basis of open revenues and costs, new investments and divestments in intangibles. A sample of 271 companies from biopharmaceutical and technology hardware & equipment industries is investigated, and their annual reports for the three years period 2010-2012 are analysed. Results show that for biotech companies open innovation represents a characteristic activity, with most of them having high values of revenues deriving from joint development projects. On the other side, for pharmaceutical firms open innovation is somehow ancillary: even if most open innovation activities are widespread, their values are not really significant if compared to the total business volume. As to the technology hardware & equipment industry, the use of spin-ins as a mean for incorporating external knowledge is the most frequent open strategy. This work contributes to the research on open innovation by defining the business models that R&D intense companies may adopt to foster open innovation. From a managerial point of view, the framework can be used by companies for assessing the status of their own open strategies, also allowing the benchmarking with competitors.

The work suggests a methodological framework to detect information about innovation practices and their effects in terms of innovation quality from patent data. In this explorative analysis on the bio-pharmaceutical industry, three innovation practices are investigated: internal development, R&D outsourcing and joint development. Four quality indicators are taken into account: novelty level, originality of the technological combination, technological acknowledgment and internal value. Moreover, the effect on exploitation vs. exploration strategies is evaluated. The framework is tested on a sample of 460 patents. Results show that the involvement of external partners enhances the technological acknowledgement of patented technologies. R&D outsourcing is employed to allow companies to specialize in their core technical field, whereas joint development is used to generate new knowledge architectures.

The paper suggests a multidimensional measurement system assessing collaboration in an open innovation context by the use of: 1) costs and revenues deriving from joint development processes; 2) joint patents as the outcome of such activities. Three metrics are introduced to evaluate the weight of collaborations on both the total business of companies and their patent portfolio: collaboration costs share, collaboration revenues share and joint patents share. A sample of 114 worldwide top R&D spending bio-pharmaceutical firms is analysed and eight clusters are defined, from closed sole-patenting to coupled joint-patenting. The work proposes a novel way to assess collaboration processes, identifying their impact on the business model of companies. Furthermore, it integrates metrics for collaboration process and outputs within a comprehensive measurement system. Drawing on objective and available data from both consolidated annual reports and PATSTAT, the framework allows managers to evaluate the collaborative position of their firms, monitoring its evolution and benchmarking with competitors.

The paper suggests a multidimensional patent-based framework that investigates the relationships among accumulated stock of knowledge, current technological strategies, knowledge search practices and quality of innovation output. More specifically, the work intends to examine how the previous open innovation adoption, the recourse to specific technological strategies, the use of external sources of inspiration and the engagement of external actors for knowledge search affect both the market and the technological value of patented inventions. The methodology is applied to 25,583 patents filed by 68 R&D intense bio-pharmaceutical and technology hardware & equipment companies. Results show that focalization leads to technological acknowledgement and is stimulated by the use of non-patent references as sources of inspiration and the engagement of external scientific actors. In general, the use of patent and non-patent references is positively related to the quality of innovation output. Moreover, when companies have largely employed open innovation to accumulate knowledge, they continue to adopt similar practices in current R&D efforts.

The paper suggests a methodology for measuring the degree of openness in companies' innovation processes through the analysis of annual reports. Four openness dimensions are defined based on costs and revenues deriving from open innovation activities and new investments and divestments of innovation-related intangibles, occurring in either separate acquisitions or business combinations. A synthetic measure of openness is defined, including all the four dimensions. The model is then applied to a sample of 126 global top R&D spending companies in the bio-pharmaceutical industry for the period 2008–2012, for a total of 630 annual reports analysed. Results show a negative correlation of openness degree with firm age, dimension and efficiency, with biotech companies being more open than pharmaceutical ones. The paper contributes to the research on open innovation by suggesting a comprehensive framework for the measure of the pecuniary dimension of the phenomenon in both inbound and outbound processes. From a managerial point of view, the framework can be used by companies to both monitor their own degree of openness and to benchmark it with those of competitors.

This work investigates the relationship between sustainability and innovation performance. Despite the relevance of the issue, few contributions deepen such a relationship after both a conceptual and a quantitative perspective. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to suggest a measure of sustainability for innovation processes and to define which innovation strategies can lead to more sustainable processes. The role of ambidexterity within the corporate sustainability framework is underlined: Ambidextrous organizations are able to improve the innovation performance and better use their resources, improving the sustainability of research and development (R&amp, D) processes. By employing patent data and testing the framework on a sample of worldwide top R&amp, D spending companies in the IT hardware industry, this work suggests which optimal value of ambidexterity will lead to more sustainable innovation. In addition, R&amp, D processes with non-optimal levels of ambidexterity can be managed in a better way. Indeed, results show the usefulness of open innovation adoption to improve the performance of exploration processes. Moreover, R&amp, D activities based on a preponderance of exploitation strategies are more sustainable if they fall into technological domains in which the focal company is highly specialized. The work also contributes to the conceptualization of sustainability and to definition of patent-based metrics related to sustainability.

The paper suggests a patent-based framework that describes how bio-pharmaceutical and technology hardware and equipment companies manage their collaborative activities at the knowledge domain level, analyzing objective data gathered from PATSTAT database. We define the determinants of partners' selection by studying two characteristics of the knowledge fields involved in the technological alliance: their relevance and the technological strategy adopted. Considering only dyadic collaborations, the methodology is performed for both focal companies and their partners, detecting 16 different collaborative behaviors. If compared to the technology hardware and equipment industry, in the bio-pharmaceutical one a higher share of joint patenting activities involving core technological fields was found, signaling that collaborative processes mostly affect the core business of companies. We also uncovered that, in both industries, companies rely on alliances in order to access to competencies that are more relevant for their partners. Regarding the technological strategy pursued through collaborative activities, exploitation is strongly preferred to exploration.