Search

Almond cultivation is of considerable importance among fruit crops of the warm-temperate climate and has been growing steadily worldwide since the early 1990s, reaching about 1.87 million cultivated hectares in 2016. In the Mediterranean Region, where the main parts of almond orchard are located, high erosion rates have been observed in many tree crops, including almond. Tillage is the traditional and prevailing soil management technique in the Mediterranean Basin despite many studies reported negative effects on soil quality highlighting the significant increase of soil erosion determined by this technique. But very few data are available in the literature, especially for almond, about the effects on vegetative and reproductive activities, yields and fruit quality of tree crops. The trial aimed to evaluate the effect of three different soil management techniques (‘conventional tillage’, ‘no-till without cover crop’, ‘frequently mown cover crop’) on five almond cultivars (‘Ferragnes’, ‘Filippo Ceo’, ‘Genco’, ‘Supernova’, ‘Tuono’), grown in a commercial almond orchard located in Southern Italy. Average fruit set, yield tree(-1) and dimensional parameters of fruits and kernel were determined. The tested cultivar showed difference in their fruiting behaviour regarding the distribution of both floral buds and fruits on different types of bearing shoots. This suggested, with the aim to increase productivity, that during pruning it is necessary to mainly preserve a different type of shoots in each one of these cultivars. For all the cultivars evaluated, quite negative effects resulted in terms of both yield and carpological parameters for the ‘no tillage’ treatment, while the best performances were observed for the ‘conventional tillage’ treatment.

This paper presents a productivity analysis of municipal solid waste collection in Italian provinces from 2010 to 2019. Particularly, the total factor productivity was measured by computing the non-parametric Global Malmquist Productivity Index implementing Slack Based Measure Data Envelopment Analysis (SBM-DEA). Findings show that the productivity of the sorted waste collection service slightly grew from 2010 to 2019. Such growth was due to an increase of the technical efficiency and an improvement of the service technology. However, in some years the efficiency changes and productivity increase were affected by the rise of the per capita production of waste.

The paper undertakes a benchmarking study of the water service management sector in Italy using Data Envelopment Analysis. The optimal territorial area (ATO) is chosen as unit of analysis, while sample investigated includes 38 ATOs. Both technical and scale efficiency are evaluated. Results of DEA implementation show that the average pure technical and scales efficiency are situated at 92.62% and 93.91%, respectively. Findings also show that efficiency is neither related to service average tariff nor to investment planning effectiveness. Returns to scale are investigated too.

Technological innovation occurs as an evolutionary, path-dependent and interactive searching activity of optimal alternatives and is fundamentally dominated by an intense activity addressed to identify and solve technical problems. As components recombination is a very efficient source of innovation that firms widely resort to, the capability to recombine pieces of knowledge available in the organization or transferable from the outside becomes an important lever in the technological innovation strategy of the firm. Technological innovation is conceptualised as the outcome of a change of either the technological components or a diverse combination of the components themselves. Data relative to granted patents were considered and the sub-classes of the classification standard adopted were associated to technological components. Indexes of familiarity and technological concentration are calculated to analyse innovation trajectories. The sample includes 438 patents granted between 1975 and 2004 to 15 leading firms in the optical memory devices industry.

During the past 20 years the scope and complexity of engineering work and responsibilities have dramatically changed, and in the modern companies engineers perform many management activities. This trend had a major impact on engineering education and a great number of programs in engineering and technology management were started all over the world. However, from the analysis of several programs some concerns do emerge and open questions still make the development of educational programs in this field a difficult task.

This paper presents a study aimed at investigating how supplier firms translate the vision of quality as a strategic tool that their entrepreneurial/management groups develop over time into a set of actions which define the firm's quality-based strategy in the customer-supplier relationship. A survey was carried on collecting data from a sample of 139 suppliers selling goods to the automotive, telecommunication, and electromechanical industries. All the firms of the sample are located in the South of Italy. Results show that: the typology of industry affects the way quality is perceived as a strategic leverage in customer-supplier relationships, while quality perceived as a strategic means affects the way small supplier firms attempt to implement a quality-based strategy and interact with the customer.

Technological innovation is characterized by a searching activity of optimal alternatives which is fundamentally dominated by an intense activity addressed to identify and solve technical problems. As components recombination is a very efficient source of innovation that firms widely resort to, the capability to recombine pieces of knowledge available in the organization or transferable from the outside becomes an important lever in the technological innovation strategy of the firm. Here a conceptualization which considers technological innovation as an outcome of a change of either the technological components or a diverse combination of the components themselves is adopted. Data relative to granted patents were considered. The assumption is that every patent is the outcome of the combination of a number of technological components associated to the sub-classes of the classification standard adopted. These sub-classes can be indirectly utilized to observe the search and the dynamics of technological innovation strategies. The sample includes 438 patents granted between 1975 and 2004 to 15 leading firms in the optical memory devices industry. The Fleming familiarity and Herfindahl concentration indexes are calculated to analyse innovation strategies.

This paper presents an approach useful to analyse the performance of the product development model adopted by a company. It was implemented to analyse a specific sub-system - "the climatic system" - of a new car model developed by a large Italian car manufacturer. The activity chain was modelled by using the Design Structure Matrix (DSM) tool, while the nature of the information and knowledge flows coordinating tasks were the primary focus of our study. DSM offers several advantages for process mapping compared to other tools available in the literature and widely used in the new product development environment (i.e. PERT, IDEF suites, etc.). System dynamics was implemented to analyse the dynamic behavior of the product development process relatively to the subsystem considered. In particular, the effect of both ambiguity and uncertainty of the information and knowledge flows on the process performance was taken into account. The analysis was supported by the continuous feedback from the technical managers and engineers involved in the subsystem development. A questionnaire was developed and administered to technical managers and engineers to collect data. Most of the data were collected using measuring scales designed for the purpose.

Summary form only given as follows. This paper has two objectives. First, we present a method for constructing cognitive maps based on the analysis of natural language and a fuzzy representation of fuzzy propositions. Second, we apply this method to study how new knowledge is created during new product development.

Summary form only given. This paper presents the findings of a study aimed at investigating the influence that some factors, describing the cognitive, social, and management environment during technical problem-solving, have on the generation of new knowledge in small manufacturing firms. In a previous study we have examined the direct impact of these factors upon knowledge generation. Here we examine the mediated impact of factors upon knowledge generation. Using path analysis we examine an a priori theoretical model of influences of some constructs on knowledge generation. Ninety-one cases of technical problem solving that occurred during product innovation within 35 small firms were studied. Two key findings arise from our study, each adding substantially to the understanding of how knowledge is created in small firms during technical problem-solving and to the impact that some management practices and social behaviors adopted in the organization have on the amount and quality of knowledge created. First, the hypothesized model explains the logical process of knowledge creation during innovation in small firms moderately well, supporting what literature says about the generation of knowledge within organizations. Our second key finding is that the hypothesized model puts emphasis on the subtle relationship existing among uncertainty, ambiguity and the adoption of practices and behaviors aimed at reducing them.

This paper presents the findings of a study aimed at investigating the influence that some factors describing the cognitive, social and management environment during technical problem-solving have on the generation of new knowledge in small manufacturing firms. Ninety-one cases of technical problem-solving occurred during product innovation within 35 small firms were studied. From the literature and a multiple case study analysis, the authors identified a set of factors affecting learning which were ranked by order of influence. In that analysis, they considered each factor as affecting learning independently of the others. Here, they remove the simplifying hypothesis that these factors are independent and consider the contingent effect of the learning frame in which technical problem-solving occurs. The learning frame is defined by the factors that more critically influence learning. From, their study it emerges that the learning patterns differ accordingly to different learning frames and some factors that foster learning within a specific frame can inhibit it within a diverse frame.

We assume that technical problem solving is a major learning means and a source of new knowledge during new product development. We propose a conceptual model to describe the learning process that takes place in organizations. A field research was conducted to derive concepts to identify elements to formulate a "grounded theory".

This paper reports the preliminary findings of an exploratory empirical study aimed at identifying relevant variables that affect e-business models in the B2B paradigm. The findings reported concern a sample that includes 120 B2B buyer-seller relationships relative to 52 e-business Italian firms.

The IPM Group has become one of the leading companies in the telecommunication industry in Italy in the last 40 years. A study carried out by A.T. Kearney identified the IPM Group as one of the three best performing medium-sized companies in the South of Italy. In the early stages of the company's growth, the IPM engineers and technical management were able to dramatically innovate its products, the public telephone terminals. But, in the last five years, as a consequence of the end of monopolies in the national telecommunication markets, IPM faced a number of serious problems relative to the product and its commercialisation in the international markets. The growing attention to the users' needs by the national public telephone service providers and the need to meet the particular specifications of the product required by the international customer on the one side, and the constraints imposed by some local governments that require that foreign companies make use of companies of the country to manufacture components and parts and assemble the final product on the other side, induced the management of the IPM Group to modify the process of product development and the organisation of the manufacturing environment. This renewal process is still under way. The paper, after a description of the story of the IPM Group, analyses and discusses some of the issues posed by the new course of action. Information reported here relative to IPM Group SpA and its strategies is updated to the end of 1998, the time the authors completed the writing of the case.

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study aimed at investigating the influence that some factors describing the context pattern perceived by individuals and some other factors shaping the problem solving style have on the generation of new knowledge during technical problem-solving in small manufacturing firms. In a previous study, these factors were identified. Here the effect that the fit between the first and the second group of factors has on the amount and type of knowledge generated during technical problem-solving is explored. Two relevant findings emerge from the statistical analysis of data: (1) different context patterns are more conducive than others to learning (in the study learning and the generation of knowledge are used as synonymous); (2) there exists some fit between context pattern and problem-solving style, as some practices and behaviors adopted during technical problem-solving are more effective than others in some context patterns. Ninety-one cases of technical problem-solving occurred during product innovation within 35 small firms which were studied.