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Purpose This paper aims to provide a helpful tool for those who plan to implement blockchain-based solutions for the governance of the electronic medical record (EMR) in health-care settings. The goals are to identify each type of stakeholders involved in these projects and to clarify the relevance, to achieve success, of their readiness, intended as availability and ability to adopt blockchain. Design/methodology/approach The chosen methodology is a multiple case study on three initiatives that used blockchain to manage EMRs. This study relied on multiple sources of evidence. The primary data consisted of two rounds of semi-structured interviews with different informants. This study followed a grounded theory approach and performed within- and cross-case analyses. Findings This study identified the types of stakeholders – nodes and not-nodes – of the network and how their readiness level affects the implementation of blockchain-based projects applied to EMR. The nodes (e.g. patients and doctors) are pivotal in making the network working once this has been constructed. Out of the four readiness dimensions suggested by literature, motivational readiness, has the higher impact. Not-nodes stakeholders play a pivotal role in the project’s pre-implementation phase. For them, structural readiness is the dimension with the higher relevance. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first time that a paper analyses the differences between nodes and not-nodes stakeholders of the blockchain network, in terms not only of type but also of readiness. Identifying the readiness level to implement successful projects is a fundamental step that has never been analysed in the health field.

We present a 1:50 000 scale geomorphological map of the upper Mkhomazi River basin, located in the foothills of the Drakensberg mountains in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa. The sub-horizontal strata of the Permo-Triassic Beaufort Group forms plateau interfluves with a concave valley slope morphology. Locally, thick sequences of late Pleistocene colluvial deposits and associated buried paleosols (Masotcheni Formation) infill first-order tributary stream valleys and extend across the adjacent lower slopes. Surface runoff processes preferentially incise into the poorly consolidated, highly erodible sediments causing severe gully erosion that is responsible for widespread land degradation and desertification phenomena. The main purpose of this work is to derive a geomorphological map of the study area focussing on the erosional landforms to understand their spatial distribution and their relation to the colluvial deposits. Finally, a local and regional stratigraphic correlation of colluvial deposits and associated buried palaeosol profiles is proposed.

Purpose The role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and digital platforms in enabling connectivity and collaboration among actors is neglected when dealing with outbound open innovation (OI). Moreover, the outbound OI process is not currently defined in a univocal way. Thus, this paper aims to outline the outbound OI phases and to explore role and capabilities of ICTs in supporting it. Design/methodology/approach Through a literature review approach, the authors specified the outbound OI process. Hence, the authors leveraged the similarities between the knowledge management process phases and the outbound OI phases for developing a conceptual framework that could match the outbound OI phases with acknowledged categories of ICT tools. Findings Through a process-view, the authors outlined outbound OI as a three-phase process. The authors developed a matrix-shaped framework in which the columns represent the three outbound OI process phases, while the rows are three ICT categories that could be suitable for supporting the outbound OI process. Practical implications The framework is designed to guide a deep understanding of how ICTs could support specific phases of the outbound OI process. In so doing, it could be useful for software developers interested in the preliminary design of an ICT platform for outbound OI. Originality/value The conceptual framework proposal as follows: specifies a detailed, process-oriented definition of the outbound OI; allows to identify the main ICT categories supporting the phases of the outbound OI process; and provides guidance for further exploration about the role of ICT in outbound OI.

Purpose In the past decade, in the space industry, many initiatives intended at offering open access to big data from space multiplied. Therefore, firms started adopting business models (BMs) which lever on digital technologies (e.g. cloud computing, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence), to seize these opportunities. Within this scenario, this article aims at answering the following research question: which digital technologies do impact which components the BM is made of? Design/methodology/approach An exploratory multiple case study approach was used. Three cases operating in the space industry that lever on digital technologies to implement their business were analyzed. Despite concerns regarding reliability and validity, multiple case studies allow greater understanding of causality, and show superiority respect to quantitative studies for theory building. Findings Big data, system integration (artificial intelligence, high-performance computing) and cloud computing seem to be pivotal in the space industry. It emerges that digital technologies involve all the different areas and components of the BM. Originality/value This paper sheds light on the impact that digital technologies have on the different BM components. It is only understanding which technologies can support the value proposition, which technologies make the infrastructural part able to support this proposition, which technologies may be helpful for delivering and communicating this value to customers and which technologies may help firms to appropriate the value that it is possible to seize the impact of digital technologies on BM.

Purpose Focusing on some relevant constructs defined by the open innovation (OI) literature (i.e. determinants of openness; openness choices operationalized in terms of collaboration depth with scientific and business partners; organizational and social context; innovation performance in terms of novelty and efficiency), this paper investigates the relationships among such constructs. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to empirically analyse two types of relationships: between some contextual factors and firms’ openness choices; and among openness choices, a set of organizational-managerial and social factors, and OI performance outcomes. Design/methodology/approach The authors carried out a theory testing survey, involving four European countries (Finland, Italy, Sweden and the UK). The authors applied descriptive statistics and a series of regressions. Findings The authors analysed the impact exerted by external and internal variables on the collaboration depth with scientific and business partners: technological trends are relevant to move firms towards external collaborations, with both types of partners; efficiency goals pursued in collaborations are related to the collaboration depth with both types of partners, while an aggressive innovation strategy is positively related only to scientific-partner depth. Besides, collaboration depths with both partners are positively related to the both sides of innovation performance (i.e. novelty and efficiency), but the organizational-managerial and social contexts emerge as relevant mediator variables. Organizational-managerial and external relational social capital exert a beneficial role on the both types of innovation performance, while internal relational social capital benefits only novelty. Research limitations/implications The work shows important limitations such as the low level of the explanatory values in the regression models. Therefore, the results must be considered as preliminary explorative insights that may be useful to encourage further studies. Practical implications This work serves to raise managers’ awareness on the opportunity of developing organizational-managerial mechanisms, as well as on the importance of social capital to profit from collaborations. Originality/value Although during the last decade many researchers have claimed that we are in the era of OI, empirical works, which provide both a more comprehensive and detailed understanding of the phenomenon, are still few. Moreover, the specific action of the context (managerial, organizational and social) as possible mediator of the performance outcomes of openness is empirically under-studied. The authors’ work attempts to fulfil these gaps.

Purpose Intellectual property protection mechanisms (IPPMs) include a variety of methods suitable for protecting valuable intangible assets of companies, and it is of great relevance to study how companies use these mechanisms to ensure the appropriability of innovation, in a context in which innovation is increasingly open. Indeed, there is a tension between the aim to share knowledge with external partners and the need to protect valuable know-how. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship among the use of IPPMs, open innovation (OI), and the innovation performance of companies. Design/methodology/approach The study is based upon a survey conducted on 477 firms from Finland, Italy, Sweden, and UK in 2012. Findings The study shows that IPPMs have an indirect impact on innovation performance, mediated by the degree of openness. More precisely, IPPMs positively influence the level of openness, which, in turn, positively influences the innovation performance. Originality/value The empirical analysis contributes on two issues widely debated in the literature: the impact of IPPMs on innovation performance and the role of IPPMs as enablers or disablers of OI.

This article addresses the orchestration of scientific ecosystems, which encompass a variety of competing and/or collaborating autonomous actors – including researchers, universities and industrial firms – which aim at developing theory. Scientific ecosystems are a very interesting subject to be studied because some of their features – specifically data building and sharing – are increasingly assuming importance for firms that post-COVID will have to cope with the ‘new normal’, which requires them to experiment on the basis of collectively gathered data in order to accelerate their learning “on the fly”. Specifically, business ecosystems challenged by the ‘new normal’ can leverage on the experience that scientific ecosystems have always had regarding data building and sharing.Considering conferences as decentralized orchestrating moments capable of pulling together dispersed resources/capabilities by ensuring knowledge mobility, and building on a social network analysis of the CINet conferences between 2014 and 2017, we aim at understanding the characteristics of the CINet scientific ecosystem in order to infer how well connected and close its researchers are and how effectively information is shared among them.

The aim of this study is to examine the implications of knowledge collaboration in open innovation and the role of digital technology therein. The paper draws on a survey of manufacturing firms having more than 10 employees in Italy, Sweden, France and Spain. The results show that knowledge collaboration with external partners has a significant effect on innovation novelty but not innovation efficiency. In addition, the results show that digital technology moderates the relationship between knowledge collaboration and innovation efficiency but not the relationship between knowledge collaboration and innovation novelty. Overall, this study contributes to the growing discussion about the benefits of adopting digital technologies in open innovation processes by investigating whether and under which conditions knowledge collaboration is beneficial.

The aim of this paper is to collect and present some educational applications dedicated to the observation and comprehension of the relief and physical landscape evolution at different temporal and spatial scales. The activities were based on the direct contact with the geological-geomorphological contexts. The presented proposals, some of which have been already tested on students of the secondary school of first level, concern: i) the realization of open-air laboratory activities in the alpine environment; in particular simplified dendrochronological procedures were used on scanned wood samples of trees located on deposits and landforms from different origin, to achieve a better comprehension of the modelling process and evolution during time of the physical landscape; ii) the analysis of the fluvial landforms and deposits in educational valued sites to highlight concepts of structural control on fluvial landscape and paleogeography; iii) the observation of sport-climbing walls and of the dependence of progression on the geological and geomorphological structures in order to approach lithotypes and glacial erosion landforms. The link with the concept of geomorphological hazard represented finally an occasion for education to risk. The educational activities herein illustrated represent pilot proposals where fieldwork demonstrated to be essential to fix geological and geomorphological concepts.

PurposeOpen innovation (OI) literature suggests that firms can improve their innovation performance by learning from a large set of actors in the innovation process. However, the extant literature has overlooked the “who” question: which partners should be included in the different phases of the innovation funnel? How should they be selected? This paper aims to offer, while focusing in the early phases of the innovation process, a list of possible criteria for partner evaluation and suggests a structured methodology for their selection.Design/methodology/approachAn empirical test of both the criteria and the methodology is presented with reference to a company operating in the Advanced Underwater Systems sector. The authors propose a peer-based modification of intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) multi-criteria group decision-making with TOPSIS method (peer IF-TOPSIS). IF-TOPSIS allows coping with subjectivity, imprecision and vagueness in group decision-making problem under multiple criteria.FindingsThe paper proposes an innovative application of a peer-modified version of IF-TOPSIS to a challenging and complex decision problem – partner selection for OI – which is usually subjected to uncertainty and evaluation from multiple experts.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the extant literature advancing the criteria that could be used in the selection process, avoiding focusing on single specific aspects of the collaboration phases or on specific types of partners (suppliers).

In this article we present a detailed litho-structural map of the Oltrepo Pavese, a sector of the Northern Apennines, Southern Lombardy, Italy. Lithology and geological structures are an important basis for different disciplines of Earth Sciences. In particular, for the assessment of earth surface processes such as soil erosion, mass movements, flooding, etc. The Oltrepo Pavese is characterised by a complex geology and related tectonic settings. In this study, we conducted a comprehensive lithological mapping approach considering existing geological maps, and detailed field surveys. The lithotypes have been subdivided into 11 classes based on the dominant outcropping lithologies. Integrating bibliographic data and a detailed Digital Terrain Analysis of a high-resolution DTM (5 m) we detected faults, folds and tectonic lineaments in the study area. The final result is represented by a litho-structural map of the Oltrepo Pavese-area, consisting in two shape files elaborated in an open source GIS environment.

Artificial reservoirs have an important role in water management of river systems in terms of flood control, water supply and sediment budgeting. Therefore, it is important to maximize the time of their effective functioning. Sediment budgeting mainly depends on sediment transport dynamics. This article illustrates the impact of the Koronowski Reservoir on suspended sediments transported by the Brda River. The river system and the reservoir represent a typical lowland river environment. Our research is based on hydrological and sedimentological investigations on the reservoir and the river system. Field measurements were used to create the respective hydrological and sediment budgets. Moreover, we carried out bathymetric measurements to generate present day bathymetry and to calculate the reservoir&rsquo, s capacity. We assessed the silting of the reservoir following the approaches proposed by Goncarov and Stonawski. We show that the size and dynamics of suspended sediments are mainly determined by the hydrological conditions. Moreover, we illustrate that the suspended sediment measurements made with the filtration method correlate with the nephelometric results. Generally, we show that the Koronowski Reservoir is mainly filled up by suspended sediments. We further illustrate that the level of siltation estimated with the empirical formulas deviates significantly from calculations made by bathymetric measurements.

The success of collaboration between firms and scientific partners is still debated. Although a firm's social context seems to be crucial to explain the success or failure of such collaboration in terms of innovation performance, a deep analysis of the context role is still lacking. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to analyse whether a firm's internal climate as well as the quality of the relationships with scientific partners can mediate the relationship between collaboration and innovation performance. Results, based on survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden, suggest that collaborations with scientific partners achieve good results in terms of innovation performance, through an explanation path which involves a firm's social context.

L'analisi integrata rappresenta l'unico strumento oggettivo di valutazione dello stato di un corso d'acqua, su cui si deve basare il processo di elaborazione di uno stato di progetto, elaborando quindi gli strumenti operativi richiesti dalle normative. Considerando il sistema fiume nel suo concetto più ampio sono stati delineati gli approcci metodologico-operativi per la conduzione di uno studio integrato. Il progetto di studio ha previsto un approccio dall'analisi alla sintesi di analisi lo stato morfologico dei corsi d'acqua e della loro tendenza evolutiva. Questo al fine (i) di avere a disposizione un quadro complessivo di più immediata lettura e (ii) di definire alcuni aspetti chiave che concorrono, assieme alle altre componenti analizzate in questo studio (trasporto solido, aspetti ambientali), ad individuare possibili indirizzi gestionali. La ricerca condotta ha avuto lo scopo di analizzare con un approccio integrato e multidisciplinare alcune aste idrografiche di grande importanza dell'arco alpino, quali il Fiume Mera, il Fiume Adda e il Fiume Oglio nei loro tratti sopralacuali, note rispettivamente come Valchiavenna e Valtellina, afferenti il Lago di Como, e Valcamonica afferente il Lago di Iseo. L'analisi ha interessato l'evoluzione storica dell'andamento planimetrico degli alvei, le caratteristiche granulometriche dei sedimento, la presenza di opere idrauliche, le tendenze evolutive dal punto di vista morfologico, lo stato delle cenosi vegetali e l'uso del suolo presente nel corridoio fluviale, le componente idraulica ed il trasporto solido. L'insieme delle valutazione effettuate per i diversi comparti presi in considerazione ha permesso di effettuare una valutazione integrata dell'attuale configurazione dei corsi d'acqua, attraverso l'utilizzo di una serie di indicatori di sintesi riferiti alla componente geomorfologica, alla componente vegetazionale e di uso del suolo, alla componente idraulica e al trasporto solido.

Technologies are pivotal for firms' success, but also resource consuming. Therefore, managers have to assess and select technologies carefully in order to allocate resources on the most promising ones, grounding their decisions on adequate sets of criteria on which experienced people can express their opinion. This work proposes an application of Multi Criteria Decision Aids to technology assessment, where Decision Support Systems offer an effective support for evaluating technology impact on firms' success, building on experts' judgments. The method is based on a peer-based modification to Intuitionistic Fuzzy multi-criteria group decision making with TOPSIS method (peer IF-TOPSIS). A case study in which this methodology is applied to a company operating in the military sector (Advanced Underwater System) is also presented. Besides the empirical proof of the method's suitability and value in assisting managers in their decision, the paper's contributions are both methodological and theoretical. Methodologically, while allowing a peer-based voting procedure, the method enhances the consensus in the firm and limits the possible biases that a supra-decision maker could introduce. Theoretically, the set of proposed criteria includes many facets of the assessment problem, and avoids being tailored to the investigated technological field, so enhancing its generalizability.

The researches carried out by the AIGeo (Italian Association of Physical Geography and Geomorphology) members, also in collaboration with other researchers, cover various important topics of the Environmental and Earth Sciences and focus on scientific goals and on the development of educational strategies and applications as well. Topics and novelties concerning Physical Geography and Geomorphology fit well with the indications included in the Ministerial National Guidelines for the secondary schools of 2nd level and in the general goals referred to the secondary school of 1st level, where the landscape is discussed by the Geography teachers and natural phenomena by the Science teachers.In this paper, we present an overview about education in Physical Geography and Geomorphology and some examples of the most recent researches planned and tested for the secondary school (1st and 2nd level) and for present and future teachers.

Open firms are not equally successful. This is because, in order to benefit from external sources of knowledge, firms must be able to absorb such knowledge. The paper outlines a firm's context as a set of organizational and social features, which may be considered absorptive capacity antecedents. It explores the mediating role of such antecedents in the relationship – hitherto insufficiently researched – between the degree of openness and innovative performance. The use of a methodology combining both direct interviews and survey of Italian firms has allowed us to confirm the supposed mediating role. We also identify different modes for companies to open up their innovation process and, for each of them, the antecedents that are consistent with choices regarding the degree of openness.

A multitemporal series of aerial photos and cross-section topographic surveys have been used to analyze reach-scale channel evolution along a segment (length of about 22 km) of the lower Trebbia River (Northern Italy) with the aims to investigate the relations between channel width vs. bed-level adjustments and to identify spatio-temporal patterns of stages of channel evolution. Dendrochronology was used to determine the age of tree establishment of riparian and island forests during channel evolution. We identified a first phase of major adjustments (1954–1992) following a series of disturbances, dominated by channel narrowing and bed incision. During the final stage of narrowing, woody vegetation establishment contributed to stabilize new floodplain or island surfaces. A period of partial morphological recovery occurred from 1992 to 2010, dominated by an inversion of trend of channel width. During the phase of partial recovery, a stage of widening combined with a continuation of bed incision was identified, and a last stage characterized by widening and initial aggradation was observed on the central portion of the study reaches. Suitability and differences of existing channel evolution models (CEMs) derived in other geographical contexts were discussed, and a specific conceptual model comprising four stages of channel evolution was developed for the lower Trebbia River.

The northwestern Apennines present a very complex geomorphology, strictly related to the recent tectonic evolution of the orogenic chain (Upper Oligocene—Lower Miocene to present). In this chapter, some unique and representative landform assemblages related to tectonic structures located in the area between the Scrivia and Trebbia valleys are described. Morphological aspects are also highlighted in relation to lithological/structural elements of local or regional importance, some of which have driven significant river diversion. The peculiar features of these landforms hold the pieces of the geological and geomorphological evolution of the entire area and are spectacularly exposed and clearly visible along beautiful valleys.

Is opening up the innovation process a “must”, or rather an opportunity? This paper discusses whether closed innovation models are still suitable in the era of increasing technological networking, or is some degree of openness actually imposed. Starting from the premises given in the enormous amount of literature on open innovation, this paper investigates a case in the food industry, namely the Italian R&D subsidiary of the famous chocolate company, Lindt & Sprungli. The case concerns a company that states that it uses a closed approach to innovation. The paper shows what being closed actually means in Lindt. It also investigates why Lindt rejects an open model to innovation, and illustrates the actual characteristics of a “closed” approach in the open innovation era.

PurposeMany companies claim they are adopting an open approach to innovation, but each of them with its own way. This paper aims to explore the different models for opening up the innovation process adopted in practice.Design/methodology/approachThe paper utilises an extended survey among Italian manufacturing companies, cluster analysis and ANOVA.FindingsThe study distinguishes four different open innovation models with respect to two variables, representing the degree of openness: the number and type of partners with whom the company collaborates (partner variety), and the number and type of phases of the innovation process open to external collaborations (innovation phase variety). They are: open and closed innovators, integrated and specialized collaborators. The paper describes each cluster in terms of firm‐specific variables that characterize Open Innovation choices; at last, it tries to draw some tentative explanation of the influence of openness on the innovative performance of companies.Research limitations/implicationsThe number of respondents is still limited (about 100). Moreover, it studied only the relationship between some firm‐specific factors and the degree of openness (in terms of partner and phase variety): a wider investigation is recommended to include more variables to define the openness degree and more contextual factors.Practical implicationsThe paper provides managerial implications because it suggests that open innovation is not an “on/off” choice, but it can be interpreted and adopted with different degrees, consistently with the company's specific context.Originality/valueThe paper introduces a new perspective that integrates the number/typology of both partners and phases, in order to understand if such perspective can confirm the existence of different open innovation models.

Opening the innovation process represents a new opportunity for small, medium and large firms to increase the internal innovative capacity and to raise their overall innovation performance. Although large firms still realised the higher amount of innovation, few studies have paid attention to open innovation (OI) in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) and how the use of OI practices in SMEs differ from large enterprises. Starting from the findings in Spithoven (2013) that SMEs can foster the introduction of new offerings through collaboration with several innovation partners and that collaboration with partners increases the likelihood that SMEs launch new products and services, we investigate through a web-based survey realised in Italy how organisational factors, strategic factors and environmental factors impact on the ability of a firm to adopt an OI approach, if size matters, and whether innovation intermediaries play a critical role in the opening process.

Open innovation literature suggests that firms can improve their innovation performance by learning from different actors and, among them, universities, research institutes and innovation intermediaries can play a relevant role. However, the success of such collaborations is still debated. In particular, the firms' internal organisational context seems to be crucial when explaining the success or failure of open innovation: firms attempting to leverage partners' knowledge must design an appropriate internal organisation, made up of organisational practices and managerial mechanisms. Despite this assumption, the role of the firm's internal context in fostering the success of open innovation is poorly investigated, in particular in the case of scientific partners (such as universities and research centres). Therefore, the aim of this study is to explore the relations among collaboration behaviour between a firm and scientific partners, managerial mechanisms and both sides of innovative performance (i.e. novelty and efficiency). Our study, based upon a survey research developed in Finland, Italy and Sweden, suggests that collaborations with scientific partners should be carefully managed, through the development and implementation of managerial mechanisms, in order to foster performance. These managerial mechanisms emerge just as the means (i.e. the mediator) through which the collaboration behaviour can foster innovative performance.

Challenged by competition pressures and unprecedented pace of change, firms can no longer choose whether to concentrate on the needs of today’s customers or on the anticipation of those of tomorrow: they must be excellent in both. This requires managing two related balancing acts: on the one side, being excellent in both exploitation and exploration of their capabilities and, on the other side, being excellent in managing both incremental and radical innovation. These balances are critical since exploitation and exploration, on the one side, and incremental and radical innovation, on the other, require different approaches that have traditionally been considered difficult to combine within the same organization. Working on evidence and discussion from the 7th CINet Conference held in Lucca (Italy) in 2006, this Special Section is aimed at contributing to theory and practice on these two complex balancing acts that today represent a hot issue in innovation management.

PurposeSeeks to discuss barriers/drivers to the selection and implementation of different knowledge management configurations in the process of product innovation.Design/methodology/approachBuilding on literature and the previous survey‐based research results, this study compares on a longitudinal perspective the approaches of two companies with similar conditions but adopting different choices in terms of ICT and organisational tools to support the knowledge management process.FindingsCase studies highlight how firms adopting a KMC that differ from the one indicated by the previous survey‐based research model show an intention to align to it in the near future. Hence, it seems that a match exists between the configuration expected from the model and the intended configuration planned by the company. Using longitudinal case studies the paper analyses the barriers that hamper the transition of firms toward the approach that better suits their contingent situation. These barriers are mainly at the level of industry trend, lack of culture from users and loss of champions. This paper also analyses the enablers, which strengthen the alignment between the configuration expected from the model and the intended configuration the company planned. These are the social interaction between employees, the pressures from headquarters, the internal commitment from top managers, the technological development and the ICT maturity.Originality/valueThe paper validates two hypotheses. H1: there is a match between the configuration expected from the research model (driven by contingencies) and the intended configuration planned by the company: the contingent approaches which disagree with the model represent different stages of maturity within an evolutionary path which drives toward the configuration expected from the model. H2: there are barriers/enablers, which hamper/foster the transition toward the intended configuration. It also analyses the barriers.

Knowledge Management (KM) is becoming a growing concern in management research and practice because of its role in determining firm innovation capability and in enhancing working life quality of knowledge workers. This requires, even for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) the creation of a sustainable work organization in terms of configuration of organizational and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. With a particular emphasis in the area of Product Innovation (PI) and on the basis of a survey on 127 Italian SMEs, this paper aims at analysing the emergent technological and organizational approaches to managing knowledge in the PI process. Three different KM Configurations emerge: the `technical', the `relational' and the `advanced' approach.

The purpose of the paper is to illuminate the costs and benefits of crossing firm boundaries in inbound open innovation (OI) by determining the relationships among partner types, knowledge content and performance. The empirical part of the study is based on a survey of OI collaborations answered by R&D managers in 415 Italian, Finnish and Swedish firms. The results show that the depth of collaboration with different partners (academic/consultants, value chain partners, competitors and firms in other industries) is positively related to innovation performance, whereas the number of different partners and size have negative effects. The main result is that the knowledge content of the collaboration moderates the performance outcomes and the negative impact of having too many different kinds of partners. This illustrates how successful firms use selective collaboration strategies characterized by linking explorative and exploitative knowledge content to specific partners, to leverage the benefits and limit the costs of knowledge boundary crossing processes.

The Po River basin, the largest in Italy (about 70,000 km2), highlights channel network adjustment at the populated alluvial plain of the upper basin (35,000 km2) related to the geological uplift and hydrological changes. Changes in the upper network result by channel straightening and deepening. Shorter channel length allows faster flood propagation as in 1994 and 2000 floods, the major floods since 1940s in the Po River basin, when peak flow values attained 13,000 m3s−1 at 325 km from the source. Sediment supply is decreasing along the channels and pre–Holocene bedrock is exposed at the channel bottoms that is subject to the surface scratching due to bed-load sediment transfer from the coarse alluvial river banks. Fluvial processes enhance erosion at the river system and scouring at the channel bottom. Scouring effects include water loss from the surface water bed. Hydraulic instability induces bridge hazard.

Knowledge management (KM) is relatively new, but still a very hot topic in management research and practice. Leading companies are reshaping their organizations in order to increase their ability in managing knowledge sharing and transfer within and across their organizational boundaries. KM is today considered by many scholars the next arena for global competition. Product innovation (PI), in particular, is one of the most promising areas, where KM is today applied and studied. Management literature has underlined how knowledge becomes the only source of sustainable competitive advantage in turbulent contexts, and the cognitive perspective represents the most adequate approach to analysing and understanding PI as a continuous learning process rather than as a sporadic event. Since the early 1990s, many contributions emerged from different fields, but after nearly one decade, KM is not yet a unitary stream of literature but reflects very diverse roots. In this paper, the different streams and approaches emerging in literature on KM in PI are reviewed and described, aiming at providing researchers with an interpretative tool and some directions for further research.

The subject of this paper is Open Innovation (OI) in the food and drink industry (FDI). Both academics and managers are pushing for improved knowledge in the practice of OI. To this end they have invited researchers to include traditional, low-tech industries in their analyses, since these have been poorly investigated (Gassmann, Enkel, and Chesbrough. 2010. “The Future of Open Innovation.” R&D Management 40(3):213–21). In accepting this invitation, we shall be focusing our attention on the FDI, which is going through a transition phase. Although traditionally characterized by a low propensity towards OI, FDI has recently started to open up its innovation processes on account of developments in the competitive context. Hence, a survey involving 284 companies from three countries (UK, Italy and Spain) was carried out. Results show that FDI can be indicated as a sector under increasing pressure to open up. This is an important result that will add to the literature on this topical debate, more especially as the role exerted by the industry in OI choices still remains ambiguous.

This study explores the open innovation (OI) choices in terms of partner-type, their determinants and the related innovation performance in family firms (FFs) with respect to non-FFs by means of a European cross-country survey. Results show that FFs are in general less open than non-FFs when we consider openness in terms of breadth, while they are more open when we consider openness in terms of depth. Distinctive determinants of depth for FFs regards the level of aggressiveness of their innovation strategy when scientific partners are considered. These partners are more important for FFs than for non-FFs to achieve efficiency-type performance. Moreover, a peculiar context shapes the relationship between partner-type depths and innovation performance: the external social capital (ESC) is more relevant for FFs to achieve novelty-type performance, while the internal social capital (ISC) exerts a particularly negative role for them when efficiency-type performance is considered.