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Previous literature disagrees on the fact that innovation and internationalization are decisions with a complementary effect on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) performance. W...

Research on big data has highlighted that a crucial element to create value from data is the capability of aligning different stakeholders’ interests. However, it has not yet been investigated empirically how this process of alignment can be realized. We conduct a multiple case study on the two leading platforms involved in the online dissemination of cultural heritage – Europeana and Google Arts & Culture. Our findings reveal that a platform overtakes a rival one when it turns on multiple drivers of value creation in such a way that the drivers contribute to realigning the interests expressed by the stakeholders whose strategic objectives and beliefs were formerly divergent – or simply unrelated – to each other. This capability of realigning different stakeholders’ interests is independent of the level of industry-specific knowledge that the platform orchestrator has. The dynamics we document imply that Google has assumed a system integration role in the cultural ecosystem. This generates new trade-offs for museums in the way they generate value for the tourism industry. The paper enriches our understanding of what strategies digital platforms adopt to create value in big data contexts and provides a base to continue the investigation on other ecosystems driven by big data.

Technologies related to Industry 4.0 require Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to understand their potential applications before they are adopted. In this paper, we test empirically a framework that links SME search strategies within their ecosystem (i.e., breadth of search vs. depth of search) to the capability of SMEs to recognise digital opportunities associated with Industry 4.0 (i.e., digital design, digital manufacturing and digital servitisation opportunities). We analyse a sample of 174 manufacturing SMEs operating in Italy. Our results illustrate the distinguishing traits of the knowledge search paths required to implement Industry 4.0 technologies in an SME manufacturing setting. In particular, they indicate that the recognition of digital opportunities in both product design and manufacturing processes require a depth of collaboration in the innovation process to capture firm and industry-specific company needs and to create mutual trust among the parties. Conversely, digital opportunities in the realm of product/service platforms require a breadth of search for SMEs to invest in different information technology layers to support the digitalisation of a product. We also find that all three groups of digital opportunities positively influence the extent of adoption of information and digital technologies (e.g., IoT, big data analytics, simulation). Our findings bring finer-grained evidence on how digital opportunities are linked with the adoption of the different types of Industry 4.0 technologies, reflecting the peculiar traits of manufacturing SMEs. Moreover, they show managers how to set specific collaboration strategies with the ecosystem according to the digital opportunities they are willing to pursue.

The digitalization of operations is disrupting frontline technical jobs, entailing new competency needs currently not being met by upper secondary education and corporate training programs. To disc...

International audience

This paper contributes to the literature on lean production by exploring whether and how the involvement of employees in continuous improvement and their work outcomes are jeopardized by the intens...

By integrating a resource dependence perspective with a complementarity view, this article investigates how online visibility affects the performance of hotels, through user-generated reviews and their presence on Internet portals. Our core argument is that when firms have gained a positive reputation from user-generated reviews, they should reduce their asymmetric dependence on Internet portals. Using a unique panel dataset of 276 small and medium-sized hotels from 2012 to 2014, we have found that good online visibility and the presence on multiple Internet portals are complementary conditions for the profitability of a hotel, and that the impact on profitability, due to the number of Internet portals on which firms are visible, is negative in the case of a poor reputation and leads to diminishing marginal returns in the case of a positive reputation.

Purpose The adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has some peculiarities that may depend on the combined effect of size and the competitive environment. The purpose of this paper is to use a contingency approach to explore how SMEs develop organizational capabilities through ICT investments in response to environmental conditions. Design/methodology/approach A survey on 284 SMEs in Italy was conducted and data were analyzed with regression models for testing seven hypotheses on the environmental influence on the development of ICT-based capabilities and the role played by firm size. Findings The results show that the environment influences the development of such capabilities in a different way, depending on size. Within munificent environments, ICT-based capabilities are more diffused among larger SMEs, whereas under environmental complexity, this pattern is inverted, with larger SMEs exhibiting a more limited deployment of ICT in support of both their internally and externally oriented processes. Under environmental dynamism medium-sized firms tend to develop more internally oriented ICT capabilities, but fail in reporting superior capabilities for managing external relationships. Originality/value This paper contributes to understand the relationship between the environment and ICT investments in SMEs. Since the combined effect of size and the competitive environment may influence considerably the ICT investments in SMEs, this study investigates the organizational responses with respect to how SMEs use ICT to address their external environment. This focus provides a contribution to understand the challenges that SMEs are facing in the current technological and market environment, where changes in the ICT paradigm raise the level of complexity and dynamism and bring changes in competition levels that leave few resources for growth to SMEs.

The organisational mechanisms through which algorithms can be exploited in the process of converting data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making have not yet been fully investigated from an absorptive capacity perspective. Previous studies underlined a rise in new digital specialised roles, but they said little about how the organisational knowledge and structures should be redesigned to take advantage of these data-rich operational environments. In this article, we present the findings of a case study on the way algorithms can be exploited in the electrical sector to shed light on these issues. We then develop a framework to theorise how the organisational mechanisms associated with absorptive capacity influence the way algorithms can be exploited to convert data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making. Our emerging framework reveals that to convert data into relevant knowledge for operational decision-making, the involvement of line employees and liaison roles are required to introduce system-level knowledge that algorithms are able to capture less effectively. Additionally, more formalisation is needed in operational work to ensure the quality of the data that feed such algorithms. Finally, socialisation tactics facilitate the convergence between the knowledge produced from algorithms and the experiential knowledge of line employees.

PurposeLiterature on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) has so far produced limited evidence on how these firms pursue their organizational flexibility with information and communication technology (ICT) and ad hoc work practices. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the extant literature by focusing on how SMEs use flexible work practices that provide latitude with respect to when employees work, where they work and via which communication medium. Specifically, the authors analyze how such practices are related to the conditions that SMEs face in reference to their competitive environment and their patterns of ICT usage.Design/methodology/approachA survey was conducted on 304 Italian SMEs, with the aim of identifying the contextual dimensions where flexible work is chosen and the different typologies of flexible work implemented by companies.FindingsFlexible work in SMEs is chosen for different reasons associated to different conditions in the competitive environments and in ICT usage where SMEs operate. In general, SMEs use flexible work when they are more capable of improving their external orientation toward suppliers, customers, and the entrance in new markets with ICT. This duality is more likely in the competitive environments where external orientation and information processing is more needed, namely, environments that are uncertain and complex for product and breadth of the geographical complexity (scope) covered.Research limitations/implicationsIn this paper, the authors offer an analysis on the contextual characterizations of flexible work practices. Future studies should disentangle more in depth the ways these characterizations are related to different ICT usages.Practical implicationsIn uncertain and complex environments, SMEs should increase their external information processing with ICT and organizational practices that support the latitude of employees involved in boundary spanning with respect to where, when, and how they work.Originality/valueThis paper offers an interpretation of flexible work as an organizational mechanism used to cope with uncertain and complex environments where more external orientation is needed. This paper also shows that there are four different typologies of flexible work implemented by companies, namely, flexible work for cheaper input costs, flexible work for operational drivers, flexible work for strategic drivers, and flexible work for individual motivations, and that in some cases the conditions under which they are chosen are different.

Purpose Prior research highlights the vital role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) for innovation in response to environmental conditions. However, there is a lack of studies that analyse the determinants of ICT investments on the innovation activities of firms in relation with their impacts on the industrial and competitive dynamics using large data sets. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors investigate the effects of ICT investments on the industrial and competitive dynamics for a large and representative panel data set. All the industries are included, and lagged effects of ICT investments are studied. The model is tested on a seven-year panel (2008–2014) of 231 Italian industries using two-stage least squares instrumental-variables estimators with industry time and fixed effects. Findings The results indicate that munificent industries and higher ICT spending are interrelated facts, showing that in sectors with more growth opportunities firms invest more in ICT and this leads to higher industry concentration, greater profit dispersion and higher competitive turbulence in the sector. Also, the paper shows that SMEs can rarely take advantage of their ICT-based innovation to start high-growth phenomena. Practical implications The results suggest that ICT-based innovation may create competitive advantages that are hard to sustain over the long-term raising important implications for managers involved in ICT-enabled innovations and policy-makers involved in building programs to foster innovation. Originality/value Against the backdrop of today’s digital transformation, the paper enriches our understanding on the disruptive effects exerted by the digitalization of the innovation process and provides a base to continue the investigation of industrial changes and competitive dynamics.

The literature on flexible work practices has not yet evaluated in detail how the characteristics of a job affect job satisfaction. This study makes a distinction between two types of flexible work practices according to their aims: the accommodation of employees’ personal lives (employment practice) and the operational reasons of a firm (work practice). Based on this distinction, we studied how the characteristics of a job, which reflect the use of ICT to support the spatial disaggregation of business processes, influence the relationship between the two types of flexible work practices and job satisfaction. We show, through a survey conducted on 987 workers, that the characteristics of a job that favour work disaggregation positively moderate the influence of flexible work as a work practice on job satisfaction, but they do not moderate the influence of flexible work as an employment practice. The implications for managers, workers and scholars are discussed.

Hyland and Boer (2006) introduced the “continuous innovation stool”, describing continuous innovation in terms of operational, innovation and strategic capabilities. They hypothesized that the better a firm aligns, coordinates and/or integrates the functions responsible for these areas, the higher and more sustainably the firm will perform. The purpose of this paper is to test the stool model, using data obtained from the Chief Operating Officers and the Chief Technology Officers from 189 firms in eight countries. The analyses show that firms that excel at innovation management, are also more likely to be good at managing operations and strategic choices. Also, and more important, the higher the firm’s capabilities on these three domains, the better their business performance, which is a first confirmation of the “continuous innovation stool”.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the contextual conditions under which mobile forms of work are chosen by small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the most relevant tensions that these firms should be able to face in order to be successful in the adoption of these forms of work. Design/methodology/approach – A survey analysis on 304 SMEs and an analysis of a collection of case studies were conducted to answer to the following research questions: what is the role of contextual conditions in shaping the way firms develop and use their mobile forms of work? Which tensions do SMEs need to manage when adopt a particular mobile form of work? Findings – In this paper, the authors found that SMEs choose different mobile forms of work according to the conditions under which they operate. For example, SMEs that adopt mobile forms of work for operational reasons are more capable of using IT to improve their external orientation. Moreover, the analysis of the configurations of mobile forms of work led to classify in a systematic way the managerial and organizational tensions, and to identify which tensions need to be managed in each mobile work configuration. For example, firms that adopt mobile work given individual employee requests need to manage human resource management tensions. Research limitations/implications – Future research should analyse in depth the jobs that are frequently engaged in mobility and the operational and strategic reasons of their mobility. Moreover, future research should analyse more in-depth companies’ capability of managing tensions discussed in this paper. Practical implications – Managers should understand that mobile work is an essential element in the organizational strategy of SMEs, since it is a way to manage more effectively externally oriented business processes. Also policy makers should provide financial support for programmes aimed at promoting the importance of mobile forms of work, since they allow achieving different objectives and saving. Further, demand-oriented policies and experiences about mobile work adoption should be shared. Originality/value – The authors found scant empirical evidence on understanding the contextual conditions under which SMEs choose different mobile forms of work, and the most relevant tensions that SMEs should deal with when they decide for the adoption of a particular mobile work configuration. The value of this paper consists in filling this research gap.

Infomediaries such as online travel agencies (OTAs) and review aggregator websites are profoundly changing the structure of the hospitality industry with consequences in the mechanisms of creation and capture of economic value for hotels. By drawing on arguments from resource-based views, transaction cost economics and industrial organisations, we look inside these mechanisms by assessing whether in regard to creation and capture of economic value hotels should pay more attention to diversify the number of OTAs that distribute their services or to improve their reputation through travellers’ reviews posted on TripAdvisor. Gathering data on 62,865 travellers’ reviews on TripAdvisor and on the presence of hotels on multiple OTAs, we built a panel dataset of 355 hotels spanning from 2004 to 2014 and also including hotels’ financial data. Fixed effects regression models show that hotels listed on multiple OTA bolster sales revenue and operating profitability. We demonstrated that for hotels, the online visibility on OTAs counts more on value capture than the online reputation gained on TripAdvisor. Through the presence on multiple OTAs, hotels are expected to have a higher bargaining power towards each individual distributor. We discuss the implications of these results on the way hotels, OTAs and TripAdvisor can generate and capture value in the vertical chain of the travel industry.

In this paper, we introduce the themes addressed and the approaches used in this special issue to investigate the relationship between search mechanisms and innovation across multiple level of analysis. We start by briefly discussing the state of the art related to the complex relationship between search and innovation, revealing an important gap as the lack of attention about the great variety and diversity of search mechanisms agents may adopt when facing different degrees of innovativeness. Taking the lens of the multiple perspectives, we try to shed new light on this gap, and thus deploy a comprehensive understanding of this complex relationship. We briefly discuss how the articles in the collection each contribute to such an understanding across multiple perspectives. We conclude that, together, the various contributions specify that searching for innovation may require the enactment of complementary approaches. This special issue paves the way towards an important agenda for the future study of search mechanisms and innovation.

External search strategies remain ineffective without the ability of the firm to communicate and share internally what has been absorbed from the environment. However, most of the literature remains silent on the advantages (and disadvantages) firms may get when they combine internal integration mechanisms and innovative management practices into their efforts to search for external knowledge inflows with the aim of product innovation. To bridge this gap, this work has investigated the external knowledge search practices firms deploy to innovate their products, exploring the relationships among the use of such practices, some internal organizational characteristics and innovation performance. In so doing, the paper raises two key findings. First, there is a complementarity between the use of search practices and practices used to facilitate horizontal cross-functional integration and to encourage, address and manage employees’ efforts in generating new solutions to technical or market issues in the front-end of innovation processes. Second, taking into consideration the complementarity between external search and such internal organization mechanisms allows unveiling a quadratic effect stemming from the use of search practices on innovation performance. This “complementarity lens” also allows us to explore different configurations for managing the front-end of innovation processes and their related outcome on the innovation process. In this regard, we found evidence of some “indifference zones”, where the effectiveness of the external search processes firms activate does not depend on the extent of the internal mechanisms firms use to absorb and articulate external knowledge.

This article examines the antecedents and performance consequences of capabilities developed from the use of information technology (IT) in a sample of 186 Italian large enterprises. Attention is given to the influence of industry and firm characteristics on the creation of capabilities and on the returns from IT investments. Our work makes three principal contributions. First, the IT diffusion patterns reveal that these technologies have a dual nature. Some capabilities derived from IT use (i.e., administrative capabilities) diffuse evenly across industries because the underlying technologies easily adapt to industry- and firm-specific conditions. In contrast, the use of IT in supporting other capabilities (such as those related to product development) is less developed and more concentrated in the high-tech and information service sectors. Second, using a resource-based perspective, this articles shows the positive effects that firm-specific preconditions have on the accumulation of IT resources and capabilities that exhibit a rare diffusion at the industry level. Third, given industry-level differences in competitive environments, we show how the value appropriation of capabilities that firms have developed using IT depends on industry type, with hi-tech and information services industries exhibiting lower profit returns.

Making products smarter and connected through digital technologies requires firms to combine a product-oriented logic with a service logic. The challenges of such a combination are manifold and we have just begun understanding how firms should deal with these challenges. The papers included in this special issue have recalled the attention on the importance of horizontal integration mechanisms in the product development process and of a balanced managerial attention on the product and the service-side of innovation. In the same way, a crucial role in determining the market success of smart connected products is played by design decisions aimed at increasing the level of usefulness and efficiency of smart connected products compared to established solutions. This requires firms' attention not only on the design choices for product functionalities, but also on the capability to influence the institutional framework (i.e., the sets of meanings, values, and managerial principles) that affects how products are used.

Previous literature has studied telework practices predominantly from the employees' perspective rather than exploring its use at the firm level. With the objective of contributing to reducing this research gap, the relationship between firms' adoption of telework and the firms' technological, organisational and environmental contexts is explored. Data were obtained from a survey conducted between 2005 and 2009 on a sample of 1,134 Italian firms in the Piedmont region. The results show an overall increase in the diffusion of telework primarily attributable to a rise in the adoption of ‘mobile’ work rather than home-based forms of telework. The results also show that firms that had previously adopted information systems supporting core business processes and knowledge management were more inclined to adopt telework. Telework arrangements were more widely diffused among firms facing a growing and geographically dispersed market demand, and also in the contexts of higher levels of human capital and lower capital intensity.

We explore the relationship between training and innovation using key insights from the resource-based approach, organizational learning and labour studies. By using data from 304 large enterprises in Italy, the study highlights a twofold role of training in favouring technological and organizational changes. First, training plays a role in allowing the acquisition and the assimilation of new knowledge. Consequently, firms in which the provision of training is part of a bundle of high-performance management practices are more likely to undertake technological and organizational changes and to develop new competencies internally. Second, training supports firms in the assimilation of technological and organizational changes. Consequently, firms that undertake these changes exhibit a superior participation rate for employees and greater time intensity of their training programmes. Firms' inclination to develop new competencies internally does not affect, however, the intensity of training, thereby suggesting that organizational learning processes do not start by a broad involvement of employees in formalized training programmes.

Purpose This paper explores smart work (SW), a work practice characterized by spatial and temporal flexibility, supported by technological tools, and that provides all employees of an organization with the best working conditions to accomplish their tasks. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to identify whether firms adopt different SW models, explore complementarities between the factors that can lead to choose a SW model, and figure out whether contingent variables matters in the implementation of a particular SW model. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on: a survey delivered in 2013 to 100 Human Resources directors of medium and large Italian organizations to collect preliminary evidence on SW; and four embedded case studies based on 49 semi-structured interviews to better explain the findings achieved in the quantitative analysis. Findings Four SW models can be chosen by companies. They are named inconsistent, analogical, digital and complete SW. They are different according to investments in the enabling digital technologies, in trans-formations of the organizational policies and in workspace settings, according the contingent conditions where firms operate. Results show that there are complementarities between the elements that characterize a SW model and that at least two elements are developed in each SW model. In case all the three elements are developed, companies achieve higher labour productivity. Originality/value The paper unpacks the elements that can generate SW environments by deepening the complementarities that can be exploited among information and communication technologies, work place and work practice innovation, and by evaluating their development on employees’ performance.

The provision of an effective IT support to product development processes still remains an open research question, because of the complexity that is inherent to this area of corporate activity. According to the current state of the art, product lifecycle management (PLM) systems can be considered as important enablers for achieving true coordination and effective management of product development processes. However, few contributions in literature investigate the central issue of understanding how company implementation approaches can mutually interact and can determine the actual effects of PLM introduction. The paper presents a framework for representing PLM implementation effects at three different levels (individual, organizational, and strategic) jointly to an empirical investigation in a major Italian aerospace company.

PurposeThe implementation of product lifecycle management (PLM) technologies poses different challenges in comparison to the ones faced by companies using other information systems. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of PLM on both new product development (NPD) process and on users' individual work, and also to analyse the linkages between PLM's organizational impact and users' attitudes towards technology.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on a survey of PLM end‐users in an aerospace company.FindingsThis paper shows that in the NPD process, PLM favoured a tighter workflow logic, easier product carryover, and more efficient product data retrieval. At the individual level, this has led users to spend more time on technical work, without impacting their productivity. This was true in the product design department and for older workers with low job seniority in particular.Research limitations/implicationsAlthough the findings were drawn from a single case, this paper highlights the contribution made by technology acceptance models in explaining the organizational impact of technologies that support complex knowledge‐intensive tasks.Practical implicationsThis paper points out that for a technology like PLM, each user needs different supporting mechanisms depending on his/her role and age. Young workers primarily need adequate sponsorship by top management and compatibility of new technology with their job. Older users, given their higher initial scepticism, need more training in the early phases of a new technology's introduction.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to existing literature by providing empirical evidence of both the impact of PLM systems and the determinants of their acceptance among end‐users.

Although organizational studies usually consider training a practice allowing firms to create new competencies, there is not a broad agreement on the idea that companies must involve the majority of their employees in continuous training for developing their human capital and innovation. The study here discusses these arguments using evidence from 304 large enterprises in Italy. Specifically, by using data on the firms’ organizational and technological innovations and training investments, the study shows that innovation positively affects the employees participation rate and the time intensity of their training programs. Furthermore, when training is combined with other practices firms show a higher propensity to innovate. Firms’ internal development of human capital does not affect, however, the average intensity of training programs, suggesting that only few employees are actively involved in organizational learning processes.

We analysed the role of industry in determining the diffusion and business value created by IT. Data was collected for this purpose by surveying 192 large enterprises in Italy. Our research revealed three findings. First, in the material services and non-hi-tech manufacturing industries, firms had a relatively limited adoption of IT, resulting in little business impact. Second, firms' IT spending behaviour depended on their industry type and not on their IT capabilities. However their capabilities were more important than industry in explaining why firms achieved benefits from IT adoption that depended on the previous accumulation of IT resources and other capabilities. Third, industry type determined the degree to which IT affected profitability and its effectiveness in helping firms to defend their competitive advantage. Specifically, the slower the adoption of IT in an industry, the greater its impact on the firm's profitability.The implications of these findings for managers and policy-makers are discussed.

Even though companies today are well aware of the pitfalls in making IT investments and that many IT applications have become commodities, IT projects still fail. Obviously IT has a strategic value to firms but they have not determined how IT management capabilities and IT governance schemes explain commonalities and differences in their use of IT. We analyzed the insurance industry in the US and Europe through case studies and an analysis of 30 Italian firms. Twenty case studies carried out between 1998 and 2003 led us to conclude that technological and business path dependencies, along with time compression diseconomies, resulted in diversities in IT adoption dynamics due to their differences in IT governance and management practice. Our analysis showed that most of the firms in the Italian insurance sector increased their productivity through IT regardless of their IT management capabilities. It also showed that competitive advantages were not correlated with IT spending levels nor with the kind of IT investments that made general productivity growth in the industry possible.

Research suggests the firm's structural and contextual attributes that foster ambidexterity, but theory and testing on their combined effects on knowledge creation, ambidexterity and financial performance remain rather poor. By using a theoretical perspectives built on organisation design and the knowledge-based view of the firm, this article takes into consideration firms' exploration attainments and exploitation initiatives in relation to both their ability to create knowledge in innovation processes and their capacity to apply it into product innovation. Using data from a survey on 112 hi-tech firms in Italy, results show that organisational context attributes influence firm's degree of ambidexterity in knowledge creation in the innovation processes, but it does not have a direct influence on the actual degree of ambidexterity in innovation development. A fundamental condition to ambidexterity in innovation development is the structural separation of exploration and exploitation innovation initiatives. Specifically, we found that structural separation of these initiatives within the organisation directly affects ambidexterity and leads to higher sales growth than when firms achieve ambidexterity through an appropriate organisational context solely. These findings provide a rich explanation of the way firms develop ambidexterity and can obtain superior economic performance from it.

Research on open innovation has not yet built a comprehensive conceptualisation on how innovation intermediaries help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in their capability development. In this paper we analyse the role that innovation intermediaries play in supporting SMEs in their international growth. We based our analysis on explorative case studies on 24 Italian firms that participated in an international program organised by UCLA. Results show that, thanks to the role played by a university intermediary, SMEs have been able to quickly learn new strategic management competences and to overcome 'local search' in their access to new market knowledge. This learning process follows different patterns in entrepreneurial and managerial firms. In raising this evidence, the paper provides a novelty contribution to open innovation studies as it describes how innovation intermediaries facilitate SMEs' international growth by facilitating their access to market knowledge in foreign countries.

The concept of Smart City (SC) as a means to enhance the life quality of citizen has been gaining increasing importance in the agendas of policy makers. However, a shared definition of SC is not available and it is hard to identify common global trends. This paper provides with a comprehensive understanding of the notion of SC through the elaboration of a taxonomy of pertinent application domains, namely: natural resources and energy, transport and mobility, buildings, living, government, and economy and people. It also explores the diffusion of smart initiatives via an empirical study aimed at investigating the ratio of domains covered by a city’s best practices to the total of potential domains of smart initiatives and at understanding the role that various economic, urban, demographic, and geographical variables might have in influencing the planning approach to create a smarter city. Results reveal that the evolution patterns of a SC highly depend on its local context factors. In particular, economic development and structural urban variables are likely to influence a city’s digital path, the geographical location to affect the SC strategy, and density of population, with its associated congestion problems, might an important component to determine the routes for the SC implementation. This work provides policy makers and city managers with useful guidelines to define and drive their SC strategy and planning actions towards the most appropriate domains of implementation.

So far, contingency studies in the Human Resource Management (HRM) literature have provided minimal information on whether firms should buy their human capital or grow it on their own, depending on their environmental conditions. Using key insights from the resource-based view (RBV), the paper tests empirically whether firms should buy human capital or develop it internally. The study uses multisource and lagged data from a survey on the Human Resource directors of 304 Italian firms. The paper shows that when firms combine the internal accumulation of human capital with its acquisition in the form of hiring experts from outside they enjoy greater returns on financial performance than when they pursue either the internal development or the external acquisition strategies. Furthermore, the higher the dynamism in the environment, the more autarchic approaches to human capital development are detrimental to firm performance and the higher are the returns of human resources strategies that include the acquisition of human capital from the external labour market. Coherently with RBV, buying human capital also produces greater returns in resource scarce environments. The paper provides an empirical contribution to strategic HRM literature by illustrating how the returns of internal accumulation and external acquisition of human capital depend on environmental contingencies. In this way, the study provides some practical implications to managers on the environmental contexts where poor ‘make or buy’ decisions in human capital development are more critical to firm performance.