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In this study, we empirically explore the relationships among process innovation, internationalization, and the reconfiguration of the firm’s activities at the global level. In particular, we analyze the extent to which these factors are related to the propensity to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) technologies. Internationalization and value-chain configuration are measured using various dimensions, and we find that the impact on the adoption of AM technologies is moderated by the firms’ absorptive capacity. Our empirical findings are drawn from a proprietary database covering 197 manufacturing firms.

Prior research lacks an understanding of how decision makers preserve longevity within family businesses. This study examines longevity under a microfoundational lens, through an interpretive qualitative research design. The selected cases are nine long-established Australian family wineries. The outcome is a multilevel grounded model of the preservation of family firm longevity that integrates the dual firm-family relationship with the individual level of decision makers. The model shows the role played by interactions among multiple levels of analysis — namely, the individual, the family and the firm — in preserving the longevity of the family business.

The use of robotics is becoming widespread in healthcare. However, little is known about how robotics can affect the relationship with patients in epidemic emergency response or how it impacts clinicians in their organization and work. As a hospital responding to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic "ASST dei Sette Laghi" (A7L) in Varese, Italy, had to react quickly to protect its staff from infection while coping with high budgetary pressure as prices of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) increased rapidly. In response, it introduced six semi-autonomous robots to mediate interactions between staff and patients. Thanks to the cooperation of multiple departments, A7L implemented the solution in less than 10 weeks. It reduced risks to staff and outlay for PPE. However, the characteristics of the robots affected their perception by healthcare staff. This case study reviews critical issues faced by A7L in introducing these devices and recommendations for the path forward.

This study examines the relationship between international performance and the orientation of the firm towards trademark acquisition, and discusses family ownership as a moderator of this association. We conceptualize our study along three interrelated lines of ‘openness’ i.e. openness towards external resources, openness of governance, and openness towards international markets. The empirical investigation relies on a panel data analysis over four years, and on a cross-industry sample of European listed companies consisting of 712 observations. Our outcomes reveal that the attitude of the company to enrich the brand portfolio with externally developed trademarks is positively associated with the firms’ international performance. We also find that this relationship is moderated by family ownership. “Less family is more”: we find a positive relationship of openness towards trademark acquisitions with the firms’ international performance, which decreases with the presence of a family in a dominant position.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper, according to the evolutionary perspective of resilience, is to provide a revised adaptive cycle model that explains how organisations that are embedded in a local system can foster their resilience.Design/methodology/approachAn exploratory case study analysis was carried out. The study adopted the methods and principles proposed by Eisenhardt (1989). Case studies were selected according the match-pair method and consist of two Italian wineries operating into the same wine cluster. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed through descriptive statistics and qualitative data analysis techniques.FindingsThe study proposes a revised model for the resilience strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) which combines firm and cluster level. Findings show that the resilience of SMEs is primarily driven by internal resilience strategies, and their surviving and adapting capacity, from a certain point of the evolutionary cycle, is fostered by internal decisions rather than by the influence of the external environment.Research limitations/implicationsThe study has some limitations. In particular, the exploratory survey does not permit the generalisation of results, and further empirical evidence is required. This research represents an initial step toward the development of a more exhaustive understanding of how the relationship SMEs-cluster can positively or negatively affect the resilience of organisations.Practical implicationsThe proposed model for the resilience strategies of SMEs offers also insights for managers and entrepreneurs.Originality/valueThis study significantly contributes to theory on resilience in the management field, that is largely related to economic geography, while investigations about the resilience at the firm level are limited and inconclusive.

Internationalization, digitalization, and sustainability are three key growth paths for firms. In particular, the contemporary economy stresses the relevance of digital transformation as a central driver towards innovation and business renewal, especially for established small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). However, little is known about the relationships among the above-mentioned growth paths, whether they are competing or complementary options. Our contribution addresses this gap focusing on two forms of organizational readiness within SMEs. First, it investigates the impact of Artificial Intelligence readiness on international performance. Second, it explores whether the relationship between digitalization and internationalization is affected by sustainability readiness. The empirical survey relies on a sample consisting of 438 SMEs, including both domestic and international companies. Findings confirm, as expected, that Artificial Intelligence readiness positively influences the international performance of SMEs. Moreover, we find that digitalization and sustainability are positively related, but they turn to be competing growth paths when the firm internationalizes..

An important challenge in open innovation is the capability to absorb and exploit external inbound knowledge, and how internal R&D may facilitate or hinder this. Conventionally, internal R&D expenditure is used as a proxy for absorptive capacity, but in the context of open innovation, this can be problematic. Internal R&D may also constrain present and future absorption, and restrict exploitation for a number of reasons, e.g. degree of development, structural, geographical or relevance to existing business units and markets. Conversely, external sources of innovation can be difficult to identify, evaluate and absorb, but may be more codified, as by definition they are available in the market, and more fully-developed to demonstrate commercial potential. Using panel data of 325 firms over five years, we find that contrary to the prescriptions of transaction cost analysis, externally-sourced knowledge takes less time to absorb and exploit than internally-generated knowledge, but that internal knowledge creates higher returns over the longer term. Significantly, the relationship between internal and external knowledge and performance changes over time, while the ideal strategic balance needs to consider decisions taken at different times.

Be international? Be innovative? Be international and innovative? Following the logic of the upper echelon (UE) perspective, this paper studies the impact of the entrepreneur(s) demography, background, and experience on their strategic choices, i.e., innovation, internationalization, or a combination of the two strategies. We employ cluster analysis on a sample of 88 Italian Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) operating in different industries to classify the firms along their entrepreneur(s)’ characteristics. Three significantly different clusters emerge, i.e., the typical Italian family firms, a group of businesses led by solitary self-made men, and the team-founded firms. The three groups are related to differences in internationalization behavior and innovation practice. Family-led firms are mainly domestic and concentrated on product innovation, while team-founded firms combine intensive internationalization with innovative marketing and management practices. A third cluster describes the solitary founder with serial business experience, whose businesses foster product and process innovation combined with moderate levels and scope of internationalization. Furthermore, our findings reveal that internationalization tends to be related to the type of innovation, much more than to R&D intensity or other measures of novelty (i.e., radical or incremental).

Precision Medicine (PM) is expected to be one of the biggest revolutions of the upcoming years and not only in the healthcare industry. PM aims to prevent and treat disease on the basis of a person's unique genetic makeup, lifestyle habits, and environment. While the topic has attracted huge attention from scholars in the biomedical field of research, in contrast, literature in the field of business studies is almost absent. This in itself is surprising: this revolution implies a profound impact on the business models of companies and institutions as it pushes a new paradigm of sustainable development for healthcare and welfare systems at the global level. However, little is known about whether, to what extent, and in what direction these dynamics are impacting on the way organisations and value chains are managed, from research to care delivery. Our study addresses this gap: we discuss both theoretical arguments and empirical evidence from a multiple case study survey. Findings show that PM is a multi-faceted phenomenon grounded on novel forms of innovation eco-systems and bundled-based models. We reveal a dramatic shift in the value chain, which is moving upstream from recovery and surgery to prevention and monitoring.

In the last years, the global economy has undergone a dramatic change. Developed economies face the challenge of new players from emerging countries, slow growth problems, and even recession, combined with a weaker entrepreneurial activity (Amoros andBosma, 2014). This new economic order calls for a significant reshaping of competition, which leverages on the interplay of the discovery/enactment of new opportunities, the ability to create innovative value propositions and lead them to success, and the capacity to mobilize and manage resources at the global level. In other words, this new economic landscape requires a combination of entrepreneurship, innovation, and internationalization. Internationalization and innovation are two major options to achieve firm growth. Traditionally, these two routes to growth have been studied separately and only recently innovation and internationalization are increasingly seen as being strongly interrelated, with entrepreneurship representing the trait d’union between the two (Onetti et al. 2012; Etemad and Keen, 2012; Zucchella and Siano 2014). Entrepreneurial posture and the attitude to change and innovation play a central role in the internationalization process of both established firms and born global firms, especially in new, rapidly changing environments. However, the intersection of innovation, internationalization, and entrepreneurship is a field of study with a number of research gaps. In the first place, the causal relationship between innovation and internationalization is controversial. A large body of literature argues that international firms tend to exploit their superior innovative capabilities in several markets (e.g., Pla-Barber and Alegre, 2007; Kafouros et al., 2008; Cassiman and Golovko, 2011; Denicolai et al., 2014). According to other scholars, the relationship between innovation and internationalization is almost insignificant, and even negative (e.g. Hitt et al. 1997). Secondly, much of the international new venture literature is implicitly based on innovative and high-technology firms, the role of innovation in other sectors and in different typologies of international entrepreneurship (for example, immigrant entrepreneurs), types of business models which enhance the interplay between internationalization and innovation, etc. remain under-investigated. J Int Entrep (2014) 12:111–114 DOI 10.1007/s10843-014-0130-8

integration with and adaptation to internal capabilities and the exploitation of these novel combinations to create and capture value in new ways. However, studies focusing on the relationships among capabilities, BMI and firm performance are rare. In this paper, we adopt broader measures of internal and external knowledge, which include codified intangibles such as patents and copyrights, and examine the effects the combinations and interactions have on sales growth based on a dataset of 310 firms from four European countries. Using the broader measure of knowledge, we find support for the curvilinear relationship reported in studies using research and development-intensity as a proxy. However, we also find that firms with low levels of internal knowledge benefit most from an ‘optimal’ investment in externally generated knowledge, but the influence on sales growth is very sensitive to the degree of external knowledge acquired. By contrast, knowledge-intensive firms are relatively freer in defining their knowledge sourcing strategy. We discuss the implications for exploiting knowledge and complementary assets in BMI.

This paper investigates how intangible knowledge assets impact upon firm international performance through the analysis of a sample of 290 European listed companies. We draw upon the knowledge-based view of the firm, and argue that more knowledge assets have a positive impact on foreign sales intensity, but only a up to a point. The inverse quadratic relationship found suggests that it is necessary to balance knowledge assets with complementary assets in order to achieve a higher degree of international performance. Furthermore we also suggest that externally-generated knowledge assets may have a positive impact upon international performance, but that the impact will be mediated by the possession of internally generated knowledge assets.

Innovation has gained growing attention in the strategic management field, and — as a strategic orientation — it has been predominantly considered as a homogenous class of differentiated strategic mindsets. This contribution aims at distinguishing different sub-typologies of innovation strategies and validating their profiles and consistency. It explores approaches discussed in the mainstream literature as well as the possibility that other orientations could exist. A cluster analysis outlines four strategic orientations showing differences in terms of competitive drivers, value creation architectures, outsourcing and alliance policies, and managerial processes. Findings offer scholars and practitioners a better understanding of strategic alternatives in pursuing innovation through the identification of systems of consistency among managerial variables — e.g., configuration of the supply chain — thus fostering uniqueness and sustainability of the competitive advantage, and driving managers’ decision. In particular, what really characterised the different innovation strategies here shown is the way they deal with the value chain structure, meaning a key part of the business model.

The purpose of this article is to propose a complementary approach to the analysis of tourism systems which is grounded on theoretical frameworks deriving from the fields of dynamic capabilities and destination management. In particular, the paper explores the relationship between the networking approach of tourism firms and the development of tourism core-competencies. This perspective aims at providing a development path for policy maker actions based on the appraisal of local resources and tourism competencies. The empirical section studies an Italian area characterized by a high potential in terms of tourism resources but also, especially in the past, a medium-low relevance regarding the tourism economy. However, recently this area has shown a very interesting entrepreneurial dynamicity in tourism and cultural sectors. It is an appropriate field of research for the analysis regarding the determinants of tourism core-competence development.

This study investigates the relationship between inbound and outbound open innovation activities. More specifically, drawing on a panel dataset of 322 European listed companies over a period of fiv...

Time in firm internationalization has different dimensions: it might refer to the early start of international activities, the speed of international growth, or to its pace and rhythm. This contribution considers the first dimension mentioned, viz. precocity, and aims at understanding which variables determine an early international orientation. Building on a literature review, a theoretical framework is proposed in order to integrate a fragmented literature body. The framework is then tested through an analysis on a sample of 144 SMEs. Among the drivers of early internationalization the role of the previous experience of the entrepreneur, and especially of their international experience, frequently nurtured in internationally oriented family firms on one side or in multinational/foreign firms on the other one, was found significant. The positive association between precocity and niche positioning of the business enforces the relevance of entrepreneurship because focalization is a reflection of entrepreneurial orientation and strategic decisions.

Purpose To provide a theoretical explanation of why outsourcing relationships are inherently dynamic, in that the dependence of each party upon the other inevitably changes over time and thus so too will the power asymmetries between the parties. Methodology/approach Our approach is theoretical and draws upon insights from resource dependence theory, transaction cost economics, and the resource-based view of the firm, to focus on the power asymmetries between the focal firm undertaking the outsourcing and its suppliers. We illustrate our arguments using a longitudinal case study of the evolving relationship between Apple and the Foxconn Technology Group. Practical implications For supplier firms, the message is to upgrade, develop distinctive resources and capabilities, and diversify the customer base. Otherwise, suppliers will forever be condemned to low operating margins and the threat of being replaced by cheaper, more agile rivals. For focal firms, the message is not to rest on your laurels. The potency of isolating mechanisms may well dissipate, suppliers will no doubt strive to lessen their positions of dependence and competitors will inevitably emerge, with the result that once-profitable outsourcing arrangements may quickly erode. Originality/value We highlight the crucial role played by isolating mechanisms to underpin power asymmetries in outsourcing relationships, and thus enable focal firms to appropriate the rents from externalized value chain activities. We argue that the efficacy of many isolating mechanisms will tend to dissipate over time as competitors emerge to imitate successful strategies and products, and as resource and capability asymmetries erode.

The aim of this paper is to develop a better understanding of network relationships in local tourism clusters and illustrate inter‐organizational forms in mountain tourism. The networking among mountain tourism resorts, aimed at solving organizational and technological shortfalls, in order to promote integrated but flexible tourist packages, has led to detailed empirical research and study on these topics. The research analysis considered three important Italian Alpine destinations, based on adjacency matrices graphics and analytical indicators, calculated by different algorithms for each variable. The research was based on questionnaires submitted to all tourism operators of these destinations, and in‐depth interviews with important local entrepreneurs. The main findings of the research have resulted in identifying four typical inter‐organizational forms (or structures) in Alpine tourism resorts: ▪ community model, each tourist operator works alone, with no inter‐organizational vision; ▪ corporative model, a highly concentrated organization based on recognised agreements, usually ontrolled by a few people; ▪ governed model, tourists are managed through associations or ‘equity systems’, such as consortiums, where each ‘node’ of the network offers entrepreneurial expertise; ▪ constellation model, high relational density and reciprocal trust allow good coordination and balance of power among the tourism enterprises.