Suchergebnisse

Information technology (IT) has become an integral part of an enterprise's organizational life recently and represents an increasingly important factor for all kinds of organizations, since the services it provides have become almost essential by now for all types of enterprises in the European Union. However, company size and differences at country level might still play an important role in hindering IT adoption. The main reason for writing this article was to analyse IT penetration and usage in Italy and Hungary and find a well-grounded answer to the question of whether IT – in the form of business information systems – is regarded as a source of competitive edge or an essential condition for survival by different enterprises in different countries. To explore this topic, a survey was conducted by submitting an online questionnaire to a sample of Italian and Hungarian enterprises. The results indicate a noticeable difference in the IT development level of the two countries. In Italy information systems in general and systems for managers decision-making are more widespread, thus IT has already reached the level of an essential condition for survival there, whereas it is still seen as a source of competitive edge in Hungary. However, contrary to our initial assumption, the question of competitive edge versus condition for survival depends more on size categories rather than on individual countries.

Il presente articolo intende fornire una panoramica generale dei primi contratti di rete stipulati in Italia, analizzando le dimensioni delle reti create ed i settori coinvolti, per poi verificare se questo nuovo strumento giuridico č idoneo a favorire lo sviluppo e la competitivitŕ internazionale delle PMI cosě come auspicato dal legislatore. Attraverso l'esame dei contratti riferibili all'industria manifatturiera, gli Autori verificano se gli elementi considerati necessari per il buon funzionamento dei rapporti interaziendali (obiettivi strategici perseguiti, operazioni programmate, organi di funzionamento della rete e risorse finanziarie) sono chiaramente indicati e coerenti con le finalitŕ perseguite, gettando le basi per una riflessione sulla reale efficacia del contratto di rete rispetto allo sviluppo delle aziende di minore dimensione.

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to provide empirical evidence of the moderating influence of technology intensity on the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and corporate performance in Italian small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). An empirical analysis was developed for the period 2012–2016 and included 62,849 Italian SMEs. Data were collected from the AIDA database (Bureau Van Dijk—A Moody's Analytics Company), and the sample was composed of high‐tech, medium‐high‐tech, medium‐low‐tech, and low‐technology manufacturing firms, according to the "Classification of Manufacturing Industries by Technological Intensity," as defined by the OECD. The empirical results highlight that profitability is significantly and positively affected by financial and physical capital efficiency and by human capital efficiency (HCE), but the effect of HCE is weak, and the structural capital efficiency has a negative effect on corporate performance. The time variables positively affect corporate performance, with the highest coefficient in 2016. Additionally, technology intensity reinforces the positive effect of HCE on firm performance: the higher the technological intensity, the higher the positive impact of HCE on corporate performance. The managerial implications are relevant; in fact, tangible, financial, and current assets (employed capital) represent the principal lever of performance for managers in technology sectors. The negative effect of structural capital could be caused by inefficient use of this resource, or the employed variable could not be adequate to effectively measure this IC component. It is necessary for managers to appreciate technological intensity as a contingency variable affecting the IC–performance relationship.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the knowledge-intensive process of creative problem-solving and its outcomes.


Design/methodology/approach
This study uses survey data from 113 leading Italian companies. To test the structural relations of the research model the authors used the partial least square (PLS) method.


Findings
Results show that work design and training have a positive direct impact on creative problem-solving process while organizational culture has a positive impact on both creative problem-solving process and its outcomes. Finally creative problem-solving process has a strong direct impact on its outcomes and this, in turn, on firms' competitiveness.


Practical implications
This study suggests that managers must highlight the problem-solving process as it affects a firm's capability to find creative solutions and therefore its competitiveness. Moreover, the present paper suggests managers should invest in specific knowledge management (KM) practices for enhancing knowledge-intensive business processes.


Originality/value
The present paper fills an important gap in the BPM literature by empirically testing the relationship among KM practices, multistage processes of creative problem-solving and their outcomes, and firms' competitiveness.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) and economic performance, with focus on social cooperative enterprises (SCEs) that work in non-profit sectors.Design/methodology/approachA survey was developed and administered in Italy. A final sample of 151 SCEs participated in the study. Data were collected on IC measures, social enterprise activities and economic and mission-based performance outcomes.FindingsTwo hypotheses that proposed a positive association between IC sub-components (i.e. human capital, structural capital and relational capital) and the economic and mission-based performance of SCEs were tested. Findings highlight that human capital contributes to explain economic performance which is positively affected by the presence of graduate employees and value added per employee. However, economic performance is negatively affected by the yearly training per employee. In addition, human and relational capital contribute to explain mission-based performance which is positively affected by yearly training, the value added per employee and the quality of relationships with customers. However, mission-based performance is negatively affected by the relationships' quality with the reference territorial community. Therefore, relational capital would seem to affect only mission-based performance, and human capital influences both dimensions of corporate performance. Structural capital does not affect social cooperatives' performance.Practical implicationsSome of the results in this study are particular to this research setting. It is therefore important for senior leaders of SCEs to take the results of general IC literature with a grain of salt. Whereas most of the academic literature generally supports the positive relationship of all IC sub-components (i.e. human, structural and relational capital) with performance outcomes, this is not the case in this particular study.Originality/valueThis is the first empirical study that has examined the linkages between IC sub-components and performance outcomes in SCEs in Italy.

Intro -- Foreword 1 -- Foreword 2 -- Contents -- Editors and Contributors -- Sustainability Accounting and Accountability -- Accounting and Accountability Tools and Practices for Environmental Issues: A Narrative Historical Academic Debate -- 1 Introduction -- 2 The Early Debate -- 3 Meta Debate -- 4 The Growing Relevance of Environmental Issues in the Global Landscape of A4S -- 5 Unresolved Questions: How to Account for Climate Changes? Toward Partially Mandatory Integrated Reports -- 6 Final Remarks -- Literature -- The Management Process Underpinning the Non-financial Reporting: A Case Study of a Listed Italian Company -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Literature Review -- 3 An Overview on the Italian Legislative Decree n. 254/2016 -- 4 Methodology -- 4.1 Research Method, Case Selection, Data Collection, and Analysis -- 4.2 The Research Context -- 5 Findings -- 6 Discussion and Conclusions -- Literature -- A Sociotechnical Analysis of Accounting for Employee Health and Safety: Evidence from a Multiple Case Study -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Literature Review and Analytical Framework -- 3 Research Methodology -- 3.1 Data Collection and Analysis -- 4 Comparative Analysis -- 5 Discussion and Conclusion -- Literature -- Ethics, Social Responsibility and Tax Aggressiveness. Can a Code of Ethics Absolve a Company? -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility and Tax Behaviour. A Literature Review -- 3 Method, Case Selection and Data Collection -- 4 The Dolce & -- Gabbana Group: A Brief Description -- 5 The Dispute: Main Steps -- 6 Discussion -- 7 Conclusions -- Literature -- Accounting for Sustainability-Could Cost Accounting Be the Right Tool? -- 1 Introduction -- 2 What We Mean for Sustainability -- 3 (Full-Cost) Accounting and Sustainability: The Rationale Behind -- 4 Methodology.