Suchergebnisse

Innovative digital technologies, together with new sustainable practices, push for new business models and skillsets, pressuring companies to adapt to external change in order to gain competitive advantage. Higher education institutions could offer support. More than 20% of university graduates in the European Union study "business, administration or law", with some of them being future top-level managers and entrepreneurs. This paper aims to provide an understanding of the factors shaping business students' perspectives and decisions in the modern business landscape. It reunites their career preferences, personality characteristics and knowledge regarding technology's utility for business and compares them between two cohorts (i.e., first year bachelor students and second year master students). The results of an online survey with a sample of 154 respondents show that business students' entrepreneurial intention is influenced by their entrepreneurial confidence, their boldness when considering risks, as well as by being further along their educational journey. While almost 80% of business students are daring, oriented toward results and confident in their entrepreneurial abilities, and around 50% would feel most comfortable having their own business, approximately half of first year bachelor students and 14% of second year master students tend to be "not sure" regarding how eight out of ten modern technologies mentioned in this paper (i.e., robotic process automation, big data, artificial intelligence, computer vision, industrial robots, internet of things, virtual reality, enterprise resource planning) could improve a company's innovation and performance.

The widespread access to the Internet has undoubtedly changed the way businesses handle their processes and interact with their customers. With the surge of new devices, business models, technologies, and platforms, alongside social media growth and innovative advertising, it became easier to transition from employment to entrepreneurship. The paper aims to assess the public perception of digital entrepreneurship, with a focus on its barriers, drivers, and expectations for the future. The results show that there is a slight agreement with a digital business being easier to establish compared with a traditional one. The driving forces behind starting a digital business are recognized, and the digital environment is considered essential for business growth in the following years. With some exceptions, there are no significant differences between age groups, genders, relationship statuses, levels of education, and/or occupations when rating the barriers, drivers, and expectations for the future of digital entrepreneurship.

The nature of entrepreneurship and its developmental paths in the urban environment are extensively studied in the scientific literature. With a rising interest of scholars in the smart city phenomenon, the role entrepreneurship plays in the development of smart cities became a central topic in academia. However, there is a lack of discussion concerning the specific settings and characteristics of digital entrepreneurship in the smart city scenario. Nowadays, the concept of digital entrepreneurship is considered as a part of the digital entrepreneurial ecosystems (DEE) that provides an environment for effective entrepreneurial activities. Hence, the investigation on how DEE is interconnected with smart cities and how they both can contribute to their mutual development appears both timely and necessary. To reach this research objective, the authors, after giving a clear definition of each component of DEE based on an extensive literature review, consider its interconnection with the smart city model. The connection between the dimensions of a smart city and the structural constituents of DEE is also tracked, highlighting the contribution of each element to the development of a smart city. Through the creation of a comprehensive framework, the results of the paper show clearly that DEE is an inevitable part of a smart city environment. The research also covers the model of DEE engagement in smart city architecture.

PurposeThe matter of interest is the reporting and disclosure of intellectual capital (IC) in the global "knowledge economy" era. The aim of the paper is twofold: to verify the level of disclosure of IC through the non-financial statements (NFSs) published by public companies and to identify the main firm-specific factors that explain the propensity to disclose.Design/methodology/approachBased on the 27 components of IC, a scoring system is designed to measure the level of disclosure of IC by 47 listed Italian companies. Content analysis (CA) is performed on the NFSs these companies published in 2020, to measure each company's so-called intellectual capital disclosure index (ICDI). A regression analysis is then applied to relate the ICDI scores to some firm-specific variables to determine their relevance and influence on the level of disclosure.FindingsAlthough the NFS was not designed specifically for IC, the results of the analyses show an overall barely satisfactory ability of the NFS to give certain information on IC. Furthermore, the propensity to disclose IC appears significantly related to some firm characteristics considered here, such as capitalization, profitability, productivity, intangibility and financial structure.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis relates to a representative but limited sample that does not allow for sectoral or time-series analyses. Extending the companies and years under observation would allow the results to be validated with broader and more in-depth analysis.Originality/valueThis paper provides exploratory but interesting evidence about the relationships between IC disclosure (ICD), firm characteristics and market capitalization. Despite several previous studies on the disclosure of IC, no analyses were found that focused on the information capacity of the NFS. Also, to the authors' knowledge, relatively few researchers have considered a set of financial ratios that include capital structure indices.

Given the current challenges of climate change our society is dealing with at a global level, the European Union develops a new energy policy based on clean energy. The package "Clean Energy for All Europeans", which has been adopted by the European Commission in 2016, contains measures for a new energy policy at the level of the European Union, based on promoting an Energy Union by following a harmonized framework and common objectives. Considering this European policy debate an interesting topic, the present paper deals with the research question what will be the reaction of the business environment to the energy policy measures proposed by the European Commission in terms of innovation. Indeed, it focuses on innovative solutions based on clean energy, that will arise for achieving the three dimensions of social, economic and environmental sustainability, such as smart cities. The initiative of helping the development of smart cities is currently supported by the European Commission in the project "European Innovation Partnership on Smart Cities and Communities". Innovative measures are related to new financing schemes for the new projects, as new investments are needed for implementing innovative solutions. Case studies from different Member States of the European Union, e.g. Italy, Austria and Romania, will illustrate the concept of smart cities and their development in the European Union allowing for an in depth analysis and comparison among the different business models implemented. The present work presents a mixed method approach based on the combination of both qualitative research methods, such as multiple-case studies and quantitative methods, represented by the analysis and triangulation of data and indicators provided by European institutions. Furthermore, this study presents a multidisciplinary perspective, considering aspects of European policy, European law, business and economics.