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Limiting the use of antibiotics in food animals is a cornerstone of contemporary EU policy. Despite that marketing of antibiotics for growth promotion and nutrition has been banned since 2006, the use is still high and varied. This paper aims to investigate the forces behind the different usage patterns in Italy, with one of the EU’s most extensive use of antibiotics in animals, versus Sweden, with the union’s most restricted use, including how these usage patterns are related to EU and national policies.

The industrial network approach/the 4R resources interaction model is adopted to investigate the major forces behind the different antibiotic usage patterns. Furthermore, the study relies on the notion of three main characteristics related to the use of a resource activated in several user settings (Håkansson and Waluszewski, 2008, pp. 20–22). The paper investigates the Swedish and the Italian using settings, with a minimised, respectively, extensive usage of antibiotics. The study is exploratory in nature and based on qualitative data collected through a combination of primary and secondary sources.

The paper underlines the importance of integrating forces for policy to succeed in attempts to reduce the use of a particular resource. It reveals that Sweden’s radically reduced use was based on great awareness, close interactions between animal-based food producers and policy – and that integrating forces were supported by an era of state-protected food production, with promising ability to distribute the cost of change. The Italian characteristics hindering the integration of forces mounting for reduced use were restricted awareness, top-down business and policy interactions – and a great awareness about the difficulties of distributing the cost of change.

The study deals with the analysis of forces affecting the different usage of antibiotics within two EU settings. The investigation, based on the industrial network approach’s notion of connectivity of economic resources, that is, of exchange having a content and substance beyond discrete transactions, reveals how indirect related contextual forces, neglected by policy, have an important influence on the ability to achieve change, in this case of antibiotics usage patterns.

This study aims to explore how a start-up entering maritime logistics networks (MLNs) in the container shipping industry integrates resources underlying value cocreation patterns in these networks.

The paper is based on a single case study of a technological start-up, providing tracking, tracing and other information services to MLN members using internet-based software. An interorganizational theory perspective informs the case study to unveil the resource integration for value cocreation in the network.

The start-up holds multiple resource interaction roles and the start-up’s involvement enables the creation of new knowledge resources, which facilitate new revenue streams and manage resource dependencies. Hence, the findings indicate that the start-up changes value cocreation patterns in the network by reconfiguring and integrating existing resources so that the service is customized for various customers, including shippers and freight forwarders.

The results provide insights about how technological start-ups can unlock resources within MLNs.

The study extends previous studies on resource roles in business networks and shows how start-ups can perform multiple roles simultaneously within these networks. In addition, the study contributes to the literature by studying information and knowledge as resources configured in different ways in a unique network setting.

This study aims to explore the resource development process implemented by a small consulting firm, active in a traditional industrial context, pursuing the innovation path to develop solutions within the Industry 4.0 (I4.0) domain.

This study undertakes a single qualitative case study of Sinergia, an Italian innovative small consulting firm. The case study is analyzed through critical events and adopting the 4 R model, developed within the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) approach.

The analysis highlights a transition from knowledge broker to solution provider, based on a process of networking, with a relevant strategizing effort, and of assembling internal, external and shared resources. Three patterns in the evolution of the company’s innovation path emerge: resource-oriented networking, hybrid resource development and resource assembly.

The empirical study provides novel empirical evidence over localized innovation processes in I4.0 by exploring the innovation path pursued by a small consulting firm in connection with the local business. The study represents a theoretical development in terms of the 4 R model as it suggests the need to further conceptualize the category of technical resources – including products and facilities – in the increasingly complex I4.0 domain and provides insights on the changing role of actors in networks underpinned by emerging resource structures.

Resilience concepts in integrated urban transport refer to the performance of dealing with external shock and the ability to continue to provide transportation services of all modes. A robust transportation resilience is a goal in pursuing transportation sustainability. Under this specified context, while before the perturbations, robustness refers to the degree of the system’s capability of functioning according to its design specifications on integrated modes and routes, redundancy is the degree of duplication of traffic routes and alternative modes to maintain persistency of service in case of perturbations. While after the perturbations, resourcefulness refers to the capacity to identify operational problems in the system, prioritize interventions and mobilize necessary material/ human resources to recover all the routes and modes, rapidity is the speed of complete recovery of all modes and traffic routes in the urban area. These “4R” are the most critical components of urban integrated resilience.

The trends of transportation resilience's connotation, metrics and strategies are summarized from the literature. A framework is introduced on both qualitative characteristics and quantitative metrics of transportation resilience. Using both model-based and mode-free methodologies that measure resilience in attributes, topology and system performance provides a benchmark for evaluating the mechanism of resilience changes during the perturbation. Correspondingly, different pre-perturbation and post-perturbation strategies for enhancing resilience under multi-mode scenarios are reviewed and summarized.

Cyber-physic transportation system (CPS) is a more targeted solution to resilience issues in transportation. A well-designed CPS can be applied to improve transport resilience facing different perturbations. The CPS ensures the independence and integrity of every child element within each functional zone while reacting rapidly.

This paper provides a more comprehensive understanding of transportation resilience in terms of integrated urban transport. The fundamental characteristics and strategies for resilience are summarized and elaborated. As little research has shed light on the resilience concepts in integrated urban transport, the findings from this paper point out the development trend of a resilient transportation system for digital and data-driven management.

The purpose of this paper is to document the results and the impact of the ESRC-funded High Street UK 2020 (HSUK2020), a project designed to take the existing academic knowledge relating to retail and high street change directly to UK High Streets, to improve local decision-making and, ultimately, their vitality and viability.

Through a systematic literature review, and by following the tenets of engaged scholarship, the authors identified 201 factors that influence the vitality and viability of town centres. Through the consensus-building Delphi technique, a panel of 20 retail experts identified the top 25 priorities for action.

Taking a place management approach led to the development of a more strategic framework for regeneration, which consisted of repositioning, reinventing, rebranding and restructuring strategies (4R’s of regeneration). Collaboration with the project towns resulted in identification of the strategy area that would add the most value, and the impact of the 4R’s and the top 25 priorities is demonstrated via numerous town examples.

Knowledge exchange projects, such as High Street UK2020, have an important contribution to make, not by developing even more theory that is unlikely to get utilised, instead their contribution is to bring existing theory into practical use.