Search results

Smart manufacturing (SM) lies at the core of Industry 4.0. Uniform adoption of SM across business partners is crucial to exploit its value creation potential. However, firms' willingness to invest in SM is limited by insufficient or inconclusive evidence on its performance-related benefits. To close this gap, this paper develops and tests a model linking SM adoption to firms' financial performance. Improvements along the four dimensions of operational performance (i.e. cost quality, delivery and flexibility) mediate this relation.

This study follows an empirical research approach. In particular, survey data from 234 automotive component suppliers are analyzed via covariance-based structural equation modeling to explore the link between SM adoption and operational performance. Survey data are then matched with secondary data from balance sheets of 81 firms to investigate the impact of SM on financial performance via partial least square structural equation modeling.

Findings highlight that adoption of SM results in improvements in cost, quality, delivery performance, thus suggesting that SM is a mean to overcome performance trade-offs. Improvements in operational performance enabled by SM do not give rise to superior financial performance, thus implying that SM might support firms in maintaining the competitive position in the market, but could be insufficient to generate higher margin.

Results have implications for SM research and for manufacturing executives engaged in the adoption of SM, as they provide a detailed analysis of the impact of SM on operational performance and clarify the effect that SM adoption has on financial performance.

Smart Manufacturing (SM) lies at the core of Industry 4.0. Operations management research has investigated the determinants of SM advancement but there is still limited understanding of the linkages between SM and organizational factors and about whether both the technological and organizational subsystems for SM are guided by firms’ competitive priorities. To close these gaps, building on operations strategy theory, this paper aims to empirically test a model positing that competitive priorities drive SM advancement. The relation between competitive priorities and SM advancement is assumed to be mediated by organizational microfoundations.

Using data from a single respondent survey with 234 firms in the automotive component industry, structural equation modeling is adopted to test the model hypotheses. Relevant constructs are measured with reference to the lead plant for SM.

Findings highlight that SM advancement is driven by the need to simultaneously compete in terms of cost, quality and delivery, thus suggesting that manufacturers view SM as a mean to develop multiple manufacturing capabilities. Organizational microfoundations fully mediate the relation between competitive priorities and SM advancement.

Results have implications for SM research, as they provide an understanding of the strategic priorities of firms engaging in SM. Findings also bear relevance for manufacturing executives engaged in the SM transformation, as they provide quantitative evidence that shaping an adequate organizational environment is a prerequisite for SM advancement.

Smart Manufacturing (SM) lies at the core of Industry 4.0. Operations management research has identified several factors influencing firms’ ability to adopt SM. However, a clear understanding of capabilities needed to progress in SM is still missing. This paper aims to investigate how absorptive capacity (AC) allows firms to advance in SM and explore how managerial antecedents support the capacity to absorb SM-related knowledge at different stages of SM adoption.

This study adopts an exploratory approach through multiple case studies. Twelve firms, operating as part of the automotive supply chain and exhibiting different stages of SM adoption, constitute the sample.

The results suggest that advancement in SM requires firms to progressively reinforce their AC. Firms’ ability to acquire and assimilate SM knowledge is supported by managerial antecedents encompassing integrative capacities to bridge old and SM technologies, managerial cognition through the clear alignment of SM technologies with strategic goals and knowledge development capabilities through practices oriented to provide senior managers with SM competences.

The findings contribute to SM research by suggesting that AC is a crucial dynamic capability for SM adoption. The results also provide evidence-grounded recommendations to firms engaged in the digital transformation on the managerial capabilities needed to support AC and to progress from lower to higher stages of SM.

To analyze the Italian Supreme Court decision (case no. 11626/2020) and its potential implications for foreign financial institutions operating in Italy.

This article provides firstly a brief description of Decree 231/2001 and of its application to financial institutions, then a description of the Italian Supreme Court decision and, lastly, a set of inputs to foreign financial institutions operating in Italy.

Following the decision under review, where the further conditions set out in the Decree 231/2001 are met, entities are liable under the same Decree when a relevant offense occurs in Italy – or there is Italian jurisdiction – regardless of their nationality, the localization of their registered office, the place where they predominantly carry out their business or whether there are rules governing the same matter in the State of origin.

Following the decision under review, foreign financial institutions operating in Italy should adopt and implement the control measures required by the Decree 231/2001 in order to avoid incurring the relevant sanctions.

This is an analysis of the potential practical implications for foreign financial institutions operating in Italy of a decision issued by the Italian Supreme Court that may also provide useful advice to mitigate the potential risks linked to it.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the school‐to‐work transition of graduates in different fields of study, as well as to study programmes in three subsequent generations of graduates in the 2007 to 2009 period. The paper focuses on graduates from the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes and investigates their early career outcomes by comparing them to those of graduates from pre‐harmonised programmes.

The authors apply a probit regression to calculate differences in the probability of employment for different fields of study and propensity score matching to investigate the effect of different study programmes in each field of education on early career outcomes, such as being employed within the first three months of graduation and the first nine months of graduation.

The authors find that graduating from a particular field of study affects the probability of employment in all three years. In general, regardless of the field, the authors observe decreasing probabilities of employment in 2008 and 2009. Using propensity score matching, the authors estimate the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes on the probability of employment and find a statistically significant negative effect compared to counterparts who finished pre‐Bologna programmes. The findings are robust to the use of different matching criteria.

In the institutional framework of a tuition‐free system in higher education and collective bargaining in the labour market, performance indicators such as employability can provide relevant information regarding student choice and a proxy measure for the quality of higher education in each participating university. In addition, this provides a rare insight into the employability of graduates from Bologna‐harmonised programmes, as well as for a post‐transition country such as Slovenia.

By covering entire populations of full‐time graduates in 2007, 2008 and 2009 who entered the labour market for the first time after graduation, the authors calculate the probability of employment within the first three and nine months of graduation. This allows the authors to infer about the effect of the new Bologna‐harmonised programmes as well as the impact of the recent financial crisis. The paper offers rare evidence of the school‐to‐work transition in a post‐transition and tuition‐free country.

The present research aims to develop and test an evaluation support model for decisions alert soil surface saving to be used in the redevelopment of abandoned and degraded properties through involvement of private developers.

Adapting operations research principles to the public–private partnership features that are typical of urban planning issues, the model pursues a complex objective function, that concerns urban parameters to be attributed to properties to be recovered. An elaboration of a Pareto-optimal frontier has defined possible scenarios for different trends of the variables under consideration.

The efficiency of the model is verified through application to a real case study concerning urban renewal of a property in disuse located in a city in Southern Italy. The outputs confirm the potentialities and flexibility of the proposed model to support urban planning decisions by improving the implementation of conservation policies, in terms of a reduced impact of urban transformation projects on the available natural land surface.

Depending on the objectives of public sector, the model can generate a range of urban parameter combinations to be attributed to the recovered properties to achieve low consumption of natural surfaces, with bargaining between the public and private sectors around these parameters. The model can also be used in the initial phases of the renewal initiative, when it is necessary to define the costs and the revenues involved or to assess alternative solutions capable of reducing impacts on the environment.

The model can be applied to identify the appropriate rewards in a project that can stimulate the private developers to realize further public infrastructures and services than minimum quantities established by the current local urban regulations. In this sense, the model represents an original scientific reference in the current strategies promoted by the European Union for achievement of a “no net land take” by 2050, aimed at reducing natural surface occupied by buildings and roads.

This work aims to assess the potential of a Bio-District as a model for applying the circular economy concerning the waste scope. It aims to understand the capability of organic farms to manage waste with a circular perspective, starting with the use of indicators that directly or indirectly impact the waste scope.

This study is based on previous work that identified and systematised the circular indicators of the agri-food sector within a dashboard. With this research as a basis, the indicators within the waste scope in the dashboard were extracted. Cross-linked indicators with an indirect connection to the waste scope were also systematised and tested in a case study. Primary and secondary data were used for the study. The primary data came from a semi-structured interview, and the secondary data were from official databases.

The work highlights two important results. The first allows the definition of a subclassification of indicators by product and organisation, extracting those with a cross-linked characteristic concerning the waste scope. Secondly, the indicators' application shows the farm's circular and waste valorisation potential within the Bio-District. The study also made it possible to test a new indicator, the “Potential Energy Biomass Recovery”, to measure the farm's potential to produce energy from waste.

This research proposes a new circular economy approach to evaluate waste management in the agri-food sector.

This paper aims to extend the scope of previous studies on education-occupation mismatch to explicitly focus on the role high school track choices have on the risk of being mismatched in the labor market.

The paper uses the most exhaustive available database regarding the early-career paths of university graduates in Romania. Using a novel matching technique, entropy balancing (EB), our study relies on multinomial logit models and logit regressions to estimate the effect of the completed high school track on the likelihood of being mismatched in the labor market. The empirical analysis focuses on two types of education-occupation mismatches: horizontal and vertical mismatches.

We show that studying a different field in college compared to the completed high school track increases the risk of being skill mismatched in the first job after graduation. Five years after college graduation, the influence of the high school track fades, while being skill mismatched in the first employment plays a more important role. In contrast, we find no evidence that pursuing a college major unrelated to the completed high school track increases the probability of being overeducated. However, being overeducated in the first job increases the risk of being overeducated five years later.

The study brings new reliable evidence on the extent to which high school track choices may contribute to the risk of being mismatched in the labor market.

The purpose of this paper is to present an attempt to develop an instrument containing operational measures of lean combined with safety and ergonomic conditions in a workstation or production line. This operational tool aims to help researchers and practitioners to prioritize and evaluate the lean implementations, as well as the ergonomic and safety conditions, in an integrated way.

Lean manufacturing methods and principles, as well as safety and ergonomics aspects, were exhaustively researched with the ultimate goal of finding a way to improve the workplace by taking into account the efficiency and well-being of workers. The instrument was validated in an interactive process between theory and practical insights. At the end, it was tested in several workstations/production areas.

The study reveals that high scores are derived from a good interaction between lean, ergonomics and safety.

It would be important to validate it in different companies and different types of industries because each one has its own characteristics.

This tool helps practitioners (technicians and ergonomic practitioners from manufacturing companies) assess the implementation of lean principles and the safety issues in their processes. It also allows managers to evaluate their business and identify the priority areas to improve according to the previously defined company’s aims.

As Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” For a successful implementation, managers should start the lean journey with a lean assessment and make it in a regular basis. To the authors’ knowledge, there are various lean assessment tools, but this work is innovative because it provides an assessment instrument to evaluate organizations’ workstations/production areas simultaneously in three dimensions: lean, safety and ergonomic aspects.