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This study aims to investigate why and how shared service centres (SSCs) are implemented as well as how they affect audit firm practice and audit quality.

In this qualitative study guided by the theoretical framework of institutional theory, the authors conducted 25 semi-structured interviews in seven European countries, including 16 interviews with audit partners from Big 4 firms, 6 with audit team members, 2 with interviewees from second-tier audit firms and 1 with a member of an oversight body.

The authors show that the central rationale for audit firms to implement SSCs is economic rather than external legitimacy. The authors find that SSC implementation has substantial effects on audit practices, particularly those related to standardisation, coordination and monitoring activities. The authors also highlight the potential impacts on audit quality.

By exploring the motivation for and effects of SSC implementation amongst audit firms, the authors offer insights into the best practices related to subsequent change processes and audit quality.

To meet the rising global needs, the humanitarian community has signed off on making a strategic change toward more localisation, which commonly refers to the empowerment of national and local actors in humanitarian assistance. However, to this date, actual initiatives for localisation are rare. To enhance understanding of the phenomenon, the authors explore localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and obstacles to its implementation. The authors particularly take the perspective of the international humanitarian organisation (IHO) community as they are expected to implement the localisation strategy.

A phenomenon-driven, exploratory and qualitative study was conducted. Data collection included in-depth interviews with 28 experienced humanitarian professionals.

The findings showed the ambiguity inherent in the localisation strategy with largely different views on four important dimensions. Particularly, the interviewees differ about strengthening external actors or internal national/local offices. The resulting framework visualises the gap between strategy formulation and implementation, which forms major obstacles to the localisation aims.

Further research is required to support the advancement of localisation of logistics preparedness capacities. Important aspects for future research include triangulation of results, other stakeholder perspectives and the influence of context.

The authors add to the important debate surrounding localisation by offering remedies to overcoming obstacles to strategy implementation. Further, the authors’ proposed framework offers a language to precisely describe the ways in which IHOs (should) view localisation of logistics preparedness capacities and its operationalisation.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first academic article on localisation within the humanitarian logistics context.

This study aims to investigate the synergies between the economic environment and the smart living dimension embedded in the current smart city initiatives, focusing on the localization of female entrepreneurship in contemporary cities. This interaction is under-investigated and controversial as it includes cities' practices enabling users and citizens to develop their potential and build their own lives, affecting entrepreneurial and economic outcomes. Building upon the perspective of the innovation ecosystems, this study focuses on the impact of smart living dimensions and R&D investments on the localization of female entrepreneurial activities.

The study uses a Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) and a panel dataset that considers 30 Italian smart city projects for 12 years to demonstrate the relationship between smart living practices in cities and the localization of female entrepreneurship. The complementary effect of public R&D investment is also included as a driver in the “smart” city transition.

The study found that the advancement of smart living practices in cities drives the localization of female entrepreneurship. The study highlights the empirical results, the interaction over the years and a current overview through choropleth maps. The public R&D investment also affects this relationship.

This study advances the theoretical discussion on (1) female entrepreneurial intentions, (2) smart city advancement (as a context) and (3) smart living dimension (as a driver) and offers valuable insight for governance and policymakers.

This study offers empirical contributions to the preliminary academic debate on enterprise development and smart city trajectories at the intersection between human-based practices and female entrepreneurship.

This study offers empirical contributions to the preliminary academic debate on enterprise development and smart city trajectories at the intersection between human-based practices and female entrepreneurship. The findings provide valuable insights into the localization of female entrepreneurship in the context of smart cities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the emergence of innovation in smart service systems to conceptualize how actor’s relationships through technology-enabled interactions can give birth to novel technologies, processes, strategies and value. The objectives of the study are: to detect the different enablers that activate innovation in smart service systems; and to explore how these can lead dynamically to the emergence of different innovation patterns.

The empirical research adopts an approach based on constructivist grounded theory, performed through observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate the development of innovation in the Italian CTNA (Italian acronym of National Cluster for Aerospace Technology).

The identification and re-elaboration of the novelties that emerged from the analysis of the Cluster allow the elaboration of a diagram that classifies five different shades of innovation, introduced through some related theoretical propositions: technological; process; business model and data-driven; social and eco-sustainable; and practice-based.

The paper embraces a synthesis view that detects the enabling structural and systems dimensions for innovation (the “what”) and the way in which these can be combined to create new technologies, resources, values and social rules (the “how” dimension). The classification of five different kinds of innovation can contribute to enrich extant research on value co-creation and innovation and can shed light on how given technologies and relational strategies can produce varied innovation outcomes according to the diverse stakeholders engaged.

The present study aims to extend the knowledge of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) disclosure practices in the Italian Healthcare Organisations (HCOs) context. The ultimate goal of the study is to provide fresh insight into the possible explanatory factors that may drive the extent of ICD provided by Italian HCOs via the web.

The present study applies a manual content analysis on the websites of a sample of 158 HCOs to determine the level of voluntary ICD. A multivariate regression model is estimated to test the association between different variables – size, gender diversity in top governance positions, financial performance and indebtedness – and the level of ICD provided by sampled HCOs through their official websites.

Content analysis results reveal that – in the absence of mandatory requirements – Italian HCOs tend to use websites to disclose information about IC. Particular attention is devoted to Structural and Relational Capital. The statistical analysis pinpoints that size and indebtedness negatively influence the level of ICD. In contrast, the presence of a female General Manager (GM) positively drives ICD. Also, it is observed that Research and University HCOs and those located in the Italian Northern Regions are particularly prone to discharge accountability on IC through websites.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines voluntary ICD practices through websites in the Italian HCOs' context. Also, since prior studies on IC in the healthcare context are mainly descriptive or normative, this is the first study examining the potential determinants of ICD provided by HCOs in terms of size, gender diversity in top governance positions, financial performance and indebtedness.

In order to sustain the development and utilization of learning content under the limited financial and human resources, the sharing and reuse of open educational resources (OERs) have been promoted in various school levels and disciplines. In many countries, central organization(s) collect both learning content and its metadata, and provide them to learners and teachers with distinctive value‐added services from their portals. Collaborations among the national portals have also emerged beyond borders.Global Learning Object Brokered Exchange (GLOBE) is an international consortium of the hub organizations, which manage a federated repository and/or a meta‐referatory in each country and region. GLOBE was established in September 2004 by five founding members, and now twelve organizations in the world participate in. By adopting IEEE LOM version 1.0 for the metadata standards, SQI for the query language, and OAI‐PMH for harvesting, GLOBE realized a global search and delivery infrastructure for lifelong learning (LLL). At present, while the repositories all over the world store huge number of learning content and metadata, the variance of the quality becomes much bigger. In addition, because the effectiveness of learning content is relative and dependent on contextual factors, both optimizations specialized in learner characteristics and localizations to each language/culture are indispensable. The users need some supports on the quality and pedagogical guidance when they find their right content. GLOBE, based on multilingualism, multiculturalism and pluralism, collaborates to build up standardized services on the quality assurance of the content utilizing the “Educational” items of LOM. In AAOU framework also, the organizations can promote “openness”, and share the quality learning content and educational information by using a standardized content search and delivery infrastructure.

This study aims to verify the effectiveness and efficiency of corporate technology innovation activities.

This study empirically analyzes the effects of research and development (R&D) capability on patent and new product development achievements on innovation-type small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by using the “Report on Korean Innovation Survey 2010: Manufacturing Sector” data released by the Science and Technology Policy Institute.

The results of the study indicate that staffing of the concentration of R&D human resource team and efforts toward open innovation are essential factors for the creation of corporate performance.The number of persons of the concentration R&D team in particular makes up essential resources for patent acquisition and new product development. In addition, in case of an SME’s with relatively poor resources, it is necessary to acquire resources, both material and immaterial, learn from the external R&D activities and internalize those into key corporate capabilities rather than step up the R&D activities on their own.

The results of this study indicate that innovative small enterprises need to secure the number of R&D human resource members for maintaining sustainable competitiveness and securing market share. Therefore, a strategy is needed that would enable employing and raising excellent human resource in the quantitative and qualitative aspects. However, in the circumstances that small enterprises suffer difficulty in securing professional human resource for R&D compared to large enterprises, as there is a limitation for securing human resource for R&D from only the dimension of enterprises, governmental and political support is thought to be necessary for securing good-quality human resource for R&D. Accordingly, the results of this study provide many implications for the necessity of detailed methodology on how to expand professional human resource for R&D among supporting policies for technical innovative enterprises and to establish innovative strategies of enterprises.

To be able to continuously provide affordable services to consumers, managers of critical infrastructure (CI) maintenance supply networks have to balance investments in resilience with costs. At the same time, CI providers need to consider factors that influence resilience such as the geographical spread or the location of the network. This study aims to contextualize supply chain resilience knowledge by exploring how maintenance resource configurations impact resilience and costs in CI supply networks.

An in-depth longitudinal single case study of a representative CI provider that has centralized its maintenance supply network is used. Data were collected before and after the change to evaluate the effect of the changes on the maintenance supply network.

This study shows that in this specific CI maintenance context, structural resource choices such as the quantity or location of spare parts and tools, the creation and exploitation of tacit knowledge and staff motivation impact both resilience and costs due to geographical spread, network location and other network properties.

This study extends general supply chain resilience knowledge to a new setting (i.e. CI) and shows how existing insights apply in this context. More specifically, it is shown that even in engineered supply networks there is a need to consider the effect of human agency on resilience as the creation and exploitation of tacit knowledge are of immense importance in managing the network. In addition, the relationship between normal accidents theory and high reliability theory (HRT) is revisited as findings indicate that HRT is also important after a disruption has taken place.

The objective of this paper is to increase understanding of social media in international business context. To this end, the authors make an attempt to integrate the existing, still somewhat limited views in a framework that advances the knowledge of scholars and decision-makers on this topic.

The authors conduct a conceptual study supported by use of a systematic literature review method.

This study shows marketing as a dominant area of discussion and reveals that many firm functions where social media plays a role have received relatively little attention. Furthermore, the study shows that the positive features of social media in international activity tend to be more widely acknowledged and better understood than the potentially problematic aspects.

The number of articles analyzed in this study was relatively small, resonating with the nature of an emerging research area. Research on social media has only taken off over the last years, and it is understandable that there is limited research that connects it specifically to phenomena of international business.

This study reminds managers to be cautious when using social media in international markets. The relationship between social media and international business exhibits dynamism and is dependent on a variety of factors. Social media does not come without costs, nor is easily transferred from one market to another. Efficient use of this media in the international context may increase the need of specific and qualified human resources, and it may necessitate having the whole process from R&D to delivery, and beyond, ready for adaptation.

It can be argued that we know too little about the relevant factors and relationships between social media and international business. The authors hope that this study revealing the scarcely studied aspects and suggesting a tentative framework for capturing the dynamics of social media and international business can guide subsequent research and accelerate its emergence.

Level 3 automated driving, which has been defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers, may cause driver drowsiness or lack of situation awareness, which can make it difficult for the driver to recognize where he/she is. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct an experimental study with a driving simulator to investigate whether automated driving affects the driver’s own localization compared to manual driving.

Seventeen drivers were divided into the automated operation group and manual operation group. Drivers in each group were instructed to travel along the expressway and proceed to the specified destinations. The automated operation group was forced to select a course after receiving a Request to Intervene (RtI) from an automated driving system.

A driver who used the automated operation system tended to not take over the driving operation correctly when a lane change is immediately required after the RtI.

This is a fundamental research that examined how the automated driving operation affects the driver's own localization. The experimental results suggest that it is not enough to simply issue an RtI, and it is necessary to tell the driver what kind of circumstances he/she is in and what they should do next through the HMI. This conclusion can be taken into consideration for engineers who design automatic driving vehicles.