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The purpose of this paper is to present organizational competencies for gaining information technology (IT) benefits within organizations. Following the analysis of 16 in‐depth case studies, a set of six high level, fundamental competencies and 17 facilitating competencies are identified. A framework for orchestrating the organizational competencies is also presented. The results of this research would be useful to academics in developing measures for assessing the level of organizational competence and for practitioners in identifying and nurturing competencies for organizational benefits realization.

The methodology involved two phases. Phase 1 entailed conducting 16 extensive case studies. Case study methodology employed follows guidelines provided by Yin and Benbasat et al. Case studies are a suitable means to collect the data since the notion of competencies in delivering IT benefits has not been well understood in the literature. By analyzing and understanding the particular situation and factors in each organization in an in‐depth manner, the paper develops a sound interpretation of the abilities that organizations need to have in place to deliver IT benefits.

In order to gain business benefits from IT investments, organizations must develop competencies to exploit IT. These competencies involve individual skills and organizational processes that enable those skills to be effectively applied. This paper identifies 23 competencies categorized into fundamental and facilitating competencies that firms need to have in place if IT services are to be delivered adequately and business benefits achieved. Also developed is a network of competences based on the data collected in the 16 cases studied.

Like any research, this paper has its limitations. Given the qualitative and interpretive nature of the research, a lot of assertions are interpretations of the authors. While in the literature, this has been argued as a valid way to undertake research, clearly there are biases that creep into the research.

The model of competencies presented forms a good basis for enterprises to fine‐tune their abilities for harnessing IT.

While management researchers have been researching the notion of organizational competence for a while, it has not been well considered in the information systems arena; it is felt that this research makes a positive contribution to that effect.

The aim of this paper is to develop an understanding of the adoption and use of EDI in the Portuguese clothing and textile industry. The inherent argument is that although such inter‐organizational systems in small and medium‐sized enterprises facilitate competitiveness through collaboration, the successful deployment of such systems is not solely a function of transaction costs and the resource base of an organization, as has been argued in the literature. In fact the values and attitudes of senior management play a critical role in the adoption of inter‐organizational systems. Various issues are analyzed by critically reviewing the literature, which has traditionally focused either on reducing transaction costs or managing the resource base. The argument of this paper is conducted by evaluating managers’ beliefs and attitudes towards the use of EDI within the Portuguese clothing and textile industry.

The purpose of this paper is to define objectives for Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system adoption. The objectives provide a theoretical basis for strategizing about CRM system adoption. The objectives also provide managers to clearly direct CRM system adoption, thus ensuring a highly successful outcome.

The authors conducted a sequential multi-method research in Europe. The initial qualitative phase constituted 62 in-depth interviews. Using Keeney’s (1992) value-focused thinking approach, the authors defined 102 CRM system adoption objectives. Quantitative purification techniques, using a sample of 210 organisations, a more parsimonious set of objectives were developed. The complete set of objectives were classified into fundamental and means objectives.

Results present three fundamental and three means objectives. These objectives allow for successful CRM system adoption. The three fundamental objectives are: maximise CRM organisational culture; ensure an effective relationship with CRM providers; and minimise CRM project risks. The three means objectives are: maximise CRM usage, maximise relational marketing capabilities, maximise CRM orientation.

This study provides strategic objectives that can be used by companies to plan adoption of a CRM system. Hence the fundamental and means objectives take the form a strategic planning template.

Although technology adoption has been well researched and has also been extended to address CRM systems, the focus has largely been behavioural. The strategic objectives for CRM system adoption, presented in this paper, are novel. Objectives enable decision making and resource planning. The combination of fundamental and means objectives provide a theoretical basis for ensuring successful CRM system adoption.

The purpose of this study was to provide comprehensive overview, and exposure of the correlation between entrepreneurial orientation dimension (EOD) and business innovation environment (BIE) on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) financial performance in the Ghanaian manufacturing SMEs sector that enhances knowledge and contextualization in marketing and entrepreneurship literature.

Anchored on resource-based view theory, 520 manufacturing SMEs companies were conveniently drawn from Association of Ghana Industry, through National Board for Small Scale Industries, using structural equation modelling techniques to analyse the hypotheses.

This study revealed that three entrepreneurial orientation dimensions EOD: risk-taking, innovations and pro-activeness have positive significant impact on financial performance manufacturing of SMEs. BIE also has positive impact on financial performance of manufacturing of SMEs and BIE moderates SMEs financial performance.

This is a country-specific manufacturing SMEs sector, which means that the findings cannot be used to justify other SMEs in Ghana and SMEs in different country. However, the study was limited to only three EODs: risk-taking, innovations, pro-activeness and Ghanaian manufacturing BIE of SMEs. More countries and other SMEs are needed to expand the field of research in EODs and BIE.

It provides an insight into BIE which is important for marketers, entrepreneurs, regulatory bodies, SMEs owners-managers, directors, government and NGO to strengthening and reshaping their BIE in manufacturing SMEs sector policies, conducts and laws.

This paper fills knowledge and contextual gap in entrepreneurship and marketing literature by presenting comprehensive overview of BIE and EOD research that enhances the on-going discussion in the marketing and entrepreneurship manufacturing SMEs context and proposing priorities for future research streams within an emerging economy.

This review scopes evidence on the use of social robots for older adults with depressive symptoms, in the scenario of smart cities, analyzing the age-related depression specificities, investigated contexts and intervention protocols' features.

Studies retrieved from two major databases were selected against inclusion and exclusion criteria. Studies were included if used social robots, included older adults over 60, and reported depressive symptoms measurements, with any type of research design. Papers not published in English, published as an abstract or study protocol, or not peer-reviewed were excluded.

28 relevant studies were included, in which PARO was the most used robot. Most studies included very older adults with neurocognitive disorders living in long-term care facilities. The intervention protocols were heterogeneous regarding the duration, session duration and frequency. Only 35.6% of the studies had a control group. Finally, only 32.1% of the studies showed a significant improvement in depression symptoms.

Despite the potential for using social robots in mental health interventions, in the scenario of smart cities, this review showed that their usefulness and effects in improving depressive symptoms in older adults have low internal and external validity. Future studies should consider factors as planning the intervention based on well-established supported therapies, characteristics and needs of the subjects, and the context in which the subjects are inserted.

This study examines the relationships between the sizes of Coop Alleanza 3.0 retail outlets and indicators (in value) of surplus food (SF), real food donation (FD) and potential food waste (FW) from 2013 to 2019.

Retail outlets were grouped by size class and geographic macro-area. The authors adopt a procedure composed of Kendall's tau-b coefficient with ties (ttest) and the coefficient of determination (R²). The authors studied bread, pastries, fruits and vegetables as representative food categories.

Among the hypermarket group (Emilia-Romagna Region and those in group with Apulia Region), the study found the t-test with many high negative relationship and related R² high. Results showed that size significantly influenced the trends of the indicators for the food categories analyzed. This allowed the authors to hypothesize the presence of inefficiencies in these groups.

From a practical point of view, the procedure can provide Coop Alleanza 3.0, with a dashboard to analyze surplus food management (SFM) progress within its retail groups. This can provide a warning signal (WS) to trigger a management control system. If necessary, it can lead to corrective measures, such as internal optimization, by adopting appropriate work procedures. In this sense, the procedure is scalable and transferable at the international middle and micro-scales. This approach facilitates the transition to a retail circular economy transition.

Recent discussions of how members of the middle classes define themselves have focused on cultural patterns, following Bourdieu's (1984) influential work on how occupational, educational, and cultural fields combine to configure classes. Researchers have extended this approach to studies of the emerging middle classes in the global South, adapting these concepts to the specific circumstances of postcolonial settings in a globalizing world. This chapter explores these processes among urban middle-class Chileans. I show how members of the middle classes seek meaningful identities while engaging in symbolic combat with other groups in a society historically marked by an aristocratic elite, a recent military dictatorship, and free market policies that have reconfigured the possibilities for upward and downward mobility while integrating Chile more firmly within global commodity and image circuits. The principal foci of conflict are cultural consumption, childrearing and education, as well as electronic media use. Members of Chile's middle classes are locked in an unresolved conflict over who they are, who they should be, and where they fit in the global cultural economy.

In Brazil, to speak of the ‘suburb’ is to evoke a rhetoric of need and subordination, and in Rio de Janeiro this is even more the case because, there, ‘suburb’ tends to connote something very different from the usually upper- or middle-class neighbourhoods the same term brings to mind, say, in the United States. This is because, in general, in wealthier countries the term mostly connotes affluence and ‘white flights’, while in the Global South it can include both such wealthier areas and the largely impoverished peripheries. This is very much the case in Rio: to live in a ‘suburb’, there, tends to mean that one comes from a poorer background and needs to content oneself with living far removed from the cultural, social and economic centre of the city inhabited by elites – often, suburbanites spend up to three hours only to get to their jobs, and then the same amount of time to get back home again at the end of a tiresome day.