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The purpose of this paper is to explore the coherence between sustainability conceptualization (the “what”) and its implementation (the “how”) in terms of implemented actions and stakeholders’ interactions. The paper proposes a grid approach for the simultaneous evaluation of sustainability conceptualization and implementation.

This research is based on a multiple case study conducted in ten Italian Universities. In-depth interviews with general directors and administrative staff responsible for sustainable activities have been conducted together with documents and websites analysis.

The coherence between sustainability conceptualization and its implementation showed heterogeneity of practice. Results propose a grid approach, which highlights six different approaches to explain the connection between the “what” and the “how” of sustainability.

The research is focused on Italian universities and may have overlooked approaches to campus sustainability specific of other countries.

Understanding the coherence between the “what” and the “how” of sustainability can provide university managers with a practical tool of analysis when approaching and evaluating the sustainable campus.

While higher education scholars are widely exploring the conceptualization of a sustainable campus and its implementation, little is known about the coherence between these two realms, despite their importance to facilitate the transition of sustainability vision into real practice. This study contributes to this area by proposing a grid approach to evaluate the coherence between sustainability conceptualization and implementation.

This paper aims to examine the trajectory of public management reforms in Italy. This experience indicates the complexity of managerialism in countries with a legalistic system and where public administration cultures have been, and continue to be, embedded in politics.

The analysis of managerial reforms in Italy was carried out with a documentary analysis. In addition to official reports and acts of parliament, the analysis was based on monitoring the government websites and innovative channels (e.g. Facebook) which communicated the progress of the later reforms.

The paper shows how modernization of public services has been a continuous priority in the agenda of the Italian Government across four phases: an early attempt in the late 1970s; a lively, phase for Italian managerial reforms in the 1990s; a later advocacy in the 2000s of a specific new public management (NPM) element – performance management; an after-crises reform aimed at reducing public expenditure.

The paper takes a historical and long-term perspective to analyse the success and failure of NPM reforms implementation in Italy. Differently from previous studies, this papers analyses NPM reforms in a longitudinal perspective, to show how the legalistic culture of Italy continues to affect the implementation of NPM reforms.

The purpose of this paper is to estimate and assess the impact of public procurement activities of an Italian basic research center (the National Institute for Nuclear Physics [INFN]) on supplier companies.

Starting from the exploratory nature of this research, a single case study research strategy has been applied. The impact of basic research public procurement has been estimated using survey data on 168 INFN supplier companies. Supplier companies have been surveyed on six different categories of company outcomes, namely, sales volume, learning and innovation, relationship with the market, alliances and network and social impact.

Results of the analysis reported that the activity of INFN public procurement generates a positive impact on supplier companies on different dimensions, especially related to learning and innovative outcome and economic impact and market penetration outcome.

Policy implications can be derived from the current study. In particular, to support the policymakers in the effort of assessing the impact of basic research public procurement, this study, first highlights the impact dimensions on supplier companies, and second, it provides empirical evidence of public procurement as a viable tool to foster companies’ innovation.

This research explores a relevant but understudied topic that has recently attracted the attention of policymakers. In fact, although public procurement have been recognized as a tool to foster companies’ innovation, empirical evidence is still scant, particularly in the case of basic research.

Public networks studies have widely diffused in recent years, but scant attention has been devoted to network change. By endorsing the notion of critical crossroads to describe a crucial turning point for the network survival, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how and why a goal-directed network changes, considering both the benefits and the constraints of the change.

This study adopts a longitudinal case study based upon an interventionist research approach (Jönsson and Lukka, 2006), with the researchers being immersed in the network life of a group of Italian public universities over a period of 17 years.

This paper proposes an empirical derived framework about network evolution that identifies two different types of crossroads (i.e. resource-driven crossroads and management driven) as drivers for network evolution. The main determinant behind these crisis situation were found in the heterogeneity of the network actors and, while overcoming the crossroads, informal sub-networks were found emerging.

This study enlarges current public network literature by focusing specifically on how and why networks change, an aspect underinvestigated by current literature.