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The purpose of this paper is to extend the knowledge into the relationship between open innovation (OI) and firm’s innovative performance. Specifically, the authors aim to determine whether the benefits of OI practices are different for Food and Beverage (FnB) firms as compared to those of other sectors. The FnB industry is relevant in terms of employment GDP generation in the UE, characterised by high integration and low-tech intensity.

In order to achieve the goal and obtain robust results, the authors consider four OI dimensions and four innovation performance measures using panel data (2004-2011) from 10,771 FnB and non-FnB firms using Tobit and Logit models by random effects.

The authors test and confirm the presence of the classical inverted U-shape relationship between OI and firm innovative performance for FnB and non-FnB companies. However, the optimal number of external sources of knowledge used is lesser for FnB than the rest of the companies.

The paper compares the OI effects in a traditional and low-tech industry vs other industries considering four innovation outputs (product innovations, process innovations, incremental innovation and radical innovation).

This paper aims to analyse the capacity of rural and urban spaces to promote innovation in the agro‐food firms. The purpose is to determine if the rural/urban division affects the innovative behaviour of agriculture, food processing and food distribution firms.

Business data have been obtained for over 2,000 firms based in the Valencia region, Spain. Out of them, over 200 declared to have taken part in R&D&i activities, mainly in partnership with public support institutions. The database supplies data of micro and small enterprises, which have been typically underestimated in the Spanish Survey on Technological Innovation in Enterprises. The database also makes it possible to identify the main location of agro‐food business, and the territory is divided in Local Labour Systems (LLS). LLS were in turn classified as rural or urban according to alternative criteria (OECD, national legislation). A logit model has been used in the analyses.

The location of enterprises according to the rural/urban divide does not appear relevant concerning innovation, although businesses orientated to the primary sector seem less innovative. Co‐op businesses appear to be more innovative.

The paper offers an approach of innovation in the agro‐food traditionally considered as a non‐innovative system. It explores how territory affects innovation using data from firms.

Companies are currently facing the challenge of understanding how their business is affected by the large volume of opinions continually generated by their stakeholders in social media regarding their intangible assets (experiences, emotions and attitudes). With this in mind, the purpose of this paper is to present an innovative management model, named E2AB, to measure and analyse reputational intangibles from digital ecosystems and their impacts on tangible assets.

The methodology applied was big data and business intelligence techniques. These methods were used in the computing process to obtain daily data from every asset guarantees that the model is validated with robust data. This model has been corroborated using data from the banking sector, specifically 402,383 net data inputs from the digital ecosystems.

This study illustrates the existence of a holistic influence of intangible assets over tangible assets. The findings demonstrate complex relationships between tangible and intangible assets, determined not only by the type of variable but also by its valence and intensity.

These findings may help chief communication officers and general managers a better understanding of how intangible assets extracted from online users’ opinions are related to their organisation’s tangible assets plus a chance to find out about their impact and how to manage them for a practical and agile decision making in real time.

It is a pioneering work in establishing a model, which demonstrates transversal and holistic relationships between relational intangible and tangible assets of firms from digital ecosystems, using business intelligence techniques.

This research has three main objectives. First, it examines influence of gamification on the behavioral intention to use an e-commerce platform. Second, it analyzes the role of the flow state given its importance in terms of behavior in online environments. Finally, the study aims to detect and analyze differences between Millennials and Generation X.

The theoretical basis for this study stems from technology acceptance model. The extended model incorporates gamification and the optimal state of intrinsic motivation, flow state, as additional constructs. An online consumer panel was used to collect data from 253 Spanish Amazon users. A structural equation modeling, partial least squares, is proposed and multi-group moderation was studied.

Gamification in Millennials has positive and significant indirect effects on behavioral intention through the flow state. In the case of the Generation X, it has been detected that flow interferes in its perception of ease of use. The behavioral intention of using the Web page is directly correlated with the purchase intention. Companies should offer a fun interface to Millennials and an environment easier to use to the Generation X, for gamification to be successful.

This study expands the research scope in gamification by focusing on e-commerce sector, a field where scientific research is still scarcely developed. It emphasizes the importance of flow as mediator. Age differences confirm the need for segmentation when applying gamification and marketing strategies in e-commerce.

This paper aims to improve the understanding of integrated thinking, as it is a central concept in the integrated reporting (IR) framework that has implications for sustainability reporting, as the holistic view of integrated thinking clarifies the value creation process of organisations and facilitates the incorporation of sustainability issues into the corporate mindset. The study investigates whether there are contextual factors that may be influencing the way integrated thinking is reflected in the reports. The paper focusses on public companies because integrated thinking in this sector plays an important role in terms of sustainability reporting, as these organisations must address more complex and diverse relationships with their stakeholders.

The methodology is based on a content analysis of the IR reports issued by 21 public sector companies. For this analysis, this study proposed specific dimensions and variables that demonstrate this way of thinking. These allow us to develop an integrated thinking index (ITI) based on a frequency análisis. The influence of the country’s legal system, the sector of activity and the number of years of experience in IR is studied, by conducting t-test and ANOVA analyses and a correlation study.

The results demonstrate the existence of limited integrated thinking characterised by poor connectivity of information, lack of a clear link between materiality analysis and strategy and insufficient forward-looking perspective. The findings reveal that contextual and institutional factors have little influence on the levels of integrated thinking achieved.

The concept of integrated thinking has not been sufficiently explored to date, despite its importance in the IR conceptual framework. The study proposes specific dimensions and variables to be considered in preparing reports that exhibit this holistic way of thinking. The recommendations can help information preparers and improve the accountability and transparency of public sector companies.

This paper aims to investigate the current state of knowledge in key reporting aspects in relation to sustainability reporting in general and to reflect on their relevance to Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) in particular. In doing so, the major gaps in that knowledge are identified, and the paper proceeds to suggest further research avenues.

The authors conduct a review of papers published in leading journals concerning sustainability reporting to analyse the progress in the literature regarding three important reporting topics: materiality, comparability and assurance.

The review conducted in this study shows that there is still work to be done to ensure high-quality and consistent sustainability reporting. Key takeaways from the review of the extant literature are as follows: there is ongoing debate about the nature of sustainability reporting materiality, and single versus double materiality. Clearer guidance and better contextualisation are seen as essential for comparability, and, as GRI suggests, there is an important link to materiality that needs to be considered. Finally, assurance has not been mandatory under the GRI, but the current development at EU level might lead to the GRI principles being incorporated in the primary assurance standards.

In this paper, the authors review and synthesise the previous literature on GRI reporting dealing with three key reporting aspects.

The authors extract some takeaways from the literature on materiality, comparability and assurance that will all be key challenges for GRI in the future.

This paper provides an updated review of the literature on GRI reporting dealing with three key reporting aspects.

This study aims to analyze the relationships between knowledge management, internationalization and ambidexterity, also exploring the influence of these variables on Spanish hotel chain performance. Hypotheses are proposed from the dynamic capabilities and knowledge-management views of the firm.

The research model was tested on a sample of 70 Spanish hotel chains applying variance-based structural equation modeling (partial least squares).

The results show that Spanish hotel chains that use knowledge management processes achieve a greater degree of internationalization and this increases their organizational ambidexterity. This study can also confirm a direct, positive and significant relationship between organizational ambidexterity and performance.

This research shows that knowledge may be considered an essential resource to improve hotel firms’ results. Spanish hotel firms should manage their knowledge to stimulate international activity because this could enhance learning capabilities related to organizational ambidexterity and positively influence performance.

The present paper analyzes relationships between variables that had not previously been analyzed in a single model, including knowledge management, the degree of internationalization of hotel chains, ambidexterity and performance.

The paper's purpose is twofold: to provide a predictive model for estimating in‐hospital mortality rates after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) in Spanish autonomous regions (AR) after adjusting relevant factors; and to determine whether there is a difference between expected and observed mortality rates.

All patients registered in a minimum basic data set (MSBD) undergoing CABG between 2000 and 2004 were selected. After bivariate analysis to explore associations between in‐hospital death and other variables, a multivariate analysis using logistic regression was conducted. The predictive model was evaluated using calibration and discrimination techniques. Standardized mortality ratios by AR were calculated.

The expected Spanish in‐hospital mortality rate after CABG was 7.68 and the observed rate was 7.69 deaths per 100 operations. Discrimination obtained with the model resulted in an area under the curve of 0.70 (95 per cent CI, 0.69‐0.71). When each AR's mortality rate is calculated and compared with the observed rate, some ARs present an observed mortality rate higher or lower than the expected rate according to adjusted variables in the model.

The MSBD registry does not contain patients' critical data, such as arterial damage severity, or in which hospital procedures were performed.

There are factors related to individual patient variation, financial resources or healthcare quality in different ARs, which should be investigated in follow‐up studies.

The paper shows that, although the global expected mortality rate is almost the same as the observed Spanish mortality rate, this similarity disappears when AR rates are compared.

The aim of the paper is to identify which variables of training policy have a significant and positive impact on organisational performance.

A targeted literature review was conducted to identify and collate a comprehensive range of human resource management and training conceptualisations/investigations. This was the basis for the approach to contrast hypotheses. The paper used a sample of Spanish companies and the method of analysis was regression.

The results obtained in this paper do suggest that the training policy positively correlates with organisational performance, both using objective result measures (productivity and financial performance) and in the subjective measure of perceived financial performance and in intermediate result measures.

The study was confined to the analysis of a single Spanish region, and specifically referred to its hotel industry, which means that the results obtained must be situated within that specific context examined. To this must be added that the data were collected from a single source (CEOs) and, of course, it would have been more appropriate to use data from multiple sources.

From an academic point‐of‐view, the research initiative presented here is placed within the new line of development for research into training and performance that tries to overcome the restrictions faced in other publications, trying to go one step further in the search for more specific connections between human resources and performance. From a practical viewpoint, this research work could help hotel entrepreneurs in two ways: first, by providing evidence that the resources allocated by hotel firms to the training of their staff have a positive impact on their profit levels; and second, by showing which variables should be considered to achieve this relationship.

This paper aims to assess the disclosure of the materiality process in the preparation of sustainability reports of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This paper also explores the effects of regulation mandating that SOEs prepare sustainability reports. In the specific case of port authorities, the study analyses the influence of a sector guideline that determines what should be included and the structure of the report. Another aim of this paper is to delve into SOE's motivations for disclosing information on materiality assessments, using the assumptions of the different theories to explain their reporting practices.

Using a sample of SOEs sustainability reports, a content analysis is undertaken. The methodology involves the analysis of the information disclosed by SOEs in Spain and the development of a materiality disclosure index. This index enables sampled entities to be classified on a scale of 0–5, based on the extent of their disclosures of the materiality determination process. This study also identifies several variables that explain differences in these disclosures.

A low rate of information disclosed about the materiality process can be attributed to the desire of SOEs to create symbolic legitimacy. In a context where the disclosure of sustainability information is mandatory, only few organisations apply the principle of materiality to define the content of their sustainability reports. These results highlight that institutional isomorphism has only had a limited effect on the materiality process.

Limitations associated with the sample size and composition of the sample by sector apply.

This research shows that generally accepted reporting guidelines constitute a reference framework for sustainability reporting but that the principles underpinning these frameworks are not always implemented.

This study extends the literature on the implementation of the principle of materiality and uses disclosure theories to explain the actual reporting by SOEs of their materiality process.