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In recent years, the robotic process automation (RPA) technology has increasingly been used to automate business processes. While a lot of research has been published on the potential and benefits of the technology, only a few studies have conducted research on challenges related to RPA adoption. Hence, this study aims to identify and discuss challenges related to RPA implementation projects.

Following an inductive methodology, interviews have been conducted with consultants who were involved in multiple RPA implementation projects. Hence, their extensive experience and views contribute to a detailed and in-depth understanding of the phenomena under research.

The results suggest that there are various process-related, technical, resource-related, psychological and coordinative challenges that must be considered when conducting an RPA implementation project.

This paper contributes to knowledge by presenting a new typology of challenges, as well as providing an in-depth discussion of the individual challenges that organizations face.

Measuring shared value (SV) created in innovation ecosystems (IEs) is increasingly relevant but complex, given the multidimensional and multiactor nature of both concepts, which challenges traditional performance measurement systems (PMSs). Moving from this gap, the authors propose an integrated approach to extend the balanced scorecard (BSC) for measuring and monitoring SV creation at IE level.

The proposed approach combines the most recent contributions on PMS in IEs and SV to define perspectives and dimensions that are better suited to deal with the nature of both IEs and SV. The approach is also applied to the real case (Alpha) of an Italian IE through a step wise method. Starting from the IE vision, the authors identify in the strategy map the specific objectives related to each perspective/dimension combination and then associate a performance indicator with each objective.

The resulting SV BSC is composed of indicators interconnected along different perspectives and dimensions. The application of the approach to the real case proves its feasibility and highlights characteristics, advantages and disadvantages of the SV BSC when used at IE level. The authors also provide guidelines for its application to other IEs.

The study contributes to the research on PMS by introducing and applying to a real case an integrated approach to assess SV in IEs, overcoming the shortcomings of PMS framed for single firms. It can be of interest for both researchers in the field of ecosystems value creation and practitioners managing or promoting such complex structures.

Relational contracting is increasingly being applied to complex and uncertain construction projects. However, it has proved hard to achieve stable performance and industry-level learning in this field. This paper employs an institutional perspective to analyze how legitimacy for relational contracting has been produced and challenged in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, including implications for dissemination and learning.

A collaborative case study design is used, where longitudinal accounts of the developments in relational contracting over more than 25 years in four Nordic countries were developed by scholars based in each country. The descriptions are underpinned by literature sources from research, practice and policy.

The countries share similar problem perceptions that have triggered the de-institutionalization of traditional contracting practices. Models and policies developed elsewhere are important sources of knowledge and legitimacy. Most countries have seen pendulum movements, where dissemination of relational contracting is followed by backlashes when projects fail to meet projected outcomes. Before long, however, relational contracting tends to re-emerge under new labels and in slightly new forms. Such a proliferation of concepts presents further obstacles to learning. Successful institutionalization is found to rely on realistic goals in combination with broad competence development at the organizational and industry levels.

In seeking inspiration from other countries, policymakers should go beyond contract models to also consider strategies to manage industry-level learning.

The paper provides a unique longitudinal cross-country perspective on the field of relational contracting. As such, it contributes to the small stream of literature on long-term institutional change in the construction sector.

This paper, based on the 2022 Master Class delivered at the 50th National Economic Meeting organized by ANPEC, discusses how post-Keynesian macroeconomics and New Developmentalism complement each other to understand middle-income economies' development in financial globalization. It summarizes my academic reflection about the advance in post-Keynesian thinking to develop macroeconomics for peripheral middle-income economies.

As part of this reflection, I first bring up the idea of a developmental convention and, next, how peripheral financialization impacts the elaboration of this convention. Given the asymmetric configuration of the international financial system and the context of hierarchical currencies, I discuss the challenge of overcoming underdevelopment in peripheral economies. The post-Keynesian macroeconomics and advances in the structuralist debate provide the analytical tools to understand how peripheral economies develop virtuous or vicious growth cycles. At the end of the paper, I present some comments on the stagnation of the Brazilian economy.

The growth strategy with foreign savings does not provide the conditions for middle-income economies to operate with sufficient economic policy autonomy to promote productive transformation. To this end, a developmental convention should replace the neoliberal convention that has dominated since the 1970s.

The dynamics of peripheral, middle-income economies, often influenced by international liquidity flows, are a crucial area of study. This research underscores the importance of understanding these dynamics, as it forms the basis for economic policy recommendations. The paper also highlights the inadequacy of the growth strategy with foreign savings in the current configuration of the international financial system, emphasizing the need for middle-income economies to operate with greater economic policy autonomy to foster productive transformation.

The build-up of large-scale COVID-19 testing required an unprecedented effort of coordination within decentralized healthcare systems around the world. The aim of the study was to elucidate the challenges of vertical policy coordination between non-political actors at the national and regional levels regarding this policy issue, using Sweden as our case.

Interviews with key actors at the national and regional levels were analyzed using an adapted version of a conceptualization by Adam et al. (2019), depicting barriers to vertical policy coordination.

Our results show that the main issues in the Swedish context were related to parallel sovereignty and a vagueness regarding responsibilities and mandates as well as complex governmental structures and that this was exacerbated by the unfamiliarity and uncertainty of the policy issue. We conclude that understanding the interaction between the comprehensiveness and complexity of the policy issue and the institutional context is crucial to achieving effective vertical policy coordination.

Many studies have focused on countries’ overall pandemic responses, but in order to improve the outcome of future pandemics, it is also important to learn from more specific response measures.

The aim of this study was to explore and understand the leadership experiences of medical consultants prior to a major hospital move. Health and care is becoming increasingly complex and there is no greater challenge than the move to a new hospital. Effective leadership has been identified as being essential for successful transition. However, there is very little evidence of how medical consultants experience effective leadership.

A qualitative methodology was utilized with one-to-one semi-structured interviews conducted with ten medical consultants. These were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using inductive thematic analysis. The research complied with the consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (COREQ).

Four themes were found to influence medical consultants’ experience of leadership: collaboration, patient centredness, governance and knowledge mobilization. Various factors were identified that negatively influenced their leadership effectiveness. The findings suggest that there are a number of factors that influence complexity leadership effectiveness. Addressing these areas may enhance leadership effectiveness and the experience of leadership in medical consultants.

This study provides a rich exploration of medical consultants’ experience of collective leadership prior to a transition to a new hospital and provides new understandings of the way collective leadership is experienced in the lead up to a major transition and makes recommendations for future leadership research and practice.

The findings suggest that there are a number of factors that influence complexity leadership effectiveness. Addressing these areas may enhance leadership effectiveness and the experience of leadership in medical consultants.

Clinical leadership is associated with better outcomes for patients therefore any interventions that enhance leadership capability will improve outcomes for patients and therefore benefit society.

This is the first research to explore medical consultants’ experience of collective leadership prior to a transition to a new hospital.

Indian Ocean region (IOR) is a coveted maritime space in the international arena because of its unique positioning and importance. The third largest water body on the planet Earth holds great economic significance and sustains the livelihood of its people. While the blue economy (BE) approach gains momentum worldwide, following this for the responsible consumption of ocean resources, India too pursues and has developed a draft policy on the BE. Maritime and coastal tourism is one of the prime areas contributing to this framework of BE. This study will explore the advances in BE prospects of Indian Tourism and highlight the elements of branding a BE Destination in the region. India being a key player and an emerging economy, situated at a transitional maritime position is strategic in nature. India as a country is a strong contestant for the title of tourism hotspot but with its highly regarded destinations, it surprisingly attracts fewer tourists. The paper examines secondary sources of data and attempts to review the untapped potential of the brand India in this vast maritime space. There is enough literature available on destination branding but this paper stands out with its unique and innovative approach that combines economic aspects with maritime sustainability and surely add value to this field of knowledge. This chapter presents the recommendations for BE-led repositioning of India tourism in the IOR. To achieve higher productivity and sustainability, a socioeconomic transformational shift is required in the segments of the tourism sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic has reduced much of the complexities of human life, which has affected the multifaceted socioeconomic dimensions and sectors around the world. One of the main consequences of the pandemic is the reduction in physical mobility and shifting toward a more digitally enhanced platform, where activities may be continued given the imposed physical limitations. Global supply chains were broken down into regional and even local ones and travel has been reduced significantly across leisure and nonleisure reasons, among others. While we recognize that these changes would require substantial capital and financial investments, these will not be put to waste given that emerging models, practices, and trends are the “silver linings” of the pandemic onto the tourism sector. Given that one emerging advocacy is the sustainability of tourism destinations under the backdrop of environmental awareness, care, and sustainable use, we also look at how tourism goods and services are put on sale given the adoption of new models. Finally, we envelope the pandemic experience and the induced iterations of local tourism initiatives as an opportunity to look for new and revitalized tourism innovations toward the “next normal.”

The adoption and usage of information and communication technology (ICT) has introduced transformation in the tourism arena with ICT applications extensively used in tourism industry. In addition to ICT, an advanced infrastructure is essential for the development of tourism industry. Thus, the goal of present research is to probe the impact of ICT and infrastructure on tourism development (TD) in 28 Asian economies using method of moments panel quantile regression (MM-QR) model introduced by Machado and Silva (2019) applied to a panel data from 2008 to 2020. Empirical findings demonstrate that there is an asymmetric non-linear effect of ICT and infrastructure through all quantile range. This indicates that ICT has negative effect on TD in poor countries while positive impact in rich countries. Negative impact in poor countries may be due to higher establishment cost and information technology (IT) productivity paradox. However, results confirm the importance of ICT and infrastructure in endorsing the development of tourism sector in Asian nations by lessening time and money costs and facilitating travelers.