Search results

The objective of this study is to examine current business and management research on “Industry 4.0 base technologies” and “business models” to shed light on this vast literature and to point out future research agenda.

The authors conducted a bibliometric analysis of scientific publications based on 482 documents collected from the Scopus database and a co-citation analysis to provide an overview of business model studies related to Industry 4.0 base technologies. After that a qualitative analysis of the articles was also conducted to identify research trends and trajectories.

The results reveal the existence of five research themes: smart products (cluster 1); business model innovation (cluster 2); technological platforms (cluster 3); value creation and appropriation (cluster 4); and digital business models (cluster 5). A qualitative analysis of the articles was also conducted to identify research trends and trajectories.

First, the dataset was collected through Scopus. The authors are aware that other databases, such as Web of Science, can be used to deepen the focus of quantitative bibliometric analysis. Second, the authors based this analysis on the Industry 4.0 base technologies identified by Frank et al. (2019). The authors recognize that Industry 4.0 comprises other technologies beyond IoT, cloud computing, big data and analytics.

Drawing on these analyses, the authors submit a useful baseline for developing Industry 4.0 base technologies and considering their implications for business models.

In this paper, the authors focus their attention on the relationship between technologies underlying the fourth industrial revolution, identified by Frank et al. (2019), and the business model, with a particular focus on the developments that have occurred over the last decade and the authors performed a bibliometric analysis to consider all the burgeoning literature on the topic.

The sport industry, due to the great importance of intangible assets, represents a field of particular interest for the analysis of intellectual capital disclosure (ICD). However, this sector is still underexplored in the academic literature. This study aims to fill this gap by analysing the level of intellectual capital (IC) information disclosed by the most important basketball clubs on their website and the factors capable of influencing the dissemination of such information. Specifically, it examines the impact of social media visibility – in terms of number of social networks, number of posts, number of followers and internet visibility – on the ICD level.

Firstly, this study performs a manual content analysis of the websites of the top 80 European and US basketball clubs aimed at analysing the ICD level. Secondly, it provides for a regression analysis to test the impact of social media visibility on the amount of IC information disclosed.

Empirical results show a low level of ICD among the basketball clubs examined. They also demonstrate the positive impact of number of posts, number of followers and internet visibility on the amount of IC information disclosed online.

This study extends the analysis of the ICD to the sport industry, still little examined by the academic literature. In this regards, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to explore the ICD in the basketball industry.

This study aims to explore the role of rebel group legitimacy and ideology in durable peace (DP) following peace agreements to end civil wars. It builds on earlier research showing that justice and civil society involvement are critical in achieving DP. This study adds the impacts of rebel group activities and support on DP. Activities include service delivery and mobilization. Support is gauged with outcomes of presidential and parliamentary elections held following peace agreements.

Five data sets were used to measure the key variables: DP, inclusive commissions (IC), legitimacy symmetry (electoral outcomes), service delivery and ideological mobilization. A measure of rebel group integration in the political system was also constructed. Impacts of the integration, legitimacy and ideology variables were assessed with a hierarchical regression model (HRM). This study begins with a base model drawn from earlier research showing the key predictors were procedural justice (PJ) and IC. The authors ask about the extent to which the rebel group variables contribute additional variance to the prediction of DP.

The main contributors to the prediction of DP were PJ, IC and integration in the political system. None of the legitimacy or mobilization variables added significant variance to the prediction. Only one of the mobilization variables, forced recruitment, was significant. The decision to integrate into the political system following the agreement did not mediate the relationship between PJ in the negotiation process and DP. Results of a factor analysis showed that DP, PJ, IC and integration formed a cluster with strong loadings on the first factor.

The negative results for the legitimacy and mobilization variables may not be the last word on rebel group influences. Lack of support for the key hypotheses spurs attempts to discover other sources that contribute to the survival of rebel group actors in the political system and, in turn, to DP.

The issues raised by this study contribute to debates about ways to attain peaceful relations among competing groups following a civil war. It appears that attention to factors inside and around the negotiation process (PJ, ICs and conversion) may be more important than rebel group activities outside of these processes. The results call attention, in particular, to the important role played by political integration. From a policy perspective, it would be useful to develop levers for encouraging rebel groups to emerge as political actors in the post-agreement environment.

Developing measures of the symmetry of rebel group legitimacy and integration in the context of a comparative case study are the primary original contributions of this study. Furthermore, the mode of analysis (HRM) is novel in this literature. This approach builds on and extends the earlier research on factors influencing DP.

I suggest that the search for Adam Smith’s theodicy is likely to be in vain. The paper begins with a brief history of approaches to evil, emphasizing the context in which they arose, and the questions authors were addressing. Approaches most relevant to Adam Smith include those of Augustine and Calvin, and the early modern theodicies of Leibniz, Samuel Clarke and William King, as well as the attacks on them by Bayle and Voltaire. Scottish Enlightenment writers were not terribly interested in theodicy, though Hutcheson and Kames did devote space to their versions of problems of evil. David Hume’s Dialogues on Natural Religion are often taken to be classic statement of the problem of theodicy and argument against religious belief, but his concern was to demolish rationalistic theodicies rather than religious belief or practice. The paper then turns to Smith’s writings, considering similarities and differences to these approaches to evil. Smith emphasizes the wisdom and beneficence of God, and that evils we observe are part of a larger providential plan. He makes no attempt to justify the God in the face of evil, and in this respect Smith shares more with Augustine and Calvin than he does with the early modern theodicists. Smith’s approach to evil is simple and ameliorative. Smith’s approach contrasts with early nineteenth century English political economists, from Malthus onwards, for whom theodicy was important. Whatever view we take of the theodicists project of justifying an all-powerful and good God in the face of evil may, we still struggle to make sense of economic suffering and evil.

This paper explores total quality management (TQM) soft domain efficacy in social care organizations to determine the extent to which an organization's project success may stem from soft TQM critical success factors (CSFs).

Non-structured interviews were conducted with 16 managers overseeing the prosthetic device regeneration project of the Italian local health unit (located in Salerno) to explore which soft factors could contribute to the success of a social care multifunctional organization.

Organizations' handling of certain projects, such as pivoting on soft TQM issues, may allow them to be configured as multiservice organizations. Therefore, a conceptual model of a multiservice social care organization is proposed.

From a managerial perspective, this study presents an interesting success case of a multiservice social care organization with a total annual expenditure of €20 million on prosthetic assistance. Preliminary data show a 13% reduction in public expenditure for Salerno's local health unit via a refurbishment project.

The paper contributes to the soft TQM literature debate: although Italian local health professionals appear aware of soft TQM issues' implementation and consciously apply them in their organization and projects, this occurs more with specific CSFs emerging from the literature. Therefore, this article paves the way for further quantitative and theoretical investigations on the adoption of TQM soft issues in social care organizations' performance measurement.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the causal (not correlational) effect of women’s entrepreneurship on corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices in Latin America.

This study builds on a hitherto unexploited sparse data set on Latin American B Corporations to identify the causal relationship of interest and on a (synthetic) instrumental variable method.

The results confirm that women’s entrepreneurship has a positive causal effect on social responsibility. This study finds that an increase of 1% in the proportion of women entrepreneurs leads to an increase of 0.5 in the B Impact Assessment score, the CSR indicator.

This study contributes to the literature by providing robust statistical evidence of a causal relationship between women entrepreneurs and social responsibility practices in the Latin American context. This research captures the multidimensional nature of social responsibility by using a comprehensive and vast metric of CSR obtained from the data of the B Impact Assessment tool. This study illustrates how machine learning methods can be used to address the lack of structure of the Latin American B Impact Assessment data.

El propósito de esta investigación es identificar el efecto causal (no correlacional) del emprendimiento de mujeres en las prácticas de responsabilidad social empresarial (RSE) en América Latina.

Nos basamos en un conjunto de datos escasamente explorado hasta el momento sobre las Empresas B en América Latina para identificar la relación causal de interés, y utilizamos un método de Variables Instrumentales (VI) sintéticas.

Nuestros resultados verifican el efecto causal positivo del emprendimiento de las mujeres en la responsabilidad social. Descubrimos que un aumento del 1% en la proporción de mujeres emprendedoras conduce a un aumento de 0.5 en la puntuación de la Evaluación de Impacto B, nuestro indicador de RSE.

Contribuimos a la literatura proporcionando evidencia estadística sólida de una relación causal entre emprendedoras mujeres y prácticas de responsabilidad social en el contexto de América Latina. Esta investigación captura la naturaleza multidimensional de la responsabilidad social mediante el uso de una métrica amplia y vasta de RSE obtenida de los datos de la herramienta de Evaluación de Impacto B. Ilustramos cómo se pueden utilizar métodos de aprendizaje automático para abordar la falta de estructura de los datos de evaluación de impacto B en América Latina.

O propósito desta pesquisa é identificar o efeito causal (não correlacional) do empreendedorismo feminino nas práticas de responsabilidade social corporativa (RSC) na América Latina.

Baseamo-nos em um conjunto de dados escasso até então não explorado sobre as Empresas B na América Latina para identificar a relação causal de interesse, e utilizamos um método de Variáveis Instrumentais (VI) sintéticas.

Nossos resultados verificam o efeito causal positivo do empreendedorismo feminino na responsabilidade social. Descobrimos que um aumento de 1% na proporção de mulheres empreendedoras leva a um aumento de 0,5 no escore de Avaliação de Impacto B, nosso indicador de RSC.

Contribuímos para a literatura fornecendo evidências estatísticas robustas de uma relação causal entre empreendedoras mulheres e práticas de responsabilidade social na América Latina. Esta pesquisa captura a natureza multidimensional da responsabilidade social usando uma métrica abrangente e vasta de RSC obtida a partir dos dados da ferramenta de Avaliação de Impacto B. Ilustramos como métodos de aprendizado de máquina podem ser usados para lidar com a falta de estrutura dos dados de avaliação de impacto B na América Latina.