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With the demographic increase, especially in big cities, heavy traffic, traffic congestion, road accidents and augmented pollution levels hamper transportation networks. Finding the optimal routes in urban scenarios is very challenging since it should consider reducing traffic jams, optimizing travel time, decreasing fuel consumption and reducing pollution levels accordingly. In this regard, the authors propose an enhanced approach based on the Ant Colony algorithm that allows vehicle drivers to search for optimal routes in urban areas from different perspectives, such as shortness and rapidness.

An improved ant colony algorithm (ACO) is used to calculate the optimal routes in an urban road network by adopting an elitism strategy, a random search approach and a flexible pheromone deposit-evaporate mechanism. In addition, the authors make a trade-off between route length, travel time and congestion level.

Experimental tests show that the routes found using the proposed algorithm improved the quality of the results by 30% in comparison with the ACO algorithm. In addition, the authors maintain a level of accuracy between 0.9 and 0.95. Therefore, the overall cost of the found solutions decreased from 67 to 40. In addition, the experimental results demonstrate that the authors’ improved algorithm outperforms not only the original ACO algorithm but also popular meta-heuristic algorithms such as the genetic algorithm (GA) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) in terms of reducing travel costs and improving overall fitness value.

The proposed improvements to the ACO to search for optimal paths for urban roads include incorporating multiple factors, such as travel length, time and congestion level, into the route selection process. Furthermore, random search, elitism strategy and flexible pheromone updating rules are proposed to consider the dynamic changes in road network conditions and make the proposed approach more relevant and effective. These enhancements contribute to the originality of the authors’ work, and they have the potential to advance the field of traffic routing.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the mediating role of comprehensive performance measurement systems (PMS) – i.e. measurement systems that comprise financial and non-financial indicators, and which also consist of indicators related to different aspects of an organisation’s operations – in the relationship between strategy and company performance.

Survey data of top managers of large European companies were collected and analysed by means of exploratory factor analyses and hierarchical regressions in order to validate the proposed hypotheses.

This research shows that different strategies lead to the use of different types of performance indicators. Also, it finds that the utilisation of a comprehensive PMS enables the implementation of both differentiation and cost-leadership strategies. Specifically, a comprehensive PMS positively mediates the effect of differentiation strategy on organisational and innovative performance, and of cost-leadership strategy on organisational performance.

Further research could be undertaken in other contexts and consider additional factors, such as the structure, maturity and different uses of PMS, and the cost of measuring performance. Qualitative studies could examine the role of PMS in dynamic environments, as well as the evolution of PMS during strategic transitions.

Greater consideration should be given to the utilisation of different types of performance indicators when implementing and re-formulating strategy.

This study clarifies the links between strategy and performance measurement, and it is the first to identify the mediating effect of comprehensive PMS between strategy and company performance.

Performance measurement and management (PMM) systems have traditionally enabled strategy execution within and across firms. However, PMM have been criticized as overly static and deterministic and therefore inappropriate for emergent and dynamic contexts, such as those that characterize business ecosystems.The study aims to address the roles of organizational PMM practices in the development and implementation of business ecosystem strategies.

The authors carried out a qualitative, longitudinal study during 2016–2020 at a Japanese multinational technology corporation attempting to create an ecosystem strategy to expand its market and diversify its offering. The authors collected interview, observation and archival data, spanning the period from framing the initial strategy to establishing the ecosystem.

The process of developing and implementing the ecosystem strategy was emergent and highly iterative, rather than planned and linear, eventually requiring key decision-makers in the company to challenge some of their deeply held assumptions. PMM practices first acted as barriers to ecosystem development by promoting an excessive focus on revenue generation. Once modified, PMM helped capture, convey and reassess the ecosystem strategy. Performance targets, indicators and strategy maps were not just data gathering and reporting mechanisms but key means to express competing perspectives.

When developing an ecosystem strategy, managers should adopt a participatory and iterative approach, reviewing the complementary effects of various PMM tools at different points in time.

The study is among the first to provide an in-depth account of ecosystem strategy creation and implementation and to identify the diverse roles and effects of PMM practices in dynamic and complex contexts.

The paper offers a survey of major Italian accounting scholars and their work for the period from 1900 to 1950. Apart from the late works of Rossi and Besta, the main focus is on the contributions by Zappa, who undoubtedly dominated the scene. In this period, as well as later, most Italian accountants and “aziendalisti” adopted the so‐called “income system”. Although its premises originated with Fabio Besta, master of the so‐called “patrimonial or proprietorship system”, the Italian School under Zappa gave this system a new theoretical basis that differed fundamentally from that of Besta. Zappa also developed the dynamic aspect of accounting and business economics that still prevails in Italy. The paper also devotes attention to other Italian scholars, less well‐known abroad. In the area of cost accounting it concentrates on the views of De Minico and his disciple Amodeo, but also mentions other contributors. The final Section deals with Italian contributions to accounting history during this period

The purpose of this paper is to examine the influences of performance measurement (PM) on not-for-profit (NFP) organizations’ stakeholders by studying how PM practices interact with understandings of legitimate performance goals. This study invokes institutional logics theory to explain interactions between PM and stakeholders.

An in-depth case study is conducted in a large NFP organization in the UK. Managers, employees, and external partners are interviewed and observed, and performance-related documents analyzed.

Both stakeholders and PM practices are found to have dominant institutional logics that portray certain goals as legitimate. PM practices can reinforce, reconcile, or inhibit stakeholders’ understandings and propensity to act toward goals, depending on the extent to which practices share the dominant logic of the stakeholders they interact with.

A theoretical framework is proposed for how PM practices first interact with stakeholders at a cognitive level and second influence action. This research is based on a single case study, which limits generalizability of findings; however, results may be transferable to other environments where PM is aimed at balancing competing stakeholder objectives and organizational priorities.

PM affects the experience of stakeholders by interacting with their understanding of legitimate performance goals. PM systems should be designed and implemented on the basis of both their formal ability to represent organizational aims and objectives, and their influence on stakeholders.

Findings advance PM theory by offering an explanation for how PM influences attention and actions at an individual micro level.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between strategy implementation, performance measurement and strategic alignment within a highly diversified group of firms.

A mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches was used, and data were gathered in two different periods. In the first phase, preliminary interviews were followed by a survey across all the firms of the group and by semi‐structured interviews in four companies. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted four years later to explore changes in both strategy and performance measurement systems (PMSs).

This research contributes to the debate on the appropriateness of introducing PMSs as formal management control mechanisms. The analysis of data led to three main findings. First, the introduction of IT systems and specific governance mechanisms alone enabled the implementation of strategy across the group only to a limited extent. Second, the lack of a comprehensive PMS appeared to have negative effects on both the formulation and implementation of strategy. Third, following a phase of substantial expansion, both strategy and measurement systems had to be changed to provide a greater sense of direction and to gather data on non‐financial aspects of the business.

This research considers the case of a group of firms, which aimed to achieve strategy implementation and alignment without introducing a comprehensive PMS. This paper provides empirical evidence of the potential limitations of such an approach, and illustrates the changes to strategy and performance measurement made by the company considered.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to recent calls for understanding how multiple management control (MC) and performance measurement (PM) systems are used simultaneously for managing performance, particularly in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Data are collected during an in-depth case study of MC and PM and management practices in a Dutch SME using multiple data sources and elicitation methods, including interviews and participant observations.

This study identifies managerial practices that enable the interplay of the four control systems – beliefs, boundaries, diagnostic and interactive – helping the organization manage organizational tensions in relation to short- and long-term focus, predictable goal achievement and search for new opportunities, internal and external focus, and control and creativity.

This paper advances the research on integrating multiple aspects of performance management, particularly technical and social. This research is based on a single case study; future qualitative and quantitative studies could explore the interplay between the four control systems in other settings and explore the relationship between control systems and leadership style.

Managing performance requires active and continuous use of all four control systems. This is particularly salient in SMEs where less formal controls play a key role and where balance needs to be ensured despite the lack of managerial processes and capabilities.

The findings advance PM and management theory and practice in the context of SMEs.

The paper investigates the closure mechanisms and strategies of exclusion concerning the establishment and subsequent functioning of the Collegio dei Rasonati, the professional body of accountants that was established in Venice in 1581 and operated until the end of the 18th century.

The research design offers a critical longitudinal explanation of the emergence of the Collegio dei Rasonati as a professional body in the context of Venetian society by relying on the social closure theory elaborated by Collins (1975); Parkin (1979) and Murphy (1988).

The Collegio dei Rasonati was established to overcome the prerogatives of a social class in accessing the accounting profession. However, the pre-existing professional elites enacted a set of social closure strategies able to transform this professional body into a stronghold of their privileges.

As virtually all of the evidence concerning the admission examinations has been lost over time, the investigation is restricted to the study of the few examples that have survived. The main implication of the study concerns the understanding of some dynamics leading to neutralize attempts to replace class privileges with a meritocratic system.

The research investigates the structure of the rules of social closure revealing the possibility of an antagonistic relationship between different co-existing forms of exclusion within the same structure. Moreover, it highlights that a form of exclusion can be made of different hierarchical levels.

The purpose of this study is to review the existing fatigue and vibration-based structural health monitoring techniques and highlight the advantages of combining both approaches.

Fatigue monitoring requires a fatigue model of the material, the stresses at specific points of the structure, a cycle counting technique and a fatigue damage criterion. Firstly, this paper reviews existing structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques, addresses their principal classifications and presents the main characteristics of each technique, with a particular emphasis on modal-based methodologies. Automated modal analysis, damage detection and localisation techniques are also reviewed. Fatigue monitoring is an SHM technique which evaluate the structural fatigue damage in real time. Stress estimation techniques and damage accumulation models based on the S-N field and the Miner rule are also reviewed in this paper.

A vast amount of research has been carried out in the field of SHM. The literature about fatigue calculation, fatigue testing, fatigue modelling and remaining fatigue life is also extensive. However, the number of publications related to monitor the fatigue process is scarce. A methodology to perform real-time structural fatigue monitoring, in both time and frequency domains, is presented.

Fatigue monitoring can be combined (applied simultaneously) with other vibration-based SHM techniques, which might significantly increase the reliability of the monitoring techniques.