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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of higher education on the emergence of entrepreneurial intention (EI) and human capital (HC) as a component of intellectual capital (IC) that strongly influences the entrepreneurial process.

On the basis of a literature review, a theoretical model that is focused on the theory of planned behaviour was defined to verify the impact of higher education on the development of EI and HC. To this end, the structural equation modelling methodology was applied to two samples of students and academics, which differ each other in terms of both education level and specific characteristics of entrepreneurship education activities.

The main results show that there are significant differences between the two considered samples. In particular, the level and specific characteristics of entrepreneurial education are the key factors for the development of EI and HC.

The research may be of relevance for universities and policy makers. Universities must devote more attention to training and practice-oriented entrepreneurial courses and collateral activities (projects, initiatives, actions), both for students (first mission) and academic aspiring entrepreneurs (third mission) to encourage the emergence of EI and HC formation. For policy makers, this study suggests the need to define policy guidelines and frameworks to support universities’ educational programmes and activities to strengthen the entrepreneurial process, so that they can be consistent with the EU and national entrepreneurship policies.

This explorative research intends to contribute to the scientific debate by filling the knowledge gap that is due to the very limited number of studies that analyse whether and how EI can mediate the relationship between higher education and HC as an IC component.

According to the paradigm of the Triple Helix, universities are moving from their traditional roles of research, teaching and knowledge dissemination to an entrepreneurial role. Specifically, they contribute to innovation and competitiveness by creating academic spin-offs (ASOs). In such a context, the diffusion of digital technologies is impacting both on the development of new forms of academic entrepreneurship and on the motivations of academics in launching ASOs. Grounded on a recent reconceptualization developed on identity theory, this study investigates the motivations that lead an academic to establish a spin-off and if, how and why these motivations vary over time.

An extensive online survey was performed in order to obtain a final database of 151 Italian ASOs. Different statistical techniques were used, such as Cluster analysis and ANOVA, to identify different ASO profiles and to understand how and why these profiles change over time.

The results suggest that motivations change over time: while financial aspects become less important, academics give more importance to other issues. Time, experience and financial gain influence the evolution of academic entrepreneurs' motivations over time.

Insights derived from the study could help policy-makers and administrators in better understanding this phenomenon and the possible evolution of such academic motivations in the context of digitalization, and enable them to act accordingly to foster academic entrepreneurship.

The main contributions of the present study are the addition of empirical knowledge to the scant and anecdotal literature existing to date and the inclusion of cognitive and psychological theoretical perspectives in the academic entrepreneurship debate. Moreover, it is believed that no other study has investigated the above topics in the Italian context.

The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to shed light on the increasing start-up competitions (SUCs) phenomenon; second, to provide an interpretive framework to understand whether the SUCs have the potential to be effective entrepreneurial learning environment; third, to analyse the different roles of public and private actors in organizing SUCs.

The paper presents a cross-section analysis of the Italian SUCs population. In total, 77 competitions are analysed on the basis of different criteria which should properly mirror their distinguishing structural features, helping understand the potential of SUCs as learning environments.

The recent increase in the number of SUCs has been mainly fuelled by private actors. Moreover, Italian SUCs show some features that make them rich learning environments. Private and public actors play different roles, as confirmed by statistical tests performed. Privately organized SUCs follow mainly a market-oriented approach, while publicly organized ones are more education oriented.

The findings cannot be easily generalized mainly due to the peculiarities of the Italian context.

Soft forms of regulation should be defined to strengthen those features which could potentially support the entrepreneurial learning processes. In this view, SUCs should be part of a start-up friendly ecosystem where actors (startuppers, incubators, venture capitalists) are effectively coordinated with each other.

Despite the remarkable diffusion of SUCs, there are significant gaps in literature about this phenomenon. Given the lack of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of SUCs as effective entrepreneurial learning environments, the paper represents an important starting point.

This paper aims to conceptualize the digital behavior of startups and investigate the emerging behaviors about digital strategies of the Italian startup firms enrolled in the Startup Act policy initiative. Digital technologies were divided into intra- and inter-organizational digital infrastructures, and this categorization offers startups the opportunity to identify a set of enabling technologies that could be used to improve their digital strategies.

An empirical analysis has been conducted to investigate the degree of adoption of digital intra- and inter-organizational digital infrastructures in the entire population of 6,178 Italian firms listed in the Register of Innovative Startups.

The paper proposes a taxonomy bringing together four startup behaviors for adopting digital technologies: digital follower, technical influencer, social influencer and digital leader. From the perspective of policy makers, considering the financial efforts that public authorities are supporting in the last decade, implications are mainly concerned with policy measures aimed both to reinforce the overall adoption of digital technologies and to develop a balanced adoption of intra- and inter-organizational digital infrastructures.

Measures addressed to support female and foreign entrepreneurship could be useful to support a more dynamic and well-balanced cultural and racial contamination, thus improving the adoption of digital tools.

Unilever‐Sagit is the main Italian competitor in the Italian frozen food market. The company has very recently innovated its distribution channel by creating a private Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network. Examines the effects generated by the implementation of EDI technology on supply chain management. Discusses the theoretical aspects of the impact of EDI on strategic management of logistics and examines the Unilever‐Sagit EDI network in detail.

This paper aims to fill the research gap represented by the lack of analysis on the industry's specific factors which affect the evolution of customer‐supplier relationships and the entire supply chain organisation in the railway manufacturing industry by providing an interpretative framework.

The research is based upon an in‐depth longitudinal case study on AnsaldoBreda, the main Italian railway company that is representative of the EU context. The study was conducted over a period of ten years.

The empirical findings highlighted that in recent decades the hierarchical relationships among firms operating in the Italian railway have been modified. Moreover, regarding the evolution of the supply system four main phases are illustrated and the gap with other industrial sectors is remarked.

The approach taken restricts the empirical findings to the Italian railway industry. However, various elements show that the case study is representative of the European railway industry as well.

The paper provides practical indications at three different levels: for large firms (both manufacturers and operator firms) regarding the leading role assumed in the supply chain, for small supplier firms regarding cost efficiency, technology, organisation and quality improvement to be competitive in the global market, and for railway transport as a whole regarding quality of service, customer satisfaction and railway transport demand.

The paper provides a conceptual framework to interpret the supply chain evolution based upon the changing role of the leader firm while providing insight on the impact of liberalisation/globalisation processes on the supply chain organisation.