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Firms can choose from an array of approaches for reducing the detrimental financial effects caused by unfavorable fluctuations in commodity prices. The purpose of this paper is to provide guidance for effectively estimating the financial effects of mitigating commodity price risk volatility (CPV) in supply chain management decisions.

This paper adopts two prominent and complementary methodologies, namely, total cost of ownership (TCO and real options valuation (ROV), to illustrate how commodity price risk mitigation strategies can be analyzed with respect to their effect on costs and performance. The paper provides insights through a case study to demonstrate the application of these methods together and establish the benefits and challenges associated with their implementation.

The paper illustrates advantages and disadvantages of TCO and ROV and how these approaches can be adopted together to contribute to effective purchasing decisions. Supply chain flexibility is a key capability but requires investments. Holistically measuring the financial effects of flexibility investments is imperative for gaining executive management support in mitigating commodity price volatility.

This study can provide supply chain professionals with useful guidance for measuring the costs and benefits related to developing strategies for mitigating commodity price volatility. TCO provides a focus on the costs associated with the commodity purchasing process, and ROV enables the aggregation of all the costs and benefits associated with the use of the strategy and synthesizes them into the net value estimate.

The paper provides a comparison of different but complementary approaches, specifically TCO and ROV, for analyzing the effectiveness of CPV risk mitigation decisions. In addition, these two methods allow supply chain professionals to evaluate and control the financial effects of CPV risk, particularly the impact of mitigation on firm’s cash flows.

The prevailing view in the studies on Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) is that PPPs can improve the quality and efficiency of infrastructure services and facilitates innovation in infrastructure developments. Although researchers highlight the potentiality of PPP models for stimulating innovation, they do not prove whether and in which conditions the PPP model is capable of developing innovative solutions. This paper aims to provide answers to the following key research questions: Which are the PPP features that favor innovation? How properly structure a PPP to foster innovation?

With this aim, drawing upon the main streams of studies on innovation, the authors develop a conceptual framework that identifies the PPP features that can influence the innovativeness. Second, they define how these PPP features have to be structured to foster innovation.

The authors find that a wider involvement of the private sector will increase the level of innovation. The industry structure exerts opposite forces on innovation: the dominance of large-sized firms is positively related to innovative output, whereas the market concentration negatively affects innovation. Performance-based contracts should be used in the context of PPP instead of traditional contracts. Finally, the authors find that, to fully exploit the networking effects on innovation, cooperation and trusting among partners involved in PPPs should be enhanced.

The developed framework identifies the relations existing between each PPP feature and the level of innovation and allows to define how these PPP features have to be structured to foster innovation. The authors contribute to fill the gap in the academic literature on PPP and innovation by proving whether and in which conditions the PPP model is capable of developing innovative solutions. Furthermore, they provide meaningful guidelines to those called to structure the PPP arrangements.

The COVID-19 pandemic and recent disruptive events are affecting firms’ operations and supply chain networks on a large scale, causing disturbances in supply, demand, production and logistics activities. Although supply chain resilience (SCR) research has received large attention in recent years, the purpose of this paper is to offer an original contribution by exploring how complex configurations and interactions between SCR strategies and capacities can lead to resilience.

This study investigates the configurations of SCR strategies and capacities using a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis.

First, the findings reveal different SCR strategy configurations through the lens of absorptive, reactive and restorative capacities to achieve resilience. Second, this study applies the contingent resource-based view (CRBV) perspective to interpret how organizations can achieve resilience before, during and after a disruptive event. Third, it offers an analysis of different groups of organizations, based on the adoption of different SCR strategies and capacities.

This study identifies a set of equifinal SCR strategies and capacity configurations that can be implemented to cope with a disruptive event and lead to resilience. It also enriches the research addressing the consecutive phases of SCR investments, developing the CRBV perspective. In our results, five solutions describe organizations that invest in absorptive capacities, representing an ex ante readiness.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on productivity as it unfolds during the execution of a particular task, i.e., reinforced concrete operations. The main aim is understanding whether the learning effect explaining the improvement of productivity in subsequent cycles of a given repetitive construction process is mainly attributable to a pure worker learning (independent on the specific site) or to the experience developed by the crew on the site conditions.

The authors conduct a research that empirically investigates and compares the change in productivity data of a single worker during his/her working life and that of a crew involved in specific repetitive work, such as the concreting activities of a multi-storey building.

The findings suggest differentiating between productivity gain as a result of the learning effect of the individual worker throughout his/her working life (which is independent of the specific project and site) and that of a crew composed by more workers which repeat reinforced concrete operations in a given specific project.

Despite the great attention reserved to learning in construction, few researchers discuss on the real applicability of the learning curve (LC) theory in the construction industry. The authors contribute to this literature by empirically investigating the contributions that the learning effect of the individual worker and that of a crew repeating a given task (i.e. reinforced concrete operations) in a given project have on the productivity improvement for subsequent cycles of the repetitive construction process.

The findings of this study have important managerial implications. The shape of the LC of the individual worker implies that learning increases relatively slowly in his/her working life (particularly after one to two years), while the effects of the crew experience are immediately significant in a time range of few weeks. This means that a single “one-off” multi-storey building project will show in the first storey the “historical,” individual productivity of the individual workers (i.e. not going to vary significantly in the next few weeks). The productivity improvement in the further storeys will only depend on the project-specific (and collective, for the crew) “learning” due, for example, to better coordination or to other issues that are progressively solved moving from the first storey to the following ones. So, the project-specific LC increases in a faster way than the individual one, and the overall productivity can be improved by accelerating the project-specific learning rate with more accurate project-specific design and management.

This paper enhances the understanding of the contributions that the learning effect of the individual worker and that of a crew repeating a given task (i.e. reinforced concrete operations) in a given project have on the productivity improvement for subsequent cycles of the repetitive construction process. This will contribute to improve the planning and control of site work activities, avoiding time and money wastefulness.

This paper aims to investigate factors and weaknesses influencing university–industry interactions diffusion and success by focusing on the research services initiatives because there are limited studies in literature focusing on this specific form of interaction between the two actors.

The authors carried an explorative research based on multiple case studies referring to research services experienced between two big Italian universities and small and medium-sized enterprises located in the same area.

By conducting a cross-case analysis, the authors highlight categories of data in terms of factors influencing interactions’ diffusion and success, as perceived by researchers and by firms; and weaknesses in the interactions process to identify suggestions for improving interactions’ diffusion and success, from researchers and firms.

The outcomes provide managerial implications useful for agencies supporting the diffusion of innovation among firms and firms’ systems for defining new policies and action plans aimed at making the university–industry interactions faster and more effective, improving the innovation processes within firms.

This paper gives new insight in the analysis of factors enhancing university–industry relationships with a focus on research services collaborations and focusing both on university and industry, where large contributions focus predominantly on both groups.

This paper aims to provide an easy-to-use yet powerful tool to assess the organizational readiness to adopt effective Smart Working (SW). In light of this main objective, based on the current state of research, the study develops a maturity model to assess the SW organizational readiness (SWOR). The SWOR maturity model consists of three dimensions, each of them further detailed into two sub-dimensions. A tool was developed to make use of the model.

The SWOR maturity model was converted into a Web-based questionnaire that includes 54 questions based on 44 items to operationalize the model sub-dimensions. The questionnaire was used in a survey conducted at the Local Health Authority (ASL) of the province of Bari (Italy).

Several implications derive from the present study. From a managerial perspective, the SWOR maturity model supports companies in the as-is analysis of processes, technologies and human resources, which are the enablers of an effective SW, and in the development of a roadmap to achieve a desired “to-be” situation.

Despite recent studies on SW have identified the key drivers that affect the success of SW implementation, there is a lack of models and tools that help companies become aware of the actions and investments to be taken to move towards an effective SW adoption. Even the analysis of the literature on maturity models reveals a gap in the research related to the assessment of SW organizational readiness. The present paper tries to overcome these limitations.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the maximum interest rate guarantees (MIRGs), and develop a methodology for setting the optimal value of the interest rate cap, namely the maximum interest rate above which the private investor will obtain reimbursement from the government, which balances the interests of the parties involved in the project.

The mechanism underlying the MIRG is modeled through real options. Monte Carlo simulation is employed as the option-pricing method. The resulting real option-based model is applied to the case of the “Camionale di Bari” toll road (Southern Italy).

The application provides some insights for the policy maker called to define the proper forms of guarantees. Furthermore, the results support the negotiation process, allowing the different actors to structure the guarantee in a way that satisfies all the parties and fairly allocates risks between them according to different operational and financial conditions.

The novelty of the contribution is triple. First, the authors advance the state of the art on government supports by focusing on the interest rate guarantee. Second, the authors enrich the existing studies on MIRG by proposing a quantitative model to set the guarantee in compliance with the public–private win-win principle. The developed real option-based model supports the decision maker in finding the optimal value of the interest rate cap, which is able to satisfy the interests of the parties involved in the project. Third, the authors consider not only the private sponsor and the government, as traditionally made by the models developed for other guarantees, but also the lender.

This paper provides a comprehensive risk management framework for buyer-supplier relationships where the buyer has the status of a preferred customer with the supplier.

Empirical evidence is offered with a case study on a large multinational organization in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry, with some real-life perspectives on the main risks, mitigation strategies, and issues faced when applying the risk management framework.

The results show that several risks may affect buyer-supplier relationships: not only traditional supply risks but also risks linked to specific initiatives and/or relationships, as well as risks specific to buyer-supplier relationships with a preferred customer status. Customer attractiveness and supplier satisfaction are found as core drivers for the mitigation strategies, which are built to protect the relationship with the supplier, rather than the buying firm alone, knowing that being a preferred customer with preferential resources allocation may increase a firm’s competitive advantage.

The research brings important contributions to the academic literature and interesting insights to strategic purchasing practitioners, by enhancing the existing knowledge on supply risk management in buyer-supplier relationships with a preferred customer status, as well as providing strategic purchasing practitioners a comprehensive view of the risks, which may affect the relationships with a preferred customer status, as well as possible ways to mitigate them.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) require the analysis and allocation of a broad spectrum of risks which are considered more complex than in traditional construction contracts. Traditional risk management techniques tend to ignore the manager's ability to recognize and exploit opportunities, which arise as uncertainties are resolved over time and which could potentially increase the project's value. Therefore it is necessary that the risk management process takes account of the managerial flexibility (e.g. real options). The objective of this paper is to explore the possibilities and rationale for implementing real options strategies in the risk management process.

The approach is based on a literature analysis aimed at identifying key risks and related mitigation strategies and on real option theory in order to model these strategies as managerial flexibilities that naturally exist or are built “artificially” in contractual conditions and clauses, guarantees, etc.

The paper develops an option-based risk management framework that associates to each risk the related mitigation strategies, which are expressed in terms of real options. The latter is expressed over the project phases conditioned to the natural evolution of risks over time.

This paper proposes a new “dynamic” risk management approach for PPP projects based on real options that improves the traditional risk management techniques by supporting the decision makers in finding a cost-effective combination of real options (or forms of flexibility) to embed in a PPP investment in order to optimally control risk and maximize investment value.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in Italy in order to highlight challenges and opportunities for a more effective adoption of PPP in Italy. In particular we analyze three key aspects that affect the PPP adoption and implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial ones, and their changes over time.

To reach the aim, we have conducted an empirical research, gathering qualitative and quantitative relevant information, to characterize three key dimensions affecting the PPP adoption and its effective implementation, namely the institutional, organizational, and financial dimension.

The analysis of PPP in Italy reveals that, although it is a relatively recent practice, its use is widely spread in delivering public infrastructures. Nevertheless, there are still some shortcomings, related to administrative, financial, and legal issues, that make the application and use of PPP, although considerable in size, less effective and efficient in Italy than in some other countries. In order to overcome these limitations, different interventions are required in order to strength the practices and advance the body of knowledge.

The study formulates useful recommendations for an effective implementation of PPP based on the analysis of the main constraints for the PPP's development in Italy.

The study overcomes the gap of the existing literature on the Italian PPP that have analyzed the phenomenon under two different approaches. Some researchers have investigated the key aspects characterizing PPPs, by adopting a mono-dimensional perspective. Other studies have analyzed the extent of adoption and diffusion of PPP in Italy, by presenting data on PPP projects by sector and/or by types. This paper contributes to fill this gap by providing both a comprehensive analysis of PPP, based on three key dimensions characterizing the PPP adoption and implementation, as well as by presenting an updated picture of the PPP in Italy.