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This paper aims to propose an interpretive framework to understand how machine learning (ML) affects the way companies interact with their ecosystem and how the introduction of digital technologies affects the value co-creation (VCC) process.

This study bases on configuration theory, which entails two main methodological phases. In the first phase the authors define the theoretically-derived interpretive framework through a literature review. In the second phase the authors adopt a case study methodology to inductively analyze the theoretically-derived domains and their relationships within a configuration.

ML enables multi-directional knowledge flows among value co-creators and expands the scope of VCC beyond the boundaries of the firm-client relationship. However, it determines a substantive imbalance in knowledge management power among the actors involved in VCC. ML positively impacts value co-creators’ performance but also requires significant organizational changes. To benefit from VCC via ML, value co-creators must be aligned in terms of digital maturity.

The paper answers the call for more theoretical and empirical research on the impact of the introduction of Industry 4.0 technology in companies and their ecosystem. It intends to improve the understanding of how ML technology affects the determinants and the process of VCC by providing both a static and dynamic analysis of the topic.

This paper aims to give an integrated framework for analysing the main opportunities and threats related to the exploitation of Big Data (BD) technologies within intellectual capital (IC) management.

By means of a structured literature review (SLR) of the extant literature on BD and IC, the study identified distinctive opportunities and challenges of BD technologies and related them to the traditional dimensions of IC.

The advent of BD has not radically changed the risks and opportunities of IC management already highlighted in previous literature. However, it has significantly amplified their magnitude and the speed with which they manifest themselves. Thus, a revision of the traditional managerial solutions needed to face them is required.

The developed framework can contribute to academic discourse on BD and IC as a starting point to understanding how BD can be turned into intangible assets from a value creation perspective.

The framework can also represent a useful decision-making tool for practitioners in identifying and evaluating the main opportunities and threats of an investment in BD technologies for IC management.

The paper responds to the call for more research on the integration of BD discourse in the fourth stage of IC research. It intends to improve this understanding of how BD technologies can be exploited to create value from an IC perspective, focussing not only on the potential of BD for creating value but also on the challenges that it poses to organizations.

This study aims to analyze the utilization of big data and data analytics (BDA) in financial auditing, focusing on the process of producing legitimacy around these techniques, the factors fostering or hindering such process and the action auditors take to legitimate BDA inside and outside the audit community.

The analysis bases on semi-structured interviews with partners and senior managers of Italian audit companies.

The BDA’s legitimation process is more advanced in the audit professional environment than outside the audit community. The Big Four lead the BDA-driven audit innovation process and BDA is used to complement traditional audit procedures. Outside the audit community, the digital maturity of audit clients, the lack of audit standards and the audit oversight authority’s negative view prevent the full legitimation of BDA.

This research highlights factors influencing the utilization of BDA to enhance audit quality. The results can, thus, be used to enhance the audit strategy and to innovate audit practices by using BDA as a source of adequate audit evidence. Audit regulators and standards setters can also use the results to revise the current auditing standards and guidance.

This study adds to the literature on digital transformation in auditing by analyzing the legitimation process of a new audit technique. The paper answers the call for more empirical studies on the utilization of BDA in financial auditing by analyzing the application of such techniques in an unexplored operational setting in which auditees are mainly medium-sized enterprises and family-run businesses.

This paper helps to address the need for investigations on intellectual liabilities (ILs). In light of these considerations, the purpose of this paper is to present an analysis of the extant literature on ILs in order to offer a solid base for improving the intellectual capital (IC) research agenda.

This study proposes a descriptive review. Refereed published studies and seminal works were analysed and then systematised.

This study shows that ILs tend to be overlooked in the IC discourse and identifies two main conceptions of ILs and the related measurement methods and tools. Furthermore, this study underlines the need to focus not only on what ILs are, but also on what ILs do. Finally, it supports the idea of adopting a holistic approach that considers both the positive (related to resources) and the negative (referred to liabilities) sides of IC.

The inability to cover all the literature that directly or indirectly deals with ILs is the main limitation of this paper. Time restrictions, language constraints and imperfect information narrow the coverage. Nevertheless, the adopted research methodology has allowed the authors to collect the main contributions in this field, in order to offer a concise, but complete picture of the studies on ILs.

This paper can be of help to those interested in analysing ILs, as it aims to systematise and offer a concise overview of the current literature in this field, which should be of use to both researchers and practitioners. Moreover, it offers some reflections on the topic and identifies possible research paths useful to developing future studies of theoretical and practical relevance.

This review differs from the previous ones dedicated to the IC discourse in two main ways: first, it does not focus on the whole of IC or on parts of it but on a specific topic, such as ILs, usually left out of the analyses and never adequately considered in previous literature reviews; second, it includes the publications on IC from 1999 to date and some unpublished works, in order to have both seminal and more consolidated studies.

This paper aims to investigate the link between accounting, religion and art to understand the managerial approach of the Confraternity of Corpus Domini of Urbino and the phenomenon of art commissioning between 1465 and 1513.

This study is based on the interpretive historical method used to understand, through accounting, the managerial role of confraternities within the economic activity of art commissioning. To this purpose, the present analysis is based on a primary source, represented by the book of revenues and expenses, named B1 (1465–1513).

The analysis has provided evidence of the role of Urbino’s Confraternity in supporting art commissioning and its capacity to invest significant resources in favor of the social, religious and institutional environment of the time. Results show the connection between Urbino’s Confraternity and painters based on their commissioning agreements, the relation between painters and the Ducal Court and, finally, the role of the Duke of Urbino in funding the Confraternity’s initiatives for painters. Thus, this study highlights the major role played by Urbino’s Confraternity in art commissioning, an instrumental part of the Confraternity’s mission.

This paper presents a unique case study that brings out the managerial approach in art commissioning through accounting documents which make activities and links visible.

This paper addresses the trade-off between asset investment and food safety in the design of a food catering production plant. It analyses the relationship between the quality decay of cook-warm products, the logistics of the processes and the economic investment in production machines.

A weekly cook-warm production plan has been monitored on-field using temperature sensors to estimate the quality decay profile of each product. A multi-objective optimisation model is proposed to (1) minimise the number of resources necessary to perform cooking and packing operations or (2) to maximise the food quality of the products. A metaheuristic simulated annealing algorithm is introduced to solve the model and to identify the Pareto frontier of the problem.

The packaging buffers are identified as the bottleneck of the processes. The outcome of the algorithms highlights that a small investment to design bigger buffers results in a significant increase in the quality with a smaller food loss.

This study models the production tasks of a food catering facility to evaluate their criticality from a food safety perspective. It investigates the tradeoff between the investment cost of resources processing critical tasks and food safety of finished products.

The methodology applies to the design of cook-warm production. Catering companies use cook-warm production to serve school, hospitals and companies. For this reason, the application of this methodology leads to the improvement of the quality of daily meals for a large number of people.

The paper introduces a new multi-objective function (asset investment vs food quality) proposing an original metaheuristic to address this tradeoff in the food catering industry. Also, the methodology is applied and validated in the design of a new food production facility.