1,721,031 research outputs found
Il libro bianco della ricerca e dell'innovazione. Linea di indagine D: Le risorse umane attive nel settore della ricerca e innovazione del Friuli Venezia Giulia
Full text linkVengono approfondite alcune delle caratteristiche delle risorse umane che operano nel settore della ricerca e dell'innovazione all'interno dei Dipartimenti universitari, degli Enti di ricerca, dei Parchi scientifici e tecnologici, dei laboratori di ricerca e delle imprese private. L’indagine si propone quindi di offrire un primo quadro di sintesi, una mappa della comunità scientifica dei ricercatori regionali operanti in Friuli Venezia-Giulia
Strategia e management strategico
No full textDa L’arte della guerra, classico cinese del 500a.C., ai giorni nostri, l’attenzione sulla strategia non è mai venuta meno, integrando alla classica visione militare il contributo di nuovi domini del sapere. Il risultato, tuttavia, non ha portato a una teoria generale della strategia. Questa disparità di visioni si riflette anche sull’attuale offerta di testi che trattano l’argomento: strategia come strumento per la supremazia sui rivali, strategia come gioco di cooperazione a somma positiva, strategia come processo decisionale. Esiste oggi un testo in grado di abbracciare la totalità queste visioni e riconciliarle in un tutto unico e coerente? O piuttosto a seconda del fine ultimo a cui si tende ci sono opere in grado di rispondere meglio di altre a specifici bisogni
The Economics of Digital Games
No full textSome may wonder why the need to dedicate a chapter to the economic aspects of digital games: after all, digital games are about creativity, eye-to-hand co-ordination, skill and fun, and, to some extent, can be considered a new form of art. Nevertheless, one must not forget that the digital games business is worth several billion dollars per year, that the players are giants such as Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo, and that games are essentially an industrial product created by companies who, in the long run, must cover all the costs they bear. The chapter will look at digital games as a system, integrating different concepts and explaining their interaction to formalize the business model of the industry
Late career of superstar soccer players: win, play or gain?
Full text linkThe aim of this study is to explore the job mobility of superstar soccer players entering the final phase of their career. We will describe their last job transitions identifying a typology of individuals and their relative late career choices.
The study offers contributions to both sports and career literature. We add to the sports literature exploring the job changes which precede the declining phase and the retirement. The study is relevant also for the career literature, because it explores the career choices of a special group which characteristics resemble the profile of other professional groups (e.g. high level professionals, top managers) but that received scant attention. Finally, exploring the transition between career cycles (from athletic to post-athletic career), we contribute to the developmental approach to career
Entrepreneurship, knowledge sourcing and inter-firm technology transfer. The success case of a small business company
No full textIntroduction
The main idea behind this paper is to address issues related to growth, entrepreneurship, and knowledge transfer. According to a vast part of the strategic literature, a firm should ensure a tight control over key resources, both human and technological, so to firmly grasp the drivers of its success. Growth, and more specifically entrepreneurial growth, are generally achieved through incremental innovation around a very specific resource or capability. The Japanese model, based on extensive use of external sources of supply, pose a serious threat to the conventional, internal growth process. Several Japanese firms, form various industries - ranging from electronics to automobile - rely on long term partnership relations to combine technological excellence and flexibility. This organizational structure has quickly been imitated in a number of western countries, and some argue that a similar situation can be found in the Italian motorcycle industry, where several firms share the same network of partners to leverage development costs without sacrificing product differentiation.
A case of entrepreneurial success
Nevertheless, the San Lazzaro (Bo) based Malaguti Spa followed quite a peculiar pattern of growth, by outsourcing not merely manufacturing activities, but also design, engineering and prototyping capabilities. Over the years its partner, Engines Engineering, established a solid reputation through several cooperative agreements with the most important firms in the industry, from Ducati to Suzuki, and even with Malaguti direct competitors, such as Piaggio Veicoli Europei Spa. By partnering with more technologically advanced firms than Malaguti Spa, Engines Engineering was able to absorb relevant amount of knowledge, and to subsequently inject it into Malaguti vehicles. By partnering Malaguti, a small entrepreneurial firm born in 19xx in Bologna, saw its market share grow from x% in 19xx, to x% in 200x, with revenues rising from x to x.
Goals
In this paper we will explore how Malaguti Spa modelled its organizational structure and its relation with Engines Engineering in order to balance the trade-off between search for novelty and control over strategic resources. We will also address the issue of knowledge transfer by comparing traditional modes for knowledge conversion (socialization, externalisation, combination, and internalisation) with the possibility of embedding knowledge directly into parts and components, and relying on a standardized architecture to ensure knowledge diffusion and assimilation.
Methodology
To illustrate the path followed by Malaguti, we will use an in-depth case-study, conducted via interviews with the central firm and its technological partner, corroborating results with publicly available data such as product portfolio, balance sheets and companies historical background. Interviews were conducted both at the managerial level, including Malaguti’s and Engines Engineering’s presidents, and at the operative level, e.g. designers, testers and engineers. The case-study methodology allowed to collect an extremely rich amount of qualitative data, which, combined with publicly available information, give a detailed explanation on Malaguti’s entrepreneurial-based growth path.
The goal of the paper is to enlighten on the entrepreneurial strategy followed by Malaguti Spa, that represents a specific organizational pattern of economic growth based on innovation, quick response to change and technological excellence
Strumenti per l'analisi di settore: oltre il modello delle 5 forze
No full textSebbene non sia l’unico e forse nemmeno il più importante fattore, l’importanza della struttura del settore per la redditività delle imprese è unanimemente condivisa. Tuttavia, prima di procedere nel definire meglio i confini del problema che saranno oggetto della seguente trattazione, è bene preoccuparsi di definire altri confini: quelli del settore stesso. Questo infatti non può essere considerato come un’entità preesistente e univocamente determinabile, quanto piuttosto il frutto di una lunga serie di valutazioni soggettive che ne determinano tanto l’ampiezza, quanto il numero e la natura degli attori in esso presenti. Queste considerazioni devono essere svolte sia per quanto riguarda l’identificazione dei concorrenti che effettivamente esercitano una pressione competitiva, sia per selezionare i clienti o i segmenti di clientela ai quali ci rivolgiamo in essere o in fieri. In altre parole, nessun settore è aprioristicamente definibile, ma è sempre la risultante degli scopi conoscitivi che precedono il bisogno di utilizzarlo come categoria concettuale. Come segnalato da Parolini (1996), diversi attori a priori riconducibili a un medesimo contesto sono in effetti caratterizzati da un posizionamento settoriale a posteriori molto distante. Una volta che i confini sono stati tracciati, possiamo preoccuparci di identificare lo strumento che maggiormente si adatta ai nostri obiettivi e cercare di adattarlo alle specificità contestuali. In altre parole, molto spesso la definizione dei confini settoriali non è altro che la rappresentazione di una mappa concettuale, la proiezione di un modello semplificativo della realtà che trova la sua ragion d’essere nello scopo conoscitivo che l’ha generato (Pelicelli, 2005)
Outsourcing, gestione della conoscenza e architetture reticolari per lo sviluppo di nuovi prodotti
No full textImprenditorialità e trasferimento di conoscenza interimpresa. Il caso di un’impresa motociclistica
No full textKIBS Roles in KIBS Industries
No full textThe notion of KIBS (knowledge-intensive business services) was introduced by Miles et al. as “services that involved economic activities which are intended to result in the creation, accumulation or dissemination of knowledge” (1995: 18). Given the relevance of this kind of organizations, and their prominent role in several industries, a number contributions followed. KIBS are now regarded as particularly relevant in modern economies because of their prominent role(s) in allowing SME to innovate in a more effective, cost efficient, and/or timely manner. In this respect, KIBS are traditionally classified as Sources of innovation, Facilitators, and Carriers of innovation, depending on the part they play in the innovation process, alone, or alongside their customers. Another distinction can be made with respect to the relative position of KIBS toward technology: Typically, P-KIBS are new technology users, but they have no active role in new technology implementation and diffusion. T-KIBS, on the other hand, are firms that offer services for which information and communication technologies play a prominent part, in terms of both their content and the way in which the service is delivered to the customer.
By linking the role KIBS firms are supposed to play in the innovation process, and the relationship between KIBS and new technologies (users or creators), we aim at extending the existing knowledge about KIBS classification, looking for specific patterns or behaviors that received little to no attention in the literature. The idea is that, albeit a firm’s profile may be predominantly adherent to one of the roles described by the literature, such profile may be the average of several different context-specific behaviors. Is it possible to identify new and more articulated profiles, along with the classic ones, that depict previously uncodified patterns of behavior among KIBS firms?
Our findings revealed a more complex typology: First of all, a number of firms, despite being labeled as KIBS by means on their NACIE classification, didn’t possess the traits traditionally associated with knowledge-intensive companies, being essentially active in offering highly personalized services, but with neither significant added value, nor external relations with customers or suppliers. Such firms were not far from what Hollenstein defined as “Low-profile innovators with hardly any external links” (2003). At the same time, Carriers of innovation could be split into two separate categories, the first one involved in vertical knowledge transfer activities – i.e. transferring innovations from its suppliers downstream to its customers, and the second one more active in promoting knowledge diffusion among its customers, with the more sophisticated ones being beneficial for the less innovative ones, albeit not intentionally. To spread innovation, instead of relying on expensive (and sometimes unnecessary, or even harmful) particularization activities, Facilitators help customers in the integration process by transferring personnel to the latter’s facility. Sources of innovation reveal a trait previously unexplored in the KIBS literature, i.e. the ability to leverage their supply network, instead of relying on it as a source of innovation. This distinction comes closer to the one presented by Henderson and Clark (1990), i.e. it has more to do with the ability to separate architectural and component-specific knowledge, thereby controlling the innovation-related capabilities and managing a network of interchangeable partners (Lipparini, Fratocchi, 1999; Lorenzoni, Lipparini, 1999), than with the absorptive capabilities (Cohen, Levinthal, 1992) described by Koch and Strotmann (2008)
Sviluppo di nuovi prodotti e trasferimento di conoscenza inter-impresa. L'utilizzo delle fonti esterne in un'impresa motociclistica
No full textAccording to a vast part of strategic literature, a firm should ensure a tight control over key resources, both human and technological, as to firmly grasp the drivers of its success. Growth is either achieved through incremental innovation around a very specific resource or capability, or through the acquisition of new firms and their relative resources. The Japanese model, based on extensive use of external sources of supply, posed a serious threat to the widely accepted Williamson’s framework. This organizational structure has quickly been imitated in a number of Western countries, where several firms share the same network of partners to leverage development costs without sacrificing product differentiation. The two firms investigated in this paper push themselves even further, since their long-term collaboration has loose boundaries and no equity tie
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