1,721,234 research outputs found
Achieving Circular Economy Via The Adoption Of Industry 4.0 Technologies: A Knowledge Management Perspective
No full textThe chapter discusses the relationship between knowledge management, circular economy strategies and investments in Industry 4.0 technologies. Based on an empirical analysis of about 200 Italian manufacturing firms adopting such technologies, the chapter maps the knowledge implications of adoption comparing firms that achieved and did not achieved sustainability results, with a special focus on circular economy. Results highlight that environmental sustainability is often an unexpected, non-planned result of the adoption, and that sustainability outcomes entail more often the adoption of robotics and augmented reality technologies. Interestingly, adoption resulting in sustainability outcomes is more likely when the technology is adopted in the production process. Stronger intra-firm collaboration and engagement with customers is also more likely to take place for green adopter. Few differences emerge if comparing circular with eco-efficiency-oriented outcomes
Industry 4.0 and Knowledge Management: An Introduction
No full textThe fourth industrial revolution promises to deeply transform the business landscape offering new opportunities to create and use knowledge. However, firm’s knowledge management strategies have been supported by technological investments for decades. The chapter explores two prior “revolutions” connected to the digital technologies—ERP and the Web—and their implications for knowledge management dynamics, identifying how Industry 4.0 technologies can further enhance those processes and the related challenges. The main contributions from the book are outlined in terms of relationships between Industry 4.0 technologies and competences and geographical implications, focusing on new firms and connection with the two strategic goals of operational excellence and environmental sustainability
Knowledge and Digital Strategies in Manufacturing Firms: The Experience of Top Performers
No full textIn the past few decades, ICT supported firms managing knowledge through both codification and social interaction, also at distance. Within the Industry 4.0 framework, firms can access knowledge through the cloud and rely on big data and AI to improve their processes and enhance their market comprehension. How- ever, it is not fully explored how knowledge management should be organized in the fourth industrial revolution, since a lot of emphasis has been given to automatization in data management, while the relational dimension of knowledge management has received limited attention. Through an empirical analysis based on mixed method of a survey on 75 top performing Italian manufacturing firms and follow-up on 5 case studies, the chapter explores these questions to identify the implications of Industry 4.0 for firms’ strategy
Manufacturing and value-added dynamics in global value chains: the case of Italy
No full textPurpose: This paper aims to provide a snapshot of various countries’ contributions to value produced along global value chains (GVCs). It focusses on manufacturing activities and their evolution over time, in the context of GVC regionalisation. Design/methodology/approach: The Trade in Value Added (TiVA) and World Integrated Trade Solution databases for the period of 2005-2015 were used to explore the case of Italy and its industries’ specialisations (Made in Italy): fashion, furniture, automotive and machinery traditionally organised into clusters. Various analyses were used to show the dynamics of gross import–export and imported–exported value-added. Moreover, the revealed comparative advantage index was computed to test whether the Made in Italy sector remains a source of competitive advantage for Italy within GVCs. Findings: The results highlight how the geography of value-added is changing over time, with growing importance placed on the countries close to Italy and with a different pace according to each considered GVC. Originality/value: The paper applied new methods to compare trade and analyse value-added dynamics through a recent database released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development within the TiVA initiative that is useful for scholars and policymakers
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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