1,720,968 research outputs found
The environmental impact of electric vehicles: A comparative LCA-based evaluation framework and its application to the Italian context
No full textIn the last years a progressive shift from the traditional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV) toward electric vehicles (EV) has been observed, which has as primary objective that of favouring a sustainable mobility. Indeed, one of the most important topics tightly linked with this alternative refers to the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced along the entire vehicle's life cycle. The aim of the present work is to develop an emission-model that is able to calculate the CO2 emissions produced along the entire vehicle's life cycle, so to estimate EV CO2 emission values and compare them with those of ICEV. The emission model, developed leveraging on a thorough literature review on the topic, is then applied to the Italian context, to enable a comparison of the emission results for EVs and ICEVs taking into account the peculiarities of such country. It emerges that overall CO2 emissions associated to EVs are lower than the ones associated to ICEVs. A significant portion of emissions arising from the manufacturing of the battery pack still represents the main gap to be filled with respect to ICEVs. Evaluating both vehicle typologies and based on different assumption in terms of the geographical locations in which the stages of the vehicle life cycle take place, it emerges that EVs show a consistent CO2 emission reduction ranging between-11% to-50% compared to ICEVs over the entire vehicle's life cycle. The most relevant contribution for such performance is due to the cleaner energy mixes on which some countries can rely on compared to others. Given that the most impactful phase-in terms of CO2 emissions-is represented by the vehicle use, it has been performed a sensitivity analysis on the energy mix used for vehicle's charging. Results show that coupling of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) and EVs can be a key factor for achieving very low emission values
Enablers and Barriers for Circular Business Models: an empirical analysis in the Italian automotive industry
No full textResearch stream on Circular Business Models has recently emerged within the management research to address the concept of Circular Economy from a business model perspective. Several studies in this stream have identified and analyzed a set of managerial practices that can be adopted by companies to design Circular Business Models. However, current research still falls short to provide a systematic view of the enablers and barriers for the design of Circular Business Models and the adoption of related managerial practices. The paper addresses this research gap in two ways. First, it provides a reference framework of enablers, barriers, and contextual factors affecting the design of Circular Business Models. Second, it presents the results of a survey involving 66 companies operating in the Italian automotive industry, bringing into light the relative importance of the identified enablers, barriers, and contextual factors in this industry. Finally, our research provides practical suggestions and recommendations for properly approaching the design of Circular Business Models in the automotive industry
Performance Measurement of Collaborative Research and Development: An Exploratory Analysis
Full text linkCollaborative research and development (RD) requires specific management approaches in several aspects including the measurement of RD performance. This paper aims to contribute to the debate on how performance of different types of collaborative RD activities should be measured. To this end, we conduct an exploratory research based on case studies, involving four cases of multinational companies in different fields. We show that firms use performance measurement systems for collaborative RD which are different compared to the ones used for non-collaborative RD. Furthermore, such performance measurement systems differ depending on the type of collaborative RD projects that companies are involved in
A multi-stakeholder analysis of the economic efficiency of industrial energy efficiency policies: Empirical evidence from ten years of the Italian White Certificate Scheme
Full text linkThere is growing interest worldwide in more effective policies to promote industrial energy efficiency and mitigate climate change. The White Certificates Scheme is a market-based mechanism aimed at stimulating the adoption of Energy Efficiency Measures. The Italian White Certificates scheme - one of the most long-standing and articulated - is a successful example of industrial energy efficiency policies, considered an interesting and remarkable case by other countries, especially due to its robustness in terms of the volume of certificates traded. Despite the considerable interest in White Certificates, an in-depth analysis of the economic efficiency of the mechanism from the perspective of different stakeholders is still lacking. To address this gap, this study develops a cost-benefit evaluation framework and a multi-stakeholder economic efficiency analysis of the Italian White Certificates scheme focusing on the Italian State, utilities, players in the energy efficiency value chain, and energy users. Our findings (also corroborated with sensitivity analyses) show that the White Certificates Scheme has led to several positive impacts for almost all stakeholders involved, with the exception of energy utilities that have suffered a major economic loss mainly due to a reduction of energy sold to end users. Such loss is likely to promote a deep change in the role of utilities in the energy market in terms of the services they offer and their business models. Our findings, in addition to providing useful directions for future research, offer interesting insights and implications for policymakers who may take inspiration from the pros and cons of the Italian White Certificates scheme when promoting energy efficiency through incentive mechanisms
Selecting early adopters to foster the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets: Evidence from a multiple case study
Full text linkPurpose: The purpose of this paper is to bring new empirical evidence to the controversial role of early adopters in the diffusion of innovations in industrial markets. Design/methodology/approach: The authors apply an actor market configuration perspective to the analysis of four longitudinal case studies regarding the commercialization of new products in the textile, plastic and energy industries. Findings: The diffusion of innovation is an interactive and iterative process where the commercializing firm engages in repeated interactions with different categories of companies that are targeted as potential early adopters. This process ends when the commercializing firm identifies a category of early adopters that can stimulate subsequent acceptance in the later market, by playing one of the following two roles, i.e. word-of-mouth trigger and industry benchmark. During this process, through which the role of the early adopters is constructed proactively by the commercializing firm, the product innovation is also subject to changes to provide a better fit with the selected category of early adopters. Research limitations/implications: The paper calls for a re-conceptualization of the diffusion process, from a passive identification of early adopters to an interactive process that entails a trial-and-error approach in the targeting and involvement of different categories of early adopters, which ends when the innovation reaches the desired levels of diffusion. Practical implications: The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for selecting the most proper category of early adopters for their innovations, depending on the role they are more likely to play and the influence they will exert on subsequent acceptance in the later market. Social implications: The study provides managers with a number of recommendations for targeting, through a trial-and-error process, early adopters and working with them to champion the dissemination of new technologies. Originality/value: This paper significantly adds to existing literature on the diffusion of innovation, which has up to now conceived early adopters as static and given entities, which cannot be proactively selected by the commercializing firm, and innovation as an immutable object
The electricity tariffs reform for the residential market in Italy
No full textEven though the role of regulatory policies in the electricity market supporting the diffusion of distributed generation and energy efficiency has been well investigated, the relationship between changes in electricity tariff and the impact on investments in RES and Energy Efficiency Measures (EEM) has been under researched in academic literature so far. The paper is a first attempt to analyze how changes in the electricity tariff for the residential market in Italy may directly affect the investment level in new RES projects and the adoption of EEM. To achieve its goal, the paper offers specific cost comparisons and simulations between two different scenarios, before and after the new tariff system, comparing different consumption patterns and evaluating the impact that the Reform has on investments in RES ad EEM
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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