Barbara Bigliardi

Organizational socialization, career aspirations and turnover intentions among design engineers

– Turnover intention is ones behavioural intention to quit. The purpose of this study is to compare the relative influences of organizational socialization and career aspirations on turnover intentions of design engineers and to address the design of more effective development programmes and the reduction of dysfunctional turnover., – A study of 442 engineers staffed within “design and development” units is presented, and a research model is tested using structural equation modelling techniques., – The analysis indicates that design engineers report lower levels of turnover intention when organizational socialization is prominent and an adequate range of opportunities that satisfy career aspirations exist within the organization., – The cause‐effect relationships among constructs that are empirically derived from the analysis should be further supported by a longitudinal study. Future research should be aimed at exploring the different patterns of turnover intentions of engineers with different career orientations and in organizations with or without rigid formalized career advancement system., – Managers of technical staff are advised to put an effort to develop and encourage lateral career moves of research and development staff members, particularly for newcomers, by offering a variety of experiences, that is likely to speed up their prompt creation of a better defined self‐concept., – The originality of the research lies in that it addresses an explanation of engineers’ turnover based on a theoretical framework that jointly combines internal career anchors as well as external career opportunities and socialization, thus striving to fill a gap in existing literature.

Performance measurement in the food supply chain: a balanced scorecard approach

Purpose – The primary objective of this paper is to develop a balanced scorecard (BSC) model that is designed and delimited for performance measurement in the food supply chain.Design/methodology/approach – The research methodology is a combination of literature analysis, Delphi technique and case study‐based research. Starting from the literature concerning performance measurement and metrics, the food industry and the BSC model, the relevant financial and non‐financial indicators, suitable to be used for companies belonging to the food industry, were first identified. Indicators were submitted to a panel of experts, which operated following the Delphi technique, to gather possible suggestions or amendments. In its final form, the resulting BSC model was tested on two companies operating in the food industry, for a final validation.Findings – Results of the case studies show that the companies examined have a similar view for three of the four perspectives of the BSC, which can be thus considered as vali...

An empirical investigation of innovation determinants in food machinery enterprises

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the main findings of an empirical study conducted in the Italian food machinery industry, on identifying the technological innovation determinants in small or medium enterprises.Design/methodology/approach – On the basis of a research framework, a study was carried out on 98 Italian firms operating in the food machinery industry, by means of a questionnaire survey. A statistical analysis was conducted on the data collected, in order to understand which are the most important factors influencing innovation and the relative effect on the innovation output of the various factors considered.Findings – The results of the statistical analysis conducted show that, in contrast with the trend of the industry investigated, great importance is attributed only to collaboration with universities and research centres. Network actors are not perceived as an important source of information for innovation, while universities, conferences and scientific papers are significa...

The adoption of open innovation within the telecommunication industry

Purpose – The paper, covering the actual argument of open innovation, aims to answer two main research questions, namely: “Which open innovation approach is adopted by the companies belonging to the ICTs industry?” and “Which types of collaborations are carried out by the companies and which are the dynamics that characterize it?”. Design/methodology/approach – In order to answer the research questions a multiple case study methodology is adopted. The research framework was structured in three main phases: first, a literature review on the matter of open innovation in general and within the ICTs industry in particular, as well as of the specific features of the industry investigated, was carried out. Second, a list of questions containing the main issues that arose from the previous step has been designed for the case study protocol, to be used in the following structured interviews. Finally, structured direct interviews were conducted on three important Italian companies active in the telecommunications area. Findings – Results highlighted different ways to manage the open innovation processes, based on teamwork or task forces, and the different roles, more or less proactive, that an information communication technology (ICT) company may undertake within this process. Moreover, they show that ICT companies acquire external knowledge and skills mainly from universities and research centers, as well as from value chain’s actors (suppliers in primis). Originality/value – Still little attention has been paid to the understanding of the open innovation approach of Italian firms belonging to the ICT industry, thus the authors believe that this paper may represent a valuable basis for future research on the open innovation issues in the field of ICT.

The effect of innovation on financial performance: A research study involving SMEs

Abstract Innovation has become a prime source for gaining a competitive edge in the market for all companies. This study seeks to investigate the effect of innovation of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) on their financial performance, as well as the effect of firm size on the impact of innovation. To examine empirically this relationship, data were collected via a survey of a sample of 98 SMEs belonging to the food machinery industry, and analyzed using a regression-based analysis. The empirical findings confirm that an increase in the innovation level increased financial performance. Specifically, they underline the relevance of the innovation developed in order to meet the customers’ needs as well as of those developed in order to differentiate from the competitors in improving the financial performance. Moreover, results suggest that in SMEs the level of technology adopted to develop innovation does not impact on the financial performance.

A balanced scorecard approach for R&D: evidence from a case study

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to develop a balanced scorecard (BSC) model delimited for research and development (R&D) performance measurement.Design/methodology/approach – A research methodology that is a combination of literature analysis, Delphi technique and case study‐based research was adopted. Specifically, starting from the analysis of the literature about performance measurement and metrics in general, and applied to R&D environment in particular, the relevant indicators (both financial and non‐financial) suitable to be used for the R&D activities were identified. These indicators were then submitted to a panel of experts, which, following the Delphi technique, determined the final list of indicators and the final BSC model. Finally, in order to validate the BSC model obtained, it was tested on a company operating in the automotive industry.Findings – The preliminary result obtained from this case study, that is a BSC model suitable for R&D, helps in the development of a general BSC model to...

Evaluating Performance of University Spin-Off Companies: Lessons from Italy

Academic spin-offs are very special start-up companies that are founded by an academic inventor with the aim to exploit technological knowledge that originated within a University setting in order to develop products or services. During the last two decades, academic spin-offs have received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners, mainly due to their ability to advance industrial application of scientific knowledge. Much of the studies available in literature on this matter, however, have focused on USA’s spin-offs, while still little attention has been paid to the European countries, and to Italy in particular. Thus, the aim of our research is twofold: first, to fill this gap in literature. Second, to propose, on the basis of the above mentioned literature review, a model of ex-ante evaluation of the spin-off companies’ performance. Specifically, the research methodology followed was a combination of literature analysis and Delphi technique: we first extensively reviewed the extant literature on spin-off companies, then we proposed to a panel of expert the indicators that emerged from the literature as affecting the performance of academic spin-offs.

Innovative Characteristics of Small and Medium Enterprises

The purpose of the paper is to investigate the technological innovative characteristics in the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) belonging to the Italian manufacturing sector. A survey based on e-mail and fax questionnaire of 285 SMEs was conducted with a response rate of about 45%. The methodology consisted in a descriptive analysis on general data and in a discriminant analysis on data related to the innovative activity and aimed at determine the factors distinguishing more and less innovative companies. On the basis of this survey, the innovative profile of SMEs has been highlighted as well as the factors and problems of the innovative process analyzed. The results show that innovative firms are market anticipation and customer focused, aiming at product enrichment in terms of different characteristics in respect to competitors’ products in order to obtain a superior product in terms of quality. Innovation results to be part of their business strategy and to be based more on developing new ways of working than new product innovations.

ICTs and knowledge management: an Italian case study of a construction company

Summary Purpose – The objective of this paper is to investigate the process of knowledge creation and transfer in project-based organizations, with particular reference to a construction firm, emphasizing first the importance of knowledge transfer, in tacit or explicit form, between the various actors of a project, and then the importance of the information and communication technology (ICT) in supporting project-based organizations (PBOs). Design/methodology/approach – Above all, a series of round-table meetings were developed with six managers of as many construction companies, with a twofold purpose: to understand how companies are managing knowledge, and to understand how a company may reach the excellence through its knowledge activities. Then, one out of these six companies was chosen as example of excellence and described as case study to further develop and investigate the knowledge management (KM). Findings – The adoption of a phased approach to manage knowledge appears to be a promising means of enhancing the management and transfer of new knowledge derived from the different projects; moreover, the case study shows how ICTs may be effectively used in KM. Research limitations/implications – The findings are limited due to the focused nature of the case study. Practical implications – This case study shows that KM is a powerful tool for PBOs, and allows every company to generate and disseminate knowledge, and to transfer it into activities that produce value for the enterprise as the main source of their competitive advantage. Originality/value – This paper is a real case study showing KM applications in the construction industry.

Which factors hinder the adoption of open innovation in SMEs

ABSTRACT The literature on open innovation (OI) is characterised by studies based both on large companies and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Among all, one of the less explored issues in SMEs is what impedes them to adopt OI. Thus, this paper has the threefold objective to identify which factors hinder the adoption of OI in SMEs, to investigate if different behaviours exist among SMEs in relation to these factors, and to understand if the same factors effectively influence the level of adoption of OI. Based on a survey on 157 Italian SMEs, we identified four main barriers (namely, ‘knowledge’, ‘collaboration’, ‘organisational’, and ‘financial and strategic’) and three profiles of firms, different in terms of innovativeness of the industries they belong to (knowledge intensive, medium-innovative, and less innovative) and hampering factors perceived (‘knowledge’, ‘financial and strategic’, and ‘collaboration’ and ‘organisational’ barriers). Moreover, we found that some of these factors effectively impede the adoption of the paradigm.