Francesco Caputo

How are decision systems changing? The contribution of social media to the management of decisional liquefaction

Abstract The liquidity of data, information and knowledge is influencing the relationships among social and economic actors through the definition of a new socio-technical configuration in which new rules influence individual behaviours and different standards determine the success of every type of actions and decisions. In this new contest, decision-makers should understand that traditional hierarchical approaches are no longer able to face the challenges imposed by an emerging relational configuration in which decisions cannot be imposed but emerge from the interactions among actors. Aiming at supporting the definition of more affordable models of decision, the study proposes a reading key for the ongoing evolution and proposes some reflections useful for the emersion of a conceptual framework more fitting with the emerging scenario. The proposed reflections aim at supporting decision-makers in the identification of key variables likely to assure competitive advantages in the emerging social configurations.

A service research contribution to the global challenge of sustainability

Purpose Poverty, hunger, inequalities, diseases, unsustainable use of resources, etc., in spite of scientific progress, still remains unsolved worldwide issues. All these issues relate to the challenges of sustainability and sustainable development that now call for urgent answers. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the service research community can respond to this call and to identify key areas of potential contribution. Design/methodology/approach After a brief review of selected service literature aimed at exploring its interest in the topics of sustainability and sustainable development, the authors develop the interpretative proposal identifying the key requirements of a global engagement in the challenge of sustainability and sustainable development and highlighting the potential contribution of service research. Findings Findings highlight the potential contribution of service research to the global challenge of sustainability and suggest acting upon education by considering the “T-Shaped” professional model as a possible reference for embedding sustainability in the education of future managers and addressing the need of interdisciplinary thinking through the systems approach. Research limitations/implications The proposed study of service literature is only an exploratory analysis of main contributions that does not aim to identify gaps but only to highlight the potential of a greater engagement of service research in the global call for a more sustainable and inclusive development. Practical implications A trans-disciplinary approach is also required. This implies the involvement of the business and the social real world. Originality/value This paper represents a novel call for engaging the service research community in a boundary-crossing collaboration with the aim of contributing to address the challenge of sustainability.

Investigating the Users’ Approach to ICT Platforms in the City Management

The increasing relevance of technology and its impact on our everyday life requires multi- and trans-disciplinary studies in order to investigate the ways in which the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools are affected by users’ features and by the external environment. In order to enrich existing contributions on this topic, the paper focuses its attention on the city as example of service systems, in order to investigate dimensions and dynamics that influence the city employees’ evaluation and satisfaction in the use of ICT platforms. By adopting the interpretative lens offered by Service Science and Systems Thinking, the domain of city as a service system is analysed and some hypotheses are formulated with reference to the relationships between environment, users, and ICT platform. The hypotheses are investigated through a questionnaire survey on a sample of 1032 municipalities in the Czech Republic and the results are tested using Structural Equation Modelling. The research shows that users’ features and external environment affect the evaluation and the satisfaction of city stakeholders about the use of ICT platforms by underlining the need for enlarging the study on informatics tools, in order to also include subjective variables. The findings are discussed from both theoretical and practical points of view.

Influences of cognitive dimensions on the collaborative entry mode choice of small- and medium-sized enterprises

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address internationalisation of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by specifically focussing on collaborative entry modes. Despite significant research done on market entry and internationalisation strategies of firms, the use of collaborative entry modes by SMEs during internationalisation has not received a lot of attention. The authors contribute to foreign market entry studies by analysing the influences of cognitive dimensions on collaborative entry mode choice (equity vs non-equity modes) of SMEs in their international markets. Design/methodology/approach The authors analyse the influences of cognitive dimensions on the choice between equity-based vs non-equity-based collaborative entry modes. The empirical sample consists of internationalisation strategies of 345 Italian SMEs, where the authors used a questionnaire to collect the data. The authors use structural equation modelling to analyse influences of factors like asymmetric information, informal institutional distance, time trends of country, perception of size and resources of potential host country partners, and perception of host country partners’ power on this important market entry mode. Findings The results show that high informal institutional distance leads to preference of non-equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. The authors also find that positive time trends of the host country, positive perception of size and resource of the local partner, as well as the local partners’ power leads to preference of equity-based collaborative entry mode by Italian SMEs. Originality/value This study focusses on an ignored aspect of market entry strategies, i.e., equity vs non-equity collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs. The authors use insights from resource-based view and cognitive dimensions literature, to address the influences of five cognitive dimensions on the collaborative entry mode choice of SMEs during their internationalisation.

Decoding the Dynamics of Value Cocreation in Consumer Tribes: An Agency Theory Approach

ABSTRACT In the last decade, marketing studies have tried to define methodologies, models, and tools to support organizations in developing pathways “oriented to” and “based on” the value cocreation. To shed light on these dynamics, using the interpretative lens offered by Agency Theory, this study investigates the sociocultural and cognitive/figurative roots of the process of emergence of consumer tribes in which and by which value cocreation takes place. This paper offers a possible advancement in knowledge useful to define approaches, models, and instruments able to better explain and manage the dynamics of value cocreation.

Small world theory and the World Wide Web: linking small world properties and website centrality

This qualitative paper aims to point out the incidence of small world characteristics in the World Wide Web. To this end, some theoretical implications of small world theory (SWT) are verified using information from focus groups and in-depth interviews administered to experts and users of the World Wide Web. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether it is possible to apply small world properties to online social networks while pointing out the key variables of website centrality in that context. Building on this, the paper traces possible contributions for better management of the World Wide Web in terms of the professional use of social media to facilitate information or product and service sharing. The results of the proposed investigation highlight some pivotal aspects of small world properties on the web, as well as on website centrality. The findings are relevant for the application of social media marketing (SMM) and search engine optimisation (SEO).

From Mechanical to Cognitive View: The Changes of Decision Making in Business Environment

Management can be considered the science of decisions. Different researchers and practitioners have analysed the contents and boundaries of this vibrant domain, proposing multiple contributions and several perspectives.

The financial gap for women in the MENA region: a systemic perspective

Purpose This paper aims to investigate women’s financial inclusion as a critical element for the competitiveness of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) market for entrepreneurship and sustainable development of the region, as MENA financial institutions’ loans to women-owned SMEs tend to be significantly lower than the share of women-owned SMEs in their target markets. Causes of under-serving this market are not very well studied. Design/methodology/approach The paper builds on an inductive approach supported by the interpretative contribution offered by the viable systems approach as methodological and interpretative lens to investigate the topic of women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Reflections herein are supported by an exploratory study on the conditions for women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Findings The main focus of this paper is to study the financial gap that women entrepreneurs are experiencing in enlarging their businesses and/or lunching innovative projects. In accordance with this, the paper highlights the need of a more systemic approach and long-term vision to support a more extensive women financial inclusion in MENA regions. Originality/value Financial institutions’ need to understand women-owned SMEs’ financial needs for innovation and growth to build new customized financial products. This paper’s argument is that the dominant short-term approach to credit-granting for women, although providing support, may be inadequate to achieve a real financial inclusion, and possible causes and solutions are discussed.

Investigating the role of smartness for sustainability: insights from the Smart Grid domain

Over the past decades, information and communication technologies (ICT) established themselves as the key force towards more effective and efficient usage of resources in our society, namely via better use of available information, automation, stakeholder involvement, and decision support. By analyzing recent advancements in knowledge offered by ICT, it is possible to identify their strong correlation with the principles, aims, and interests of sustainability science, which can be highly inspired by ICT-intensive domains. In this paper, we study the theoretical background on system thinking as an interpretative lens able to support better understanding of dimensions and dynamics involved in the domain of sustainability, and examine the role of ICT in advancing sustainability goals. Then, we analyze the domain of the Smart Grid as a prominent example of complex technological contribution in face of the challenges of sustainability, and present the insights from this domain, which are turned into sustainability guidelines for other domains, linking smartness, and sustainability in the light of systems thinking and Smart Grid experience. In summary, the core recommendation of this work is the employment of information technology to widen the scope of the sustainability “game” by sliding activities in time and space, and in engaging more “players” in the game, which is now made possible thanks to the advancement in ICT.

A Systems Approach to Understanding the Philosophical Foundation of Marketing Studies

Marketing represents a multidisciplinary research domain in which several instruments, models and approaches have been provided to both researchers and practitioners in order to better face the emerging social and economic challenges. Despite the relevance of all contributions provided by marketing studies, the academic marketing domain seems to be affected by a strong reductionist view in which the focus is on the single actors and transactions as key links between companies and environments. With the aim to overcome the limitations of reductionist view in academic marketing studies, this chapter adopts the interpretative lens provided by systems thinking. The ontology and epistemology of academic marketing studies are analysed in light of the systems perspective, and a transcendent philosophical perspective is proposed to support the building of more effective multi- and trans-disciplinary approaches and models within the marketing domain.