Lorella Cannavacciuolo

An activity-based costing approach for detecting inefficiencies of healthcare processes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set out a methodological framework to investigate how the integration of an activity-based costing (ABC) logic into the pre-existent accounting system supports healthcare organizations in identifying the inefficiencies related to their diagnostic therapeutic pathways (DTP) and related reengineering interventions. Design/methodology/approach – The BPM-ABC methodological framework has been applied to the case of a specific surgery pathway, at the Orthopaedic Division of a University Hospital in Italy. Findings – The case-study described in the paper points out: first, how the Business Process Management (BPM)-ABC methodology is able to produce significant information about consumed resources and the costs of the activities, useful to highlight opportunities for DTPs improvement; second, the barriers related to a pre-existing accounting system based on cost centres that can hinder the implementation of the BPM-ABC model. Practical implications – The case study points...

An analytical framework based on AHP and activity-based costing to assess the value of competencies in production processes

In this paper we present a model based on activity based costing and analytic hierarchy process to assess the impact of individual competencies on value creation and its application to a case study of a small manufacturing firm. Namely, our model is designed to support managers to deal with the following concrete situation: suppose that a company has decided to acquire a new type of equipment/technology to improve a process and deliver a superior performance to its customers, and suppose that this change requires in turn the acquisition of one or more individual competencies. Our model will support managers to answer to these questions: what is the cost of acquiring the new competence compared with the value generated by the improved process? Is it preferable to develop the competence internally or to acquire it on the market? In general, we argue that the proposed method can support managers to lay out a systematic description of the problematic link between individual competencies, organisational capabilities and critical market performances. Through the development and application of an analytical tool, this work intends to contribute to bridge the literature on the evaluation of individual competencies with the strategic interpretation of production competencies as organisational distinctive assets for value creation and as sources of sustained competitive advantage.

Using Social Network Analysis to Support Collective Decision-Making Process

Current traditional technologies, while enabling effective knowledge sharing and accumulation, seem to be less supportive of knowledge organization, use and consensus formation, as well as of collaborative decision making process. To address these limitations and thus to better foster collective decision-making around complex and controversial problems, a new family of tools is emerging able to support more structured knowledge representations known as collaborative argument mapping tools. This paper argues that online collaborative argumentation has the rather unique feature of combining knowledge organization with social mapping and that such a combination can provide interesting insights on the social processes activated within a collaborative decision making initiative. In particular, the authors investigate how Social Network Analysis can be used for the analysis of the collective argumentation process to study the structural properties of the concepts and social networks emerging from users’ interaction. Using Cohere, an online platform designed to support collaborative argumentation, some empirical findings obtained from two use cases are presented.

Learning by failure vs learning by habits: Entrepreneurial learning micro-strategies as determinants of the emergence of co-located entrepreneurial networks

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explain the emergence of collaboration networks in entrepreneurial clusters as determined by the way entrepreneurs exchange knowledge and learn through business transactions needed to implement temporary supply chains in networks of co-located firms. Design/methodology/approach A socio-computational approach is adopted to model business transactions and supply chain formation in Marshallian industrial districts (IDs). An agent-based model is presented and used as a virtual lab to test the hypotheses between the firms’ behaviour and the emergence of structural properties at the system level. Findings The simulation findings and their validation based on the comparison with a real world cluster show that the topological properties of the emerging network are influenced by the learning strategies and decision-making criteria firms use when choosing partners. With reference to the specific case of Marshallian IDs it is shown that inertial learning based on history and past collaboration represents in the long term a major impediment for the emergence of hubs and of a network topology that is more conducive to innovation and growth. Research limitations/implications The paper offers an alternative view of entrepreneurial learning (EL) as opposed to the dominant view in which learning occurs as a result of exceptional circumstances (e.g. failure). The results presented in this work show that adaptive, situated, and day-by-day learning has a profound impact on the performance of entrepreneurial clusters. These results are encouraging to motivate additional research in areas such as in modelling learning or in the application of the proposed approach to the analysis of other types of entrepreneurial ecosystems, such as start-up networks and makers’ communities. Practical implications Agent-based model can support policymakers in identifying situated factors that can be leveraged to produce changes at the macro-level through the identification of suitable incentives and social networks re-engineering. Originality/value The paper presents a novel perspective on EL and offers evidence that micro-learning strategies adopted and developed in routine business transactions do have an impact on firms’ performances (survival and growth) as well as on systemic performances related to the creation and diffusion of innovation in firms networks.

Knowledge elicitation and mapping in the design of a decision support system for the evaluation of suppliers' competencies

Purpose – This paper aims to present a methodology for the mapping and evaluation of suppliers’ competencies and know-how. The authors operationalize the concept of organizational competence and provide companies with a customized management tool to map suppliers’ critical competencies for screening strategic from non-strategic suppliers and providing inputs for suppliers’ development. Design/methodology/approach – Competencies assessment, carried out through a fuzzy knowledge management system (VINCI), is performed through the aggregation of indicators related to the control of critical resources, the degree of implementation of critical processes, the competitive positioning and the financial situation of a supplier. Competencies description and operationalization are based on the bottom-up elicitation of the subjective knowledge managers actually use to assess suppliers’ capability. Such subjective knowledge is then validated and formalized through a top-down approach based on strategic literature. Fin...

Mapping knowledge networks for organizational re-design in a rehabilitation clinic

The purpose of this paper is to present a social network approach for identification of micro-organizational re-design interventions to make more efficient and fluid the knowledge flow in a rehabilitation multidisciplinary team. The structural information of different kinds of knowledge networks within a team is augmented with additional analyses aimed at collecting information about the ways through which participants use knowledge, the motivation behind knowledge exchange, and the non-human knowledge sources used by subjects to perform their work. This paperwork was supported by CNCSIS – UEFISCDI, project number PNII – IDEI 810/2008.,The authors propose a definition of knowledge network including human and non-human knowledge source (documents and knowledge repositories) as it is more adequate for the analysis of knowledge flows in multidisciplary medical teams. The mapping and analysis of the network are carried out through: elicitation of knowledge flows between people within and outside the team through a structured questionnaire; mapping of the knowledge flows toward non-human knowledge sources; and identification of critical aspects and proposal of re-engineering interventions to make knowledge flow more efficient and effective.,The analysis of the critical aspects emerged in the field study identifies a number of opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge sharing through the re-design of the team network. The re-design interventions concern three main features of knowledge network: “knowledge centralization,” “Over-reliance on External experts,” “Unshared knowledge tools and sources.”,The originality of the work resides in applying social network analysis (SNA) for healthcare management settings, proving evidence and guidelines to show how healthcare organizations can benefit from the adoption of SNA-based approaches.

Networks Mobilized to Access Key Resources at Early Stages of Biotech Firms: A Comparative Analysis in Two Moderately Innovative Countries

Abstract This paper investigates the networking behaviour of biotechnology start-ups in peripheral locations. The aim is to understand whether the conditions found in this type of environment introduce some specificities in the networking process, namely in network building and early mobilization to access key resources. The paper compares biotechnology start-ups in Portugal and in Southern Italy, focusing on relationships with research organizations and on the relevance assumed by international connections, and investigating the role played by entrepreneurs’ personal networks. The research identified some common features that diverge from the typical biotechnology start-up behaviour and can be regarded as firms’ adaptive responses to the conditions faced. Notwithstanding the frequent presence of close connections with local research organizations—that often play functions that go much beyond that of a knowledge source—the local environment is a lesser determinant for a substantial proportion of firms than would be expected in start-ups. A distinctive feature of these firms is an extensive reliance on foreign sources, for different purposes and from the very early stages. Entrepreneurs’ personal networks are found to be instrumental, both to identify and obtain knowledge in the vicinity and to support the establishment of more complex distant relationships.

To Support the Emergence of Academic Entrepreneurs: The Role of Business Plan Competitions

This book discusses paradigmatic changes in the field of entrepreneurship education in response to economic, political and social needs, and the consequential need to reassess, redevelop and renew curricula and methods used in teaching entrepreneurship.

Cost accounting in teaching hospitals: an application in a surgery unit

The Italian Healthcare National System is involved in a deep process of change aimed at diffusing managerial techniques used in the private sector to public administrations. In this context, an extensive literature on healthcare planning and control systems (PCSs) is growing. PCSs are characterised by a complex architecture made up of three elements: the process infrastructure, the organisational infrastructure and the technical infrastructure. In this paper, we focus on the technical infrastructure and, in particular, on the logic of cost accounting in teaching hospitals. The paper presents a case study on the allocation of surgery unit costs on final cost centres that use its services. The proposed application is part of a wider project involving the Azienda Ospedaliera Universitaria Federico II (AOU Federico II) and the Department of Business and Managerial Engineering at University of Naples Federico II. The project aims at implementing a cost accounting system in AOU Federico II. In addition to the allocation model, the paper offers some observations derived from the case study and on the importance of integration among the infrastructures of PCS.