Renato Passaro

EDI network and logistics management at Unilever‐Sagit

Unilever‐Sagit is the main Italian competitor in the Italian frozen food market. The company has very recently innovated its distribution channel by creating a private Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) network. Examines the effects generated by the implementation of EDI technology on supply chain management. Discusses the theoretical aspects of the impact of EDI on strategic management of logistics and examines the Unilever‐Sagit EDI network in detail.

Putting supply-chain learning theory into practice: lessons from an Irish case

The logistics service market is currently going through a fundamental transition. The development of closer relationships with customers and the continuous adaptation of products and services, represent potentially successful approaches to the development of improved competitive capabilities. To this end knowledge resources and learning processes increasingly represent key elements within the evolving framework of the Third Party Logistics (3PLs) service provision business. This paper describes the case of NITLs Foundation Certificate Programme (FCP) learning programme with specific reference to its use in addressing some of current shortcomings related to supply chain knowledge and skills in the Irish 3PL industry. The FCP rationale is based on the need to move from traditional approaches of supply chain organisation, where the various links in the chain were measured and managed in isolation from each other and thus, tended to operate, at cross purposes, towards more integrated and knowledge-based approaches.

Evolution of the supply chain in the Italian railway industry

Purpose – This paper aims to fill the research gap represented by the lack of analysis on the industrys specific factors which affect the evolution of customer‐supplier relationships and the entire supply chain organisation in the railway manufacturing industry by providing an interpretative framework.Design/methodology/approach – The research is based upon an in‐depth longitudinal case study on AnsaldoBreda, the main Italian railway company that is representative of the EU context. The study was conducted over a period of ten years.Findings – The empirical findings highlighted that in recent decades the hierarchical relationships among firms operating in the Italian railway have been modified. Moreover, regarding the evolution of the supply system four main phases are illustrated and the gap with other industrial sectors is remarked.Research limitations/implications – The approach taken restricts the empirical findings to the Italian railway industry. However, various elements show that the case study i...

The Perception of the Contextual Factors as Predictor of Entrepreneurial Intent: Evidences from an Empirical Survey

Identifying people interested into starting-up a business is becoming more and more relevant. As widely recognized, two key aspects affecting on start-up are the role of the external context factors and the influence of entrepreneurial competencies.With this in mind, the paper shows an application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour with the aim to assess factors believed to affect entrepreneurial intent among engineering students. As the use of well thought-out and research-tested intent models is believed to provide a good means of examining the precursors to business start-up, the survey provides a test of the robustness of the intent approach and then examines the influence of some predictors within the contextual factors.Consistently with other leading articles, the results evidence that attitudes and perceived behavioural control effectively predicts entrepreneurial intent, while social norms have no effects. As regards the role of contextual factors and entrepreneurial competencies, they exhibit indirect effects on intent via entrepreneurial attitudes and perceived behavioural control. Thus, their contribution to favour academic entrepreneurship is confirmed. The result of the study also has valuable implications for the university system.

Start-up competitions as learning environment to foster the entrepreneurial process

Purpose The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to shed light on the increasing start-up competitions (SUCs) phenomenon; second, to provide an interpretive framework to understand whether the SUCs have the potential to be effective entrepreneurial learning environment; third, to analyse the different roles of public and private actors in organizing SUCs. Design/methodology/approach The paper presents a cross-section analysis of the Italian SUCs population. In total, 77 competitions are analysed on the basis of different criteria which should properly mirror their distinguishing structural features, helping understand the potential of SUCs as learning environments. Findings The recent increase in the number of SUCs has been mainly fuelled by private actors. Moreover, Italian SUCs show some features that make them rich learning environments. Private and public actors play different roles, as confirmed by statistical tests performed. Privately organized SUCs follow mainly a market-oriented approach, while publicly organized ones are more education oriented. Research limitations/implications The findings cannot be easily generalized mainly due to the peculiarities of the Italian context. Practical implications Soft forms of regulation should be defined to strengthen those features which could potentially support the entrepreneurial learning processes. In this view, SUCs should be part of a start-up friendly ecosystem where actors (startuppers, incubators, venture capitalists) are effectively coordinated with each other. Originality/value Despite the remarkable diffusion of SUCs, there are significant gaps in literature about this phenomenon. Given the lack of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of SUCs as effective entrepreneurial learning environments, the paper represents an important starting point.

The Emergence of Innovative Entrepreneurship: Beyond the Intention — Investigating the Participants in an Academic SUC

To stem the increasing competitiveness of many newcomer countries, managerial and business literature underlines the necessity to favor entrepreneurship in high tech and innovative sectors. From this perspective, an increasingly important role in the generation of innovative entrepreneurship is carried out by the universities, which are natural incubators of borderline and cutting-edge technologies. With this in mind, the present study explores the entrepreneurial intention among a population of academics participating at a start-up competition (SUC) that view entrepreneurship as an opportunity-driven choice to give value to their researches. Two variables affecting the entrepreneurial intention among these participants are specifically examined: the perception of external environment and the perception of subjective competencies. To test the intention, the paper refers to the widespread Theory of Planned Behaviour, currently recognised as one of the most influential theoretical model. The results of the ...

Hybrid Supplier Selection Methodologies: Problems and Perspectives

Abstract This paper presents a hybrid model for coping with the supplier selection problem, based on the combination of the two main approaches proposed in the extant literature, the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Set Theory (FST). The proposed model combines the strengths of the two approaches, overcoming some of their weaknesses. An empirical study is provided, to check the usability and the usefulness of the developed approach in a real-life context.