Reflective backward analysis to assess the operational performance and eco-efficiency of two industrial districts

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Appolloni ◽  
Idiano D'Adamo ◽  
Massimo Gastaldi ◽  
Morteza Yazdani ◽  
Davide Settembre-Blundo
Keyword(s):  
Economic Trend ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Ceramic Tiles ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sectorial Analysis ◽  
Backward Analysis

PurposeThe best strategy to apply for the future cannot disregard a careful analysis of the past and is the one capable of seizing opportunities from outside. Manufacturing sectors are characterized by sudden changes, and in this work, we analyze the ceramic tiles sector characterized by a mature technology in which innovation has played a key role.Design/methodology/approachThis study aims to provide a sectorial analysis based on a historical data set (2004–2019) to highlight how an industry is performing both operationally and in terms of eco-efficiency. For this purpose, from a methodological point of view, the data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used.FindingsThe results of the analysis show that the Spanish ceramics industry shows a growing economic trend by taking advantage of lower industrial costs, while the Italian industry is characterized by a modest decline partially mitigated by exports. The industrial districts are an aggregation of companies that in the ceramic sector has allowed to combine innovation, sustainability and digitalization and is a model toward the maximization of sustainable efficiency because it is a place of aggregation of resources and ideas.Originality/valueThis study experiments with an innovative way of addressing traditional industry analysis, namely, integrating the reflective management approach with DEA-based backward analysis. This provides decision makers with the basis for new interpretations of variable trends.

Resource-based view of innovation activity in SMEs: an empirical analysis based on the global competitiveness project

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lívia Lukovszki ◽  
András Rideg ◽  
Norbert Sipos
Keyword(s):  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Binary Logistic Regression ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Innovation Activity ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Resources And Capabilities ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this study is to identify the corporate functions that contribute most to the innovation success of SMEs with limited resources. After a systematic literature review, the authors used a unique primary data set of 784 SMEs from eight countries. Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression were used to show the data set peculiarities. The logistic regression targeted the presence of innovative products and services in sales by 11 dummy variables and 4 principal factors describing SMEs’ different resources and capabilities. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a resource-based product innovation model that is synthesising the impact of the company resources and capabilities and of the innovation activity of the company on the actual innovation performance. The authors carry out an empirical analysis of the characteristic features of innovation activity in an international sample of SMEs. Findings The results show that two corporate functions play a crucial role in the effectiveness of innovation for SMEs as follows: management and research and development (R&D). In addition, although of lesser importance, the effect of the marketing function also appears significant. The binary logistic regression had 84.2% of explanatory power. Originality/value From a scientific point of view, the SME-focussed, complex and synthesising RBV model of innovation construction and literature review can be used as a reference point for future researches. From a practical point of view, the analysis is useful for those SMEs, which want to gain a competitive advantage through innovation. Indeed, the results show that in the case of SMEs, a company wishing to innovate must invest in three corporate functions for innovation to be effective as follows: management, R&D and marketing.

scholarly journals Industrial districts and the fourth industrial revolution

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bettiol ◽  
Mauro Capestro ◽  
Valentina De Marchi ◽  
Eleonora Di Maria ◽  
Silvia Rita Sedita
Keyword(s):  
Industry 4.0 ◽  
Industrial Revolution ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Product Diversification ◽  
Industrial Districts ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Fourth Industrial Revolution ◽  
Italian Manufacturing Firms

Purpose This paper aims to explore if firms located in industrial districts (IDs) have different adoption paths concerning Industry 4.0 technologies and get different results with respect to other similar firms located outside IDs. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on a quantitative analysis related to an original data set of 206 Italian manufacturing firms specializing in made in Italy industries and adopting Industry 4.0 technologies. A case study of a district firm is also presented to explain the rationale of investment strategies and results obtained. Findings The analysis shows that there are differences between district and non-district firms when Industry 4.0 technology investments are concerned (higher investment rate in big data/cloud and augmented reality for district firms than non-district ones). In contrast to a breakthrough view of the fourth industrial revolution, the study suggests that 4.0 technologies emphasize the peculiarities and competitiveness factors typical of the district model in terms of customization and flexibility. There are differences in the motivations of adoption (product diversification for district firms vs productivity enhancement for non-district firms) and in the results achieved. Originality/value The paper is one of the first attempts to empirically explore the technological innovation paths related to Industry 4.0 within IDs, therefore, contributing to the debate on the possible evolution of the district model

scholarly journals Sustainability as source of competitive advantages in mature sectors

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Settembre Blundo ◽  
Fernando Enrique García-Muiña ◽  
Martina Pini ◽  
Lucrezia Volpi ◽  
Cristina Siligardi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Impact Assessment ◽  
Value Chain ◽  
Sustainability Assessment ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Observation Point ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Ceramic Tiles ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Sustainability Performance ◽  
Socio Economic Impact

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore how sustainability can become a source of competitive advantage for mature manufacturing sectors where technologies are standardized, and innovation is mainly generated across the value chain and not by individual companies.Design/methodology/approachFrom the methodological point of view, this research estimates the sustainability status of ceramic production in the Sassuolo district (Italy), using the Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) model, and changing the observation point for the analysis, from the enterprise (micro level) to the entire sector (meso level).FindingsThis paper provides an analysis of the environmental, economic and social impacts of the four main types of ceramic tiles manufactured in Italy, both in aggregate terms for the entire sector and per square meter of product.Practical implicationsThe methodological approach used in this research is easy to replicate both for companies when designing their sustainability strategies and for public decision makers when assessing the sustainability performance of a sector or supply chain.Social implicationsFor the first time, a socio-economic impact assessment is proposed for the ceramic sector, conducted in parallel with the environmental impact assessment through stakeholder mapping and prioritization.Originality/valueThis paper conceptualizes the theme of relations and interdependencies between ceramic producers organized in industrial districts and the territories in which they operate in order to determine empirically the sustainability performance of Italian ceramic sector, using the LCSA model with a territorial extension that presupposes an innovative contribution to current literature and practice.

Product development based on design attributes

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 371-382
Author(s):  
Michael Brusch ◽  
Katrin Baumert ◽  
Paula Kastner
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Stimulus Presentation ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Product Development Process ◽  
Quality Level ◽  
Pictorial Stimulus ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Design Attributes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate an approach to include the influence of design attributes (DA) into an early product development step. In general, the development of new products with market success is of high relevance for companies. Because of a relatively high-quality level in general, not the product quality itself but rather new issues as attributes with aesthetical values are becoming more and more important. However, the right consideration of these attributes is still one of the challenges. Design/methodology/approach The underlying investigation is based on an empirical data set resulting from a survey with motorcycles as research object. Motorcycles are a good example for a good with a certain relevance of DA for the buying decision of customers. The data collection and analysis will focus on a recommended presentation alternative of measuring perceptions and influences through customer evaluations, separating customer segments and identifying differences. Therefore, data analysis methods such as cluster analysis will be applied. Findings The findings are new for researchers from a theoretical and from a practical point of view. The results verify the use of pictorial stimulus presentation and emphasize the necessary integration of DA within the product development process. Originality/value Within the paper the usefulness of the consideration of design elements in case of gathering customer meanings is highlighted. Therefore, existing approaches of measuring design attribute influences and using pictorial instead of verbal descriptions of stimuli are adopted and enhanced through the use of additional information of the respondents.

Semantic key phrase-based model for document management

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1709-1727
Author(s):  
Prafulla Bafna ◽  
Dhanya Pramod ◽  
Shailaja Shrwaikar ◽  
Atiya Hassan
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Knowledge Extraction ◽  
Document Management ◽  
Customer Relationship ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Cluster Quality

Purpose Document management is growing in importance proportionate to the growth of unstructured data, and its applications are increasing from process benchmarking to customer relationship management and so on. The purpose of this paper is to improve important components of document management that is keyword extraction and document clustering. It is achieved through knowledge extraction by updating the phrase document matrix. The objective is to manage documents by extending the phrase document matrix and achieve refined clusters. The study achieves consistency in cluster quality in spite of the increasing size of data set. Domain independence of the proposed method is tested and compared with other methods. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, a synset-based phrase document matrix construction method is proposed where semantically similar phrases are grouped to reduce the dimension curse. When a large collection of documents is to be processed, it includes some documents that are very much related to the topic of interest known as model documents and also the documents that deviate from the topic of interest. These non-relevant documents may affect the cluster quality. The first step in knowledge extraction from the unstructured textual data is converting it into structured form either as term frequency-inverse document frequency matrix or as phrase document matrix. Once in structured form, a range of mining algorithms from classification to clustering can be applied. Findings In the enhanced approach, the model documents are used to extract key phrases with synset groups, whereas the other documents participate in the construction of the feature matrix. It gives a better feature vector representation and improved cluster quality. Research limitations/implications Various applications that require managing of unstructured documents can use this approach by specifically incorporating the domain knowledge with a thesaurus. Practical implications Experiment pertaining to the academic domain is presented that categorizes research papers according to the context and topic, and this will help academicians to organize and build knowledge in a better way. The grouping and feature extraction for resume data can facilitate the candidate selection process. Social implications Applications like knowledge management, clustering of search engine results, different recommender systems like hotel recommender, task recommender, and so on, will benefit from this study. Hence, the study contributes to improving document management in business domains or areas of interest of its users from various strata’s of society. Originality/value The study proposed an improvement to document management approach that can be applied in various domains. The efficacy of the proposed approach and its enhancement is validated on three different data sets of well-articulated documents from data sets such as biography, resume and research papers. These results can be used for benchmarking further work carried out in these areas.

Social media practices applied by city hotels: a comparative case study from Turkey

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 229-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanim Kader Sanliöz Özgen ◽  
Metin Kozak
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Comparative Case Study ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Independent Review ◽  
Media Practices

Purpose – This study aims to examine various forms of hotel businesses’ social media (SM) practices by analysing TripAdvisor (TA) and examining its critical role in decision-making. As a well-known platform of SM in tourism, TA serves as an independent review site where visitors share their holiday experiences. Design/methodology/approach – The sample for this study includes hotel businesses located in Istanbul, Turkey, and listed in the top grades of TA ratings. Purposive sampling was used to obtain relevant data. A holistic multiple-case study was designed, as sample hotels vary in official class and attributes. Structured interviews were used to collect data from participating managers in each hotel business. Upon creation of the data set, transcripts were used to develop and classify a matrix table (hotels vs questions) and analysed by clustering responses according to the content of questions. Findings – The study findings show that hotels pay significant attention to TA and that it is viewed as an essential tool for various purposes. Hotel businesses benefit from the content of TA for the purpose of marketing and quality management. From a strategic point of view, hotel businesses consider TA as an “ocean of opportunity” that is highly related to service quality, reliable information channels and effective tools to monitor competitors and for undertaking self-review of performance. Research limitations/implications – The sample group represents only hotel businesses in the city, and the study utilizes only qualitative techniques. A similar empirical investigation in a resort destination and a longitudinal comparable study using both qualitative and quantitative techniques may generate more insights relating to the social media practices of hotel businesses. Practical implications – Hotel businesses consider accuracy, transparency and consistency of content and pricing to be essential prerequisites of competitiveness. As a consequence, this study reveals the fact that TA is a critical tool of SM utilized by hotels with different attributes, despite some concerns regarding fake reviews. Originality/value – This is an insightful comparative study of TA practices of hotel businesses with different attributes. The study may inspire further research to study SM practices and related impacts on a longitudinal basis.

Patients’ perceived risks in hospitals: a grey qualitative analysis

Kybernetes ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1408-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camelia Delcea ◽  
Ioana-Alexandra Bradea
Keyword(s):  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Medical Services ◽  
Risk Category ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Average Value ◽  
Medical Facilities ◽  
Incidence Analysis ◽  
Risk Categories

Purpose This study aims to analyze the major risk categories that could be encountered in hospitals and other medical facilities and attempts to determine which are more important from the patients’ perspective for the purpose of improving to the hospital–patient relationship improvement. For this, five main risk categories are identified along with an overall perceived risk. Design/methodology/approach To extract the patients’ opinion over the considered types of risks in terms of importance and exposure to these risks when using the medical services, a questionnaire has been created and validated using AMOS 22.0.0. Due to the validation process, a series of variables have been excluded, while the selected ones have been used for calculating the overall perceived risk. Having the values of this risk for the entire set of respondents (N = 304), the grey incidence analysis has been applied to determine whether there is a correlation between the overall perceived risk and the frequency of medical services usage, the disease gravity, the hospitalisation period or the healing degree. Findings The human resources and the hospital conditions risk has been mentioned as the main risk category encountered by the respondents when accessing the medical services both in term of importance and exposure, shortly followed by the technological and hospital conditions risk. The overall perceived risk has a moderate to high average value on the entire set of respondents and it is mostly related to the frequency to which the respondents are utilising the medical services. Originality/value In this paper, the hospital’s risks are analysed from the patients’ point of view to see both their perception over these risks and the importance they are giving to these risks. More, an overall perceived risk has been determined, with a moderate to high value on the Likert scale (on this data set), which can be useful if extended to each hospital (and not calculated as a general indicator), as it can provide a landmark for patients when choosing a hospital.

Chained to a rock

2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 44-48
Author(s):  
Peter Buell Hirsch
Keyword(s):  
Consumer Perceptions ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Customer Base ◽  
Politics And Culture ◽  
Original Contribution ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Consumer Boycotts ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the extraordinary reputational challenge for brands in social media in an era of heightened political and cultural polarization. In a time when the tension between liberal and conservative consumers has grown significantly, brands are being threatened with boycotts from both the left and right. In this paper, the authors identify some core approaches for brands facing this dilemma. Design/methodology/approach The authors’ approach is to review the experience of various brands which have been the victims of consumer boycotts motivated by political considerations. The authors examined these events from the perspective of the severity/duration of their impact on the brand, how the brands chose to respond and how their response was perceived to suggest the approaches that seem to be most effective in mitigating brand damage. Findings The authors have found that the critical factors in mitigating brand damage are giving clear guidelines to employees about customer relations, understanding the composition of the customer base more deeply through the lens of politics and culture, developing a comprehensive risk management approach and creating a consistent point of view on handling political threats and boycotts to ensure consistency. Research limitations/implications The authors’ evaluation is by definition subjective and the insights gained have not been tested empirically. Practical implications While the potential political threats to a specific brand are reasonably predictable, consumer perceptions are influenced by many factors only partially within the brand’s control. Social implications Much as companies gained expertise in managing reputation crises throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the authors believe that brands adopting their approach to politically driven boycotts will gradually learn how to manage them and the threats will become a routine part of a brand’s relationship with its stakeholders. Originality/value While a great deal has been written about the nature and growth of politically driven brand threats, the authors believe this paper is an original contribution to how to manage them.

The significance of the contribution of children to conceptualising the destination of the future

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 544-559 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hugues Seraphin ◽  
Sarah Green
Keyword(s):  
Point Of View ◽  
The Body ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
Adopted Children ◽  
Purchase Decisions ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Metaphorical Thinking ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Tourism Experience ◽  
The Future

Purpose As there is a growing demand of cutting-edge technology as part of the tourism experience from the digital native population and because little is known about this group as tourism consumers despite the fact they will be the core tourism spender of tomorrow, the purpose of this paper is to give children an opportunity to share their vision of the destination of the future. Design/methodology/approach From a methodological point of view, a qualitative approach is adopted. Children were asked to draw, communicate and display their view on their Winchester of the future. The data collected are used to formulate an innovative, smart-based future-fit management approach for products and services design. Findings To fully meet the needs and expectation of the coming generation of tourists, Winchester (city located in the South of England, and surrounded by some of the most visited UK destinations, namely London, Oxford and Cambridge) will have to adopt an ambidextrous management approach when developing products and services for customers of the future. This ambidextrous management approach will balance metaphorical thinking and objective thinking in product and service design. Originality/value There is a scarcity of studies on children in tourism research despite the fact the industry and academics recognise the value and impact of children, and more specifically, their role in purchase decisions. Equally important, this research is also going to contribute to the body of knowledge on smart management of destinations.

Measurement and evaluation of product descriptors with a high relevance from a customers’ point of view

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 363-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Brusch ◽  
Katrin Baumert ◽  
Luisa Illner
Keyword(s):  
Influencing Factors ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Customer Behavior ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Consumer Evaluations ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
External Customer

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an approach to measure and to evaluate product descriptors which have a high relevance from customers’ point of view. When developing new goods, i.e. products and services, decision makers have to include consumer evaluations within their decision-making process. These evaluations should analyze the product descriptors, which are really relevant from the customers’ point of view and which can be totally different from simple physical or technical attributes in the case of material goods. Besides these several types of product characteristics, the evaluations should consider external influencing factors like the involvement. Design/methodology/approach In this investigation, an empirical data set resulting from a complex technical product-related survey is used. The products analyzed are smartphones and can be seen as representative examples with both objective physical features and subjective design-related attributes. The data collection and analysis will focus on subjective attributes, identifying factors and separating customer segments, e.g. using cluster analysis. Additionally, the existence of influence factors such as the involvement of the customers will be tested. Findings The results show relevant differences from the customers’ point of view with regard to product descriptors which are different for every customer and hard to describe. The investigation leads to five different respondent groups. Additionally, other external (customer behavior-related) influence factors – especially the involvement – can be identified as relevant. The analyses point out that there is a need to analyze the customers on an individual level and to consider influencing factors. Originality/value The investigation illustrates consequences of the usage of customer individual subjective elements as product descriptors which are relevant from the customers’ viewpoint. The resulting insights are new for researchers from a theoretical and from a practical point of view. The results verify, among others, the needs to analyze the customers on an individual level and to consider external (customer behavior-related) influence factors.

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