Alessandro Creazza

Purpose: While blockchain technology (BCT) is recognized for its potential, its adoption among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) remains limited. Existing literature focuses on large multinational enterprises, leaving a gap in understanding the challenges and opportunities SMEs face. This study aims to explore the adoption of BCT in an Italian manufacturing SME, assessing both the operational and sustainability implications. Design/methodology/approach: This study employs an action research approach grounded in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology framework. Through iterative phases of research, it examines the key factors influencing blockchain adoption. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with department heads with follow-ups to validate findings. Findings: The research identifies fifteen critical challenges SMEs encounter in adopting BCT, including technological readiness, interoperability with existing systems, regulatory uncertainty and misconceptions stemming from blockchain's association with cryptocurrency. While blockchain offers potential benefits such as enhanced transparency, traceability and automation, its successful adoption requires substantial internal restructuring and stakeholder engagement. The study also highlights BCT's potential to support sustainability initiatives, such as digitalized tracking and paperless invoicing. Originality/value: This study contributes to the literature by shifting the focus from large corporations to SMEs, providing empirical insights into blockchain's real-world applications in a resource-constrained environment. This study is among the few to examine blockchain adoption in SMEs through an action research approach, enabling real-time observation and iterative validation of findings across multiple organizational departments. It underscores the importance of aligning blockchain adoption with business strategy rather than merely following technological trends. Furthermore, the study serves as a practical guide for managers, offering key considerations for evaluating the feasibility of blockchain integration and identifying trade-offs between expected benefits and implementation complexities.

Food waste is a sustainability concern in the food industry, which can be mitigated through a circular economy. Circularity can be limited by contextual constraints, such as the characteristics of the waste to be recovered. However, their study in the context of food waste is scarce. Through contingency theory, this work explores which food waste flow characteristics (homogeneous quality, certain timing, sufficient quantity, economic value, and nutritional value) play a role in achieving high circular economy performance. The food waste flows generated by 15 Italian food manufacturing firms are analyzed with qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The analysis reveals that only a few characteristics may be sufficient for high circular economy performance. The characteristics are contingency factors: Depending on the recognized contingencies, firms may decide to prevent or recover food waste flows out of convenience, necessity, or because of ethics. To improve their circular economy performance, firms can also modify the contingencies themselves.

Supply chain sustainability and resilience have gained the interest of academic and industrial communities, and increasingly represent top priorities in organizations’ agendas. This article aims to measure the key dimensions driving sustainability and resilience in supply chains and their interrelationships. We propose a new composite indicator for their joint assessment through the application of a robust composite indicator development framework, and the integration of secondary data with primary data gathered from a survey in the Italian industry. Results show no evidence of a trade-off between supply chain sustainability and resilience and instead highlight a potentially important cross-fertilization from sustainability to resilience through supply chain collaboration when these transcend the internal boundaries of the firm. This is a significant contribution to the existing debate in the literature on the relationship between sustainability and resilience in the supply chain, thanks to the development of an integrative composite indicator and a quantitative approach to the explanation of this relationship. By fostering a deeper understanding of supply chain sustainability and resilience, this investigation informs decision-makers on potential avenues to concurrently build and sustain their firms’ supply chain sustainability and resilience.

Logistics 4.0 is a recent paradigm derived from the Industry 4.0 paradigm applied to the logistics sec-tor. Several new technologies have been developed to improve logistics performance. The presentresearch aims to build a maturity model to support 3PL providers in assessing their level of maturityand identifying the areas in which to invest to improve the logistics service offered through the imple-mentation of Logistics 4.0 technologies. The maturity model was developed using a structured frame-work of four main steps: the definition of the model scope; the model design (literature review onLogistics 4.0 and the existing maturity models); the model composition and validation; and pilot testsin three relevant 3PL providers. The proposed maturity model has four constructs (i.e. strategic out-comes, requirements, Logistics 4.0 technologies, managerial and capability supporters) and four matur-ity levels (i.e. initial, intermediate, advanced, cutting-edge).

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to support the improvement of the design and management of distribution processes of health technologies, evaluating performance to understand the aspects of the service that affect the level of patient satisfaction, considering a real-life healthcare service (the absorbent devices for incontinence in the Piedmont Region (Italy)).
Methods: The following quantitative data were collected, with reference to the year 2020: (i) number of patients; (ii) volume of delivered devices; (iii) total costs of delivered absorbent. Authors also designed an on-line survey to gather patient perceptions about the organization of distribution of health technologies and related models.
Results: The results showed that the cost of devices per patient was higher than about 40% in the mixed distribution model (i.e. the coexistence of home delivery regulated by regional tender and distribution through territorial pharmacies/private shops regulated by convention regimen), but a greater number of devices are supplied to incontinence patients in that model. The results of the survey (721 respondents) about the level of satisfaction of the adopted distribution models demonstrated a general satisfaction with the organization of the service, although the mixed model seemed to be more appreciated.
Conclusions: A contribution of this manuscript was to investigate the topic of quality of care in the primary care setting, which was a research area that had received scarce attention until now, but as important for the future sustainability of healthcare system.

Purpose – An ever-increasing number of companies outsource logistics activities to third-party logistics (3PL) providers to beat the competition. From the buyer's (shippers') perspective, selecting the right 3PL provider is crucial, and from the 3PL provider's perspective, it is imperative to be attractive and to retain clients. To this aim, a potential lever can be physical assets, such as warehouses, which the literature has traditionally neglected. The objective is to benchmark the importance of warehouses for 3PL providers to attract/retain clients and for shippers to select the right 3PL provider. Design/methodology/approach – The authors performed an empirical investigation through interviews on dyads (3PL providers/shippers) and utilized the Best-Worst Method (BWM) to rank the criteria used in the 3PL buying process and allow the warehouse's role to emerge. Findings – Results show that the 3PL buying process consists of four phases and three evaluation steps. The selection criteria are classified into three groups: order qualifiers, order winners and retention factors. The warehouse has different levels of importance throughout the process. It appears that it can indirectly enhance the attractiveness and retention capability of 3PL providers through other selection criteria. Originality/value – By combining the resource-based view and the customer value theory, this research extends the theory on logistics outsourcing by studying the phases of the 3PL buying process and scrutinizing the criteria used in different evaluation steps. The research adds a double perspective of analysis (3PL providers and shippers), which is missing in the literature, and focuses on the importance of warehouses.