Andrea Urbinati

The relationship between the development of circular-oriented innovations and their impact on companies' economic performance is still an under researched management issue in the existing studies on circular economy. Through scrutinizing the 100 companies that invested the most in R&D from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2020, this study addresses this research gap. The level of companies' circular-oriented innovations has been measured with the number and percentage of circular patents while the economic performance is proxied with the operating revenues. In addition, since the fact that the impact of circular-oriented innovations on economic performance may be enhanced by companies' collaborations, the moderating role of copatenting, a widely adopted measure of the level of collaboration between companies, has been verified. After a general investigation involving more than 12 million patents, the panel data regression model proves that circular-oriented innovations are related to companies' economic performance, but a negative correlation persists along the different time lags, while the copatenting moderates this relationship.

The interest about Research spin-offs (RSOs) has constantly increased since the last fifteen years on average, as their number is augmenting all over Europe and, consequently, several academic debates about the effective success, convincing strategy, and real performance of this peculiar kind of start-up company are open and arouse tricky questions. In addition, following the Internet revolution and globalization, nowadays we are assisting to the rising of high-growth firms, gazelles, “unicorns” and other kinds of companies that go beyond the traditional (old) vision of doing business. Moreover, open innovation, lean start-up and design thinking are at present some representative emerging strategies for doing business. Notwithstanding, in this fast-changing scenario and despite the growing relevance for companies of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and digital technologies, the role and the features of RSOs specifically providing digital products/services are still unexplored. In this paper, we leverage on a multiple case study analysis of four Italian digital RSOs to highlight differences and similarities with non-digital RSOs, their peculiarities in terms of drivers that foster their creation (as the role of the universities or the location issues), or, in terms of potential value creation, the successful competitive strategies that digital RSOs pursue.

The research stream on circular economy business model tries to investigate the managerial practices that companies need to implement in their business model to address the principles of circular economy. Several studies have highlighted two main dimensions of business model on which companies can leverage to implement circular economy principles. On one hand, the value network dimension concerns the creation of value through the management of the supply chain and of the key relationships along the entire supply chain with suppliers, manufacturers and retailers. On the other hand, the customer value proposition and interface dimension concerns the capture of value through the management of relationships with clients, supported by new mechanisms of value transferring such as pay-as-a-service. In this paper, we focus on the dimension of the value network, thus we put emphasis on the Design for X practices in the adoption of circular economy and on the actions conducted by the key partners of the supply chain to push the realization of a circular economy business model. Accordingly, by incorporating the recent contributions on business model innovation in the context of circular economy, a framework has been proposed. Then, we tested the empirical suitability of our framework on a US company operating in the building sector to illuminate on the managerial practices a company in this industry is required to consider in its value network dimension. Accordingly, among the main results, we emphasize the valorization of natural waste through the harmonization of managerial practices, socio-economic regeneration, and sustainable behaviours among the actors of the supply chain, which have been identified as essential for value creation in circular economy business models in the building sector.

Circular economy business models have undoubtedly become a hot topic nowadays both in academia and among industrial practitioners and companies. In this paper, we focus on the product design practices that can be conceived in circular economy business models along two major dimensions: (i) the value network, i.e. the ways through which companies interact with suppliers and reorganize their own internal activities, and (ii) the customer value proposition and interface, i.e. the implementation of the circularity concept in proposing value to customers. Therefore, a theoretical framework of product design practices for circular economy business models is proposed and tested on a case study of an Italian manufacturing company.

Both in theory and practice Circular Economy and Industry 4.0 have been historically considered as isolated mechanisms for economic growth, although some scientific contributions have recently highlighted strong synergetic relationships between them. Despite the existence of roadmaps for sustainable operations in Circular Economy through Industry 4.0 or of conceptual frameworks of Industry 4.0 in Circular Economy contexts, we still lack an integrative framework of Industry 4.0 and Circular Economy. Thus, we examine whether and to what extent Industry 4.0 is interdependent and interrelated with Circular Economy and can support the value creation and capture in Circular Economy business models.

Circular Economy has recently become a hot topic for scholars and practitioners as it represents a new industrial paradigm that aims to overcome the traditional open systems of production and resources consumption. Whereas there is still a lot of attention to the formulation of policies that guide governments and policymakers to show and consolidate the benefits of this approach in the society, we still lack of consolidated managerial guidelines that support companies towards the implementation of this paradigm. Accordingly, within this field of research, several contributions started to analyse the managerial actions companies need to perform to establish a circular economy business model or, in other words, the managerial practices needed to the value network and customer value proposition & interface dimensions of a business model of a company. In particular, existing research started to examine the business model design choices related to these dimensions to shift towards circular economy business models. Starting from this premise, we want to propose in this paper a framework for circular economy business models, which figures out the main areas of intervention in companies' business model and the managerial actions required in these areas to establish a circular economy business model. Therefore, we will test the framework on a suitable case of a large Italian multinational company operating in the food sector. In doing so, we aim to answer to the still unanswered question of "how" companies implement circular economy through the adoption of managerial practices in the value network and the customer value proposition and interface dimensions of their business model.

Innovation and change represent a necessary response to the challenges that new technologies pose to the electricity production sector, forcing producers to come up with new solutions and models of production, mainly enabled by innovations in telecommunications and digital technologies. In this competitive scenario, many firms have decided to harness the entrepreneurial power through formalized engagement with start-ups. However, most corporates do not know where to start, given the mushrooming array of open innovation programs nowadays available. The study analyzes the case of one leading Italian utility operating in the electricity sector, which has recently embraced, at different organizational level and involving different business units, a transformation of its organizational processes, adopting an open approach to innovation. The study aims to address the emergence of new (and open) business models in the utility sector, developing an understanding of the new organizational structures and processes the company here analyzed is adopting (and shall adopt) to harness the power of open innovation.

Innovation scholars and practitioners are discussing at length on the use of digital technologies in the innovation process of companies. Most of them have paid special attention on the use of digital technologies to deploy or evolve systems for managing the life cycle of products or services, accelerate their realization, and pursuing them to reach global markets in record times. Although the use of digital technologies is a widely discussed topic in literature, nowadays it seems to be even more relevant in the fields of management and innovation due to the important changes characterizing companies and their innovation activity. Indeed, companies are increasingly relying on knowledge and technology developed outside their borders, as well as transferring ideas to external partners, selling intellectual property, technology and licensing fees. In this case, the amount of knowledge and technology exchanged within and outside the boundaries of the firm increases significantly, that requires the use and implementation of new technologies. Accordingly, companies can use and implement digital technologies to manage an innovation process that is even more open. Notwithstanding, existing literature does not provide an innovation framework that highlights their key role in the innovation process. This paper aims to fill this gap. By adopting a capability-based perspective to identify the patterns of actions that firms have to deploy to use and implement a set of digital technologies in their innovation process, the paper provides a map of enabled and enabling capabilities ensuing from and required for their use and implementation. From a methodological point of view, we conducted an exploratory multiple case study analysis, which involved a sample of eight companies operating in different industries and characterized by different sizes, market shares and organizational structure.

Digital innovation can play a critical role in delivering more innovative solutions for the power generation industry, which is called to manage the complexity of massive electro-mechanical machines to produce energy. Building on a single case study of a large European technology company (the "Provider") which sells Product Life Cycle Management ("PLM") systems, we investigate how the innovation process of the power generation industry (the "end-user") can benefit from the adoption and implementation of a digital innovation such as the PLM system. To this extent, we adopt a capability-based perspective, mapping into a framework (i) the capabilities triggered by the Provider on the end-user for adopting and implementing a PLM system in its innovation process; (ii) the capabilities stemmed from the PLM adoption by the end-user, and deriving from the activities performed by the Provider within the end-user premises.

Circular economy implies profound changes in companies' business model to gain competitive advantage and mostly in the value network dimension. Notwithstanding, the supply chain management field has poorly focused on the role played by the value network to allow companies' shift towards sustainable supply chains. This deserves particular attention nowadays, when circular economy calls companies to become sustainable through establishing closed-loop supply chains, which find in collaborative relationships a way to reduce environmental impacts and gain competitive advantage. We tackle this issue, leveraging on an exploratory single case study analysis of a manufacturing company conducting a transition towards circular economy.