Andrea Urbinati

This research delves into Sustainable Business Models (SBM) to address the rising demand for sustainability in organizational practices, diverging from models focusing solely on short-term profits. The study fills existing research gaps in SBM implementation by providing a comprehensive, theorydriven exploration of Critical Success Factors (CSFs), utilizing predominant management theories within the context of an exemplary sustainable Italian firm. Through insightful semi-structured interviews and through the theoretical lenses of six organisational theories the paper reveals pivotal internal CSFs and offers theoretical and practical insights for successful SBM implementation. Based on these theories, this study proposes the following six CSFs: “Top management commitment”; Impact Team contribution; “Sustainability embedded production”; “Employees proactiveness”; “Sustainability training”; “R&D activities”. Ultimately, this study offers significant theoretical contribution and policy implications.

In recent decades, the resource-based view of companies has represented one of the main theoretical lenses in strategic management. It aims to address the question of how some companies persistently outperform others, mostly leveraging on core competences and resources. Nevertheless, the resource-based view of companies has been neglected by existing research analysing the micro-perspective of the circular economy, that is how companies design circular business models. This chapter takes stock of research on the micro-foundations for the design of circular business models through a resource-based view of companies. It makes the argument that a resource-based view of companies is a necessary antecedent to be addressed in circular economy studies when companies are designing a circular business model. As such, core competences and resources may act as catalysts in the design process of circular business models.

The purpose of this work is to highlight how companies operating in the building industry design a circular business model (CBM) and how collaborative relationships across the building supply chain enforce this CBM. Thereby, first, based on the literature, a framework is designed, and subsequently, is validated based on the historical analysis of the activities of four Italian companies considered as circular economy (CE) champions. This work enhances understanding of the phases and procedures followed by companies operating in the building sector to successfully implement a CBM and the role of collaborative relationships among the supply chain actors of this industry to increase their degree of circularity. The chapter offers empirical structured direction to managers intending to implement CBMs, and directions on how they can leverage collaborations across the building supply chain. The chapter considers that, in a supply chain, value can be cocreated through collaboration between the focal firm and other stakeholders and acknowledges the peculiarities of the building sector.

The interest about Research Spin-Offs (RSOs) has constantly increased since the last fifteen years and their number is augmenting all over Europe. RSOs are also expected to not escape from the consequences of the digital revolution. But the potential impact of digital technologies on academic entrepreneurship is actually an under-researched field of analysis. Accordingly, the aim of this contribution is to bridge the gap in the intersection between Digital RSOs and the entrepreneurial university, by answering to the following research question: How do Digital RSOs work within the entrepreneurial university and what are the critical factors characterizing them? And, consequently, is there a need for further research specifically dedicated to the role of the entrepreneurial university towards RSOs in the digital age? To answer to this research question, we leverage on a multiple case study analysis of four Digital RSOs from the Polytechnic of Milan (Italy) and on a set of interviews with experts in the subject.