Raffaella Manzini

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.

During the last decade, many researchers have claimed that we are in the era of open innovation (OI). However, an extensive picture of the actual implementation of open innovation is still lacking. In order to address this gap, a research project was launched, called Open Innovation Survey, involving four European countries (Italy, UK, Sweden and Finland). The research project is focused on inbound innovation and it is aimed at identifying the OI models through which firms open their innovation funnel to their external partners, by means of an extended survey. The paper presents the first tentative results drawn from the survey, in terms of descriptive statistics (cluster analysis) and regressions, which allow depicting the different OI models actually adopted in the practice of companies. By relying on the conception of collaboration depth with two typical types of partners (scientific and business ones), four OI models are identified (open network innovators, supply chain collaborators, technology seekers and closed collaborators). Moreover, some determinants of such partner choices are outlined, as factors external and internal to the firms: technological trends are crucial to push firms towards external collaborations, above all with scientific partners; an aggressive innovation strategy, but also goals of innovation process efficiency exert a role. Lastly, the relationships among different OI models and both sides of innovation performance (novelty and efficiency) are investigated. In this regard, the organizational-managerial and social context factors emerge as relevant mediating variables, leading to a strong managerial implication: without an appropriate context, OI is not profitable.