Valentina Elena Lazzarotti

The sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) has become an influential framework for integrating sustainability into strategic management. Despite its growing adoption, research remains fragmented, and insufficiently aligned with the sustainability regulatory frameworks. Drawing on institutional and goal-setting theory, this study examines whether SBSC indicators enable strategic integration or reveal compliance lags with respect to sustainability requirements. A Systematic Literature Review is conducted combining bibliometric analysis of 205 peer-reviewed papers and content analysis of the 66 most influential contributions. Findings reveal persistent reliance on early conceptual foundations of the SBSC and limited integration of regulatory requirements. Relevant gaps emerge at the indicator-level alignment between SBSC and ESRS, particularly regarding pollution, water use, biodiversity, value-chain social aspects, and governance-related metrics. This study contributes to the SBSC literature by providing an overview of its evolution, evaluating its alignment with ESRS, indicating potential avenues for future research, and highlighting some managerial implications.

ESG practices offer various benefits for family firms; however, there has been limited focus on how these practices can specifically advantage the owning family. To address this gap, we conduct a multiple-case study of six Italian family firms. Responding to recent calls for research (Stock et al., 2024) and building on the growing literature on ESG in family business, we adopt the family as the primary unit of analysis and investigate the outcomes that the owning family derives from the firm's ESG practices. Our findings reveal that engagement in ESG fosters a set of interrelated, family-level outcomes. We conceptualize these outcomes as Continuity, Alignment, Relationships, and Ethics (summarized as C.A.R.E.), four concepts that are reinforced, nurtured, and developed through sustained ESG engagement. These concepts together function as key intangible resources that contribute to the long-term success of family businesses.

The accelerating convergence of digital transformation and ESG dimensions has created a new strategic frontier for firms seeking to enhance sustainability. This systematic review examines how digital tools drive and are shaped by ESG initiatives. Using the PRISMA model, 113 peer-reviewed papers were selected from Scopus and Web of Science up to September 2025. A structured content analysis was conducted, and a conceptual framework was developed to address two research questions: How does digital tool adoption affect ESG, and how does ESG influence digital tool adoption? Descriptive analysis reveals that the literature is highly fragmented across theoretical lenses, geographical contexts, and journals. Content findings highlight three main patterns: 89 papers examine how digital tools affect ESG, seven explore the reverse relationship, and seventeen investigate the digital-ESG interplay on firm outcomes. Overall, digital-ESG relationships are mutually reinforcing, generally enhancing organizational outcomes. An extended conceptual model is proposed, framing digital technologies and ESG as both enablers and outcomes, and illustrating their dynamic interplay. The review concludes that digitalization and ESG are not only interlinked but co-evolve: responsible digital transformation strengthens ESG performance, while ESG commitments drive digital innovation, thereby enhancing legitimacy, social value, and overall firm performance over time.

Circular Business Models (CBMs) are central to firms’ transition towards a Circular Economy (CE), however the lack of integrated tools to evaluate both circular and financial performance limits managerial decision-making. This study addresses this gap by developing and empirically testing a Circular Balanced Scorecard (CBSC). Grounded in thirteen identified managerial practices for CBMs, the CBSC translates these practices into measurable objectives. Using a single case study of an Italian manufacturing company transitioning towards circularity, the research validates the CBSC through over 30 h of interviews with nine top managers and extensive document analysis. The findings propose a strategy map that links 16 quantitative and 4 qualitative measures across four perspectives, unveiling two strategic pathways for the transition towards CE: value discount (i.e., cost reduction through eco-efficiency) and value premium (i.e., turnover growth through CE-based differentiation). The value discount pathway emerges as the primary driver of the transition towards CE, as its profitability can be more readily demonstrated compared to other transition routes. Moreover, the results illustrate how managerial practices can be operationalized within a holistic CBSC that balances circular and financial goals. This study contributes to the literature by bridging performance management and CE research, offering a practical, process-oriented tool for managers to design, implement, and monitor CE strategies in industrial manufacturing contexts, while providing a structured, theory-driven approach to managing and evaluating circular transitions. © The Author(s) 2026.

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the impact of Lean Production (LP) and Industry 4.0 (I4.0) on the adoption of Circular Economy (CE) within manufacturing firms, also considering the potential moderating effect of I4.0 on the link between LP and CE. By doing so, it addresses the limited and contrasting empirical evidence on how operational practices facilitate the adoption of CE. Design/methodology/approach. This study adopted the Practice-Based View (PBV) as a theoretical lens and employed a quantitative research design. Data were collected via a survey of 151 manufacturing companies operating in Italy and analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression analysis to test the conceptual model. Findings: The empirical results confirm that both LP and I4.0 are significantly and positively associated with CE adoption. I4.0 technologies have a stronger individual impact on CE adoption than LP. However, the hypothesized moderating effect of I4.0 on the LP–CE relationship is not supported. In other words, the implementation of technologies may not contribute to a positive variation in the level of CE adoption that is already achieved due to the implementation of LP practices. Hence, managers should pursue distinct CE strategies aligned with the unique capabilities of LP and I4.0, respectively. Originality/value: This research contributes to the operations management and CE literature by providing empirical evidence on the role of LP and I4.0 in enabling CE adoption. It offers valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers aiming to foster CE adoption in manufacturing, dealt with the links adopting the PBV, challenging the presumed moderating effect of I4.0, and providing actionable recommendations.

This article explores how stakeholder collaboration within ecosystems supports the implementation of Circular Economy (CE) principles through Open Innovation (OI). Integrating insights from CE, OI, and innovation ecosystem literatures, it introduces the concept of Open Circular Innovation Ecosystems (OCIEs). Using a mixed-methods approach combining surveys and interviews, the study examines how different stakeholder groups—such as public agencies, academia, and civil society—address contextual, technical, economic, and cultural barriers to circularity. The findings reveal distinct yet complementary roles among actors, highlighting how open, multi-stakeholder networks operate in practice. The study advances understanding of OCIEs and provides actionable insights for policymakers and industry leaders aiming to design more targeted and inclusive collaboration strategies to accelerate CE implementation.

This study investigates how successors, by acting entrepreneurially, contribute to family firm transgenerational value creation. By focusing on the transgenerational value creation process, we investigate transgenerational entrepreneurship in family businesses under successor leadership. Employing a multiple case study approach, we analyse 15 Italian family firms, based on direct interviews, follow-ups, field observations, and approximately 300 historical documents spanning the period 1894 to 2023. Our findings reveal how individual, contextual, business, and familial drivers, alone or in combination, point to various pathways influencing entrepreneurial outcomes, thereby reflecting the diverse forms of successor entrepreneurship. Specifically, we develop a taxonomy comprising five entrepreneurial profiles: revolutioner, orchestrator, venturer, renewer, and improver. Our findings offer novel insights into the family business and entrepreneurship literature, along with practical implications and potential contributions to regional development.

This study explores the integration of Open Innovation (OI) models with archetypes of sustainable business in Forest-based Bioeconomy (FBB) companies in the digital age. Utilising a multiple case study methodology, four FBB companies were examined to understand their strategic orientations and sustainability practices. Case studies provide detailed insights into processes and interactions within specific contexts, making them suitable for examining emerging phenomena like the Circular Economy (CE). Although OI, CE, and sustainability have been individually studied, little empirical research explores their intersection in the FBB. Existing literature often focuses on theoretical foundations or isolated applications, neglecting how OI supports circular and sustainable business models in the FBB. Additionally, the challenges and opportunities for FBB companies in the Global South remain largely unexamined, despite their importance in global sustainability transitions. Therefore, this research addresses a significant gap by exploring how companies operating in the forest-based bioeconomy sector exploit OI models to enhance circular and sustainable business models in the digital age. The findings reveal that sustainability approaches are dynamic and overlapping strategies rather than fixed archetypes. The study highlights how OI models facilitate the use of both external and internal knowledge at various stages of innovation, demonstrating that the choice of sustainability archetypes both influences and is influenced by companies’ OI models. These insights are valuable for scholars, managers, and policymakers aiming to promote sustainable economic development and environmental stewardship.

Purpose – This study aims to explore the interaction between social media and firms’ absorptive capacity (ACAP), which involves acquiring, assimilating, transforming and exploiting external knowledge. While existing research often examines these topics separately, this paper bridges the gap by analyzing their interconnectedness to provide a holistic understanding. Design/methodology/approach – A data-driven approach combining bibliographic coupling and authors’ keyword network analysis was used to mitigate the subjectivity of traditional literature reviews. A total of 50 peer-reviewed journal and conference articles from Scopus were analyzed using VOSviewer to identify thematic research streams (RSs). Findings – The analysis identifies five RSs: the impact of social media and ACAP on innovation performance; their effect on performance in a multi-level landscape across different analytical units (individual, team, organization); the role of social media in specific contexts, including internal and external collaborations; online communities; and the new product development process. A key finding is the internal inconsistency in the literature regarding the relationship between ACAP and social media constructs. To address this, two alternative research frameworks are proposed, offering theoretical foundations for future studies. Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to comprehensively address the interaction between social media and ACAP by resolving theoretical inconsistencies, clarifying variable roles and proposing frameworks to guide future research. It also offers actionable insights for R&D and innovation managers to strategically leverage social media for acquiring and exploiting external knowledge, thereby enhancing competitive advantage.