Exploring Innovation in a Digital World

AI and Big Data, in the last years, are changing the business in any aspect. In this paper we deal with the process of curricula selection for small and medium companies, i.e. the so-called last mile of the digitalization. This study proposes a new algorithm that could be integrated into the preliminary CVs screening process carried out by an interviewer in order to assess the right collocation to the skill set of the interviewee for the specific job position. The algorithm analyzes the text of a CV to correctly predict the right job position for the candidate. In particular, we show that with off-the-shelf components it is possible to train and run an artificial neural network suited to support HR in the process of curricula selection.

This study aims at determining the effect of perceived risk, privacy concerns, and smart speaker learning capabilities on the adoption of smart speakers for voice shopping. To this end, we used the theory of reasoned action (TRA) and the interpersonal theory of personality to propose a conceptual model that we tested using a mixed methods research design. Our results show that indeed, perceived risks, privacy concerns, and perceived learnability of smart speakers influence consumer intention to use smart speakers for voice shopping, which then influences actual use. Theoretically, this paper contributes to new theoretical perspectives regarding the learning capabilities of AI systems and their importance in AI adoption. Specifically, we use an insightful interpersonal theory and develop a scale that can be used to measure the learnability of AI systems as perceived by users. Practically, we show information systems (IS) and marketing managers key factors that need to be considered when providing voice shopping services through smart speakers.

In this paper, we contribute to the deconstruction of the concept of accuracy with respect to machine learning systems that are used in human decision making, and specifically in medicine. We argue that, by taking a socio-technical stance, it is necessary to move from the idea that these systems are “agents that can err”, to the idea that these are just tools by which humans can interpret new cases in light of the technologically-mediated interpretation of past cases, like if they were wearing a pair of tinted glasses. In this new narrative, accuracy is a meaningless construct, while it is important that beholders can “believe in their eyes” (or spectacles), and therefore trust the tool enough to make sensible decisions.

In this paper, we investigate how blockchain technologies improve the certification system and generate added value for different involved actors - learners, educational institutions, and businesses. An exploratory study is proposed to systematize the overall impacts of blockchain in the field of digital certification while focusing on university education as the main research area. We carried out a desk analysis, direct observation/focus groups and semi-structured interviews with key players of the two Italian universities which had first adopted certification and blockchain-based-certification systems. The aim is to understand the drivers and value generation conditions in the new scenario introduced by the development of DACS (Digital Academic Certification System) through insight into the relationships between actors in the ecosystem that characterize the different types of complementarities between actors and services before and after the introduction of blockchain-based platforms and the personal wallet containing titles and certifications. Three main findings arose from the study related to actors, ecosystem, and complementarities. The main theoretical contributions of this study is that it produces the first empirical evidence of the new Ecosystem Theory proposed by Jacobides et al. [1]. From the managerial perspective, this study contributes to better identify and debate the conditions and success factors unlocking value generation and benefits embedded in Digital Certification Ecosystems.

Collaborative networked organizations (CNOs) strive to achieve a common goal. Collaboration within CNOs relies on information technology (IT) and trust. Trust appears in different forms, such as relational, contractual, and competence trust that strengthens the relationships. In addition to trust, data sharing is fundamental to CNOs, as it can improve business-to-business transactions. In this paper, we show how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can increase trust and improve data sharing. We created a decision model, using a design science research (DSR) approach, that provides a mapping between DLT-characteristics and trust antecedents in order to select appropriate DLT. We use an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) approach to establish the trust antecedent ranking within the CNO for European law enforcement (ELE), Europol and its operational partners. Our research provides an evaluated model to determine the DLT-characteristics that can increase trust and data sharing in a CNO.

The paper explores the concept of cultural proximity and its effects on firm innovation, paying specific attention to the moderator role played by digital technologies. In order to improve the innovative performance, firms should construct and maintain relationships with the members of other organizations and should develop and take care of the relationship between the members inside the firm. Previous studies show that innovation is easily reached through the joint efforts of different actors, such as competitors and suppliers, and customers. Cultural proximity refers to cultural compatibility, identity, and shared creativity norms of organization members or between different firms. Similar firms can communicate, transfer, and acquire knowledge more effectively and efficiently. In this paper, we explore the relationship between cultural proximity and innovation. Moreover, we investigate the moderator role of digital technologies on the relationship between cultural proximity and firm innovation. The development of digital technologies allowed firms to implement a remote production control and to promote innovative forms of work organization such as smart working. After the digital revolution, people started to adopt different tools to communicate, cooperate, and be connected with. The virtual face-to-face interactions facilitates economic activities; digital technologies enable the development of shared values stimulating collaborations and interactions between people located in different places. The relationships between people belonging to different cultures (i.e., with low cultural proximity) are facilitated by employing digital tools. Developing testable propositions, we contribute to the debate about the importance of cultural proximity and the development of digital-based interactions on innovative activities.

This paper explores the role of local knowledge spillover and human capital as a driver of crowdfunding investment. The role of territory has already been studied in terms of campaign success, but the impact of territory on the use of financial sources like equity crowdfunding is not yet known. Using a sample of 435 equity crowdfunding campaigns in 20 Italian regions during a 4-year period (from 2016 to 2019), this paper evaluates the impact of human capital flow on the adoption of crowdfunding campaigns. Our results show that inbound knowledge in the region, measured in terms of ability to attract national and international students, has a significant effect on the adoption of crowdfunding campaigns in the region itself.

Digital technologies have created new alternative sources of entrepreneurial finance that create significant opportunities for start-ups and entrepreneurs. Among them, Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) have attracted significant attention from the start-up community and from investors. Despite all the hype around ICOs and the growing number of new token offerings being launched on a daily basis, little is known about the characteristics of successful ICOs. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by exploring whether and how the linguistic styles adopted in the white paper affects the success of an ICO as measured by the actual amount raised by the offering. Our results are based on a primary dataset of 131 ICOs completed between June 2017 and October 2018. Our results suggest that the use of precise language is positively associated with the amount funded while the use of a concrete language and more numerical terms is negatively associated with the amount funded. This study contributes to the growing literature on ICOs by providing novel insights into the role of the communication strategy adopted by token issuers.

This study aims to explore the scholarly structure and trends in the scientific debate on socioemotional wealth (SEW) in family business studies. We analyse 294 publications focused on SEW published to date in any sources of the Scopus database. Using a bibliometric analysis, we identify the scientific community debating SEW in terms of publication activity for authors, journals and countries and the publication’s impact measured in terms of citation for authors and per year. Moreover, to picture the main themes researched, we develop a co-word analysis on the most used keywords by authors using social network analysis tools. This paper provides a preliminary description of the state-of-art in SEW literature, identifying and potential future research directions for the consolidation of the literature on SEW.

The paper aims to explore the self-attribution bias impact on investor perception about cryptocurrency market efficiency with mediating role overconfidence in the relation of self-attribution with perceived market efficiency. We opted to collect data via a convenience sampling technique by using electronic questionnaires and limiting our study to European cryptocurrency investors. Structural Equation Modelling outcomes indicate no significant impact of self-attribution bias on perceived market efficiency. Whereas it was found that overconfidence bias has a significant effect on perceived efficiency. Further, the decomposition analysis indicated the presence of the mediating effect of overconfidence in the relationship of self-attribution with perceived market efficiency.

Our study examines how the topic of sustainable value creation of Industry 4.0 employs the social-technical perspective. Sustainable value creation of Industry 4.0 is an emerging topic in the IS literature. The topic extends the IT value, a core topic of IS, focusing on the sustainable outcome of these leading-edge technologies adopted into the assembly line of manufacturing organisations called Industry 4.0. We conducted a meta-review of three systematic literature reviews of this topic from which we extracted 23 empirical case studies. We address this gap employing the socio-technical framework. The study revealed that the technical perspective in prominent in literature, but socio-technical perspective studies exist. We further propose research directions to make more socio-technical the discourse.

This paper investigates the managerial competencies played at different phases of digital metamorphosis projects. We define digital metamorphosis as the socio-technical counterpart of digital transformation in organizations, where the former focuses more on people’s skills, managerial attitudes and organizational behaviours rather than on mere technology innovation. We applied an instrumental collective case research method, aimed at understanding whether managerial competencies were present and how they configured during projects ranging from consumer services to organizational digitization. We collected data of six digital projects with semi-structured interviews carried out in six companies, featuring heterogeneous sectors, size and technology adoption levels. For each project, we asked which competencies were expected in each project phase, and which of them were observed instead. We recorded relevancy ratings and contextual insights about their successful application during the projects ongoing. We report our findings and discuss them in the vein of questioning concepts like fixed managerial roles, traditional project management and design methods in organizations. We argue that all of these concepts may be challenged by the metamorphosis of practices, people skills, and projects design that the new wind of digital disruption is weaving.

Digital transformation poses different challenges to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Governments and policymakers are launching several initiatives to engage SMEs in open innovation (OI) and to promote collaborative models oriented to facilitate the adoption of new digital technologies. However, most of the OI literature focuses on large companies and high-tech start-ups and we have little evidence about the barriers to OI in low- and medium-tech SMEs. This paper develops a multiple embedded case-study on seven Italian R&D pre-competitive collaborative projects in the domain of Industry 4.0. We have collected semi-structured interviews, triangulated with participant observation and document analysis to develop an exploratory analysis to individuate the barriers to OI in low- and medium-tech SMEs in inter-organizational projects. We classified barriers in four different dimensions (administration/finance, organization, strategy, and collaboration), analyzing every dimension in detail.

Digital transformation is a highly debated subject in several fields. However, only a few studies discuss digital transformation focusing on non-profit organisations. This paper seeks to develop a taxonomy based on a systematic overview of the literature examining digital transformation in non-profit organisations over the last decades. This is the initial step of a research project which aims to investigate the impact that digital transformation has on non-profit organisations. For this research step, we initially identified the dataset of contributions discussing the topic under investigation. Then, we refined the initial dataset, restricting the corpus to 111 papers. The resulting dataset was used to develop the taxonomy. By adopting a conceptual and empirical analysis, we identified the following five dimensions (and their relative values): Digital Aim, Scope, NPO Relevance, Digital Technology, Business Aim. Finally, for every dimension, one single value was assigned to each paper, proposing a useful taxonomy for classifying the contributions investigating digital transformation in non-profit organisations over the last decades. Furthermore, focusing on a subset of dimensions (Digital Aim, Scope, NPO Relevance), we summarize some preliminary results.

Twitter is not only used to stay connected to a specific group of people or friends, but emerges as a platform to spread news. Celebrities, institutions and news outlets increasingly tweet information which they deem as worthy. However, independent users are also able to share various information, which makes it increasingly hard to distinguish which information is credible. In this research we attempt to gather an overview about Twitter users’ attitude towards news sharing on Twitter and how credible they find information provided on Twitter. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model, we operationalized the elaboration likelihood with the default cognitive style of the users. Surprisingly, the results show that people with a more rational cognitive style prefer Twitter as a news source.

The aim of this paper is to study the role of social media in political communication and their possible influence on electoral results. For this purpose, we analyze the parties’ Facebook Fan pages in the last general election in Italy (March 2018) over two periods: from 1st February to 4th March 2018 (Election Day); and, from 5th March to 31st March 2018. Our results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between the effort of the parties to inform citizens thorough the use of Facebook before the elections and their electoral outcomes in the congress. Specifically, we find that the higher the parties’ engagement, the better their electoral results. Nevertheless, we do not find any evidence that a higher engagement of citizens on a party’s Facebook Fan page before the election leads to this party having better electoral results. Finally, we explore if the parties change their political discourse before and after the election on their Facebook Fan pages, and find that there are, indeed, differences.

The Covid-19 era asks for a reduction in face to face relationships. For this reason, the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are becoming the main tool able to substitute the direct relationship among people. So, one tool able to support health authorities in monitoring and mitigating the ongoing COVID-19 was Mobile Applications (mApps), by facilitating follow-up among patients and practitioners and providing direct guidance to citizens in order to play their part in the control of the disease. The main purpose of this paper, is to know and analyze features and functionalities of the mApps for COVID-19, currently available in the widely used smartphones applications stores, like Play Store and iTunes. The first results obtained at this stage of the research have permit to give a preliminary taxonomy of the mApps specifically oriented to COVID health management in Italy. The research found n°71 mApps operating on principle stores, by underlining features and aspects useful to make users more responsible and self management regarding own health. MApps in COVID period could represent one organizational support for maintaining a useful relationship among patients and health operators regarding health care assistance. In order to do this it’s necessary to determine optimal capabilities and evaluate utility and clinical benefit of these tools. This work permits to recognize and obtain first informations to this regard.

The organizational identity (OI) concept has been used only sporadically in information systems (IS) research despite the fact that technology in general and social media (SM) in particular are transforming the way individuals, groups and organizations think about and define themselves. This study examines the relationship between the extent of employees’ SM use for professional purposes and the nature of OI that employees hold about their employer. This relationship is examined in a medium-sized Italian HR Consulting Company. Data were collected by interviewing 22 employees and from examining their LinkedIn accounts. Our analysis unearths both strategic and cultural aspects of employees OI, with the former prevailing, and finds that that neither of these sides of OI vary depending on the extent of employees’ SM use. Considering that LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional SM, this study also has important practical implications highlighting the need to better explain SM use to employees.