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The need for personal protective equipment rapidly grew during the COVID-19. Companies had to face problems related to their products' sustainability, adherence, and comfortability. Designing a face mask with proper adherence and comfortability in wearing and breathing became a matter of great importance. In this work, the adherence of an innovative face mask and its comfortability were experimentally tested with real faces, considering the deformation of the mask and the soft facial tissues. A stereophotogrammetric acquisition was made of the face with the face mask during these tests. A comparison between the geometries of the face and the mask, undeformed and deformed, gave the respective deformations. The force applied by the mask to the face was calculated, measuring the elastic strain of the mask bands during wearing and the deformation.

Reward-based crowdfunding (CF) has emerged as a method to solicit funds for innovative projects. Yet, little is still known about the ability of reward-based CF to act as a signal in the eyes of future consumers, and thus boost the future market performance of new products that innovators intend to commercialize using the campaign funds. In addition, scant research has clarified the boundary conditions that can magnify or weaken the efficacy of this CF signal. Given the relevance of reward-based CF for supporting innovation, understanding when the CF campaign performance works as an effective signal is of great interest, especially in business settings characterized by high product quality uncertainty. By using the movie industry as a setting, we contribute to fill this gap. Specifically, we argue that the positive effect of the reward-based CF performance is moderated by two important factors influencing consumers' purchase decisions: the degree of product innovativeness and the expert judgment about the product. Elaborating on the effects of product innovativeness, we posit that this product feature should moderate the positive relationship between CF and subsequent market performances in an inverted U-shaped fashion. Favorable expert recommendations, on the other hand, should weaken the efficacy of the CF performance as a signal. Results from a sample of 1059 new movies (of which 152 released in theaters) confirm these predictions and offer several remarkable implications for innovators.

The rapid growth of digital technologies and the extraordinary amount of data that devices and applications collect each day are increasingly driving companies to radically transform the business architecture through which they create and appropriate value. However, companies may fail to extract value from digital transformation due to the disconnection between strategy formulation and strategy implementation. Through the analysis of three case studies of firms that digitally transformed their business—namely ABB, CNH Industrial, and Vodafone—this article presents a framework than can help companies implement their digital transformation strategy and thereby renovate their business model.

Discovering regional technological capabilities is key to underpinning the place-based and evidence-driven logic of Smart Specialisation. However, a comprehensive methodological approach for operationalizing the mapping, assessment and benchmarking of regional technological knowledge is urgently required. To address this need, we design and test a patent-based methodology that helps to profile technological domains in European Union regions, detects technological competitive advantages and opportunities for knowledge recombination, assesses selected S3 priorities against regional innovation performance measures, and conducts benchmarking activities. This study lays the foundation for tailoring a digital application to complement the suite of online services for S3 development currently available.

Sustainability has become an important driver in defining business strategies, affecting most critical corporate functions and changing the way in which value is created, communicated, and distributed. This is increasingly impacting marketing practices, in particular, through promoting the development of sustainable marketing in the food sector. In line with this, our study aimed to investigate if and how sustainable marketing practices affect consumer loyalty to a specific brand. To answer our research questions, we relied on the results of a survey submitted to a sample of 907 Italian consumers of biscuits. Results showed that the consumers’ attention to sustainable issues (in the absence of adequate information that can guide them in choosing a brand) did not result in brand loyalty. The same outcome was found when consumers were overloaded by marketing campaigns, which had the effect of confusing users and making them unfaithful. Ultimately, when consumers showed both engagement with sustainable concerns and sensitivity to marketing initiatives (i.e., they are sensitive to sustainable marketing practices), a positive effect on brand loyalty was observed. Our results contribute to the emerging stream of literature discussing the relevance and potential impact of sustainable marketing.

Starting from firms’ increasing difficulties in creating new value for customers and consequently to achieve a competitive advantage, this chapter proposes an alternative strategic approach based on the notion of tradition. Specifically, tradition is defined as the whole set of competences, knowledge, values, and culture that characterizes a specific firm, territory, and/or age. Analyzing examples of companies that based their competitive advantage on the leveraging of traditions, the chapter clearly shows how tradition may be effectively employed to face competition, allowing companies both to create and to appropriate value.

Crowdsourcing initiatives are increasingly spreading among organisations aiming at outsourcing the development of solutions to internal innovation problems to external problem solvers. However, while knowledge about crowdsourcing is growing, a complete understanding of the underlying dynamics of these initiatives is still lacking. This study aims at elucidating this topic by investigating the influence exerted by the interplay between the characteristics of innovation problems, individuals developing solutions (problem solvers), and crowdsourcing platforms on the related problem solving performance. Specifically, we use NK fitness landscapes to simulate the search for solutions conducted by problem solvers in several scenarios, depending on the decomposability and accuracy of delineation of the innovation problems, the degree of bounded rationality of the solvers, and the cooperation policies of the crowdsourcing platforms. Our findings contribute to the development of the theory on search for solutions in crowdsourcing initiatives, by revealing the characteristics of problem solvers and the types of platforms that maximise the performance of the problem solving process, as the quality of the best solution provided and the time required to elaborate on it, according to specific innovation problems. Furthermore, our findings promote the formulation of guidelines for organisations using crowdsourcing to solve their innovation problems, and for the crowdsourcing platforms’ managers.

External technology acquisition has been proved to be an important strategy to enhance firms’ innovation performance. However, previous studies claim that companies acquiring technologies tend to not carry on with this strategy over time, thus limiting their attitude toward continuous technology acquisition. Moreover, the extant literature also highlights that this attitude is strongly influenced by their organizational structure. Therefore, in the present paper, we investigate the relationship between how firms organize R&D activities and continuous technology acquisition. Specifically, given the increasing globalization of technological development, we focus on the role of R&D geographic dispersion, and how its influence is moderated by firms’ technological diversification. We tested our hypotheses on longitudinal data of 303 biotechnology firms that acquired, at least, one USPTO patented technology over the period 1982–2012. Results reveal that R&D geographic dispersion is curvilinearly (inverted U-shaped) related to continuous technology acquisition, with negative returns occurring earlier in technology-diversified companies.

As academic and practitioner studies on crowdsourcing have been building up since 2006, the subject itself has progressively gained in importance within the broad field of management. No systematic review on the topic has so far appeared in management journals, however; moreover, the field suffers from ambiguity in the topic's definition, which in turn has led to its largely unstructured evolution. The authors therefore investigate the existing body of knowledge on crowdsourcing systematically through a penetrating review in which the strengths and weakness of this literature stream are presented clearly and then future avenues of research are set out. The review is based on 121 scientific articles published between January 2006 and January 2015. The review recognizes that crowdsourcing is ingrained in two mainstream disciplines within the broader subject matter of innovation and management: (1) open innovation; and (2) co-creation. The review, in addition, also touches on several issues covered in other theoretical streams: (3) information systems management; (4) organizational theory and design; (5) marketing; and (6) strategy. The authors adopt a process perspective, applying the ‘Input–Process–Output’ framework to interpret research on crowdsourcing within the broad lines of: (1) Input (Problem/Task); (2) Process (session management; problem management; knowledge management; technology); and (3) Outcome (solution/completed task; seekers’ benefits; solvers’ benefits). This framework provides a detailed description of how the topic has evolved over time, and suggestions concerning the future direction of research are proposed in the form of research questions that are valuable for both academics and managers.

The present paper seeks to unveil the influence of the decision to ally with partners of diverse types and from different geographical locations (i.e., the internationalization of alliance portfolio diversity) on the ability of firms to balance radical and incremental innovation efforts (i.e., innovation ambidexterity). We address this goal by embracing the microfoundational approach since we recognize that, eventually, the ability/willingness of a firm's employees allow leveraging the opportunities of strategic alliances. With this in mind, it is also scrutinized the contingent effects of the adoption of motivation-enhancing human resource management (HRM) practices, as individual incentives (financial and non-financial), on the relationship between the internationalization of alliance portfolio diversity and innovation ambidexterity. Results reveal that the internationalization of alliance portfolio diversity has an inverted U-shaped effect on innovation ambidexterity and that the adoption of financial incentives positively moderates (threshold shift) this effect. Instead, no conclusive results may be provided concerning the moderating effect of the adoption of non-financial incentives.

Nonetheless the large body of knowledge rapidly accumulated on crowdfunding as well as the growing relevance of this phenomenon for sustainability, there are very few studies on the role of crowdfunding for sustainability-oriented projects, and many related issues are still far from being fully understood. This signalises a clear need for unveiling the main dynamics of the relationship between crowdfunding and sustainability, and also opening up useful directions for future research on this relationship. To conceptualize the implications of crowdfunding for sustainability, we propose and use a framework, encompassing five dimensions, namely the project creator, the backers, the campaign itself, the crowdfunding platform, the outcomes of crowdfunding campaigns. By interpreting and fine-tuning the findings emerging from the extant crowdfunding literature to the specific context of sustainability-oriented projects, we develop propositions that provide important implications for this type of initiatives. These implications can guide scholars in finding new paths of research on the topic, as well as provide practitioners with an instrument to better understand the relevance of the crowdfunding phenomenon for sustainable initiatives and make more informed decisions.

This paper analyses how universities leverage knowledge coming from different technological, institutional, and geographical domains to develop technologies exerting a relevant impact for firms’ technological advancements. The analysis is based on a panel of 219 worldwide universities that filed, at least, a patent belonging to the alternative energy production sector in the period 2002–2010. Results show that using external knowledge originating in different technological and institutional domains exerts an inverted U‐shaped effect on the firms’ subsequent technological progress, while the geographical origin seems to do not exert any influence.

In the past few decades, a firm&rsquo, s innovative climate has received much attention in the context of innovative behavior, competitiveness, and business performance. The existing literature has relied to a great extent on innovative climate as an interacting factor and overlooked its role as an antecedent of various organizational phenomena. Furthermore, the interaction effects of the firm&rsquo, s size and age on the relationships between innovative climate and other organizational variables have gone unnoticed. This study adds to the literature by empirically assessing the effects of the firm&rsquo, s innovative climate on organizational learning and employees&rsquo, innovative behavior as well as its consequences on the firm&rsquo, s competitiveness and business performance. Additionally, it addresses the interaction impacts of firm size and age on the relationships between the abovementioned variables. This research achieves its goal by developing an integrative research design that analyzes complex relations using covariance-based structural equation modeling (SEM) and regression techniques on a dataset of 408 Chinese law firms. The results indicate that the firm&rsquo, s innovative climate has a significant positive relationship with organizational learning and employees&rsquo, innovative behavior. It is also found that organizational learning has a significant positive influence on employees&rsquo, innovative behavior. Meanwhile, organizational learning and employees&rsquo, innovative behavior have a significant positive influence on firm competitiveness and business performance. Another important finding is that contextual factors, i.e., firm size and age, strengthen these relations. Theoretical and managerial implications, including links to firm size and age, are provided.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand if and how the adoption of an open innovation (OI) strategy, that is acquiring externally developed knowledge, influences the innovation performance of firms and how this relationship is moderated by the recruitment of highly educated employees and the implementation of employee training activities.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an analysis based on the results of the 2010-2012 Italian Innovation Survey and considered only manufacturing firms. Accordingly, the econometric analysis was based on 2,836 firm-observations.FindingsThe study reveals that acquiring externally developed knowledge positively affects the innovation performance of firms. Additionally, while the moderation effect due to recruiting highly educated employees is not statistically significant, the implementation of training activities negatively moderates the investigated relationship.Research limitations/implicationsThe present research confirms the positive effects of the adoption of OI strategies on the innovation performance of firms and, additionally, shows that implementing employee training activities may negatively influence the abovementioned relationship.Practical implicationsThe present study suggests that firms acquiring externally developed knowledge should be careful in performing employee training activities, since they may hinder the positive effects of adopting OI strategies.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the OI literature, by showing the positive effects of the acquisition of externally developed knowledge on the innovation performance of firms and by analysing the moderating role of human resources management practices, which is an aspect scantly discussed in the literature.

Acquiring patents is an increasingly relevant opportunity for innovating companies, especially after the rise and development of the so-called markets for technologies (MFTs). However, only scant attention has been devoted to investigate patents' characteristics influencing their acquisition by organisations. Accordingly, this paper aims at filling this gap by analysing how four main characteristics – as patent scope, scientific knowledge cited by the patent, forward patent citations, and number of patent claims – impact the likelihood of patent acquisition. We based our statistical analysis on a sample of 9716 US Patent and Trademark Office patents assigned to 165 biotechnological firms. Results support our conjectures and offer interesting managerial implications for organisations operating within MFTs indicating which characteristics make patented technological solutions more likely to be acquired by other firms, as a narrow scope, inclusion of scientific knowledge, and a number of forward citations ab...

Purpose Knowledge assumes a pivotal role in the open innovation (OI) paradigm. Yet OI has been scantly investigated by adopting a knowledge management (KM) lens. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of the KM practices analysed by prior literature to support OI activities. Design/methodology/approach To perform a valuable literature review, the steps for systematic review proposed by previous studies have been adopted. These steps have yielded a final sample of 34 articles. Afterward, the authors have distinguished and analysed the identified articles according to the three main OI processes, i.e. inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes. Findings This research groups and highlights the most relevant KM practices to support OI activities on the basis of the inbound, outbound and coupled OI processes. Originality/value Despite knowledge is the most relevant resource exchanged in OI activities, this is the first attempt to highlight how knowledge should be managed in an OI context by adopting a KM lens. Furthermore, the authors also identify relevant topics that have been so far understudied, which the authors suggest as future research directions.

In this paper, we introduce the themes addressed and the approaches used in this Special Issue to investigate the relationship between business model innovation and sustainability in the hospitality and tourism industry. After presenting the topics under investigation, we briefly discuss how the articles in the collection allow to unveil firms’ approaches used to innovate their business model focusing upon sustainable practices and goals. Therefore, by offering multiple perspectives of analysis, this Issue increases our comprehension and understanding of which sustainable strategies companies may adopt to compete in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Markets for ideas (MFIs) are virtual marketplaces connecting individuals and organizations selling their ideas (namely knowledge owners) to companies in search for specific innovative solutions (namely knowledge seekers). This phenomenon finds its root in the open innovation paradigm and empirical data clearly demonstrate how its economic importance is constantly growing, as well as the interest paid by academics. Nevertheless, despite their increasing relevance, it remains unclear which are the main dynamics and characteristics of these markets. Therefore, the present paper aims at providing an overview of this specific topic by reviewing and discussing the main findings available in the scientific literature. The analysis of the literature is structured around three main market dimensions – ideas, knowledge owners, and knowledge seekers. In addition, actual examples of MFIs are reported in order to strengthen literature's results. The contribution of this review is threefold. First, it provides an insight into the literature on MFIs, by collecting and describing the main features of ideas, knowledge owners, and knowledge seekers. Second, it presents propositions inferred by the characteristics emerging from the review. Finally, it spots literature gaps and traces new research directions. Hence, the study sheds new light on the main characteristics of MFIs, pointing out several research questions that need to be further addressed by scholars.

Companies that introduce new products quickly have been shown to be better performers. The effectiveness of the new product introduction process is critical to their performance. Production ramp-up is a necessary phase of new product introduction, and both planning and execution need careful consideration, especially for engineered products, which are generally typified by design, purchasing, and production complexity. Better understanding of the issues, and more effective modelling of options, should lead to more predictable and quicker ramp-up. Examination of the literature, however, reveals that little attention has been paid to this area. What knowledge does exist tends to concentrate on specific aspects such as capacity or learning or costs. This paper reviews the ramp-up literature in general, along with the specific components in more detail, to establish how current work can be combined to develop the architecture for a modelling tool for engineering product ramp-up. The contribution of the paper is to provide a wider view of ramp-up, to present it as a topic worthy of consideration in its own right, and to introduce a prototype modelling tool that can aid the investigation and solutions of the issues that the paper raises.

Acquiring and selling knowledge through markets for ideas (MFIs) is a growing trend for organisations embracing the open innovation paradigm. However, the literature has showed that more in-depth studies about how MFIs can be increasingly beneficial for both seekers and owners are needed. Thus, the present study aims at filling this gap by investigating the main characteristics of successful markets through the application of a multiple case studies methodology. Adopting two differentiation dimensions, as closed versus open and internal versus external, four distinct typologies of MFIs were identified and analysed. Accordingly, seven propositions regarding different characteristics of knowledge owners, knowledge seekers, and ideas were posed. The propositions are also referred to the different typologies of MFIs, thus highlighting similarities and differences across the markets. Hence, this work offers a deepening of the understanding of MFIs, by providing implications both to increase the theoretical comprehension of the topic and promote the definition of suggestions and guidelines for seekers and owners.