Big Data has recently emerged as a new digital paradigm, one that companies adopt in order to both transform existing business models and nurture their innovation activities. The peculiarities of Big ...Data applications span different fields such as customer need identification, risk management and decision-making, data-driven knowledge, product and service design, quality management, and opportunity recognition and creation. However, while these have resulted in the emergence of a rich research domain focusing on the managerial and practical implications typically addressed from the user perspective, there is still a lack of complete understanding of how companies that provide Big Data solutions can create and capture value from them. This paper explores the question of how provider companies create and capture value from Big Data, drawing on a multiple-case study analysis of provider companies that offer solutions and services based on Big Data. The results illustrate a theoretical framework on value creation and capture by relying on Big Data and identify two main innovation service strategies based on Big Data used by provider companies. In addition, this paper provides valuable insights as to how the network of involved stakeholders influences the design and implementation of the innovation service strategy by the provider companies.
•The paper purposefully focuses on value creation and capture through Big Data from the perspective of companies providing services and solutions that leverage Big Data.•The paper draws on a multiple case study analysis of provider companies that take advantage from Big Data in order to improve their value proposition towards customers.•A theoretical framing on the role of Big Data for value creation and capture processes was proposed.•The paper presents two main innovation service strategies based on Big Data that aim to represent a strategic framework that provider companies establish in order to innovate their value proposition towards their customers and to allow the creation and capture of value for customers and themselves.•The paper discusses the role of customer involvement and interactions, as the end users represent a key stakeholder that shapes the development and implementation of the service innovations pursued by the provider companies.
Circular Economy has undoubtedly become one of the hot topics in public debates about new and more sustainable industrial paradigms and strategies. In this respect, the fashion of Circular Economy is ...in the fact that it aims at overcoming the dominant linear take, make, disposal economy model, i.e. “a traditional open-ended economy model developed with no built-in tendency to recycle, which is reflected by treating the environment as a waste reservoir” (Su et al., 2013). Circular Economy, indeed, bases on the establishment of closed production systems, where resources are reused and kept in a loop of production and usage, allowing generating more value and for a longer period. Despite the interest for Circular Economy by politicians and practitioners, scholars, particularly in the strategic management field, are still struggling with a lack of a framework explaining how companies willing to become circular adapt their existing business model or create a new one. By extensively reviewing, through the lens of business model literature, the extant contributions on Circular Economy, we propose a taxonomy of Circular Economy Business Models based on the degree of adoption of circularity along two major dimensions: (i) the customer value proposition & interface, i.e. the implementation of the circularity concept in proposing value to customers; (ii) the value network, i.e. the ways through which interacting with suppliers and reorganizing the own internal activities. The taxonomy is then initially tested through some explorative case studies, showing in practice the ability of the framework to properly distinguish different modes of adoption of Circular Economy.
Industry 4.0 (I4.0) and Circular Economy (CE) are undoubtedly two of the most debated topics of the last decades. Progressively, they gained the interest of policymakers, practitioners and scholars ...all over the world. Even if they have been usually described as two independent research fields, there are some examples presenting overlaps between these topics, represented by hybrid categories like Circular I4.0 and Digital CE. Starting from these two perspectives, an innovative framework both highlighting the links between I4.0 and CE and unveiling future research fields has been developed. Basing on one of the two perspectives, results show as it is possible to enhance a set of different relations. Depending on a dedicated area of either CE or I4.0 it is possible to see the prevalence of some I4.0 technology than others. However, the influence of I4.0 technologies on CE is always verified.
•Blockchain may offer useful traceability applications in a number of industries, as the case of aircraft.•The aircraft industry is witnessing a radical change in terms of production techniques, ...mainly represented by the use of additive manufacturing (AM) solutions.•This paper investigates how an aircraft company builds a digital twin along a metal AM process thanks to the exploitation of Blockchain solution.•The paper offers an answer to explain how companies can use Blockchain to create a secure and interconnected AM infrastructure.
Blockchain is becoming a widespread digital technology that allows every transaction to be tracked in an inviolable way, hence making it possible to go back through the entire history of products and product components. Its idiosyncratic characteristics can be especially useful in the aircraft industry, a highly technologically-based sector, wherein manufacturers of components are governed by stringent technical standards, the aim of which is to certify and monitor the whole component production process. In addition, the sector makes significant use of additive manufacturing technologies to perform the rapid prototyping of product components, realized through the supply chain, hence reducing time-to-market, while ensuring quality and containing costs. Starting from these premises, the paper focuses on the phases characterizing the metal additive manufacturing process, in which a component for the aircraft industry can be produced and proposes a digital twin for additive manufacturing in the aircraft industry through the exploitation of Blockchain solutions. In doing so, the paper provides a conceptual answer to securing and organizing the data generated through an end-to-end additive manufacturing process in the aircraft industry and underlines how companies exploiting Blockchain can build secure and connected manufacturing infrastructure.
Digital transformation has undoubtedly become a key enabler of innovation as evidenced by the numerous firms that use digital technologies to manage their innovation processes. This issue is even ...more relevant today when innovation processes have become more open and require greater resources in the different implementation phases to capture and transfer knowledge within and outside the firm's boundaries. This implies additional challenges in managing the increasing amount of knowledge and information flows. Accordingly, digital technologies can be used and implemented to manage open innovation processes through easier access and sharing the knowledge created and transferred. Nevertheless, literature in these fields does not provide a structured view of how and why digital technologies are used to manage innovation processes in an open perspective. This paper aims to bridge this gap by adopting the theoretical lenses of change management to identify the managerial actions at organizational and process level that companies perform to implement digital technologies in their open innovation processes. Accordingly, the paper investigates how and why these managerial actions required for and enabled by digital technologies help firms to develop and nurture open innovation. From an empirical point of view, the exploratory multiple case study analyzes nine firms operating in different industries and varying in size, market share, and organizational structure.
•Design for X approaches are under-investigated in the CE research context.•A huge amount of different DfX approaches are increasing design process complexity.•Five main purposes of DfX approaches ...have been detected to foster circularity.•New hybrid DfX approaches and related design knowledge are needed.•Fifteen gaps have been unveiled in the twofold context of CE and DfX.
Guided by a technological revolution, widely discussed paradigms as servitization and Circular Economy (CE) are progressively pushing manufacturers towards delivering increasingly complex solutions. Design plays a strategic role in this sense, either considering products, services or Product-Service Systems (PSSs). Concurrent engineering and, specifically, Design for X (DfX) approaches have been widely associated to products, revealing great potentialities for enhancing service functionalities like supportability and circularity. Again, DfX approaches have been already exploited to systematically support the PSS design process, given their re-known ability to allow a better information sharing between product designers and service managers. However, even if several DfX approaches related with the End of Life (EoL) stage already exist (e.g. Design for recycling, remanufacturing and EoL), they still need to better fit with a circular design perspective. Therefore, the aim of this paper is exploring and understanding how design can contribute towards a CE transition through the adoption of DfX approaches.
The current fast fashion model fostering high consumption causes consequential damages to the planet and society, facts that highlight the need to curtail its growth throughout more sustainable ...solutions. Among these solutions is engaging fashion customers in Product-Service Systems (PSSs), which are oriented towards dematerializing fashion consumption by offering bundles of products and services. Drawing from the social exchange theory, this research sheds light on the benefits customers seek to engage with various coexisting product-oriented and use-oriented PSSs in the fashion industry. A quantitative study among 477 customers in Belgium reveals that customer engagement with PSSs in the fashion industry is a function of the benefits that customers expect to reach (economic, pragmatic, cognitive, personal, hedonic, and societal expectations) and their demographic characteristics (gender and age). Depending on the expected benefits and demographic characteristics, customers were found to engage with different types of PSSs. Accordingly, fashion companies should leverage customers’ expected benefits and demographics when developing PSSs and communicating about these PSSs.
•Conceptual framework on relationship between customer expectations and engagement with product-oriented and use-oriented PSSs•Customer engagement with PSSs is a function of the benefits that customers expect to reach and their demographic characteristics•Impact of customer expectations in terms of economic, pragmatic, cognitive, personal, social, hedonic, and societal benefits on customer engagement depends on type of PSS•Survey among 477 customers recruited in Belgium in July 2019
The concept of circular economy is increasingly receiving attention in different domains, including strategic management, operations management, and technology management. It requires companies to ...design their business model (i.e., the value network, the relationships with the supply chain partners, and the value propositions towards customers) around a new concept of sustainable development that reduces consumption of natural resources and preserves the environment. However, extant research falls short in terms of explaining how companies design their business model according to the circular economy principles. Starting from this premise, the present paper provides a systematic review of the literature on the design of business models in the context of circular economy, aiming to offer an overview of the state of research and outline a promising research agenda.
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the managerial practices that companies can implement in order to design a circular economy business model and how companies can create and capture ...value from a circular economy business model. Design/methodology/approach The paper adopts a single case study methodology with semi-structured interviews and company, supplier, and manufacturing site visits, conducted in a small-to-medium-size Italian company operating in the office supply industry. Findings The theoretical setting maps a set of managerial practices for a circular economy business model and sets the research gaps and questions in a research framework designed along three main dimensions: value network, customer value proposition and interface, and managerial commitment. Then, through an empirical analysis, the findings reveal that the proposed dimensions are interdependent and reinforce each other. Moreover, the managerial commitment as moderating factor between the value network and the customer value proposition and interface dimensions is identified as essential for reaching the intended goals of circular economy business models. Research limitations/implications This study maximizes the depth of the phenomenon under investigation by leveraging a single case study methodology, which ideally helps in a theory-testing approach as in the present case. Future research opportunities could be found in qualitative and quantitative studies to increase the generalizability of the findings of this paper. Practical implications The paper presents a set of relevant managerial practices for circular economy business models that can be used by managers who have the will to embrace in practice circular economy principles to support the design, change, or upgrade of the business model of companies within which they operate. Originality/value An interdisciplinary approach that integrates the research streams of circular economy, social psychology, organizational behavior, and business model design has been pursued to test the theoretical setting and the research framework for circular economy business models in a real-world context.
Circular economy has recently emerged as an alternative industrial paradigm to the traditional “take, make, dispose” economic model, with the aim to promote more sustainable resource consumption ...patterns and production processes. However, more empirical research is needed to address the topic of how circular economy is adopted in practice by companies. In this study, we mainly adopt the lenses of circular business models and analyze three European case studies operating in the manufacturing industry that embraced circular economy principles in their business. In particular, the paper investigates and presents peculiar managerial practices to create and capture value in circular business models, and highlights the need to conceive a systemic perspective on the implementation of these practices, especially for companies operating in the manufacturing industry. Moreover, the paper shows to managers willing to embrace circular economy principles how the implementation of managerial practices for circularity can support the design of the manufacturing companies’ business model within which they operate. Finally, the paper argues about the role of a peculiar external condition, i.e., the environmental regulation, in influencing the way companies implement the managerial practices for circularity.
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