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This paper aims to study the effects of knowledge acquisition on innovation performance and the moderating effects of human resource management (HRM), in terms of employee retention and HRM practices, on the above-mentioned relationship.

A sample of 129 firms operating in a wide array of sectors has been used to gather data through a standardized questionnaire for testing the hypotheses through ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models.

The results indicate that knowledge acquisition positively affects innovation performance and that HRM moderates the relationship between knowledge acquisition and innovation performance.

With the increasing proclivity towards engaging in open innovation, firms are likely to face some tensions and opportunities leading to a shift in the management of human resources. This starts from the assumption that the knowledge base of the firm resides in the people who work for the firm and that some HRM factors can influence innovation within firms. Despite this, there is a lack of research investigating the link between knowledge acquisition, HRM and innovation performance under the open innovation lens. This paper intends to fill this gap and nurture future research by assessing whether knowledge acquisition influences innovation performance and whether HRM moderates such a relationship.

This paper aims at exploring the effect of knowledge management (KM) practices on the relationship between external research and development (R&D) and innovative performance. The authors argue that the firms which develop and possess superior KM capabilities have the ability to better manage external knowledge and combine it with the internal one.

The authors used a sample of 117 European MNC subsidiaries. An OLS regression analysis was carried out to evaluate the moderator effect of KM on the relationship between external R&D and innovative performance.

The authors found positive evidences in favor of a moderator effect of KM. This means that subsidiaries with superior KM capabilities are more effective in using external R&D, augmenting the magnitude of their external sources of knowledge and, consequently, improving their innovative performance.

Managerially speaking, both corporate and subsidiaries’ managers need to understand the relevance of managing knowledge effectively and efficiently at the subsidiary level. Corporate managers need to allocate more resources (both financial and managerial) to the subsidiaries that are active in knowledge transfer and sharing, while subsidiaries managers need to implement practically the KM tools and processes at the subsidiary organizational level to improve subsidiary’s innovative performance.

This paper contributes mainly to the KM field, highlighting the importance of KM at the subsidiary level, whereas most of previous studies focus on different units of analysis.

Entrepreneurial knowledge spurs innovation and, in turn, generates a competitive advantage. This paper aims to explore if entrepreneurial knowledge combined with the attitude to innovate can overcome the key “imperfections” of the innovation process generated by dynamic, current technological progress in the knowledge-intensive sector. The “imperfections” identified in risk management, asymmetric information in the knowledge management process and hold-up problems can all disrupt collaborative partnerships and limit opportunities for innovation.

A theory-building approach is applied which offers a case study analysis of two small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). These two SMEs operate in Europe but in two different territories: the UK and Italy. The study explores three key imperfections, risk management, asymmetric information in the knowledge management process and hold-up problems, which occur in the innovation process.

The entrepreneurs face these imperfections by adopting an open innovation model. Notwithstanding, both entrepreneurs had to deal with all “imperfections”, and their skills, attributes, attitude and aptitude allowed them to grow their business and continually develop new products. Therefore, the imperfections do not limit the innovative capacity of an entrepreneur but rather enhance their challengeable attitude. In this regard, the case studies induce a further analysis on entrepreneurial knowledge intertwined with entrepreneurial risk management and networking skills.

The empirical significance of the two cases does not allow theorisation. However, this research offers interesting results which can be strengthened by a comparative case study with other countries or deeper investigation by applying a quantitative approach.

By leveraging entrepreneurial knowledge, the imperfections noted in the innovation process can be overcome. Entrepreneurial knowledge is recognised as the main asset of an enterprise if it is combined with external talent or human resources. Entrepreneurs aim to develop innovative approaches and ideas through establishing both formal and informal collaborative partnership relationships which are used thanks to the entrepreneurs’ networking skills, knowledge and abilities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how big data can shape ambidextrous business process management (BPM) in terms of exploitation and exploration.

A qualitative methodology involving case studies has been chosen to explore the impact of big data deployment on exploitative and explorative business processes.

The results of case studies offer some opportunities and challenges for service firms related to both the exploitative and the explorative aspects of BPM driven by big data.

The deployment of big data in business processes has attracted a large amount of interest recently. However, these studies are mostly conceptual, so empirical research about this complex relationship is quite rare, especially research with specific arguments regarding exploitative and explorative activities. This paper aims to fill this gap by offering empirical evidence for big data-driven business processes.

The purpose of this paper is to satisfy a clear gap in the main field of open innovation research whereabouts a very little scholarship try to analyze the mechanisms of innovative milieu down smart cities environments by applying through innovative projects that seem to support efficiently the entry of private firms and citizens in public collaborations.

The research performed an exploratory and qualitative evaluation based on the case study method built on the evaluation of organizational behavior and urban boosting innovation through smart city initiatives. In doing so, after a literature review in smart city as well in lean methodology fields, the case of Turin Smart City follows.

As acknowledged by international literature, the paper shows how a lean approach enables local government to define and realize smart projects and initiatives in a faster and more effective way. Particularly, the government in one of the main cities in Italy, id est Turin, combines a lean methodology with the job-to-be done approach, according a new concept of smart initiatives involving a startup mentality for the lead users which enables interesting predictions relating the human aspects of open collaborations.

The specificity of this inquiry highlights valuable insights from double-gate smart cities’ innovation, social and urban as well. The research is largely interpretative and exploratory and while this provides a solid scientific foundation for further research, it does not, itself, subject any hypothesis to statistical testing and validation.

Since the city approached the smart city subject in a lean way, it was able to realize some projects in a faster way. Through specific initiatives, the city acquires the ability to involve more and better all its stakeholders such as citizens, companies, and public employees, among others. In this regard, the paper invigorates managerial debates concerning the urban and social aspects of open innovation ecosystems which represent in our minds a superior level of open innovation, testbeds of positive knowledge, and stimulus of knowledge dissemination process around the city.

The World Health Organisation estimates that 92 per cent of the world’s population does not have access to clean air. The World Bank in 2013 estimated that only air pollution (AP) was responsible for a $225bn cost in lost productivity. The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the current scholarly debate on the value of Big Data for effective healthcare management. Its focus on cardiovascular disease (CVD) in developing countries, a major cause of disability and premature death and a subject of increasing research in recent years, makes this research particularly valuable.

In order to assess the effects of AP on CVD in developing countries, the city of Bangalore was selected as a case study. Bangalore is one of the fastest growing economies in India, representative of the rapidly growing cities in the developing world. Demographic, AP and CVD data sets covering more than 1m historic records were obtained from governmental organisations. The spatial analysis of such data sets allowed visualisation of the correlation between the demographics of the city, the levels of pollution and deaths caused by CVDs, thus informing decision making in several sectors and at different levels.

Although there is increasing concern in councils and other responsible governmental agencies, resources required to monitor and address the challenges of pollution are limited due to the high costs involved. This research shows that with developments in the domains of Big Data, Internet of Things and smart cities, opportunities to monitor pollution result in high volumes of data. Existing technologies for data analytics can empower decision makers and even the public with knowledge on pollution. This paper has demonstrated a methodological approach for the collection and visual representation of Big Data sets allowing for an understanding of the spread of CVDs across the city of Bangalore, enabling different stakeholders to query the data sets and reveal specific statistics of key hotspots where action is required.

This research has been conducted to demonstrate the value of Big Data in generating a strategic knowledge-driven decision-support system to provide focused and targeted interventions for environmental health management. This case study research is based on the use of a geographic information system for the visualisation of a Big Data set collected from Bangalore, a region in India seriously affected by pollution.

Given that environmental issues have become increasingly critical in business operations, from the lens of guanxi, this study explores the impact of relational capital on green innovation in a knowledge-driven context of new energy enterprises. Additionally, the moderating effect of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) on the above relationship is analyzed.

This study takes 162 Chinese new energy enterprises from 2010 to 2020 as the research sample. For empirical analysis, factor analysis is adopted to comprehensively measure relational capital, while green innovation is embodied in two dimensions, namely radical green innovation (RGI) and incremental green innovation (IGI).

Relational capital significantly promotes RGI and IGI. Moreover, it is found that implementing CER strengthens the positive relationship between relational capital and RGI but weakens the positive relationship between relational capital and IGI.

It is evident that existing literature on green innovation mainly focused on a single perspective rather than from different dimensions. In addition, few scholars have drawn from stakeholder theory to elucidate the interaction of relational capital with corporate responsibility practices. In this regard, this study examines the link between relational capital and green innovation while examining the moderating effect of CER, which provides valuable insights for future research on relational governance and innovation management. Furthermore, this study innovatively centers on new energy enterprises in China, which are pioneers and facilitators of green development, as the research subject. Considering relevant studies are still nascent in this domain, our empirical results are of extensive practical guidance for managers and practitioners to promote environmental sustainability.

The purpose of this research is to identify the sustainable practices of luxury fashion brands through their communications via official reporting documents to classify practices used for communicating sustainability performance.

This research uses the qualitative content analysis of Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)-oriented sustainability reports to examine the sustainable practices of 31 companies within the top 100 global luxury brands.

The authors classify the sample into four clusters: sustainability driven, sustainability newcomers, sustainability potential and sustainability passive. Results indicate that companies in this sector are focused on the issue of sustainability even though there is a remarkable fragmentation in terms of practices.

The study contributes to a better understanding of sustainability reporting activities and approaches in the fashion luxury industry by describing best practices and the effect of sustainability in corporate communications.

The link between mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and innovation has been analysed in both corporate finance studies and the innovation literature. Despite this attention and the practical evidence that highlights different connections between these two terms, there is a need to investigate the latest trends with regard to these important topics, and to put a particular focus on the emerging paradigm of open innovation. Thus, this paper aims to provide a systematic literature review (SLR) about the relationship between M&As and the concept of innovation in the current scenario.

Through an SLR from 2012 to June 2017, 55 papers have been identified and analysed to give a better understanding of the motivations and the methodologies adopted in past studies.

This paper identifies various conceptual and research methodological characteristics of studies that have connected, directly or indirectly, M&As and innovation in recent years. In addition, the results highlight a scarcity of studies that explicitly or implicitly refer to the open innovation paradigm, marking only a partial understanding of this emerging phenomenon.

This paper improves the knowledge on the link between extraordinary corporate transactions and innovation, and it highlights that a clear consensus, particularly regarding the open innovation paradigm, is lacking. Thus the authors propose that future studies should carefully evaluate M&As by following the open innovation approach.