ABSTRACT. This paper investigates if and how Business Intelligence (BI) systems’ implementation and use affect Management Accounting (MA) techniques and Management Accountants’ role and competences. To investigate the issue at hand, an explorative field study, which involved BI consultants, was carried out. We used the qualitative field study method since it permits to deal with complex “how” questions and, at the same time, to take into consideration multiple sites thus offering a comprehensive picture of the phenomenon. We found that BI implementation can bring about not only incremental changes in existing Management Accounting Systems (MAS) but also more relevant ones by supporting the introduction of new and advanced MA techniques. By identifying changes in MAS as well as factors which can prevent or favor a virtuous relationship between BI and MAS this research can be useful both for consultants and for client-companies in order to effectively manage BI projects.

ABSTRACT. The new taxonomy 2014-11-17 mandates Italian unlisted companies to codify in XBRL also the notes to the financial statements. Building on previous literature, the aim of this study is to analyze the impact of mandatory XBRL extension to the financial statements notes on financial reporting quality of the Italian unlisted companies. Our data represents the very first sample of Italian financial statements filed in fully XBRL format. We focus our analysis on the taxonomy usage and the customizations made by the filers. Despite the significant changes affecting the process of financial statement preparation, we find that Italian unlisted companies have accepted and acknowledged the potential benefits and limits of the new taxonomy. When dividing the notes section between textual blocks and tables, we find a clear preference for the filers to use textual blocks for both types of financial statements. Overall, we find that filers of both financial statements use extensively the customizations offered by the taxonomy. Moreover, for the filers of abbreviated financial statements, we show that they tend to use not only more table customizations but also tables that are proper for the standard financial statements, thus offering higher voluntary disclosure.

ABSTRACT. This paper investigates the relationship between ownership concentration and human capital disclosure in sustainability report, using both the agency theory and the proprietary costs theory. The findings show a negative relationship between ownership concentration and the level of human capital disclosure. The results also reveal that the association between ownership concentration and human capital disclosure is stronger for companies characterized by higher proprietary costs. This study contributes to the literature on human capital disclosure in different ways. First, we develop a wider human capital disclosure index, that could be utilized in future studies, and use this index to investigate the information released in the sustainability report. Moreover, this is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, examining the role of proprietary costs as a potential explanatory determinant, in conjunction with ownership structure, of human capital disclosure released in sustainability report.

ABSTRACT. Abstract. This project looks into the perception of the benefits and drawbacks of Internet usage by elderly people, born from the mid 1920s to the early 1940s, also known as the ‘silent generation’ [19]. As governmental services are gradually becoming online, elderly people are required to use the Internet in order to complete the compulsory task(s). The Internet can be a challenging technology for the silent generation due to their experience and knowledge in using the computer and Internet. At the same time elderly people are anxious about Inter-net security, as they believe they can be victimised, hence the reason why the generation avoids the technology as much as possible. Participants also believed there was no need to use the Internet, as they have managed without the technology throughout their career. The paper also discusses the key elements by outlining the benefits and drawbacks relating to age-related disabilities, affordability, and privacy/security issues. In addition accessibility, usability and design issues are discussed and how that benefits and affects interaction with the Internet from a sociotechnical perspective. During the observations participants were observed on how they interact with the Internet. The research suggests participants’ experienced accessibility, usability and design issues (i.e. using the mouse, keyboard, font-size, and logging-in).

ABSTRACT. This paper reports the first validation steps of the prototype of a Time Accounting System (TAS), which has been designed and developed to investigate how a technology that facilitates service exchanges using local currency can be accepted in a developing country, namely in Bangladesh. The paper describes the results of two Confirmatory Focus Groups (CFGs) that have been developed to assess the functionalities of the TAS. The main goal of these CFGs was to investigate how interactive and simple the system must be to be accepted by users, given that the idea/concept of a TAS is expected to spread over in Bangladesh.

ABSTRACT. Systems (re-)design is discussed in the light of the socio-technical (ST) design approach and by considering how (re-)design can be made more manageable by looking at the work practices that mitigates the limits of the current ST systems. The conclusion is that ST re-design requires reconsidering how ST systems are designed, for the benefit of whom and how control is exercised.

ABSTRACT. This paper presents a literature review on businesswomen and social media. Its aim is to know the state-of-the-art and understand whether and to what extent studies conducted so far have addressed these issues: how and why businesswomen are using social media? In order to answer these research questions a literature search on Scopus has been conducted, using a set of selected keywords. Selected papers have been analyzed and classified, in an attempt to identify main topics and results obtained so far. This paper contributes to expand the literature on businesswomen. Our literature review shows that this is a new issue, which offers the possibility to identify new trends and future directions for research. The major implication is to advance knowledge and practice in the area of gender in management and use of social media by focusing upon empirical research, theoretical developments and current issues

ABSTRACT. The purpose of this article is to investigate the technological attributes of Estonian e-Residency that facilitates or hinder its adoption for international virtual entrepreneurship. To conduct the study, the theory of Diffusion of Innovations is applied and a qualitative study of adopters of the e-residency for entrepreneurial purposes is conducted. The findings show a variety of attributes of e-residency that to varying degrees influence the adoption process including felt needs, perceived risk and uncertainty. The article corroborates and adds to previous research on the adop-tion of technology and e-services by investigating a particular type of e-service, namely e-residency.

ABSTRACT. Smart Mobility (SM) is one of the core components of a smart city. Owing to its multifac-eted contents, SM is a complex topic, both addressing several urban problems and involv-ing numerous smart technologies. Smart cities implement SM by composing a rich and heterogeneous set that includes different projects. The best results would be obtained inte-grating all the smart mobility initiatives thanks to a holistic vision and project portfolio management. However, smart mobility projects often are the random outcome of bottom-up implementations, without a well-conceived strategic direction. This paper aims at ana-lysing a best smart city case study, the city of Barcelona. The research applies a portfolio analysis to its smart mobility projects, to discover synergies and benefits for a smarter transportation system

ABSTRACT. This position paper proposes a framework to study the effects of emerging digital technologies on work. We frame such effects in a four-folded taxonomy that highlight the differences between traditional automation, self service and virtualization applications of digital and a new genre of application, that we name Digital Do-IT-Yourself (DiDIY), funded on the concepts of knowledge worker and knowledge sharing.

ABSTRACT. The number of research studies and surveys on software project management is constantly growing. However, the state of the practice of software project management methodologies is still disparate and confusing. Therefore, project teams are often confused by whether or not they should adopt agile methodologies, or keep on working in a “traditional” way. Given this focus, this research aims at understanding, through different expert perspectives, the chal-lenges and success factors encountered in different types of software projects. We adopted a qualitative research approach based on semi-structured interviews with senior project management consultants. Consultants are involved in differ-ent kinds of projects: agile and plan-driven projects. The research paper has im-portant implications for practitioners and academics. Findings show that the na-ture of the reported problems varies depending on whether the teams are work-ing in an agile or in a traditional environment.

ABSTRACT. Besides requiring huge investments, big data implementation also demands an articulation between the many centers of power within a bank and a re-definition of concepts once dominant in the organization. This study de-scribes the process of big data adoption in three major Brazilian banks and unveils the process of implementing a new technology platform in the “plu-ralistic context” [6] that characterizes bank organizations. The Actor-Network Theory, in particular the four moments of its translation model – problemati-zation, interessment, enrolment and mobilization –, is used for describing and understanding the initial phases of the big data adoption journey in the-se banks. A cross-case analysis unveils a strategizing process leading to the irreversibility of big data as the definitive solution for managing a new com-plex data environment in the three studied banks. Brought into the bank by a small group of pioneers, the new concept of big data is then explored by study groups created to amplify knowledge about the concept and related technologies. These pioneer groups started working on connecting with oth-er business areas, on the path to consolidate the need of big data in the bank. Thus the purpose of this study is to understand the process from the point some bank managers became aware of the relevance of big data to its incorporation to the bank’s corporative strategy

ABSTRACT. The present study builds on diffusion of innovation (DOI) and institutional theories in order to address the current lack of cross-national studies on e-HRM adoption and diffusion. The core research questions are: What factors influence e-HRM adoption and diffusion within and across organizations? Is there a relationship between countries innovation and e-HRM adoption and diffusion? We analysed direct and mediation paths related to institutional, organizational and HRM factors among 3815 organizations in 21 countries in a multilevel approach by distinguishing national and organizational level effects. The results largely supported the hypotheses. Specifically, national systems supporting innovative behaviours foster the extent of e-HRM adoption and e-HRM diffusion through e-HRM adoption. At the organizational level size, global competition, the overall innovativeness and the educational level were associated with e-HRM adoption and diffusion. Moreover, a strategic orientation of the HR function seems to be a prerequisite for e-HRM adoption and diffusion. The theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. This paper studies the relationship existing between the use of ICT and individual wellbeing among workers of different generations, examining the role played by the different kinds of work content - creative vs. routine and intellectual vs. manual - on this relationship. More in detail, our focus is on generation X, underexplored in current research but relevant in terms of organizations’ human capital. The findings of the analysis, carried out on a sample of 5,557 employees in Europe (data source: WVS 2010-2014), demonstrate that the use of ICT is important for all generations’ wellbeing, even if both the aspects investigated – use of PC and social media - have a beneficial effect on individuals’ wellbeing for generation X. Furthermore, we demonstrated that different work content have an impact on the relationship between the use of ICT and wellbeing for generation X. Our results offer interesting stimuli for the debate among scholars and practitioners in the field of Diversity Management, suggesting a particular attention for this mid generation.

ABSTRACT. Nowadays, organizations face the co-presence of three generations of workers (“baby boomers”, Xers and Yers). However, another generation will join the workforce in the next years: the generation Z. Accordingly, companies must be able to understand their characteristics and expectations, in order to manage their generation mix. This study aims to fulfill a consistent gap in the extant literature, also providing important managerial implications, when formulating three propo-sitions: a) there are specific aspects which Zers give more importance when choosing their job; b) the use of technology and the typology of technological de-vices characterize the digital employee experience of the generation Z; and c) the entry of the new generation of workers has an impact on diversity management practices within organizations. After a comprehensive review of the literature, we analyze and discuss the results of a survey among 298 young people, belonging to the generation Z. The findings reveal both a universal profile of the future gen-eration of workers, together with their digital behaviors.

ABSTRACT. Patents (Intellectual Property) contain a large quantity of technical and business information not available elsewhere and therefore very interesting for both academia and industry. Also, most of patent information is not described elsewhere, making patents a goldmine for researchers and managers. The purpose of many research projects has been to directly extract technical and legal information from a patent. Unlike prior research we look to other important data displayed in the patents, actually they are a valuable source of users' needs, users' behavioural changes, market trends but also R&D trends, competitors' strategies. The great advantage is that patents anticipate products by a factor varying from 6 to 18 months. Therefore patents can be considered a great source of new and fresh information that can support managers in predicting the next trends, future markets, competitors investments, etc.. The focus of this paper is to provide a managerial framework on how to extract and integrate this information in the firm’s management control systems. We show how the extraction of information from patents can provide key information for management control systems. We show how patent contents can be used to study the firm performance and the profitability of its intangible assets portfolio in comparison with the competitors or the industry. This paper contributes to prior literature and has relevant practical implications. We show how intelligence on Intellectual property can be used to gather information about the business environment, the industry trend, the new product trends. This information can be matched with financial information within a firm’s management control system and provide useful information about the comparison of the firm performance and intangible assets with its competitors. The proposed framework is particularly useful for firms in the ICT industry and overall knowledge-based.

ABSTRACT. This paper aims to analyse the role of Management Control Systems (MCS) for supporting the decision making process of Port Authorities (PAs), shipping agents and cruise companies, in preventing and reducing negative environmental effects from the seaports. The paper focuses on the information management (data collecting, processing and reporting) in the relationships system established among the players involved in the arrival, mooring, and departure of ships in the port destinations. In more detail, this work investigates the content of control function by PAs, in the landlord port model, evidencing if it pays attention only to verify the compliance of the declarations according to MARPOL convention and port regulations. Starting from a deep review of the literature on environmental issues in the seaports and MCS and information systems for environmental sustainability and energy efficiency applied in port sector, and specifically in the cruise industry, we conducted some semistructured interviews to port users as shipping agents and service providers in one Italian seaport. The first results of the research outline the need to get more detailed information and reporting on environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, above all when the ships are morning on the quays, and, also, it has been evidenced how MCS, supported by information system, could help to improve the information basis for PAs, shipping agents and cruise companies in the future developmental decisions of seaports. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

ABSTRACT. The use of Internet has radically transformed financial reporting and investor relations (IR). Moreover, the following diffusion of social media (SM) as crucial information channels has opened new avenues for companies’ dialogue with capital markets, with considerable implications for accounting studies. This paper provides a critical review of the literature on SM in the accounting domain in order to shed light on the ongoing debates in the field with two main objectives. First, it aims to support future research by identify possible directions to deepen our understanding of this emerging phenomenon. Second, it addresses some crucial issues that are particularly relevant also for companies considering how to participate in SM for IR purposes. Overall, empirical evidence highlights several benefits for firms especially if adopting a proactive approach to SM. Further research might offer even stronger contributions if accepting the challenge to encompass the complexity and distinctive features of these media.

ABSTRACT. Enterprise systems, if planned effectively and implemented resource-fully, can improve the efficiency of an enterprise to a great extent. However, implementation of enterprise software in large public sector corporations is fraught with risks and challenges. These challenges include supporting infra-structure, base-technologies, software integration etc; the least of which is tech-nology. In fact we aim to highlight non-technical factors in this regard such as management support, user buy-in, change management, fear factor, etc. Our re-search presents a case study which aims to share the experiences of implement-ing enterprise systems in a large state-owned gas utility, Sui Northern Gas Pipe-lines Limited (SNGPL). SNGPL stretches over 13 regions and serving around 5.2 million consumers in Pakistan. This paper presents non-technical challenges faced by SNGPL and the ways SNGPL opted to deal with them.

ABSTRACT. In this position paper we make the point of a new concept, or better yet term, to account for the dynamic nature of socio-technical systems and make this latter a primary concern of systems thinking approaches to understand, or better yet describe, them: the cybork.

ABSTRACT. This study explores how ICTs and the Internet are influencing, and being influenced by, the evolution of institutions, organizations and workflows that play a role in the scholarly commons. Based on a literature review and content analysis of 8 carefully selected web sites, this study explores: (i) the evolving business models of scientific journals; (ii) open access and article-level metrics; (iii) traditional and emerging forms of peer review; and (iv) the emerging changes in research workflows. The findings depict a highly complex and dynamic scenario, in which different disciplines and different institutional and organizational environments are experimenting different ICT-based workflows and approaches. This study suggests that rigorous research is needed to assess the impacts of these ongoing changes.

ABSTRACT. This study analyzes the role of the mobile application for improving of the service reliability in public transit systems. Service reliability is considered as a very important aspect for transit users, and it is one of the most examined transit service aspects. The usability of public transit can be increased by offering good traveller information systems. This study focused on Gira Napoli application that provides real-time information about bus of the city of Napoli. Through interviews at the Gira Napoli users, the analysis shows that dimensions such as ease of finding information, ease of GUI, ease to use in all condition and truthfulness of information have a key role in promoting Gira Napoli usage and thus service reliability.

ABSTRACT. Non-compliant behavior is a relevant issue in Business Administration. As managers must balance the task of motivating employees to comply, without imposing counter-productive forms of punishment for non-compliant behavior, executing leadership in agreement with IT security policy and compliance is emerging as a challenge. Information system security is an essential feature in most organizations today and compliance is one method of gaining visibility for processes and controls that ensure digital security, the organizational aspect of which being explicit in the Information Security Plan (ISP). The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perceptions and beliefs held by employees and managers regarding compliance with their company’s ISP, by means of the identification of a set of constructs based on the Organizational Culture, Personal Attitudes, Players (Actors) involved, Intention and Motivation. Twenty variables have been used to build the five constructs and this research. The Objective was to build a research framework with the consistent set of hypotheses and variables, in order to conduct a future empirical investigation.

ABSTRACT. This research-in-progress aims to address the complex phenomenon of knowledge sharing within the context of social media. The objective of this paper is to examine how the affordances of social media – such as editability, visibility, persistence and association – impact knowledge sharing dynamics in intra-organizational Information Technology (IT) projects. This paper adopts Design Science Research (DSR) as research paradigm and the Tech-nical Action Research (TAR) as validation method. One social media artifact will be designed and investigated within the context of an IT project. The ex-pected contributions of this work will be twofold: 1. The results of this re-search should add to the literature on empirically tested theory of social me-dia affordances on knowledge sharing dynamics in IT projects; 2. The instan-tiation of the TAR study will characterize a contribution of the type ‘situated implementation of artifact’. This research should have implications for both the Project Management and Knowledge Management communities. Practi-tioners should be directly benefited by this work with an in-depth understand-ing of social media affordances on knowledge sharing dynamics.

ABSTRACT. Scholars investigating the importance of effective IT managers’ relations tend to rely on two mainstream theoretical approaches: the resource-based view (RBV) and sister theories, on the one hand; and the business-IT alignment view, on the other hand. This study proposes that these two theories, although very effective in explaining several aspects of the importance of IT managers’ relationships, are not sufficient, and could be usefully complemented by at least two further im-portant theories: Lawrence and Lorsch’s view of organisational differentiation and integration, and the cyclical model of organisational learning proposed by Zollo and Winter. Therefore, this study presents the contribution of these four theoretical approaches (RBV, business-IT alignment, organisational integration, and cyclical organisational learning) to explaining the importance of IT managers’ relationships. For each theory, two propositions are deduced. The eight resulting propositions are briefly compared, in order to highlight the importance of theoret-ical cross-fertilisation and integration for a better scientific understanding of IT management value.

ABSTRACT. In this work we explore the application of machine learning models to the analysis of firms’ performance. In particular, we consider a bunch of financial indicators on firms operating in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, with particular attention to enterprises providing ICT related-services. Instead of performing classical analysis, we discuss how to apply to those indicators Self-Organizing Maps -SOMs- that are well suited to manage high dimensional and complex datasets to extract their relevant features. It emerges that SOMs are useful in clustering companies depending on multidimensional criteria and in analysing hidden relations in companies’ performances.

ABSTRACT. Tools of Web 2.0 and Open Data source have witnessed a massive improvement and become the most used platforms to divulgate information and to shrink the gap between Local Government Authorities (LGAs) and their stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to analyse the relationship between the “Openness” variables (Open Data, Social Media and YouTube channel) and performance of Italian LGAs in order to increase transparency and participation for improving accountability. Our results show no significant relationship between “Openness” and traditional performance focused on financial autonomy but, on the other hand, we find a strong association between “Openness” variables and a score deriving from the ten financial performance indexes (“Financially Distress” Score). Notice that the use of only one traditional financial indicator is not able to explain the relationship while a more complex indicators derived from a set of 10 financial ratios (as we call “Financially Distress” Score) is considered more appropriate.

ABSTRACT. The aim of this research is to investigate the role of information system in sup-porting companies to face with information overload. Specifically, the study pro-vides an empirical analysis aimed to examine whether the quality of information systems is able to abate the negative effects of information overload/underload in-side a company. Through a survey we assess the managerial feelings about the information overload (and underload) and the managerial assessment of the In-formation System (IS) quality. Afterwards, we match the results in order to find out if IS quality is associated with the occurrence of information overload (or un-derload). Results of the survey seem to confirm the hypothesis that information overload (and underload) is higher when the IS quality is low. However, in pres-ence of high IS quality score, the phenomenon of information overload (or under-load) is still perceived by respondents.

ABSTRACT. This paper discusses the potential of harnessing intelligent assistants with a focus on education as an application area. It will discuss the concept of end user focused VPAs with access to external data sources could use a constructivist approach to helping support a user in the learning process. The socio-technical relationship between student and intelligent assistant could provide enhanced learning through the constructivist teaching philosophy. We hypothesise that the user will benefit from the support provided by the proposed type VPA by is ability to help structure complex data in a way that the user can relate the data to their past knowledge.

ABSTRACT. In this paper we report upon some results of an empirical study involving 32 SMEs in the UK on how they approach socio-technical principals in the design of their work systems. We are particularly interested in what extent employees are engaged with decision making, change in work practices and job satisfaction. Our findings reveal that employees would prefer more responsibilities, more involvement in the decision making and in change of work practices. Additionally, it seems that recognition and appreciation by management are the most valuable job satisfaction criteria. Therefore, our findings further support the conclusion that socio-technical principals are not outdated. From a socio-technical lenses, the debate on the productivity issues should not only consider buying more technology as a crucial part of the design of a work process but additional effort is required to connect it with employees’ capabilities.

ABSTRACT. This study aims to investigate how banks use Facebook to communicate with public and what are the main topics discussed. We examine the Facebook official pages of the Italian listed banks using a content analysis and posts categorization. Our findings show that the main topics regarding marketing strategy, such as customer services and promoting social and cultural events. Overall, social media usage in the Italian banking sector is still in its early stages and there are opportunity for improvement Facebook usage in the relationships between banks and customers.

ABSTRACT. The year 2015 obliged the world to contend with touching pictures of hundred of thousands of from their home countries, risking their lives in the Mediterranean sea, trying to reach safer shores. UNHCR revealed that the number of global forced displaced people topped nearly 60 million. The main aim of this contribution is to understand what an IT based social innovation can do in a situation of crisis like the one just described. Compared to the institutional ways of hosting migrants, the research focus on an innovative initiative driven by citizens trying to fill the gaps of the European policies concerning refugees. The innovative Italian initiatives, called ’Refugees Welcome Italia’ promotes the domestic hospitality as a way to enhance integration. Among the other innovative aspects featured by this initiative the most important is the participative nature. So that authors were directly involved by the organization in consolidating the internal conformity of the association and in defining problems and priorities, exploiting ’The social innovation journey box’.

ABSTRACT. The concept of smart cities has been gaining relevance over the years, with city leaders planning investments with the aim of evolving the city towards a smart city. Several models and frameworks, of which maturity models are included, provide directions or support those investment decisions. Nevertheless, it is not always clear whether the maturity models developed so far are able to fulfil their proposed objectives. This paper aims to identify smart city maturity models and assess them, taking into account an approach based on the design principles framework proposed by Pöppelbuß & Röglinger. The main objective of this paper is to infer on the relevance of current maturity models for smart cities, taking into account their purpose. Furthermore, it intends to create awareness for further work in the field, especially considering the need for completeness when developing a model.

ABSTRACT. This study considers two major threats of disruption for modern supply chains: IT and Cyber risks. As they may significantly impact the business continuity, the general quality service, the investor confidence and the reputation of companies, more effective solutions are needed. We conducted an empirical study on ten European companies, leaders in their industry and with different roles within the supply chain, analyzing how managers perceive these sources of disruption and whether the risk management process is built accordingly. We propose a model that suggest a higher integration of resilience abilities in the supply chain risk management process may increase the effectiveness in preventing, assessing and mitigating IT and cyber risks.

ABSTRACT. Semantic technologies, and particularly those related to the Semantic Web and Ontology, are a very promising approach to cope with open issues in Business Process Management and in particular to improve automatic management and execution of business process. This paper presents a concept of semantic business process management applied to the eGovernment domain which improves the execution of the BPM by taking into account the context of the citizen who is asking for a service. The prototype developed to validate the proposed approach is an extension of the Jbpm-JBoss platform, and it is compliant with the BPMN 2.0 standard.

ABSTRACT. The rapid development and adoption of Internet and digital technologies dramatically changed business processes, leading to a disruptive digital transformation of the whole industry value chain. The so-called Industry 4.0 refers to a complex evolution of the entire industrial sector that includes technological advances in production equipment (i.e. Additive Manufacturing), smart finished products (IoT), data tools and analytics, involving activities and stakeholders at all levels. Therefore, companies need to completely redesign their business processes in order to achieve the important benefits disclosed by these new settings. Even though actual and potential advantages are remarkable, only a limited number of companies has already made rapid advances by developing high digital capabilities necessary to obtain a competitive advantage. The purpose of this paper is to explore this emerging trend through a case study carried out with an Italian company world leader in the food industry, aiming to shed light on opportunities and threats connected to digital transition.

ABSTRACT. According to early analyses and experiences, the Internet of Things is potentially representing a new paradigm shift from traditional manufacturing to “smart manufacturing”. Introducing this scenario, we offer here an organizational analysis towards the definition of a research agenda. First, we introduce the topic with a brief macroeconomic scenario of IoT innovations, underlining driving factors and pending issues. Second, we highlight the IoT potential for innovating manufacturing with new business models and production paradigms. Third, we discuss the most important challenges in terms of organizational traits, work organization, workforce qualities, change management, and organizational relationships, seen as activators of the IoT potential. Finally, we enlist few lines of promising research topics and theoretical frameworks, towards the definition of an organizational research agenda addressing the emerging organizational opportunities and issues of smart manufacturing.

ABSTRACT. Emerging new technologies and their applications will pose completely new requirements on standardisation. This is largely due to the need for multi-disciplinary co-operation in both implementations and the underlying standardisation process. This paper analyses the development of the standardi-sation activities in Intelligent Transport Systems, Smart Manufacturing and Smart Grid over the past twenty years. Based on this analysis it makes some preliminary recommendations for suitable policy actions to strengthen the European role in the international standardisation system.