ABSTRACT. People with learning disabilities are often in isolation from the rest of society. This affects their development, their health and their full participation in society. Technologies are an indispensable answer to the problem of this marginalization and not only allows to promote their inclusion in societies but also to raise awareness of society while connecting them to the services and resources available. This paper aims at exploring guiding principles to cater for the needs for inclusive technology accessibility. We review the state of the literature and identify extant concepts in search for a set of Meta principles of technology accessibility design for users with learning disabilities.

ABSTRACT. Creating effective learning experiences matter for both the employees and the employing organizations because of its positive outcomes. They way an organization can do this is by designing and implementing organizational learning mechanisms, in terms of cultural and structural conditions. Yet in many cases, they fail in doing so. In this paper we explore how employees perceive learning and their company’s efforts in providing organizational learning mechanisms (OLMs). We also investigate whether the learning models (face to face vs. online vs. blended) they use to learn has an impact on their satisfaction and enjoyment as well as perceptions of OLMs. We surveyed 67 employees and we discovered that respondents that use multiple learning models, instead of just one, tend to be more satisfied towards learning and to have a better perception towards what their company does in terms of OLMs.

ABSTRACT. In a fast-changing environment, learning - intended as the individual and organizational process to create knowledge - can assist employees as well as their organizations in remaining competitive. Reflecting about what learning is and how it occurs should therefore be in the agenda of any organization. In this paper we explore how learning is evolving, its meaning and the most used learning models and learning methods, describing the present but also imaging the future. We collected data on 91 employees who answered an online quali-quantitative survey. Results show that digital enhanced models and methods are constantly growing in importance (more in terms of “expected” use than “desired” use), together with a need for a more personalized learning.

ABSTRACT. This study quasi-replicates a previous work based on social communication strategies in the insurance sector, analyzing what happens in the Italian fashion industry. Our sample yields findings dissimilar to the earlier research and suggests new insights.

ABSTRACT. Within knowledge-based economies cities of tomorrow should rethink the city as smart and knowledge-based community promoting sustainable, social and economic growth by developing knowledge sources and using technology to create new knowledge, develop human capital and facilitate open innovation. As smart communities, cities promote economic social and job growth and ensure high quality of life. Technology helps cities to become smart cities and develop knowledge sources to improve human capital and enhance knowledge-based urban development promoting smartness as vision to develop economy, society and community. Smart cities should also adopt a knowledge management perspective where knowledge is a dynamic process where values, cognitive, emotional and visionary sources contribute to transforming knowledge into other knowledge. Rediscovering cities as knowledge-based and oriented communities helps cities to acquire, use and disseminate knowledge as a critical resource for driving a sustainable urban development. A knowledge-based view helps to rethink the future of urban growth and the smart city as a community developing emotional, spiritual and cognitive knowledge sources through information technology to develop collaborative processes.

ABSTRACT. This work focuses on how digital infrastructures of a complex interorganizational system becomes visible and can be changed. While scientific research on infrastructures has addressed both theoretical and methodological issues (Edwards et al, 2009; Iannacci, 2010; Karasti et al, 2016a; Karasti et al, 2016b), the way in which an interorganizational and complex infrastructure is shaped and "cultivated" remains unexplored. Authors focus the analysis on the interplay between the infrastructure, its lock-in and (in)visibility as building blocks of any planned change. When a change occurs, the relationships between actors, organizational culture, processes, technology, artefacts, etc. become visible as the result of actors negotiation and decisions. The aim of this paper is to describe the most significant elements that characterize the interplay between human decisions and behaviors, infrastructure innovation and its visibility. Authors developed a longitudinal analysis which focuses on changes implemented in the Air Traffic Management (ATM), a complex inter-organizational system adopted in all the European countries. The analysis is carried out using qualitative research made up of: a) semi-structured interviews, b) focus groups with experts and c) documents and reports reviews.

ABSTRACT. This paper reports the final validation step of the prototype of a Time Accounting System (TAS), which has been designed and developed to investigate the suitability and acceptability of a technology-based service exchanges. TAS is able to facilitate service exchanges using local currency (i.e., time) in a developing country, namely in Bangladesh. The paper describes the results of usability tests, at the level of interface and user interaction. Heuristic evaluation was the method adopted for the usability testing. The results suggest addressing the following usability problems that occur in managing services: error prevention, aesthetic and minimalist design, user control and freedom.

ABSTRACT. In this work, we challenge the concept of design in the development of information systems. Information systems are usually considered to be so complex systems that they simply cannot be developed outside of a specific activity of planning. However, in the specialist literature, some voices have also been raised saying that it is this situated and contingent complexity that always prevents information systems from having been really designed in the field of work. These voices have so far criticized the formal and methodical approaches in IS design, and not design itself, thus exonerating the role of the modernist designer from the current rate of failure and user dissatisfaction in IT projects. The current idea of designer has reinforced over time a divide between modeling and practicing, design and use, and the hegemony of the planning mind over that of the performer. The current convergence of networked application paradigms and the Web 2.0 infrastructure has led to new mindsets centered on agile methods, open design concepts and on the idea of a prosuming user. This paper outlines some discourses in IS research that could challenge the more traditional ones in current IT design, and argues about the importance to revamp some of the most important socio-technical principles for maintaining a critical gaze on positivistic and automation stances, mitigating the effects of the modernist over-design attitude, and make IS development more sustainable.

ABSTRACT. Abstract/Purpose To face crisis and market instability in a complex, polymorphic and competitive context, enterprises need a shift in perspective: from a “company-centric” logic, in which production efficiencies are the highest priority, to a “customer-centric” one, wherein the structure and behaviour of the whole enterprise cannot neglect consideration of full knowledge of the various customer segments with which it interacts. The recent 4.0 paths that many companies have started to follow allow them to leverage availability, punctuality, promptness and flexibility. These are indispensable factors in satisfying and retaining demanding clients with higher expectations in terms of service quality (Ayres, 2010) and thus ensuring success. This research focuses on the key and central role of logistics and supply chain management (SCM) today (Lee et al., 2016; Partida, 2017) and the importance of having professionals with specific professional/technical skills and an adequate educational background. In light of an analysis previously carried out concerning the mapping of roles and skills required to operate effectively in logistics and SCM (Bisogni & Cantoni, 2017), this study queries whether Italian universities (along with other training institutions) are ready to meet these needs. Inspired by Niine and Koppel (2014, 2015), who argue that “logistics is an extensive interdisciplinary field across industries and jobs, merging the viewpoints of engineering, manufacturing, operations and business administration”, the study employed a census of the courses (three-year and “magistrali”) offered by the Faculty of Economics and Engineering in the 2017–2018 academic year to try to understand if they are able to offer the "logistics culture" consistent with guidelines for current and future guidelines competitive employment scenarios. This research aims to identify and operationalize possible tools to encourage the creation of communication "bridges" between the offer of Italian universities and the needs of enterprises’ professionals operating in logistics and SCM in terms of competences. Keywords: logistics, supply chain management, company-centricity, industry 4.0, innovation 4.0, technology, competences

Methodology The methodology adopted is described in six interlinked steps. First, the study verified the presence of standards of competence (ELA, APICS, SOLE; CILT) recognized by logistics professionals in the European market. As the scope of our research spans Italian universities, we considered it more appropriate to focus our research on the two models more often chosen by Italian logisticians: APICS and ELAQF. After establishing which standards to include and having justified our selection criteria, we designed a matrix containing the main jobs in the logistics and SCM area and the main technical competences associated with these job descriptions. These competences were then aggregated following the ELA standard scheme as a guideline. In light of the aggregation thus made, we produced a matrix that was used to match the technical professional macro competences necessary to work effectively in logistics and SCM with the target competences that can be developed by the programmes of Italian universities. We decided to apply this analytic framework to the curricula of Bachelor’s and Master’s degree courses provided by the Faculties of Engineering and Economics as these degrees are the ones that more often provide entry level roles to business.

Findings Our research, after identifying professional roles in logistics and mapping the necessary technical skills, verified from the higher education perspective whether curricula offered by Economics and Management and Engineering schools in Italian universities are consistent with the requirements of businesses. Bearing in mind the discussion of business requirements in terms of jobs, competence areas and the training offer provided by Italian universities, it emerges a gap of competences required and topics being taught. Research limitations The scope of our research spans only the Italian universities (faculty of Economics and Engineering).

Practical implications Assuming that one of the causes underlying this gap is the limited exchange of information between academia and business, we advocate a systematic re-engineering of the contents of university curricula, not limited to minor or restyling updates, involving supply chain management associations in the redesign effort, able to express the most up-to-date business requirements.

Originality/value The paper leads on one side (the professional one) an empirical analysis on the key figures working in logistics and the skills required. On the academic side it offers a summary of the courses it is possible to identify in the Italian schools of Economics and Engineering (both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees). This research aims to identify and activate possible tools to encourage the creation of “bridges” between the university/training world and the logistics environment.

ABSTRACT. The introduction of a new technology within an organization can have an impact both on cultural values and on individual roles, requiring a greater effort in terms of change management. Studies on business organization and information systems have long investigated these kind of relationships. It is particularly interesting to analyze these aspects in the Public Administration, since the preference for the adoption of free software solutions has been defined for some years at the regulatory level. From an organizational point of view, free software migration projects require a strong sponsorship from top management and great collaboration between actors involved at the different levels. Moreover, the adoption of free software solutions is only possible if adequately supported and accompanied in a highly organized and participated process. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate, also through the analysis of some practical cases, the prevailing or-ganizational and social value of free software migration projects on purely technological aspects.

ABSTRACT. The importance of collecting information from Social Media and Web 2.0 platforms to support the New Product Development (NPD) processes, is already recognized by the previous literature. Conversely recent studies have provided divergent empirical results showing that the employment of Social Media and Web 2.0 platforms as source of information about technical solutions have a negative and significant relationship with innovative outcome. Relying on the literature about interpretative barriers and organizational systems of sensemaking in NPD, this study suggests that this divergent results can be explained by the need to develop a dynamic of sensemaking and sensegiving practices both at individual and organizational level. Relying on an in-depth single case research about Dainese, one of the more important and innovative firm in the sports’ protections, this study provides evidences about how these dynamics work, who are the organizational actors involved, and which are the individual resources that support those actors in engaging in this complex dynamics of sensemaking and sensegiving practices.

ABSTRACT. Within knowledge-based economies, networking societies and public services systems public organizations are rethinking how to proceed towards sustainability by embracing information and digital technology looking at the ecosystem perspective to rediscover the community as social and smart platform where public and private organizations drive processes of service innovation and co-production leading to value co-creation. The Internet, information and digital technology helps public organizations to rethink their role and task within society promoting inter-organizational, collaborative and cooperative processes and relationships building smart and sustainable communities in order to promote and enhance sources that enable the creation of public value: sustaining a knowledge management approach to developing public services delivery and quality; adopting a digital perspective to using technology for government services and building partnership with citizens and businesses as means to drive smart government to achieve sustainability; sustaining co-production of public services as a source leading citizens and users to assume a proactive role in design and innovation to orient public value co-creation. As knowledge-based and digital-enabled organizations, public organizations tend to become communities where processes of co-production and co-design of public services occur involving public-private partnership through digital platforms that enable exchange of information and knowledge sharing help drive service innovation and public value co-creation enabling the user as active creator of public value.

ABSTRACT. In their day-to-day operations, public sector organizations collect and use huge amounts of information that if made available for re-use could contribute to economic growth. Much of this information can lead, directly or indirectly, to the identification of ‘natural person’ and, as such, it is subject to the personal data protection regulation that excludes this information from the re-use, thus leaving a huge amount of potential value untapped. By elaborating on evidences from the economics and the psychology of privacy literature, the paper suggests that public sector organizations could implement a coproduction strategy to unlock the value of public sector personal information in a user-centric personal information ecosystem. More specifically, the paper argues that the data subjects can be made more willing to consent to the processing (and possibly to the re-use) of personal information by involving them as coproducers in the processes through which public sector organizations can support economic growth in the digital society.

ABSTRACT. Bad air conditions, limitless traffic, overloaded parking spaces are just some of the modern mobility problems that strike cities on a daily basis. The European Commission strives to address these issues by providing measures to improve the urban mobility situation in the small and medium-sized cities. The SUITS project (Supporting Urban Integrated Transport Systems: Transferable Tools for Authorities), which is financed under the umbrella of the HORIZON 2020 programme, aims at increasing the capacity of local authorities in S-M cities through the development and implementation of sustainable, integrated and accessible transport strategies and technologies. This paper aims to provide innovative business models in urban mobility to increase the capacity building of S-M cities’ transportation authorities. It describes the innovative mobility business identifying the most successful services and partnerships in the sector and offering examples of best practices from the SUITS city partners.

ABSTRACT. Abstract. This paper investigates the relationship between disability and new technologies, specifically home automation, evidencing how the application of new technologies can effec-tively promote the social inclusion of people with disability. New technologies in all their forms significantly changed the social and economic activities, recording an increasing applica-tion in any organizational settings also allowing people with disability to be significantly in-volved improving their social status and commitment in the social daily life. New technologies can facilitate and promote the social integration of disabled persons allowing them to partici-pate into several social daily activities acquiring some kind of autonomy. There is an explosion of technology applications in the disabled people’s daily life in different ways, but this phe-nomenon is still under researched in the literature. This paper aims to identify and evidence the role and function of new technologies, specifically home automation, for people with disability, more specifically we aim to outline if and how the home automation solutions and devises can support people with disability improving their social inclusion. This theoretical study, con-ducted through a deep review of the contributions in the literature and in the practice through an online search from a 30-year period (1998 to 2018) on the link between technology/home automation and disability, as an interesting research starting point, contributes to systematize and clarify the main contributions on this phenomenon also identifying new research perspec-tives.

ABSTRACT. Due to the current remarkable growth of e-commerce, the last mile logistics has become a relevant problem. In this paper, the main issues of the last mile logistics in a smart city context are introduced. We propose a solution based on a shared Information Technology (IT) platform that needs no material investments. The principle of resource pooling is applied to the sharing of heterogeneous vehicles in the urban network. In particular, an IT platform powered by an optimization algorithm is proposed to allow couriers to make their deliveries more efficiently, that is, to reduce the total distance covered by the vehicles. This was achieved through the development of four software modules: an ETL, an optimizer, a web application and a map displayer. First results are promising, but further investigations should be done in order to evaluate more accurately the expected benefits and the possible positive externalities such as improvement of air quality in the city.