Research reports

Final report of the 2021 edition of the Smart Agrifood research observatory

The need to move towards circular and more sustainable economic models has been even more stressed by the Covid pandemic and by data certifying the climate change effects. European public institutions show an increasing emphasis on promoting a Circular Economy transition, notably through the “Next Generation Europe” program and the funding that will be available, such as the Italian PNRR. At the single company level, however, how to undertake this transition and its impacts are often still to be understood and planned. Advanced services, digitalization and «servitized» business models may have a great role in helping companies move to a “circular” paradigm and achieve not only environmental but also economic and social benefits.

Several speakers have taken part to the conference, including Walter Stahel, one of the founding fathers of the concepts of “Circular Economy”, promoting the “Everything as a service” concept since 2010 with his book “The Performance Economy”.

This white paper summarizes the main evidences from the conference.

This Report summarizes the empirical evidence obtained from a sample of 35 Italian public and private healthcare firms and hospitals. The research, conducted by the RISE Laboratory, paid particular attention to investment in digitalization and computerization, the availability of logistic competences and the deployment of state-of-the art inventory and materials management policies as key levers in the efficiency and effectiveness creation. The adoption of these levers is examined in relation with a set of exogenous and endogenous factors characterizing each considered health care firm. By the same token, we analyzed the potential of each of these levers to improve healthcare companies' efficiency and effectiveness, and thus to spur the health care system competitiveness

During the “first wave” period, the ASAP researchers collected information concerning the impact of anti-COVID measures on product and service business, on the “quick & dirty” actions and solutions implemented to provide services to customers, on the prerogatives of the restart stage and on the perceptions concerning impacts and structural changes (“next normal” or “new normal”). In the following months, ASAP continued its survey and research activities and pointed out that, in the present context, some structural changes in the service industry seemed to be necessary in order to guarantee the business continuity and to successfully operate in the «next normal».

For this reason, the XVII ASAP Forum was dedicated to analyse, through two specific sessions with expert testimony and successful cases, what the distinguishing features of service business in the «next normal» could be.

Read the White Paper of the event, edited by the ASAP researchers.

The RISE Laboratory makes the results of the research carried out within the ASAP Service Management Forum available to everyone. 

The research, carried out between mid-March and April, analysed the impact of the crisis on the supply chains of goods and services, with the aim to understand how companies can respond through services and the opportunities offered by “digital servitization”. Today this research represents an empirical evidence almost unique on the national scene, combining the findings of an extensive investigation on more than 180 companies with testimony of directors and managers. 

ASAP makes available to all the white paper edited by the researchers which sums up and critically analyses the results of the research. In addition, the document offers operational insights and suggestions arisen from the confrontation of experiences among professors, researchers, directors and managers and proposes an interpretative model supporting the management of an emergency.

Global warming, uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources and excessive production of waste are increasingly important problems. According to a recent study commissioned by the United Nations, only 12 years remain to limit the phenomenon of climate change, rethinking production and consumption patterns on a global scale to take into account the concept of finite limit of resources.

Circular Economy can be seen as a possible answer to these problems. The home appliance industry and supply chain, which has always looket at environmental problems, can be considered as a potential arena for studying the application of this paradigm, capable of providing ideas and illustrating success stories, good practices, constraints and barriers, which can also be transferred to other sectors.

Through the collection, mapping and analysis of case studies, this research provides an overview of the implementation of the Circular Economy paradigm in the household appliances supply chain.

The research report describes the results of the third edition of the RISE research on the topics of Enterprise 4.0. This edition is focused on how paradigm 4.0 is evolving, expanding the boundaries of the survey from the production departments (Industry 4.0) to the relationships among the different players of the value chains (Supply chain 4.0).

The report presents the results of the extensive investigaton carried out between 2018 and 2019, which collected more than 115 respondents from Italian manufacturing companies. The data collected allow us to answer the following questions:

• How far does paradigm 4.0 extend? Did it affect only production or did it extend to other business areas?
• Was the technological evolution of companies accompanied by a consistent organizational transformation process?
• What is the role of skills within this transformation process?