The SARS-CoV2 pandemic has impacted risk management globally. Blockchain has been increasingly applied to healthcare management, as a strategic tool to strengthen operative protocols and to create the proper basis for an efficient and effective evidence-based decisional process. We aim to validate blockchain in healthcare, and to suggest a trace-route for a COVID19-safe clinical practice. The use of blockchain in combination with artificial intelligence systems allows the creation of a generalizable predictive system that could contribute to the containment of pandemic risk on national territory. A SWOT analysis of the adoption of a blockchain-based prediction model in healthcare and SARS-CoV-2 infection has been carried out to underline opportunities and limits to its adoption. Blockchain could play a strategic role in future digital healthcare: specifically, it may work to improve COVID19-safe clinical practice. The main concepts, and particularly those related to clinical workflow, obtainable from different blockchain-based models have been reported here and critically discussed.

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate if and to what extent environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices are influenced by innovation, measured by investment in research and development (R&D) and the number of patents developed by companies. Design/methodology/approach: To test this hypothesis, the authors estimated a regression model for the panel data considering a time horizon of eight years. The analysis was conducted on a sample of listed firms operating in the industrial sector in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA. Findings: The empirical analysis shows that there is a positive and significant relationship between ESG practices and innovation. Companies investing more in R&D and patents have better ESG performance. Originality/value: This study contributes to the existing literature by improving the understanding of the importance of innovation in improving ESG practices for firms in the industrial sector. Furthermore, it provides empirical evidence of the ability of innovation to be a valuable tool for sustainable industry development through R&D investment and patent development.

The growing interest in corporate social responsibility (CSR) issues is the result of a cultural path that sees banks react to market changes and become protagonists of an increasingly sustainable future. Based on these considerations, this paper intends to investigate the level of integration of sustainability issues in banks’ corporate governance systems. We carry out an exploratory analysis on all European systematically important banks during the period 2015–2019. By adopting the content analysis approach, we develop a novel governance score based on a research model made up of 40 items. We name the score: “Bank’s governance ESG (Environmental Social Governance) integrated index”. The main results of our study reveal not only growing awareness of banks to integrate sustainability in their corporate governance, but also a strong heterogeneity in their corporate behaviours and large rooms for improvement. Indeed, we find that just over half of the surveyed banks pay really attention to the integration of sustainability issues in their business and governance processes. This contribution is especially driven by the banks’ boards of directors, whose size and composition contribute positively to overall sustainable performance. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first empirical study that investigates the level of integration of ESG factors in the banking sector, developing a quantitative score ranging from 0 to 100%. This study differs from previous studies in that it develops an “Bank’s governance ESG integrated index”, which considers the areas of corporate governance that have the greatest impact on the implementation of sustainable practices in banks. Our research is limited to investigating the level of integration of ESG factors for listed banks over a 5-year period. In fact, our time horizon is represented by the four-year period 2015–2019. This research has practical implications. First, investors more attentive on sustainability issues could identify and select the banks that best implement ESG criteria in their corporate governance systems. Second, our research model could be adopted by banks as a “diagnostic tool” to carry out a self-assessment process and identify possible room for improvement.

Risk Management 4.0: The Role of Big Data Analytics in the Bank Sector

The interest in new and more advanced technological solutions is paving the way for the diffusion of innovative and revolutionary applications in healthcare organizations. The application of an artificial intelligence system to medical research has the potential to move toward highly advanced e-Health. This analysis aims to explore the main areas of application of big data in healthcare, as well as the restructuring of the technological infrastructure and the integration of traditional data analytical tools and techniques with an elaborate computational technology that is able to enhance and extract useful information for decision-making. We conducted a literature review using the Scopus database over the period 2010–2020. The article selection process involved five steps: the planning and identification of studies, the evaluation of articles, the extraction of results, the summary, and the dissemination of the audit results. We included 93 documents. Our results suggest that effective and patient-centered care cannot disregard the acquisition, management, and analysis of a huge volume and variety of health data. In this way, an immediate and more effective diagnosis could be possible while maximizing healthcare resources. Deriving the benefits associated with digitization and technological innovation, however, requires the restructuring of traditional operational and strategic processes, and the acquisition of new skills.