Purpose: This study aimed to provide an exploratory analysis of digitalization processes in small professional service firms (SPSFs) by examining their main drivers and barriers and their impact on customer management practices, considering the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.Design/methodology/approach: This study adopted a qualitative, exploratory and inductive research methodology based on in-depth interviews with 19 owners or consultants of small tax/accounting firms, focusing on the role of digitalization in their internal and external processes.Findings: The findings reveal external and internal barriers to and drivers of digitalization, as well as its effects on customer management practices. They also reveal the emergence of tensions related to the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.Originality/value: This work contributes to the research on the role of digital technologies in the professional service sector, with a focus on SPSFs, which has thus far received limited attention. This research highlights the complexity of combining increasingly standardized processes and services with the need to maintain flexibility and informality in internal and external interactions.

Purpose: Digitalization is the great global challenge of the twenty-first century including technologies, like, Internet-of-Things, Big Data and block-chain. New digital innovation can play a crucial role for the competitiveness and sustainability of agro-food small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) but in Europe it has been adopted by only 25% of farmers. Joined participation in EU R&D projects can boost SME's digital innovation. The paper aims to analyze how business networking, within a R&D project, affects the digital innovation of agro-food SMEs.Design/methodology/approach: The paper investigates a single longitudinal case study focused on the local development phase of the EU Horizon 2020 project “Eugenius”, which aims to develop a European business network able to provide Earth observation services for natural resources management in agriculture. The focus is on the dyadic relationship between two firms, the winery Tormaresca and the digital innovation provider Planetek.Findings: Results highlight that the process of commercialization of Planetek's innovative services significantly passes through a multifaceted process of development and adaptation of technology to the specific needs of the user company, allowed by the research project with no expense for both companies during the experimentation phase.Originality/value: The paper deals with a new underexplored topic thus giving interesting insights into how the R&D project participation affects agro-food SMEs in adopting digital innovations, which are difficult to acquire directly, and how this influences the value creation process and their organizational structure.

The B2B context has experienced a push toward digital servitization (DS), i.e., the development of services by means of digital technologies. There are three levels of DS: (1) product provision, (2) after-sale servicing, and (3) advanced services taking after-sales to the next level. At level 3, DS evolves from a product and service-oriented strategy to a service-centric one. The literature has acknowledged the changes provoked by levels 1 and 2 of DS. Yet, further changes at level 3 still have not been explored. This research aims to understand the impact of DS’s evolution after the DS setup, with an intra- and interorganizational focus. To reach this aim, the case of Beta, an Italian mechatronic manufacturer implementing IIoT-based DS, is analyzed. The adopted framework is the ‘developing’, ‘producing’, ‘using’ (DPU) framework, formulated within the industrial marketing and purchasing (IMP) approach. Results are summarized in three propositions, showing how: (1) DS complexity unfolds intra- and interorganizationally and is gradually embedded in the three settings of the framework; (2) integration of settings and resources becomes essential; and (3) processes of resource procurement, development, and integration allow the evolution toward a service platform. Theoretical and managerial implications are provided.

Digital Servitization (DS), that is the development of new services through the use of digital technologies, is an emerging research stream characterized by an inherent complexity that requires understanding changes occurring over time and impacting relationships and network dynamics. Scholars have argued for the need to move towards an analysis of the micro-interaction processes and the adoption of a networking perspective. In this direction, this study aims to explore the contribution of the business network approach, compared to other existing frameworks, in the analysis of complex digital phenomena. To reach this aim, the study undertakes a single case study of an Italian manufacturer which is undertaking a DS process. The empirical analysis is guided by the three dimensions of the interpretative Actors-Resources-Activities (ARA) framework, developed within the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) approach. The analysis has provided insights into each of the three layers of the ARA framework and has pointed to a continuous interrelation between the internal and external context and interdependence among the three layers. The study provides a theoretical contribution to the stream of literature dealing with the DS phenomenon by providing a unified theoretical approach - i.e., the business network approach - characterized by analytical completeness. Also, the research paves the way for the business network approach and for the ARA framework to be adopted in the investigation of complex business phenomena, such as DS.

The current study investigates which motivations to reduce food waste influence respondents’ likelihood to accurately self-assess food waste quantities. Some studies suggest that motivations to prevent household food waste influence respondents’ behaviors, but others highlight that routine and daily life often represent an obstacle to acting consistently. To this end, this study observed if a certain set of motivations actually influences the perceived quantity of food waste produced; in other words, if the motivation to reduce food waste is a driver of coherent behavior and awareness. The results were drawn from weekly food diaries and then compared with online questionnaires run on a sample of 388 households. A random forest has been performed to identify the relevant variables, able to predict the food waste self-assessment. The results show that no specific motivation is related to a better awareness of food waste quantities, nor to the actual waste average.