This study examines the notion of organizational transparency through the lenses of stakeholder theory and focuses on the interaction between management and internal stakeholders. A theory-driven measure of transparency is developed and dened along three dimensions: informative, participative, and accountable. Based on a unique data set consisting of six Italian social enterprises operating in the social service sector, we use a mixed-method approach in order to study both managerial policy and stakeholders' perceptions towards transparency. From qualitative, exploratory, and multi-case analysis, it emerges that the nature of the relationship between the organization and its stakeholders shapes transparency dimensions through organizational structure. There are common patterns in this context that distinguish large enterprises with vertical decision-making from smaller rms with horizontal processes: in the rst group,transparency is developed along its informative dimension and it is structured on a unilateral ow of information that is aimed at controlling internal stakeholders. Whereas in the second group, transparency is mainly participative, designed as a two-way exchange of information with an explicit objective to allow mean- ing co-creation. Using structural equation modelling, we nd that stakeholders' perceptions about transparency are relatively high and positively linked to organizational commitment, where trust plays a signicant mediating role. Tenure in the organization, formal membership, and job security display varying and, in some cases, opposing behaviors. The main contribution of this thesis to the literature in this area is that it highlights the need for understanding the interplay between the transmitter and the receiver of transparency. It further considers the impact of stakeholder relations to enable alternatives for developing dierent typologies of transparency.

This dissertation explores the development of a human capital concept that is here referred to as “green footprint competence” among workers and members of organizations that position themselves as “green”, “organic”, or “environmental solutions providers”. The research contributes to the studies of social and environmental change by analysing three aspects of this change: a) the institutionalisation of the global green and low-carbon discourses as values, norms, and discursive practices within organizations in Kyrgyzstan and China; b) the emergence of the green organizational identity; c) and the development of the new competences for the climate change adaptation and mitigation along with the “green identity” of workers and members of greening organizations.

Entrepreneurial firms are considered to be vehicles for employment and growth and as such have become targets for public policy measures in all OECD countries. At the same time there is a lack of micro-level data about these firms, their characteristics, innovation activity, relationships with external sources of knowledge, links with universities, and the role of the entrepreneur in these, which renders public policy analysis difficult. Entrepreneurial firms, following the definition applied in this thesis, have as business foundation purpose the implementation of a radical innovation, and are characterised by an initial lack of existing repository of knowledge and capabilities, and a continuity of their innovation activity. From an exploratory study of 86 entrepreneurial firms, located in the metropolitan areas of Munich and Berlin, and elsewhere in Germany, we found evidence of the dominant presence of the entrepreneur in organising the firm’s innovation activity and in setting the search scope and the repertoire of external knowledge sources. Firms were undertaking multiple innovation projects in parallel, and firm characteristics, such as organisation in subunits, and multiple teams R&D teams spread across the firm, were found to positively influence the combination of new and incremental innovation projects. Firms selectively involved external sources of knowledge in their innovation activity, with involvement in new innovation projects being more frequent than in incremental projects. We found evidence that relationships between firms and universities and other public research organisations differ from inter-firm and market relationships in that the former exhibit a much higher degree of creativity, novelty and reconfiguration. Young firms, in overcoming the double-constraint of organisational and environmental factors were active networkers and likely to revert to the entrepreneur’s own networks to circumvent entry and establishment barriers in existing networks. For this, contacts maintained with the entrepreneur’s alma mater were found to be of salient relevance. We argued that science is organised in epistemic communities, which are built upon shared identities, and in which members share the same tacit and experiential knowledge, which is passed on through personal contacts, eliminating and punishing opportunistic behaviour. We found evidence that membership in these epistemic communities has lasting effects in that members will turn to other members as part of their search for related or new knowledge.

Over the last century, customers have become increasingly uncertain about how to be satisfied because of the growing complexity of their own needs. On the one hand, most standardized needs have been satisfied, whereas on the other hand, worldwide demand for intrinsically complex needs (such as health care and long-term care) has increased, especially because of population ageing. On the supply side, producing on the basis of an estimated foreseen demand has become increasingly difficult and customer uncertainty has become a cause of organizational inefficiency. Nevertheless, in the theories of the firm so far developed, the customer is still a missing player, confined to the position of 'rational agent'. This research discusses how organizational efficiency is impacted by customer uncertainty in taking consumption decisions when the needs are complex. The central issue is to understand when it is efficient for the organization to involve the uncertain customer in the production process and, accordingly, which organizational form is the most effective in managing such involvement. Today the lack of clarity regarding this theoretical issue has permitted, or even supported, an imprudent adoption of mass-customization in important sectors which gives customers the option of choosing exclusively from among standardized options, without suitable consideration for both the complexity of their needs and the organization required. My dissertation is organized into three chapters. The first chapter proposes a theoretical framework on the basis of the Modularity Theory of the Firm (Langlois and Robertson 1995; Langlois 2002, 2006; Baldwin and Clark, 2003; 2006), which allows for the identification of the most effective organizational types to face customer uncertainty. The second chapter studies the most efficient way to design and manage production processes in the presence of uncertain customer needs, implying the necessity to involve the customers themselves in the production process. The focus here is also on the design and management of long term care (LTC) services. And the third chapter, by adopting case study research methods for theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989, Yin 2003), in order to investigate the relationship between organizational and production efficiency, analyses five LTC organizations that belong to different categories of modularity and are characterized by different governance forms. Summarizing the results, the thesis firstly theorizes that cooperative governance (the internal organization of labour based on inclusion, participation, and horizontal relations) is the most effective to minimize dynamic transaction costs and the related unexpected production costs (damages, errors, waste of time, legal actions) thanks to developing capabilities related to how to satisfy customers' complex needs. Particularly, the accountability of workers supports a learning-by-doing process that allows for life-long learning and the necessary flexibility to adequately meet customers' needs. Secondly, the study proposes a blueprinting approach to service design and management, which allows for the separation of front/back office in order to improve management efficiency. This structure is particularly suited for supporting decision-making processes in a flat organizational structure (such as the cooperative one), as it clarifies the workflow processes and responsibilities. Thirdly, it empirically applies the theoretical results to situations of long-term care with customer uncertainty and shows how services should be designed in order to maintain a low level of unexpected production costs.

This thesis examines the relationship between environmental regulation, innovation, and competitiveness. Specifically, it investigates the impact of regulatory stringency on innovation in the chemical industry by analyzing the evolution of innovative activity in highly regulated technological areas in the European Union from 1976 to 2003. A direct quantitative measure of regulatory impact on innovation was constructed by transforming the economic measurement problem into a technological classification issue. The specific regulation investigated was the EU Council Directive 76/769/EEC, which contains 986 restrictions imposed on the marketing and use of 939 chemical substances. These restrictions were linked to 17 technological fields in the International Patent Classification. The data on patent applications was extracted from the ESPACE Bulletin database maintained by the European Patent Office. Given the increasing regulatory stringency, four questions were investigated: Did regulation spur patenting activity? Has there been a change in the geographical origin of patents? Has there been an increase in patenting concentration? Has there been a change in the direction of the patenting trend? These issues were examined at the aggregated level using descriptive statistics, panel data regressions, and the study of technological trend. Four case studies were conducted to illustrate strategies utilized by European and non-European firms. I found that most restrictions were imposed during the years of 1997 and 2003 and affected mainly technological areas associated with agrochemicals, polymers, and paints and dyes. In overall regulatory stringency impacted positively patenting activity. However, top players were impacted negatively. Consequently, there was a reduction in the concentration of innovative activity in highly regulated technological areas. Ma jor changes occurred in areas in which the largest number of restrictions were imposed. There was an overall increase in innovations associated with new processes and formulations, indicating increased incremental innovation and a shift from patenting in regulated to non-regulated applications. Hence, there was increasing patenting activity in areas that did not depend on novel substances or did not have an opportunity to innovate in non-regulated uses. By contrast, there was a sharp fall in the number of applications in areas in which these conditions did not exist. Two explanations for these results are proposed: “new” technologies benefit from regulatory stringency while “old” technologies are discouraged; regulation spurs the development of substitutes better adapted to the actual regulatory framework. Moreover, this thesis shows that the Porter hypothesis is supported for the chemical industry. Yet, this occurs not because firms innovate under more stringent regulation, but because it stimulates new entrants in the market of innovation.