2026
Principal Investigator: Fabrizio Dallari
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Composite indicators, logistics performance, regional economics, benchmarking
This project aims to develop a composite indicator to assess the logistics attractiveness of a territory, enabling comparisons across European logistics clusters based on official data sources that can be replicated over time. The indicator will be developed through an international expert panel and applied by comparing Lombardy’s performance with that of the leading European logistics hubs. Attractiveness will be measured across five key dimensions: efficiency, competitiveness, accessibility, innovation, and sustainability.
Principal Investigator: Alessandro Creazza
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Sustainability, logistics, e-commerce, packaging, decarbonization
Overpackaging refers to the unnecessary use of packaging materials beyond what is needed to protect and transport a product. Every year, millions of e-commerce parcels are shipped in Italy, resulting in millions of cubic metres of empty space being transported unnecessarily, with significant environmental and economic consequences. This study aims to identify solutions to reduce overpackaging in e-commerce by examining how the phenomenon occurs, investigating its causes, and mapping the supply chain in terms of the actors involved and their roles.
Principal Investigator: Fernanda Strozzi
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Textile recycling, industrial symbiosis, circular economy, Material Flow Analysis, Social Network Analysis, digital platforms
This project analyzes textile recycling technologies in the province of Varese, integrating data from the M3P platform. By mapping material flows, assessing process efficiency, and identifying opportunities for industrial symbiosis, it supports the circular transition of the local textile sector. The results will provide operational recommendations for companies and policymakers, enhancing sustainability, innovation, and territorial competitiveness.
Principal Investigator: Raffaella Manzini
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Innovation, sustainability, circular economy, private equity, venture capital, patents
Innovation has long been a key driver of competitiveness and economic growth, but sustainable innovation—aimed at creating economic value while reducing environmental and social impacts—has distinctive features that set it apart from traditional innovation. Because sustainable innovation often involves greater technological uncertainty, longer development cycles, and higher capital intensity, it requires financial instruments suited to its specific risk-return profile. This project aims to systematically map the relationship between innovation, sustainable innovation, and alternative financing instruments. It will develop a theoretical framework linking different forms of innovation to appropriate financial tools such as venture capital, private equity, green bonds, ESG loans, and sustainable crowdfunding, while also identifying the barriers that limit access to sustainable finance for startups and SMEs. Using a multi-method approach, the project combines bibliometric analysis, empirical research based on proprietary LIUC datasets, econometric modelling, and semi-structured interviews with investors and policymakers. The goal is to generate operational guidelines and policy recommendations that support a broader and more effective use of sustainable finance instruments.
Principal Investigator: Violetta Giada Cannas
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Industry 5.0, human-centricity, sustainability, resilience, manufacturing, artificial intelligence
Industry 5.0 is a value-oriented industrial paradigm that complements the technology-driven model of Industry 4.0 by using digital technologies to achieve human-centric, sustainable, and resilient goals. Many manufacturing companies still struggle to move toward Industry 5.0, and the literature offers limited practical guidance. This study investigates how cutting-edge technologies can improve worker well-being, enhance resource efficiency, and anticipate disruptions, with the aim of providing evidence-based guidelines for a successful transition to Industry 5.0.
Principal Investigator: Martina Baglio
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Warehouse automation, energy efficiency, cost savings, economic benchmarking, technology trade-offs, operational performance
This project examines how different warehouse automation technologies affect energy consumption and operating costs at comparable performance levels. Through a comparative analysis of automated systems and their life-cycle costs, the study aims to identify design and management strategies that optimize energy use and improve profitability in automated warehousing operations.
Principal Investigator: Giacomo Buonanno
Duration: 2026
Keywords: Large language models, GenAI, metrics, dynamical systems, intelligence
This project critically analyzes the metrics used to evaluate the intelligence of large language models, with the aim of understanding the dynamics behind their adoption and possible replacement over time. It will examine the relationship between existing metrics, computational power, adoption timing, and reported results. The project also includes experimental validation of declared scores and the development of a new scalable metric.
Principal Investigator: Elena Falletti
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: GenAI, robotics, comparative law, privacy protection, product liability, human-machine interaction
This project examines the interaction between human users and LLM-based systems that provide emotionally supportive responses, acting as personal advisors capable of addressing not only practical matters but also emotional issues, and thereby gaining users’ trust. The increasing reliance on such software risks blurring the boundary between thought and emotion, delegating intimate aspects of personal life to statistical models not designed to provide adequate support. These developments raise new legal concerns regarding the relationship between human users and automated systems, whose apparent empathy may create legally relevant reliance. The project focuses on comparative legal and multidisciplinary frameworks relating to privacy protection, product liability, and the safeguarding of vulnerable individuals.
Principal Investigator: Alberto Malatesta
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: AI Act, Digital Services Act, EU law, digital platforms, private enforcement, digital transformation
This project examines the broad body of European regulation governing the digital environment, which is also intended to preserve the values and fundamental rights on which the European Union is founded. In light of the defining features of this regulatory framework, the research aims to assess whether and how private enforcement—through private law remedies protecting the rights and interests involved—can contribute to its effective implementation, thereby giving private stakeholders a leading role.
Principal Investigator: Alessandra Cillo
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Robust optimization, private digital currencies, public digital currencies, central banks
This project consists of two connected research strands. The first examines the literature on robust optimization in order to identify the main theoretical measures used to quantify the conservatism of robust solutions and to explore the mathematical relationships between them. The second, in view of the introduction of the digital euro, investigates whether citizens understand the risks associated with digital currencies, particularly issuer default risk in non-public systems. Through an experiment involving an information treatment, the project analyzes how exposure to these risks affects perceptions, trust, and willingness to use digital tools, contributing to the European debate on user protection and institutional communication.
Principal Investigator: Niccolò Comerio
Duration: 2026
Keywords: Tourism, sustainable tourism, rural tourism, artificial intelligence
In recent years, rural areas and rural ways of life have experienced a significant decline as traditional farming practices and local cultures have been eroded by urbanization and modernization. In response, rural tourism has emerged as a potential path for economic growth, job creation, and improved quality of life in these areas. At the same time, it may also generate ecological damage, pressure on local resources, and infrastructure overload. In this context, artificial intelligence offers tools that can help rural tourism become more attractive, efficient, and sustainable—for example by analyzing visitor flows, reducing overcrowding, and enabling more personalized travel experiences. Despite this potential, the topic remains underexplored. This project therefore investigates how AI can support sustainable rural tourism, focusing on Italy and Japan as case studies.
Principal Investigator: Alessandro Bitetto
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Composite indicators, territorial fragility, small area estimation, environmental performance, robustness assessment
This project develops a two-stage framework that: (i) applies small area estimation techniques to improve the precision of environmental and fragility indicators at fine territorial levels; and (ii) constructs composite indicators to measure environmental or sustainability performance. Using Eurostat Environmental Accounts, the Italian Municipal Fragility Index, and OECD regional data, the project compares different indicator aggregation schemes, assesses their robustness, and provides reliable tools for performance benchmarking and operational decision-making.
Principal Investigator: Filippo Pavesi
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, competition, gender bias, creativity, labor markets, experimental economics
This project investigates how artificial intelligence affects the willingness to compete in job markets involving creative tasks and whether it amplifies or reduces gender gaps in competitive behavior. Building on the literature on competitive incentives and creativity, it develops an original experimental design in which participants perform creative tasks evaluated by independent assessors and choose between tournament-based compensation and individual pay. Because creative tasks are less likely to be automated, they offer an important setting in which to explore whether AI acts primarily as a complement to or a substitute for human capital. By comparing participants working without technological support with those allowed to use ChatGPT, the project examines whether AI changes overall incentives to compete, affects gender differences in competition, alters performance levels and output heterogeneity, and is used more as a complement to or a substitute for human effort.
Principal Investigator: Aurelio Ravarini
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Decision-making, sensemaking, job crafting, Generative AI, knowledge work, organizational transformation
This project investigates the effects of integrating Generative AI into knowledge work, with particular attention to how it reshapes decision-making and sensemaking processes through job crafting practices. Generative AI is expected to transform the work of professionals, team leaders, and managers by affecting cognition, role expectations, and collaboration. Through a multi-level qualitative study, the project aims to examine this transformation and develop new theory on the reconfiguration of knowledge work in AI-augmented organizations.
Principal Investigator: Aulona Ulqinaku
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Consumer well-being, consumer vulnerability, psychological threats, restrictions and scarcity
This project examines how psychological threats, restrictions, and scarcity affect consumer vulnerability and well-being. Through experimental approaches using primary data and longitudinal analyses based on secondary data, it investigates how consumers respond to economic and social constraints, developing coping strategies and levels of trust toward brands and institutions. The aim is to understand the mechanisms that foster resilience and support consumer choices oriented toward well-being in contexts marked by uncertainty and turbulence.
Principal Investigator: Eliana Alessandra Minelli
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, decision-making, epistemic domaining, legitimacy, knowledge evaluation
Artificial intelligence is transforming how knowledge-intensive organizations produce, evaluate, and legitimize strategic knowledge. By combining algorithmic rationality with human intuition, AI gives rise to hybrid decision-making processes that challenge traditional notions of expertise, authority, and accountability. This project explores how epistemic legitimacy emerges when decisions are co-produced by humans and AI, examining perceptions of fairness, trust, and responsibility across sectors. Its goal is to develop an integrative framework for responsible, human-centered AI adoption in knowledge-intensive organizations.
Principal Investigator: Andrea Martone
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Heritage, organizational change, digital transformation, dynamic capabilities, strategic agility
This research interprets brand heritage as an extension of organizational heritage, viewing it as a dynamic capability that supports digital transformation. It analyzes how a company’s historical values, practices, and culture are mobilized through internal processes, structures, and roles to drive innovation, adaptation, and digital engagement. The aim is to show how the strategic management of organizational heritage can foster agility, identity coherence, and competitive advantage in the digital context.
Principal Investigator: Valentina Lazzarotti
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: ESG, dynamic capabilities, performance measurement systems, circular business models, sustainable entrepreneurial ecosystems, sustainable innovation
This project aims to analyze the dynamic capabilities that companies develop and reconfigure in order to adopt ESG practices and integrate them into performance measurement systems, while also verifying whether these practices in turn stimulate the generation of new dynamic capabilities. Adopting a holistic approach, the research explores these interrelationships through qualitative and quantitative methods at the level of entrepreneurial ecosystems, corporate strategies, and organizational functions, highlighting their interdependencies and potential impacts.
Principal Investigator: Anna Gervasoni
Duration: 2026
Keywords: Private debt, direct lending, non-bank finance, firm characteristics, target firm profiling, financing impact
This project investigates the role of private debt in Italy through two complementary objectives: identifying the firm-level characteristics that make companies more likely to access private debt financing, and assessing how this financing is used and what economic and strategic effects it produces. The study is based on a large proprietary dataset that integrates private debt transactions with detailed firm-level information on the Italian market.
Principal Investigator: Valentina Minutiello
Duration: 2026–2027
Keywords: Sustainability competencies, professional evolution, interdisciplinary approach, sectoral analysis, emerging professions, ESG skills development
This project explores how sustainability is reshaping professional roles, competencies, and practices across different sectors through an interdisciplinary approach that integrates perspectives from management, social sciences, and applied disciplines. It will examine the evolution of professional profiles, the emergence of new roles, and the implications for education, businesses, and institutions. The results will provide both theoretical contributions and practical tools to support the development of competencies suited to the sustainable transition.
2025
Principal Investigator: Tommaso Rossi
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Artificial intelligence, machine learning, Industry 4.0, Industry 5.0, smart factories, process optimization
Set within the framework of Industry 4.0 and Industry 5.0, this project examines how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can optimize industrial processes. By increasing productivity, supporting real-time decision-making, and streamlining operations, AI technologies are transforming smart factories by reducing waste, minimizing downtime, and enabling predictive maintenance. The study also explores AI’s role in the transition toward Industry 5.0. By addressing integration challenges and workforce adaptation, the project offers insights into the future of intelligent manufacturing.
Principal Investigator: Andrea Urbinati
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Circular economy, paradoxes, circular economy rebound, circular business models, Paradox Theory, environmental sustainability
The design of circular business models (CBMs) may generate unintended effects or paradoxes, such as the Circular Economy Rebound (CER), whereby managerial practices that reduce per-unit production impacts can encourage overproduction and overconsumption, partially or fully offsetting the environmental benefits achieved. Designing CBMs that prevent these paradoxes or mitigate their effects remains largely unexplored. This project addresses that gap by arguing that scholars and practitioners should consider paradoxes as an integral part of CBM design, rather than focusing only on which managerial practices to implement. Through a literature review on paradoxes and CBMs, combined with case study research and the theoretical lens of Paradox Theory, the project aims to identify strategies capable of preventing these paradoxes or reducing their impact. The findings will inform a framework that may serve as a reference for designing CBMs that are both environmentally and economically sustainable.
Principal Investigator: Alessandro Creazza
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Reverse logistics, e-commerce, sustainability, eco-efficiency, resilience
This project focuses on reverse logistics in the e-commerce sector. The research aims to map the logistics network of reverse flows in order to assess their drivers and their environmental, economic, and operational impacts. Identifying the challenges, benefits, and weaknesses of each reverse logistics configuration will make it possible to explore new solutions capable of turning current challenges into sources of competitiveness for companies, with a view to greater sustainability and resilience.
Principal Investigator: Emanuela Foglia
Duration: 18 months
Keywords: Theory building, theory testing, Health Technology Assessment (HTA), artificial intelligence, healthcare settings
The introduction of artificial intelligence into healthcare—with the aim of improving clinical efficiency, diagnostic accuracy, and treatment personalization—represents a major turning point. However, ensuring its safe and effective use requires rigorous assessment that takes clinical, ethical, economic, and organizational aspects into account. This project proposes the development of a multidimensional framework for evaluating the introduction of AI tools into clinical practice. Specifically, through the establishment of an international advisory board and from a theory-building perspective, the project will validate the clinical and non-clinical domains to be included in a multidimensional assessment, such as technical performance, economic sustainability, organizational integration, and the perceptions of patients and healthcare professionals. In doing so, it aims to contribute to the international debate on this topic.
Principal Investigator: Luca Mari
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Simulation, trade networks, complexity, agent-based modeling, complex networks, resources
This project aims to use dynamic network simulations to explore how nodes in trade networks evolve over time based on their location and resource levels. By modeling interactions and dependencies, it assesses their impact on overall network structure and performance. More specifically, the project seeks to develop a meta-model capable of simulating different trade networks, thereby offering a deeper understanding of the generative processes that lead to specific end configurations.
Principal Investigator: Martina Baglio
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Warehouse, sustainability, impact, automation, human factors, Warehousing 5.0
Warehouse 5.0 represents a new model in logistics, combining automation and human factors to improve efficiency, sustainability, and resilience. Although its implementation can generate benefits such as job creation and economic stimulus, it can also pose challenges, including traffic congestion and environmental pressure. Moreover, it must support its core pillars through innovative design and construction features. This research aims to understand how Warehouse 5.0 can create value both within and beyond the organization, helping bridge gaps in the existing literature.
Principal Investigator: Elena Falletti
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Generative AI, AI detection, intellectual property, ethics, information literacy, comparative law
The growing use of generative AI writing tools raises important concerns in academia. While these systems can produce coherent and relevant text, they can also generate errors that users may mistakenly accept as factual. Tools such as watermarking and AI detection software have been developed to address this ambiguity, but they also have significant limitations. They may produce false positives and unfairly attribute AI-generated content to authors. These dynamics can lead to a loss of creativity, cultural bias, reduced attention to critical writing skills, and an erosion of trust between students and educators. At the same time, AI tools may offer important benefits for people with cognitive or linguistic challenges. This project aims to investigate experiences with AI detection systems through an international network of transdisciplinary experts, with the goal of establishing an ethical framework—including an appeals committee—to ensure fair treatment and uphold academic integrity.
Principal Investigator: Gaetano Vitellino
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Competition law, implementation of EU law, civil liability, collective redress, private international law
Ten years after the adoption of Directive 2014/104/EU of 26 November 2014 on actions for damages for infringements of national and EU competition law, this research project aims to assess its implementation in Italy in comparison with other EU Member States, thereby evaluating the overall state of health of private antitrust enforcement.
Principal Investigator: Giovanni Paolo Crespi
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Risk, ambiguity, financial literacy, insurance, behavioral economics and finance
The LIUC Business Analytics Hub research group intends to continue investigating how financial literacy can positively influence individuals’ ability to reason and make decisions in ambiguous situations. In particular, the project will examine the motivations that lead individuals to purchase—or not purchase—insurance products. It will also study the causal impact of the information provided to individuals and how this information can help them make better decisions.
Principal Investigator: Fausto Pacicco
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Marginal propensity to consume, business cycle, elasticity, consumption cycle, economic uncertainty, credit cycle
IMPACT aims to examine how European countries respond, in terms of marginal propensity to consume (MPC), to fluctuations in the business cycle, investigating how this elasticity has changed over time. The project seeks to fill gaps in the literature by providing a deeper understanding of cross-country differences and of the historical evolution of consumption. Its findings may support the design of effective economic policies capable of stabilizing the economy and promoting sustainable growth.
Principal Investigator: Chiara Gigliarano
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Composite indicators, well-being dimensions, spatial analysis, territories, small area estimation
This project focuses on estimating multidimensional poverty and inequality across Italian territories and among different population subgroups.
The main research questions are:
- Which groups are most disadvantaged in terms of multidimensional poverty?
- What degree of heterogeneity in multidimensional poverty exists within the population as a whole? What is the level of inequality between different groups?
- Which monetary and non-monetary dimensions most significantly affect the well-being of Italian households?
Principal Investigator: Carolina Guerini
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Secondary meaning, astroturfing, ambush marketing, greenwashing, influencer marketing, product placement, non-conventional trademarks
From a professional marketing perspective, knowledge of the legal and regulatory context is essential in order to avoid the risks associated with breaching the rules, competitive reactions, and the failure to exploit available opportunities. At the same time, legal practice requires a different analytical perspective and a different approach to knowledge development—one that allows for an integrated understanding, since it is often detached from advanced specialist knowledge and from an awareness of the dynamics at work in fields such as marketing. Adopting a multidisciplinary perspective, this research will explore a number of specific topics—listed in the keywords—that have become increasingly relevant in marketing and, in some cases, in the legal field. The aim is to examine the legal implications of strategic and operational choices made by companies. This process will make it possible to formulate new recommendations for marketing theory and to develop new guidance for professional practice. The topics selected for in-depth analysis were identified on the basis of previous studies and the personal experience of the faculty involved, with particular attention to the most topical issues relating to branding and marketing communication.
Principal Investigator: Patrizia Tettamanzi
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Digitalization, social media, innovation, artificial intelligence, sustainability accounting, ESG
This project examines companies’ use of digital solutions with the aim of understanding their potential impact on sustainability. It will also explore the implications of these developments for Accounting Education. In academia, there is ongoing discussion about the potential use of technological innovations to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. To date, however, the debate remains open, and the role of digitalization in promoting Sustainability Accounting practices has not yet been fully understood.
Principal Investigator: Raffaele Secchi
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Production location decisions, manufacturing footprint, strategic sourcing in Africa, internationalization of Italian SMEs, emerging African markets
This research project aims to explore the dynamics and motivations that lead Italian companies to locate their operations or supply chains in African countries. Through the analysis of specific cases, the study seeks to understand the challenges and opportunities associated with these strategic choices, as well as their implications for the competitiveness and sustainability of the companies involved.
Principal Investigator: Federica Belfanti
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Related specialization, competitiveness, economic complexity, cluster mapping, innovation, entrepreneurial ecosystems
This project contributes to the academic debate on economic specialization and diversification by proposing related specialization as an innovative and strategic methodological approach for strengthening territorial competitiveness. Through an analysis of productive complementarities between sectors, with particular attention to the Italian context, the project aims to identify emerging trajectories of economic development capable of fostering innovation, social progress, and dynamism within entrepreneurial ecosystems.
Principal Investigator: Aurelio Ravarini
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Generative AI, ecosystems, job redesign, organizational impact, leadership, technology integration
This project explores the impact of Generative AI (GenAI) at both the individual and organizational levels, using the concept of the ecosystem to examine the complex set of interactions between people and digital systems. Initially a relatively silent phenomenon, Generative AI chatbots are now being increasingly integrated into corporate strategies, with effects on learning and decision-making processes. The research investigates the dynamics of adoption and integration of GenAI-based systems and their cascading effects on teams, organizational units, and organizations as a whole.
Principal Investigator: Eliana Alessandra Minelli
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Aging workforce, performance management, digitalization, work ability, job design, older workers
As the world undergoes a profound demographic transformation, the growing share of older employees presents both significant challenges and important opportunities for organizations. This research aims to study the implications of an aging workforce from organizational, technological, and economic perspectives. Existing literature highlights the importance of practices such as flexible work arrangements, lifelong learning, and intergenerational support in improving the performance and retention of older workers. However, these approaches often remain fragmented and difficult to implement. The project therefore seeks to investigate the role of new technologies, such as large language models (LLMs) and Generative AI, in addressing the demographic challenge.
2024
Project leader: Manzini Raffaella
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: research evaluation, research assessment, AI – Artificial intelligence, LLM – Large Language Model, peer-review, generative/assisted AI
In a fast-paced evolving context driven by the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), in particular of Large Language Models such as ChatGPT, the scientific and academic world is undergoing a paradigm shift. This shift concerns not only knowledge production, but also knowledge evaluation, and the effects of adopting these technologies, including ethical and organisational implications in producing innovation for the benefit of society. The role of the researcher (including reviewers and editors) is revisited through the lenses of the critical realism in unpacking the black-box of peer-review through the support of AI. Finally, considerations on required skills for the profession of researchers will be developed and the repercussion on education programs offered by universities will be explored.
Project leader: Cillo Alessandra
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Memories, Ambiguity, Risk, Investments, Stereotypes, Financial literacy.
This research aims to study specific cognitive errors (related to memory or ambiguity) in investment choices and their impact on gender stereotypes. Similarly, the study seeks to propose specific financial literacy tools to reduce the negative impact of these cognitive errors and gender stereotypes to improve people’s investment decisions. The study will feature a methodological/theoretical component, a series of experiments, data analysis, and a discussion of the results and implications.
Project leader: Mauri Chiara
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: marketing critics, retailing 5.0, ESG sustainability, grand challenges, topic modelling
In the 2022-23 project, of which this is an extension, we identified three dominant marketing stereotypes – Back to the Future, Future Perfect, and Blended – which will be systematised in a dictionary using topic modelling techniques.
Regarding retailing, we study how the retail sector is revising location models to adapt to smaller household sizes and new consumption patterns. Using loyalty card data from a store in Cagliari, we investigate how the retailer has adjusted its product range to fit the context and how customers have responded.
Project leader: Pavesi Filippo
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Experts, Information, Cheap Talk, Biased information,Behavioral Economics, Reputation
We consider how different features that typically characterize markets for experts may affect the quality of decisions. The first feature is the asymmetry in the observability of the consequences, meaning that only some decisions can produce outcomes that can be compared to the recommendation provided by experts.
We analyze how this asymmetry can affect information revelation when experts are concerned about reputation for both ability and integrity. The second feature is the asymmetry in the definitivity of decisions, meaning that some choices involve a more definitive judgement than others. In this second scenario, we aim to investigate whether experts may be biased against more definitive decisions.
Project leader: Venegoni Andrea
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Business Cycle, Credit Markets, Income Inequality, Macroeconomic Shocks, Mixed Frequency Models, Bayesian-FAVAR
The 2008 Financial Crisis reignited macroeconomists’ interest in the role that credit plays in generating, propagating, and amplifying shocks. Credit accumulation during expansion phases of the cycle has been identified as a potential predictor of financial crises, with the severity of crises increasingly linked to high levels of credit in the economy. This research investigates whether a country’s credit market structure influences key statistical moments of the business cycle and how income inequality may lead to credit bubbles.
Project leader: Urbinati Andrea
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: circular economy; ecosystem; circular economy ecosystem; stakeholders; customers
Circular economy ecosystems have absolutely huge potential to contribute to the transition of businesses to circular economy. As a result of the expanding literature on circular economy ecosystems, there has been a significant imbalance between supply and demand orientations regarding the engagement of stakeholders and customers and their respective roles. The project delves into this research gap to deepen our understanding of the role of stakeholders and customers in circular economy ecosystems. By doing so, the project aims to provide an integrated framework for stakeholders’ and customers’ roles in circular economy ecosystems.
Project leader: Belfanti Federica
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Entrepreneurial ecosystems, Competitiveness, Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Regional development
In recent years, the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) has gained prominence in both academic literature on entrepreneurship and among policymakers as a strategic driver for competitiveness development. The research project aims to explore effective governance mechanisms among EE actors to stimulate innovation and dynamism. The analysis is based on empirical data and global success stories, with a particular focus on the province of Varese.
Project leader: Puliga Gloria
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Failure, Patents, Innovation, Learning
Studying failures, particularly innovation failure, appears a promising way to improve the management of the innovation process. In addition, studying how to learn and react to failure would increase the awareness of companies on how being able to take advantage also from “bad” results. Focusing on breakthrough innovation, the project aims to deepen the knowledge about learning from failure, analyse the impact of this process on the innovation process and derive main managerial practices.
Project leader: Falletti Elena
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Fairness; AI; Dataset; Health data; health records; AI auditing; Biased decision making; Discrimination
FAIR-ME-DATA builds a new ethical and legal framework for the assessment of medical datasets through a mixed method and interdisciplinary approach, building bridges between data science, law, and ethics. The project will rely on interviews, desk reserch, and a retrospective analisis to build a new asessment tool for dataset auditing in the context of helathcare. The FAIR-ME-DATA project is set to foster significant changes in AI-driven healthcare within the EU: it aims to ensure fairness, equity, and trust in the use of medical data, with a central focus on promoting patient well-being and inclusivity in the healthcare system. The project’s impacts are far-reaching. It promises to drive scientific advancements by shedding light on the sources of bias in healthcare data. This research aims to contribute to the development of more accurate and reliable AI systems, improving the quality of healthcare.
Project leader: Gervasoni Anna
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Private Equity, Patents, Innovation, Sustainability-oriented innovation, Smart cities
The relationship between private equity activity and the level of innovation in invested companies is of great interest to both academia and professionals. This is even more relevant when considering sustainable development goals and the associated ecological and technological revolution. This project uses mixed statistical methods to investigate whether there is a link between the regional presence of PE funds and the degree of innovation in the geographic areas concerned.
Project leader: Ravarini Aurelio
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Generative AI, sociomateriality, socio-technical system, emancipation, job design, organisational design
The aim of this project is to study and potentially model the impact of Generative AI on workers and organisations. The focus is on the human component of digital transformation and its interaction with this rapidly evolving technology, which seems not only to enable but also to force organisational redesigning. The theory of sociomateriality will be used to explain worker interaction with Generative AI applications in various contexts. Given the exploratory nature of the study, empirical investigation will be conducted through a series of case studies.
Project leader: Cortesi Alessandro
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Sustainability Report, SME, Performance, EFRAG, ESRS, Cross-country
The project aims to study sustainability reporting in European SMEs under the new ESRS standards. The study seeks to: i) Measure the prevalence of sustainability reports among SMEs listed on regulated EU markets subject to the Directive;
ii) Develop a bespoke indicator to measure the alignment and quality of the reports according to the new standards; iii) Identify macro and micro factors that encourage or hinder non-financial reporting; iv) Analyse the effects of such reporting on business outcomes; v) Explore the interaction with SMEs’ distinctive characteristics, highlighting potential impacts on business and/or market performance.
Project leader: Foglia Emanuela
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Agent-based modelling, Overcrowding, Emergency Department, NEDOCS (National Emergency Department Overcrowding Score), EDWIN (Emergency Department Work Index), Measurement of social quantities
The project, supported by a national observatory on Emergency Department performance, aims to develop and validate hospital overcrowding measures. Data from 18 hospitals collected in 2020, 2021, 2022, and early 2023 will be analysed. The project has three main objectives: evaluating the reliability and accuracy of existing metrics, identifying new higher-quality metrics, and developing a new validation methodology for these metrics based on simulation.
Project leader: Malatesta Alberto
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Digital single market, Private international law, Access to justice, Protection of European companies in the global marketplace
This research examines the regulations, including private international law, that the EU has adopted or is developing to govern the European digital market. It investigates whether these regulations apply to relations with non-EU companies and thus whether the high standards the EU is adopting can be enforced against the predominantly non-European players that currently dominate global digital markets, thereby ensuring the protection of European businesses and citizens and achieving European digital sovereignty.
Project leader: Tettamanzi Patrizia
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Sport Management, Corporate Governance, Food & Health, ESG Reporting, Corporate Social Responsibility, Intellectual Capital
The research lays the groundwork for a comprehensive study of sustainability impacts on the sport and food industries, focusing on the causal link between sport, health, and the economy. More broadly, the plan aims to revitalise the country by driving ecological and digital transitions, promoting structural economic change, and addressing gender, regional, and generational inequalities. Furthermore, nutrition and sport are among the key themes of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). The plan also aims to pave the way for a resilient and sustainable future for Italy’s food industry, connected to nutritional education and sports practice, and fostering internal corporate initiatives. However, current attention to these themes and ESG best practices remains insufficient and requires increased awareness within businesses, supported by new tools and educational models.
Project leader: Dallari Fabrizio
Duration: 2024 – 2025
Keywords: Production and Logistics System, Materials Handling, Automation, Industry 4.0, Human Factor
The research WHALE (WareHousing Automation for Logistic Excellence) aims to identify optimal adoption areas for automated technologies in different industries, address key factors in technology selection, and create a conceptual map for decision-makers. Through the development of a new classification model and the study of the best available automation technologies for picking processes, this research offers the dual benefit of enhancing the operational efficiency of warehouse processes for logistics managers and granting automation solution providers insights into evolving customer demands.
2023
Project leader: Cillo Alessandra
Duration: 2023 – 2024
This research aims to study the positive effect of financial literacy on individuals’ ability to reason in situations of ambiguity (where the probabilities of potential outcomes are unknown) and how this impacts investment decisions.
To achieve this goal, a series of laboratory and/or online experiments will be conducted.
Project leader: Comerio Niccolò
Duration: 2023 – 2024
While scientific literature has widely confirmed the positive relationship between tourism and economic growth, there is limited analysis on the potential for using the sector to promote economic convergence between regions. Moreover, the few existing studies often reach conflicting conclusions. Hence, this research project explores the relationship between tourism and regional economic inequalities, focusing on countries with a strong tourism orientation, notably Italy.
Project leader: Falletti Elena
Duration: 2023 – 2024
Therapeutic continuity is a critical issue for patients on legal, technical, and managerial levels.
Pharmaceutical needs must always match service demand, but no predictive tools currently provide support for public decision-making processes.
The SPIDER project aims to define a predictive model, analyse the legal and juridical implications of therapeutic continuity, and apply bias correction and auditing systems to enhance predictive accuracy.
Project leader: Gervasoni Anna
Duration: 2023 – 2024
The aim of this research project is twofold:
Firstly, over the last years Private Equity (PE) secondary market has emerged, as a result of a spectacular growth of PE fundraising and investments worldwide and due to high illiquidity and uncertainty regarding the timing of capital flows suffered by investors (Limited Partners, LPs) in this asset class, and should be more extensively studied.
Secondly, Private Debt (PD) is a growing field in the alternative asset industry, which should be deeply explored in terms of its secondary market transactions (private debt secondaries), its role in financing Leveraged Buyouts or its drivers at a loan (firm-specific) level.
Project leader: Gigliarano Chiara
Duration: 2023 – 2024
The project aims to propose new composite indicators of multidimensional poverty and inequality, based on an optimal weighting system for elementary indicators, enabling estimation of these phenomena even in small areas.
The main methodologies to be developed are:
- Constructing composite indicators that consider the association between the dimensions and the diverse nature of variables
- Estimating the risk of poverty at a local level using statistical techniques for small-area estimation
Project leader: Malatesta Alberto
Duration: 2023 – 2024
This research analyses recent legislative developments in precautionary protection for resolving transnational commercial disputes, using a comparative approach. It aims to determine whether the tools currently available in judicial and international arbitration settings can effectively protect the credits and assets of businesses operating in foreign markets.
Project leader: Mari Luca
Duration: 2023 – 2024
For the first time in history, non-human entities capable of communicating in natural languages, such as Italian, with linguistic accuracy, argumentative skills, and access to vast amounts of textual information are widespread in society. This presents both opportunities and risks regarding information and business management models, the awareness and understanding of which are crucial.
Project leader: Mauri Chiara
Duration: 2023
Marketing has significantly broadened its domain and has embraced the challenges that the world is facing.
Applying stewardship theory, the research investigates what think about marketing. 6 CEO’s participated in a semi-structured interview, and their discourse has been analyzed with topic modeling to identify the key issues they are facing. A survey has been administrated to a sample of Italian top managers and of US managers, who were invited to answer a questionnaire. Keywords emerging from open-end questions have been identified and used to fix 3 stereotypes of marketing, named Back to the Future, Future Perfect and Blended.
Project leader: Minelli Eliana Alessandra
Duration: 2023 – 2024
The management and evaluation of knowledge is a challenging current affair. Healthcare is a knowledge driven process, in particular, Italian Institutes for Care and Scientific Research (IRCCS) present a vast diversity of health professionals, and a complex network, and decision-making processes.
In contributing to the discourses on knowledge management and evaluation, the coordination of resources allocated to research could increase in efficiency, hence achieving a higher societal impact through a better ‘translation’ of research into practical clinical routines aimed to improve patient care.
The project investigates and reconceptualizes the relationship between research (i.e., knowledge) production, performance-based systems of evaluation and funding, and the impact research should have on society. Its final scope is to propose an integrative framework of the effects of evaluation on knowledge production, that incorporates the system rigid metric-measurements of activity and practice with the nuanced goals of excellence of medicine and improved patient care.
Project leader: Pavesi Filippo
Duration: 2023 – 2024
Policymakers consider cultural life and social norms as key determinants of environmental awareness, as demonstrated in the 2005 Faro Convention and the European Green Deal. However, there is still a lot that needs to be explored about how cultural activities can impact pro-social awareness such as that involved in environmental concerns.
In this project we aim to explore the channel through which participation in cultural activities may affect pro-social behavior with the scope of developing a more accurate framework for guiding cultural policies that can positively effect socio-economic variables.
Our working hypothesis is that participation in cultural activities that have a collective nature should affect pro-social behavior principally through social capital, and more specifically generalized trust.
If this is the case, governments can for example, increase their citizens’ environmental awareness, a prerequisite for pro-environmental behaviors, by encouraging participation in cultural activities.
Moreover, policies that induce this effect on social capital, may also have a positive spill over on other socio-economic variables that are known to be influenced by social capital, such as the willingness to engage in entrepreneurial ventures. To better address this issue, we plan to use a dataset combining two large cross-national socioeconomic surveys and an instrumental variable mediation approach.
Project leader: Pozzi Rossella
Duration: 2023 – 2024
Lean Production, Industry 4.0, and Circular Economy are among the most debated industrial approaches of the last years. Even if they have been described as three independent fields, there are examples of overlaps between them.
Through this project, we will operationalise these relationships and highlight the research gaps and questions at the intersections between them. The final objective is to provide a model for the evolution of manufacturing companies in the transition towards Circular Economy, exploiting Lean Production and Industry 4.0.
Project Leader: Aurelio Ravarini
Duration: 2023–2024
The project will build on the job crafting research stream, in which—so far—studies have only marginally considered the effect of digital technologies.
To address this research gap, a socio-technical approach will be adopted with the aim of reformulating the concept of job crafting into a new integrated model.
Given the exploratory nature of the study, the empirical investigation will be conducted through a series of case studies.
Project Leader: Fernanda Strozzi
Duration: 2023–2024
Sourcing processes can expose supply chains to risk. Covid-19 and the Ukrainian crisis have shown what can happen to supply chains when some echelons fail.
The aim of this project is to help organizations build resilience by managing sourcing risks—through the analysis of scientific and grey literature.
Systematic Literature Network Analysis and Sentiment Analysis will be used. The study of scientific literature will make it possible to identify potential scenarios, while grey literature will help understand which scenario is actually unfolding.
The results will be discussed with focus groups composed of experts in supply chain risk management and text analysis.
Project Leader: Patrizia Tettamanzi
Duration: 2023–2024
Integrating performance measurement systems with non-financial disclosure activities enables companies to communicate more effectively and concretely their goals and results related to sustainability practices, thus obtaining greater benefits from their relationship with stakeholders.
This research project aims to analyse the potential factors that facilitate or hinder this process at the governance level, as well as the effects of digitalization on performance measurement practices in this area.
Project Leader: Andrea Urbinati
Duration: 2023
The effective dimensional integration of the “triple bottom line” has received increasing attention over the last decade. How theory-based guidance is reflected in the implementation and operationalization of Sustainable Business Models (SBMs) in a successful way is an emerging research trend that requires deeper investigation. While SBMs are often compared with sustainability-driven hybrid business models or B-Corp models, few studies have specifically examined the successful implementation of SBMs through a qualitative approach.
Therefore, this research project aims to shed light on the critical success factors in implementing this type of business model by conducting an exploratory case study analysis.
To gain richer insights into the practices of firms adopting sustainable business models, the research is designed to include semi‑structured interviews with executives of an Italian firm that has successfully implemented a sustainable business model.
The final intention of this study is not to generalize the results to a broader population, but rather to generate a framework regarding the successful implementation of SBMs through the lens of innovation‑based practices.
Principal Investigator: Fernanda Strozzi
Duration: 2025–2026
Keywords: Blockchain, circular economy, Social Network Analysis, complex networks
This project applies Social Network Analysis (SNA) to examine interactions within blockchain networks in circular economy ecosystems. It analyzes the structure and dynamics of resource flows among actors—producers, consumers, and recyclers—to identify central nodes and key communities that facilitate reuse and sustainability. By using dynamic transaction graphs, the study explores the evolution of cooperation, conflict, and influence. The goal is to develop predictive models that enhance the resilience of circular networks, promote sustainable practices, and support decentralized governance.