Michele Grimaldi | University of Cassino and Southern Latium (original) (raw)
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Papers by Michele Grimaldi
The analysis of intellectual property value plays an important role in managerial economic and bu... more The analysis of intellectual property value plays an important role in managerial economic and business strategy, in that it helps estimate the value of the innovative and productive capacity of R&D. The issue of valuing intellectual property has often received considerable critical attention. Studies on the contribution of intellectual assets to the competitive advantage of firms have encouraged researchers to reflect on the effectual value of intellectual property and, consequently, their measurement. Most of the contributions on intellectual property value assessment can be allocated to four different categories: a) those that use the measure of intellectual property value as a dependent variable; b) those that adopt particular sampling strategies; c) those that consider the number and type of explanatory variables, i.e. the potential value determinants d) those that suggest subjective evaluations of intellectual property value through interviews, and measurements from perceptive observations. The aim of this special issue is to collect innovative, original and explorative contributions from different disciplines on intellectual property value encompassing varied viewpoints and considering different scales. Relevant research areas include those concerning science, technology, innovation, scientometrics, R&D, etc.; investigations on patent life-cycle phases, from invention to commercialisation; and works at country, regional or firm-specific levels. In the theme of patent value, there are some areas that have been insufficently explored and that could be furtherly investigated. Future research should concentrate on the following: • Advancing qualitative measurements to be easily applicable by firms that cannot access patent information databases • Concentrating on the definition of further indicators that refer to patent intelligence and quantify the strategic-technologic positioning of patents • Measuring the business opportunities of the technology or, more generally, the potential value of the patented technology • Determining assessment approaches able to account for the commercial value of intellectual property and the commercial performance of products and technologies • Proposing measurement tools based on intellectual property financial quantities through intangible valuations or firm analyses, based on managers' perceptions • Assessing the strategic positioning of intellectual property by means of intelligence instruments or analysis of the competitive landscape
A vast amount of studies have shown how firms embracing the open innovation paradigm tend to impr... more A vast amount of studies have shown how firms embracing the open innovation paradigm tend to improve their industrial and economic performance. Somewhat surprisingly, in such established background, few studies attempted to understand whether the open innovation benefits compensate its costs. To fill this gap, this article presents a novel theoretical framework composed of twelve propositions describing the main benefits and costs of inbound and outbound open innovation modes. Such theoretical framework was tested on a sample of 96 small and medium manufacturing enterprises. While most of the identified cost and benefit classes are acknowledged by the majority of the interviewed firms, most interviewees affirmed that their firms did not suffer from costs associated with the not-invented-here syndrome and with the potential loss of competitive advantage. The results of the study have implications for both firms and scholars, which are expected to lead to future researches.
Purpose-Several causes may induce firm managers to analyze the actual technology condition of pat... more Purpose-Several causes may induce firm managers to analyze the actual technology condition of patent portfolios, among which is the need of exploiting patents strategically. In this paper, the question of how to support Intellectual Property managers of large high technology companies in their strategic decision-making process of evaluating patents is examined. The purpose of this paper is to provide a decision support framework that suggests the suitable exploitation strategy for patents. Design/methodology/approach-The paper proposes an audit framework able to point out whether patents are aligned to the overall business strategy, to select those that are not aligned, and to identify the most appropriate exploitation strategy for each patent of the portfolio. The framework is structured into two phases: in the first one, patents are selected through the analysis of four dimensions that characterize the value of patents effectively; in the second one, a questionnaire is distributed to IP managers in order to support their decision on patents. The paper illustrates case-based applications of the framework. Findings-Results of applications show that the framework is able to suggest Intellectual Property managers the suitable exploitation strategy on four possible alternatives (maintaining, licensing, selling, abandoning) for each patent of their portfolios. Originality/value-The framework is an innovative and valuable tool to Intellectual Property managers, and besides its structural formulation, it is appreciable in terms of application expedition and efficiency of performance.
The rapid expansion of Big Data Analytics is forcing companies to rethink their Human Resource (H... more The rapid expansion of Big Data Analytics is forcing companies to rethink their Human Resource (HR) needs. However, at the same time, it is unclear which types of job roles and skills constitute this area. To this end, this study pursues to drive clarity across the heterogeneous nature of skills required in Big Data professions, by analyzing a large amount of real-world job posts published online. More precisely we: 1) identify four Big Data 'job families'; 2) recognize nine homogeneous groups of Big Data skills (skill sets) that are being demanded by companies; 3) characterize each job family with the appropriate level of competence required within each Big Data skill set. We propose a novel, semi-automated, fully replicable, analytical methodology based on a combination of machine learning algorithms and expert judgement. Our analysis leverages a significant amount of online job posts, obtained through web scraping, to generate an intelligible classification of job roles and skill sets. The results can support business leaders and HR managers in establishing clear strategies for the acquisition and the development of the right skills needed to leverage Big Data at best. Moreover, the structured classification of job families and skill sets will help establish a common dictionary to be used by HR recruiters and education providers, so that supply and demand can more effectively meet in the job marketplace.
The energy efficiency directive 2012/27/EU (EED) requires that final users in multi-apartment bui... more The energy efficiency directive 2012/27/EU (EED) requires that final users in multi-apartment buildings supplied by common central heating source should be provided by 31 December 2016 with accounting systems, as long as technical feasibility and reasonable costs in relation to the potential energy savings can be demonstrated. Such systems would reflect users actual thermal energy consumption. The typical configuration of Italian multiapartment buildings implies quite expensive installation costs and sometimes even prevents the installation for technical reasons. Coherently with EED, in such cases alternative cost-efficient methods for heat accounting should be adopted, such as indirect methods. This study assesses the economic and technical feasibility of the most common heat accounting systems. In this paper, after a brief analysis of the different approaches adopted in EU member states, the authors present a cost/benefit analysis that considers the main capital and running costs of individual heat accounting systems with respect to the potential energy savings achievable.
Structured Abstract Purpose – This paper promises to shed light on the heterogeneous nature of th... more Structured Abstract Purpose – This paper promises to shed light on the heterogeneous nature of the skills required to 'win' with Big Data by analysing a large amount of job posts published online. More specifically we: 1) identify the most important 'job families' related to Big Data; 2) recognize homogeneous groups of skills (skillsets) that are most sought after by companies; 3) characterize each job family with the appropriate level of competence required within each Big Data skillset. Design/methodology/approach – We implement a semi-automated, fully reproducible, analytical methodology that is able to cope with the significant amount of job posts obtained by scraping some of the most popular job search online portals. Job families are identified through the expert evaluation of the most important keywords appearing in job posts' titles. Skillsets are instead obtained by using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an 2 Presented at International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics 11 th , IFKAD 2016, Towards a New Architecture of Knowledge: Big Data Culture and Creativity, June 15 th-17 th 2016, Dresden (Germany). unsupervised machine learning algorithm used for text classification. Finally, we characterize the job families through a measure of the relative importance of each skillset. Originality/value – This study represents one of the first attempts to classify jobs in families and describe them in terms of skill requirements by means of a large-scale, semi-automated job post analysis, based on machine learning algorithms. To do so, we propose an original combination of various analytical techniques, which are widely established in previous scientific works. The characterization of job families through text mining and topic modelling techniques is innovative and can be reapplied to similar future studies focusing on any other professional field. Practical implications – This paper brings clarity to the multifaceted nature of Big Data competency requirements and job role types. Our results can concretely help business leaders and HR managers create clearer strategies for the procurement of the right skills needed to leverage Big Data at best. In addition, the structured classification of job families and skillsets will help establish a common language to be used within the job market, through which supply and demand can more effectively meet.
This article describes a framework for the strategic management of intellectual capital assets (I... more This article describes a framework for the strategic management of intellectual capital assets (ICAs). The framework allows synthesizing the opinions of a firm's human resources on which ICAs are comparatively more likely to have a positive effect on value creation for customers, employees, and shareholders. The framework assesses managers' opinions about the amount of investments that each ICA would require, with respect to the others, to have a positive effect on value creation. By means of a benefit/cost analysis, the researchers recommend ICAs eligible for investments. Then, managers and senior human resources validate the recommendations and identify suitable practical actions for their implementation. The article shows how the implementation of the framework within an Italian firm allows identifying several critical ICAs. Furthermore, the article describes how the validation of the recommendations encourages the implementation of actions that aim to create value for the firm.
Purpose This study is intended to work out a bottleneck in the comprehension of the relational ne... more Purpose
This study is intended to work out a bottleneck in the comprehension of the relational nexus which links the set of key strategic resources of a company, represented by the uncertain recognition and the ambiguous clustering of their intangible components. The objective is to provide a candidate solution for a rational appraisal of the inventory of the knowledge based resources held by a company, which synergically form its Intellectual Capital.
Design/methodology/approach
This goal is achieved by the means of a qualitative/quantitative approach composed of sequential phases, intended to: atomize the value domain of the firm into its basic building blocks; gauge their mutual interactions and impacts; reaggregate those involved entities accordingly; cluster them into a collection of identified and validated Intangible Assets. Never giving any direct judgment on the Intangible Assets themselves (whose extension can be fuzzy or unknown). But on the impacts between the value drivers they are built on.
Findings
The proposed procedure, step-by-step illustrated by means of a numerical simulation, out of the amorphous mass of the strategic resources, returns an analytic picture of its composing elements keeping track of their intertwined connections and mutual influence. Consequently, allowing the comprehension of the actual framing and of the relational positioning and magnitude of such entities.
Practical implications
This risk-mitigated rational identification of Intangible Assets allows the analyst to target a proper evaluation technique on
them. And the management of the company to mindfully allocate/leverage on them to improve business performance and strategy alignment. The implementation returns some analytic tools which render a diagnostic snapshot of the composing elements of the Intellectual Capital, increasing the awareness of such entities and allowing internal/external benchmarking.
Originality/value
The suggested methodology mitigates the risk of discretionality in the definition of the perimeter of each target-entity, by avoiding any direct biased judgment on them. So that each asset gets unambiguously identified within a network-logic and
the interlinked portfolio of knowledge-based resources can be assessed and managed in an rational and traceable way.
Knowledge and Process Management
The purpose of this paper is to present an index that assesses the contribution of the intellectu... more The purpose of this paper is to present an index that assesses the contribution of the intellectual capital (IC) to the value creation process of an organization. The index combines into a single measure the contributions of the individual IC elements on the basis of their strategic importance, their performance, and their reciprocal influence.Five steps, based on the Assessment and Management of Intellectual Capital (AMIC), are considered as essential to build up the index. First, a theoretical framework is developed to underpin the process of selection of the different IC categories. Then, further steps suggest how to aggregate, weigh, and normalize the value of the IC categories in order to build the AMIC index. The index has been implemented into the ‘Software’ community of innovation of Finmeccanica, which is the leading Italian group in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. We argue that the AMIC index can be successfully used to assess and verify the performance of the value crea...
Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, 2008
International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 2013
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2010
International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 2013
The analysis of intellectual property value plays an important role in managerial economic and bu... more The analysis of intellectual property value plays an important role in managerial economic and business strategy, in that it helps estimate the value of the innovative and productive capacity of R&D. The issue of valuing intellectual property has often received considerable critical attention. Studies on the contribution of intellectual assets to the competitive advantage of firms have encouraged researchers to reflect on the effectual value of intellectual property and, consequently, their measurement. Most of the contributions on intellectual property value assessment can be allocated to four different categories: a) those that use the measure of intellectual property value as a dependent variable; b) those that adopt particular sampling strategies; c) those that consider the number and type of explanatory variables, i.e. the potential value determinants d) those that suggest subjective evaluations of intellectual property value through interviews, and measurements from perceptive observations. The aim of this special issue is to collect innovative, original and explorative contributions from different disciplines on intellectual property value encompassing varied viewpoints and considering different scales. Relevant research areas include those concerning science, technology, innovation, scientometrics, R&D, etc.; investigations on patent life-cycle phases, from invention to commercialisation; and works at country, regional or firm-specific levels. In the theme of patent value, there are some areas that have been insufficently explored and that could be furtherly investigated. Future research should concentrate on the following: • Advancing qualitative measurements to be easily applicable by firms that cannot access patent information databases • Concentrating on the definition of further indicators that refer to patent intelligence and quantify the strategic-technologic positioning of patents • Measuring the business opportunities of the technology or, more generally, the potential value of the patented technology • Determining assessment approaches able to account for the commercial value of intellectual property and the commercial performance of products and technologies • Proposing measurement tools based on intellectual property financial quantities through intangible valuations or firm analyses, based on managers' perceptions • Assessing the strategic positioning of intellectual property by means of intelligence instruments or analysis of the competitive landscape
A vast amount of studies have shown how firms embracing the open innovation paradigm tend to impr... more A vast amount of studies have shown how firms embracing the open innovation paradigm tend to improve their industrial and economic performance. Somewhat surprisingly, in such established background, few studies attempted to understand whether the open innovation benefits compensate its costs. To fill this gap, this article presents a novel theoretical framework composed of twelve propositions describing the main benefits and costs of inbound and outbound open innovation modes. Such theoretical framework was tested on a sample of 96 small and medium manufacturing enterprises. While most of the identified cost and benefit classes are acknowledged by the majority of the interviewed firms, most interviewees affirmed that their firms did not suffer from costs associated with the not-invented-here syndrome and with the potential loss of competitive advantage. The results of the study have implications for both firms and scholars, which are expected to lead to future researches.
Purpose-Several causes may induce firm managers to analyze the actual technology condition of pat... more Purpose-Several causes may induce firm managers to analyze the actual technology condition of patent portfolios, among which is the need of exploiting patents strategically. In this paper, the question of how to support Intellectual Property managers of large high technology companies in their strategic decision-making process of evaluating patents is examined. The purpose of this paper is to provide a decision support framework that suggests the suitable exploitation strategy for patents. Design/methodology/approach-The paper proposes an audit framework able to point out whether patents are aligned to the overall business strategy, to select those that are not aligned, and to identify the most appropriate exploitation strategy for each patent of the portfolio. The framework is structured into two phases: in the first one, patents are selected through the analysis of four dimensions that characterize the value of patents effectively; in the second one, a questionnaire is distributed to IP managers in order to support their decision on patents. The paper illustrates case-based applications of the framework. Findings-Results of applications show that the framework is able to suggest Intellectual Property managers the suitable exploitation strategy on four possible alternatives (maintaining, licensing, selling, abandoning) for each patent of their portfolios. Originality/value-The framework is an innovative and valuable tool to Intellectual Property managers, and besides its structural formulation, it is appreciable in terms of application expedition and efficiency of performance.
The rapid expansion of Big Data Analytics is forcing companies to rethink their Human Resource (H... more The rapid expansion of Big Data Analytics is forcing companies to rethink their Human Resource (HR) needs. However, at the same time, it is unclear which types of job roles and skills constitute this area. To this end, this study pursues to drive clarity across the heterogeneous nature of skills required in Big Data professions, by analyzing a large amount of real-world job posts published online. More precisely we: 1) identify four Big Data 'job families'; 2) recognize nine homogeneous groups of Big Data skills (skill sets) that are being demanded by companies; 3) characterize each job family with the appropriate level of competence required within each Big Data skill set. We propose a novel, semi-automated, fully replicable, analytical methodology based on a combination of machine learning algorithms and expert judgement. Our analysis leverages a significant amount of online job posts, obtained through web scraping, to generate an intelligible classification of job roles and skill sets. The results can support business leaders and HR managers in establishing clear strategies for the acquisition and the development of the right skills needed to leverage Big Data at best. Moreover, the structured classification of job families and skill sets will help establish a common dictionary to be used by HR recruiters and education providers, so that supply and demand can more effectively meet in the job marketplace.
The energy efficiency directive 2012/27/EU (EED) requires that final users in multi-apartment bui... more The energy efficiency directive 2012/27/EU (EED) requires that final users in multi-apartment buildings supplied by common central heating source should be provided by 31 December 2016 with accounting systems, as long as technical feasibility and reasonable costs in relation to the potential energy savings can be demonstrated. Such systems would reflect users actual thermal energy consumption. The typical configuration of Italian multiapartment buildings implies quite expensive installation costs and sometimes even prevents the installation for technical reasons. Coherently with EED, in such cases alternative cost-efficient methods for heat accounting should be adopted, such as indirect methods. This study assesses the economic and technical feasibility of the most common heat accounting systems. In this paper, after a brief analysis of the different approaches adopted in EU member states, the authors present a cost/benefit analysis that considers the main capital and running costs of individual heat accounting systems with respect to the potential energy savings achievable.
Structured Abstract Purpose – This paper promises to shed light on the heterogeneous nature of th... more Structured Abstract Purpose – This paper promises to shed light on the heterogeneous nature of the skills required to 'win' with Big Data by analysing a large amount of job posts published online. More specifically we: 1) identify the most important 'job families' related to Big Data; 2) recognize homogeneous groups of skills (skillsets) that are most sought after by companies; 3) characterize each job family with the appropriate level of competence required within each Big Data skillset. Design/methodology/approach – We implement a semi-automated, fully reproducible, analytical methodology that is able to cope with the significant amount of job posts obtained by scraping some of the most popular job search online portals. Job families are identified through the expert evaluation of the most important keywords appearing in job posts' titles. Skillsets are instead obtained by using Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), an 2 Presented at International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics 11 th , IFKAD 2016, Towards a New Architecture of Knowledge: Big Data Culture and Creativity, June 15 th-17 th 2016, Dresden (Germany). unsupervised machine learning algorithm used for text classification. Finally, we characterize the job families through a measure of the relative importance of each skillset. Originality/value – This study represents one of the first attempts to classify jobs in families and describe them in terms of skill requirements by means of a large-scale, semi-automated job post analysis, based on machine learning algorithms. To do so, we propose an original combination of various analytical techniques, which are widely established in previous scientific works. The characterization of job families through text mining and topic modelling techniques is innovative and can be reapplied to similar future studies focusing on any other professional field. Practical implications – This paper brings clarity to the multifaceted nature of Big Data competency requirements and job role types. Our results can concretely help business leaders and HR managers create clearer strategies for the procurement of the right skills needed to leverage Big Data at best. In addition, the structured classification of job families and skillsets will help establish a common language to be used within the job market, through which supply and demand can more effectively meet.
This article describes a framework for the strategic management of intellectual capital assets (I... more This article describes a framework for the strategic management of intellectual capital assets (ICAs). The framework allows synthesizing the opinions of a firm's human resources on which ICAs are comparatively more likely to have a positive effect on value creation for customers, employees, and shareholders. The framework assesses managers' opinions about the amount of investments that each ICA would require, with respect to the others, to have a positive effect on value creation. By means of a benefit/cost analysis, the researchers recommend ICAs eligible for investments. Then, managers and senior human resources validate the recommendations and identify suitable practical actions for their implementation. The article shows how the implementation of the framework within an Italian firm allows identifying several critical ICAs. Furthermore, the article describes how the validation of the recommendations encourages the implementation of actions that aim to create value for the firm.
Purpose This study is intended to work out a bottleneck in the comprehension of the relational ne... more Purpose
This study is intended to work out a bottleneck in the comprehension of the relational nexus which links the set of key strategic resources of a company, represented by the uncertain recognition and the ambiguous clustering of their intangible components. The objective is to provide a candidate solution for a rational appraisal of the inventory of the knowledge based resources held by a company, which synergically form its Intellectual Capital.
Design/methodology/approach
This goal is achieved by the means of a qualitative/quantitative approach composed of sequential phases, intended to: atomize the value domain of the firm into its basic building blocks; gauge their mutual interactions and impacts; reaggregate those involved entities accordingly; cluster them into a collection of identified and validated Intangible Assets. Never giving any direct judgment on the Intangible Assets themselves (whose extension can be fuzzy or unknown). But on the impacts between the value drivers they are built on.
Findings
The proposed procedure, step-by-step illustrated by means of a numerical simulation, out of the amorphous mass of the strategic resources, returns an analytic picture of its composing elements keeping track of their intertwined connections and mutual influence. Consequently, allowing the comprehension of the actual framing and of the relational positioning and magnitude of such entities.
Practical implications
This risk-mitigated rational identification of Intangible Assets allows the analyst to target a proper evaluation technique on
them. And the management of the company to mindfully allocate/leverage on them to improve business performance and strategy alignment. The implementation returns some analytic tools which render a diagnostic snapshot of the composing elements of the Intellectual Capital, increasing the awareness of such entities and allowing internal/external benchmarking.
Originality/value
The suggested methodology mitigates the risk of discretionality in the definition of the perimeter of each target-entity, by avoiding any direct biased judgment on them. So that each asset gets unambiguously identified within a network-logic and
the interlinked portfolio of knowledge-based resources can be assessed and managed in an rational and traceable way.
Knowledge and Process Management
The purpose of this paper is to present an index that assesses the contribution of the intellectu... more The purpose of this paper is to present an index that assesses the contribution of the intellectual capital (IC) to the value creation process of an organization. The index combines into a single measure the contributions of the individual IC elements on the basis of their strategic importance, their performance, and their reciprocal influence.Five steps, based on the Assessment and Management of Intellectual Capital (AMIC), are considered as essential to build up the index. First, a theoretical framework is developed to underpin the process of selection of the different IC categories. Then, further steps suggest how to aggregate, weigh, and normalize the value of the IC categories in order to build the AMIC index. The index has been implemented into the ‘Software’ community of innovation of Finmeccanica, which is the leading Italian group in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. We argue that the AMIC index can be successfully used to assess and verify the performance of the value crea...
Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, 2008
International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 2013
International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 2010
International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 2013