The smart firm: Opportunities and threats in value creation

Journal title MANAGEMENT CONTROL
Author/s Claudia Presti
Publishing Year 2022 Issue 2022/3
Language Italian Pages 8 P. 5-12 File size 247 KB
DOI 10.3280/MACO2022-003001
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The interest in the study of the different configurations that can be adopted by companies in response to the changes of the business ecosystem grows as the dynamism of the environment increases. In current times, companies are constantly forced to find solutions to be able to survive and properly compete in a continuously changing environment, thus they are forced to assume a resilient configuration. The dynamism of the competitive environment is accompanied also by the opportunities and threats offered by the new information and communication technologies (ICT), which offers a set of "enabling technologies" capable of transforming big data into meaningful knowledge. The ability of properly managing company’s knowledge embodies the primary source of competitive advantage, as knowledge represents the main driver for the creation of value. Consistently, it is possible to provide a new definition of smart firm, which is configured as that company capable of integrating the set of skills and knowledge of the subjects operating within the company - human intelligence - with new ICT - artificial intelligence - in order to improve the rate of innovation, resilience and company performance, contributing to the well-being of the entire ecosystem in which the firm operates. However, maintaining a competitive advantage based on knowledge management cannot be taken for granted when using the new ICT, as it can be both facilitated and hindered by several factors. Specifically, three main categories of threats and opportunities can emerge.

Keywords: Smart firms, Artificial intelligence, Knowledge management, Value creation

  1. Ansoff I.H. (1990), Implanting Strategic Management, Londra, Prentice Hall International Ltd.
  2. Bertini U. (1990), Il sistema d’azienda. Schema di analisi, Torino, Giappichelli.
  3. Bernini F., De Santis F., Presti C. (2022), L’Artificial Intelligence per la creazione, la gestione e lo sviluppo del Capitale Intellettuale, in Castellano N. (a cura di), Big Data e Analytics: profili di controllo manageriale, organizzativi e giuridici, Torino, G. Giappichelli Editore.
  4. Cao M., Chychyla R., Stewart T. (2015), Big data analytics in financial statement audits, Accounting Horizons, 29, pp. 423-429.
  5. Castellano N., Presti C., Del Gobbo R. (2017), Employing Big Data & Analytics in Decision-Making: Factors Affecting Managers’ Trustworthiness, in Dameri R. P., Spinelli R. (a cura di), The European Conference on Information Systems Management, pp. 37-46, Academic Conferences International Limited.
  6. Catturi G., Ricci Paulesu L. (2020), L’azienda “organismo intelligente”: il fenomeno dell’omeostasi ed i sistemi di controllo, Management Control, 2, pp. 11-36, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2020-002002
  7. Fraser J., Simkins B. (2010), Enterprise risk management: Today’s leading research and best practices for tomorrow’s executives, New York, John Wiley & Sons.
  8. Giannessi E. (1960), Le aziende di produzione originaria. Le aziende agricole, Pisa, Cursi.
  9. Giuliani M., Skoog M. (2020), Making sense of the temporal dimension of intellectual capital: A critical case study, Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 70, p. 101993.
  10. Iacono G. (2001), Dal knowledge management alla e-enterprise. Le organizzazioni nell’era di Internet, Milano, FrancoAngeli.
  11. Lombardi R. (2021), Le dimensioni della conoscenza aziendale. Profili di investigazione tra crisi pandemica ed economia digitale, Management Control, 3, pp. 5-14. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2021-003001
  12. Mancini D. (2018), Evoluzione e prospettive dei sistemi di informazione e controllo, Management Control, 2, pp. 5-14. DOI: 10.3280/MACO2018-SU2001
  13. Marchi L. (2019), La creazione e la misurazione del valore. Dalla prospettiva finanziaria alla prospettiva economico-sociale, Lectio Magistralis, 19/10/2019 Dipartimento di Economia e Management, Università di Pisa (ripresa negli Paolini A. e Cavallini I. (a cura di), Scritti in onore di Luciano Marchi. Vol. I. – Creazione di valore nella prospettiva economico-aziendale, Torino, Giappichelli, 2021, pp.1-21).
  14. Matacena A. (1984), Impresa e ambiente. Il bilancio sociale, Bologna, Clueb.
  15. Raisch S., Krakowski S. (2021), Artificial intelligence and management: The automation-augmentation paradox, Academy of Management Review, 46(1), pp. 192-210.
  16. Ricci F., Scafarto V., Ferri S., Tron A. (2020), Value relevance of digitalization: The moderating role of corporate sustainability. An empirical study of Italian listed companies, Journal of Cleaner Production, 276, pp. 1-8.
  17. Uden L., Del Vecchio P. (2018), Transforming the stakeholders’ Big Data for intellectual capital management, Meditari Accountancy Research, 26, pp. 420-442.
  18. Ustundag A., Cevikcan E. (2018), Industry 4.0: Managing The Digital Transformation, Cham, Springer International Publishing.
  19. Zappa G. (1927), Tendenze nuove negli studi di ragioneria: discorso inaugurale dell’anno accademico 1926-27 nel R. Istituto superiore di scienze economiche e commerciali di Venezia, SA Istituto editoriale scientifico.

  • Value co-creation via machine learning from a configuration theory perspective Claudia Presti, Federica De Santis, Francesca Bernini, in European Journal of Innovation Management /2023 pp.449
    DOI: 10.1108/EJIM-01-2023-0104
  • Il contributo di Management Control alla ricerca su tecnologie digitali e sostenibilità Daniela Mancini, Domenica Lavorato, Palmira Piedepalumbo, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 2/2023 pp.5
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2023-002001
  • I Big Data non "parlano da soli". Il ruolo dei modelli nella diffusione degli analytics per il management accounting Roberto Del Gobbo, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 1/2023 pp.5
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2023-001001
  • The impact of digitalisation on professional football clubs Fabio Nappo, Alessandra Lardo, Maria Teresa Bianchi, Federico Schimperna, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 2/2023 pp.117
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2023-002006
  • I "pacchetti" di controllo manageriale nei team virtuali Guido Noto, Carmelo Marisca, Gustavo Barresi, in MANAGEMENT CONTROL 3/2024 pp.43
    DOI: 10.3280/MACO2023-003003

Claudia Presti, L’azienda intelligente: opportunità e minacce per la creazione di valore in "MANAGEMENT CONTROL" 3/2022, pp 5-12, DOI: 10.3280/MACO2022-003001