According to W. Edwards Deming, American companies require nothing less than a transformation of management style and of governmental relations with industry. In Out of the Crisis, originally published in 1982, Deming offers a theory of management based on his famous 14 Points for Management. Management's failure to plan for the future, he claims, brings about loss of market, which brings about loss of jobs. Management must be judged not only by the quarterly dividend, but by innovative plans to stay in business, protect investment, ensure future dividends, and provide more jobs through improved product and service. In simple, direct language, he explains the principles of management transformation and how to apply them.

Out of the Crisis

Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge. Edited by I. Lakatos and A. Musgrave. Pp. viii, 282. £3·50, paperback £1. 1970. (Cambridge University Press.)

Recent developments in production processes and their automation have led to the definition of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, commonly known as “Industry 4.0”. Industry 4.0 is a very broad domain that includes: production processes, efficiency, data management, relationship with consumers, competitiveness, and much more. At the same time, obviously, Industry 4.0 has become a new theme for management scholars and business economics disciplines and a number of contributions covering various issues and aspects have been published. However, a systematic formulation of all these contributions is still lacking in management literature. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to analyze and classify the main contributions published on the topic of Industry 4.0 in management literature, seeking to give it a unique definition, discover the gaps still remaining in literature and outline future avenues of research in this domain. A systematic review of the literature of the major academic and research databases has been used as methodology to achieve the aim of the paper. This work contributes theoretically to the development of literature on Industry 4.0 and from a managerial perspective it could support entrepreneurs in better understanding the implications and fields of application of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as well as the interplay among them.

Industry 4.0 in Management Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

Behind the definition of Industry 4.0: Analysis and open questions

El artículo tiene como objetivo evaluar el nivel de desarrollo de la capacidad de absorción realizada (RACAP) en las Pyme colombianas. Se parte de una muestra de 363 Pyme colombianas (Dane,2012), se usa una revisión de literatura con apoyo del análisis de contenido y un modelo de regresión lineal, que permiten mostrar la existencia de una correlación lineal positiva entre la adquisición y asimilación del conocimiento externo en las organizaciones objeto de estudio,. Palabras clave: Capacidades de absorción, capacidades de absorción potencial, medición de las capacidades de absorción ABSTRACT:

Measurement of potential absorption capacity in Colombia's innovative companies [Medición de la capacidad de absorción potencial en las empresas innovadoras de Colombia]

The purpose of this paper is to present a systematic literature review to identify new avenues of research in line with the ongoing changes in quality and management required to firms, especially regarding customers.,This study uses a systematic review of the literature contained in the three databases Ebsco, JSTOR, and Springerlink and on the search engine Google Scholar.,An analysis of the literature identifies three different clusters of papers: “identification” papers, which show that customer focus has gained importance in recent times; “implementation” papers, which highlight that a general or shared model or scale to successfully implement total quality management (TQM) does not yet exist; and “impact-on-performance” papers, which show that few studies have considered the relationship between TQM and the issues of both marketing and performance, underlining the most significant gap in the TQM literature.,This study is limited by the small number of databases and search engines used and by the restricted number of keywords used in searching these sources.,This work highlights a gap in the existing research and thus an incomplete consideration of the interplay between management, marketing, and quality issues, all centered on customers and other stakeholders. Researchers and firms are thus advised to adopt a wider view that considers the role of the quality process to support the firm’s engagement of customers in activities that enhance both the customer role and customer satisfaction.,This study uses a systematic literature review to review all critical factors of TQM and identifies new research avenues and different approaches to implementing TQM, focusing on the central role that customers play in achieving firm success.

A systematic literature review on total quality management critical success factors and the identification of new avenues of research

Interdependence among productive activities: Implications for exploration and exploitation

Il dibattito sulla centralita del territorio e sui sistemi locali territoriali sta trovando nuova linfa vitale nella consapevolezza, sempre piu diffusa e messa ancor piu in luce dalla recente crisi, che siano necessari nuovi modelli di governance basati sulla capacita di azione e di valorizzazione di competenze e saperi specifici di ogni territorio. In questo contesto sta emergendo l’importanza di modelli di auto-organizzazione del territorio ed affiorano nuovi processi di intenzionalita collettiva, fondati su forme di reciprocita forte tra gli attori. In questo senso appare opportuno che gli attori del territorio sviluppino una capacita evolutiva di espressione di coerenza collettiva nelle visioni e nelle azioni, il che diventa condizione fondamentale per l’emergere di una concezione imprenditoriale del territorio e per la sua sopravvivenza e il suo sviluppo nel tempo. Parole chiave: governance del territorio, sistemi locali territoriali, intenzionalita collettiva, reciprocita forte The debate on the centrality of the territory and local systems is finding new life in the growing awareness of the need for new models of governance based on the ability of action and enhancement of skills and specific knowledge of each area. In this context the importance emerges of self-organization models of the territory and new processes of collective intentionality based on strong reciprocity among actors. Indeed, it seems appropriate for the actors to develop an evolutionary ability of expression of coherence in the collective vision and action. This becomes the fundamental condition for the emergence of an entrepreneurial territory and for its survival and development over time. Key words: territory governance, local systems, collective intentionality, strong reciprocity

E pluribus unum: intenzionalità collettiva e governo dei sistemi territoriali

Studies on the adoption of innovations in organizations are abundant and have introduced many different factors that are likely to influence adoption decisions yet, somehow, without an integrated view among them and with somehow contradictory empirical results. This study introduces a conceptual framework in which the attributes of innovation–adoption decision linkages in organizations are mediated by both the behavioral preferences of managers and organizations’ resources and moderated by the innovation life cycle. It further meta-analytically tests the framework’s predictions on 185 primary empirical studies. The findings are expected to contribute to the literature on the adoption of innovations by deepening the theoretical conditions and empirical factors that are likely to influence adoption decisions in organizations. The study also has implications for practice, since it sheds light on the factors that practitioners can leverage to manage the diffusion of innovations.

Corrado Gatti

Papers

Industry 4.0 in Management Studies: A Systematic Literature Review

A systematic literature review on total quality management critical success factors and the identification of new avenues of research

Interdependence among productive activities: Implications for exploration and exploitation

E pluribus unum: intenzionalità collettiva e governo dei sistemi territoriali

A conceptual framework of the adoption of innovations in organizations: a meta-analytical review of the literature