The Relationship between Organizational Culture and Energy Performance: A Municipal Energy Manager Level Study

For energy managers, finding personal meaning in the activities they are engaged in and gaining an identity in connection between energy efficiency and organizational goals is a necessary condition to mobilize passion and commitment, which in turn are fundamental to achieve organizational goals under tight budget constraints. Despite this, little is known about how municipalities, which are typical budget‐constrained organizations, can enhance the empowerment of employees with roles as energy managers. This paper draws from the literature on the person–organization fit in order to adapt and test the hypothesis that multiple dimensions of organizational culture are strong predictors of perceived managerial and technical energy performance. Data from 729 questionnaire responses from energy managers of Italian municipalities show that formalization, team orientation, innovation, centralization and reward systems are the key elements that enable energy managers to act as business partners instead of task managers. Causal relations are discussed and presented along with theoretical and policy implications that can provide inspiration also to private organizations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

A routing and location model for food waste recovery in the retail and distribution phase

This paper presents a routing and location (R&L) model able to help design an efficient reverse logistics channel for food waste, with particular attention to the waste generated at the retail stage of a food supply chain (FSC). The model, developed in Microsoft Excel^TM, is detailed along with its application in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy, which is currently the location of a research project aimed at finding alternative ways to recover food waste rather than disposing of it in landfill sites. Several analyses are carried out exploiting the model, to derive some findings about the economic profitability of setting up a reverse logistics channel to recover food waste in the targeted region, and divert it to alternative use. As there are currently no studies that examine the problem of recovering food waste in Italy, this paper is expected to represent an interesting addition to the literature on this issue.     

Social Capital Accumulation and the Exercise of Power: The Case of P2 in Italy

This article addresses the production of legitimate forms of power in our democracies by framing the rise and fall of “Propaganda 2” (P2) — a masonic lodge active in Italy during the 1970s — in the analysis of social capital proposed by Pierre Bourdieu. This lens emphasizes the role played by networks in the accumulation of symbolic capital and their interaction with the historical and institutional context in the exercise of symbolic violence. The experience of P2 is then analyzed to describe, on one hand, the characteristics of the networks that are critical to its success and, on the other, the lodge’s capacity to interfere with the economic and political systems within the context of the Cold War in Italy. The willingness to control and provoke institutional change expressed by P2’s affiliates also shows to what extent the accumulation of social capital, in combination with other forms of capital, may represent a threat to public welfare. By illustrating the interaction between networks and the normative framework underlying our institutions, this case study suggests that the experience of P2 is not an exception in the functioning of our democracies.     

The Determinants of Technology Adoption in Italian Manufacturing Industries

The adoption of new technologies in Italian manufacturing industries is analysed using data for 13,334 firms selected from the 1990–92 Community Innovation Survey. The determinants of technology adoption are analysed in an econometric framework (logit model) which is a general test of different theoretical explanations of technological diffusion. We particularly refer to the rank, epidemic and information effects which significantly affect the use of new technology in Italian manufacturing industries. We use a set of explanatory variables which enables us to set up a well specified empirical model and to use odds ratios to determine the effect of their changes on the adoption probability, thus giving a more precise picture of the determinants of technology adoption.     

Futures studies in Italy and The limits to growth

This article describes the introduction of futures studies to Italy and especially the contribution of Aurelio Peccei, the founder of the Club of Rome and an inspiration behind The limits to growth. To set the scene, the author shows how Italian futures studies absorbed technocratic and visionary ideas from prospective studies in France, particularly those of Bertrand de Jouvenel and Gaston Berger. The author explains Aurelio Peccei's role in promoting Limits and the Club of Rome. She reflects also on her own personal involvement with Peccei, as a friend, as member of the Club of Rome, and as a long-standing participant in the Italian and worldwide futures movement.     

New challenges for futures studies

Challenges coming from futures studies to other disciplines because of the rapidity and inter-relatedness of changes for which no discipline on its own can face the different correlated and global challenges, will be examined mainly in relation to social sciences. social sciences on the other hand reflect the need to overcome fragmentation within each discipline and between the various social sciences, in an effort at least of interdisciplinarity to face the growing uncertainty in decision making at every level: local, national and international. Social sciences are also slowly realising that a future oriented perspective is needed to empower analysis and actually reflect society in its continuous dynamicity. Citizens need the possibility to live within the rapidity of changes in the Information Society through the availability of futures studies in different forms as well as social analysis that is dynamic and interdisciplinary. The special link between society and ecological issues in a future oriented perspective will be the specific area to express the relevancy of the correlation between futures studies and social sciences.