Purpose\ud This paper aims to investigate the impact of higher education on the emergence of entrepreneurial intention and human capital as a component of intellectual capital that strongly influences the entrepreneurial process. \ud \ud Design/methodology/approach\ud On the basis of a literature review, a theoretical model that is focused on the theory of planned behaviour was defined to verify the impact of higher education on the development of entrepreneurial intention and human capital. To this end, the structural equation modelling methodology was applied to two samples of students and academics, which differ each other in terms of both education level and specific characteristics of entrepreneurship education activities. \ud \ud Findings\ud The main results show that there are significant differences between the two considered samples. In particular, the level and specific characteristics of entrepreneurial education are the key factors for the development of entrepreneurial intention and human capital.\ud \ud Practical implications\ud The research may be of relevance for universities and policy makers. Universities must devote more attention to training and practice-oriented entrepreneurial courses and collateral activities (projects, initiatives, actions), both for students (first mission) and academic aspiring entrepreneurs (third mission) to encourage the emergence of entrepreneurial intention and human capital formation. For policy makers, this study suggests the need to define policy guidelines and frameworks to support universities’ educational programmes and activities to strengthen the entrepreneurial process, so that they can be consistent with the EU and national entrepreneurship policies.\ud \ud Originality/value\ud This explorative research intends to contribute to the scientific debate by filling the knowledge gap that is due to the very limited number of studies that analyse whether and how entrepreneurial intention can mediate the relationship between higher education and human capital as an intellectual capital component

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This paper provided a novel definition of customer knowledge management (CKM) as the logical intersection of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM). The main aim was to investigate the digital technologies supporting small and medium enterprises (SMEs) operating in creative industries in their customer knowledge management strategies. To achieve this aim, a survey involving 73 handicraft and/or retail SMEs operating in luxury jewelry industry was conducted. The survey results pointed out that in a few years the scenario has changed and that surveyed SMEs make more intensive use of traditional technologies supporting customer knowledge management processes rather than more innovative digital technologies, which are also cheap and easy to use. This finding showed the difficulties of SMEs operating in creative industries to be responsive to the rapid technological changes that are affecting CKM, as well as the lack of support from information technology vendors in the decision-making process for choosing adequate digital systems.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is threefold: first, to shed light on the increasing start-up competitions\ud (SUCs) phenomenon; second, to provide an interpretive framework to understand whether the SUCs have the\ud potential to be effective entrepreneurial learning environment; third, to analyse the different roles of public\ud and private actors in organizing SUCs.\ud Design/methodology/approach – The paper presents a cross-section analysis of the Italian SUCs\ud population. In total, 77 competitions are analysed on the basis of different criteria which should properly mirror\ud their distinguishing structural features, helping understand the potential of SUCs as learning environments.\ud Findings – The recent increase in the number of SUCs has been mainly fuelled by private actors. Moreover,\ud Italian SUCs show some features that make them rich learning environments. Private and public actors play\ud different roles, as confirmed by statistical tests performed. Privately organized SUCs follow mainly a\ud market-oriented approach, while publicly organized ones are more education oriented.\ud Research limitations/implications – The findings cannot be easily generalized mainly due to the\ud peculiarities of the Italian context.\ud Practical implications – Soft forms of regulation should be defined to strengthen those features which could\ud potentially support the entrepreneurial learning processes. In this view, SUCs should be part of a start-up friendly\ud ecosystem where actors (startuppers, incubators, venture capitalists) are effectively coordinated with each other.\ud Originality/value – Despite the remarkable diffusion of SUCs, there are significant gaps in literature about\ud this phenomenon. Given the lack of a systematic and comprehensive analysis of SUCs as effective\ud entrepreneurial learning environments, the paper represents an important starting point

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In the last several decades, Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) reverse supply chain management has increasingly gained more attention due to the development of an environmental awareness, the rapid raise of e-wasted products and the EU regulations. In particular, although the new EU WEEE collection target has not been reached by many EU countries, several studies show that an optimized WEEE wastes management processes could represent a relevant way to achieve economic, environmental and social benefits expected by the adoption of circular economy approaches. According to this, the paper aims to evaluate the extent to which the current Italian organization of the WEEE management system and the related legislation are able to support the achievement of the targets defined by EU with a specific focus on the collection centers (CCs) which play a key role being the initial point of the WEEE reverse logistic cycle. An illustrative analysis based on the transition probability matrix regarding both the e-waste collecting performance and the distribution of collecting centers in the Italian provinces is illustrated. Furthermore, we have analyzed the presence of a correlation between the WEEE collection rate and the presence of the CCs in different provinces in order to better comprehend the role that can play both the investments in CC system and other soft measures in achieving the WEEE collection targets. Results show that the current Italian organization of the WEEE management system and the related legislations are not so effective in supporting the achievement of EU WEEE collection targets at the national level, although some geographical areas and provinces outperform the EU targets.

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