Andrea Caputo’s research while affiliated with University of Trento and other places

This study examines how manufacturing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging economies use exploitative and exploratory search to improve environmental performance via new product development. Analyzing time-lagged data from Ghanaian SMEs, we find that both search strategies enhance environmental outcomes, with new product development as a key mechanism. Environmental dynamism moderates these effects-strengthening exploitative search while weakening exploratory efforts-highlighting the need for strategic alignment in volatile contexts. Our findings extend prior research by linking organizational search to environmental outcomes and by revealing how dynamic conditions shape these relationships. Policy implications point to a dual-track approach: efficiency-focused tax incentives alongside targeted grants for sustainability-driven innovation. We discuss a roadmap for policy makers to build adaptive industrial ecosystems and for SME managers to align innovation with environmental goals.

Entrepreneurial burnout, a psychological syndrome resulting from chronic stressors, is a growing issue with significant implications for individual well-being and economic outcomes. While entrepreneurship is widely celebrated for fostering innovation and personal fulfillment, its psychological costs remain underexplored. This study systematically reviews 47 articles (1992–2023) to examine entrepreneurial burnout across disciplines, frameworks, and methodologies. Key gaps identified include limited conceptual clarity, inconsistent measurement, and insufficient focus on entrepreneurs as a distinct group. Using a narrative synthesis, we propose a comprehensive framework to clarify burnout’s antecedents, consequences, and mitigation strategies, alongside a precise definition of entrepreneurial burnout, distinguishing it from stress and general well-being. Our findings advance entrepreneurship literature by addressing the rising interest in entrepreneurial well-being, providing practical insights for entrepreneurs, organizations, and policymakers to mitigate burnout and enhance sustainability. This work contributes to developing more supportive entrepreneurial ecosystems and a deeper understanding of well-being in entrepreneurship.

This study seeks to systematize and integrate the scientific knowledge about the social and environmental impact of entrepreneurship. It does so by performing a bibliometric analysis and a systematic literature review of 172 journal articles. The study provides an overview of the current knowledge on the topic by identifying four thematic clusters: “social entrepreneurship for societal impact”, “entrepreneurship for sustainable development”, “female entrepreneurship for institutional change”, and “entrepreneurship for inclusive regional development”. It further reveals that entrepreneurship literature predominantly focuses on social impact, with less emphasis on environmental impact, and it stresses the need for future research to avoid working in silos. In particular, it suggests that the boundaries between the different impact domains are elusive and that the interlinkages between social, environmental, and economic impact should be further explored. Finally, it proposes that further studies need to increase clarity in the conceptualization and operationalization of impact in entrepreneurship research, as well as to pay more attention to the negative impact of entrepreneurship.

Purpose This study aims to provide a systematic and comprehensive examination of the underlying factors enabling the emergence of unicorn firms. By addressing this research gap and offering an integrative framework, it seeks to support future research efforts in understanding this phenomenon and contribute to the academic debate around it. Design/methodology/approach This study employs a systematic literature review (SLR) approach and thematic analysis of articles retrieved from Scopus and Web of Science databases. Findings The study sheds light on internal characteristics, ranging from the entrepreneurial (human capital and knowledge) to firm-specific level (business model, corporate governance, resources) and external ones related to the funding factors (financial patterns, venture capitalists, firm evaluation) and the ecosystem (entrepreneurial and technology) around the phenomenon of unicorn firms. Originality/value This is the first systematic literature review on unicorns that offers insights into the internal and external factors driving the emergence of such firms, contributes to shed light on the main criticalities that blur their understanding and presents a research agenda for developing this field of research.

Purpose This study addresses current research gaps by integrating resilience literature with crisis management theories, focussing on SMEs. Specifically, the authors examine how the entrepreneurial decision-making process, via the interplay of causation and effectuation logic, impacts a firm's ability to respond to unpredictable events. This paper aims to present an investigation that seeks to unearth the potentially complex interplay between causation and effectuation logic in fostering organisational resilience, particularly in the face of unprecedented disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach This study includes the responses of 80 Italian entrepreneurs operating in the hospitality sector. The paper deployed a joint analysis through a partial least squares structural equation modelling technique (PLS-SEM) and a necessary condition analysis (NCA) to assess how the decision-making logics impact the entrepreneurs' decision when reacting to the pandemic. Findings The findings show that how entrepreneurs make decisions influence how they react to the crisis. Causation was found as a direct cause of resilience and preparedness, and effectuation was a direct cause of resilience and agility. Moreover, causation indirectly caused resilience through preparedness, and effectuation indirectly caused resilience through agility. Finally, both preparedness and agility are direct causes of resilience. Practical implications This research generated insights into why and how some SMEs respond more effectively to uncertainty than others. It provides actionable strategies that business owners and managers can employ to enhance their ability to withstand and recover from crises. Originality/value This study's originality and novelty lie in its empirical investigation of the roles of causation and effectuation logic in entrepreneurial decision-making and, consequently, their influence on SME resilience. Focused on the Italian hospitality sector, it provides unique insights into resilience strategies under severe, real-world conditions, contributing to theoretical development and practical applications in crisis management.

The adoption of Open Innovation (OI) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often rests on its positive evaluation from top-management teams and/or entrepreneurs. Because of the mixed outcomes attainable through SMEs' openness, managers must weigh the beneficial aspects of boundary-spanning against the complexities coming from inter-organizational arrangements and knowledge transfer. Building upon the tenets of dual-process theory, this study highlights the cognitive configurations leading toward willingness or reluctance of OI adoption in SMEs. This is done by investigating perceptions of barriers, benefits, and organisational resistance to openness, such as the not-invented-here (NIH) and not-shared-here (NSH) syndromes in combination with decision-makers' cognitive styles. To shed further light on observed heterogenous outcomes and the effects of managerial cognitive configurations, this study analyses the willingness and reluctance to adopt OI among 434 managers and entrepreneurs working in SMEs. The results of combined PLS-SEM and fsQCA analyses outline different decisional paths associated with willingness and reluctance to adopt OI. Thus, this research contributes to the 'human side of OI' paradigm by providing fruitful implications about cognitive configurations of decision-makers in SMEs concerning OI adoption.