• Energy Research

In the European Union, the natural gas market is increasingly being liberalized. The liberalization process is aimed at leading to lower prices and higher volumes, and hence higher consumer welfare. This paper focuses on the changes in performance in the natural gas retail market by analyzing the profit and financial position of the companies concerned over the first three years following the market liberalization. The balance sheets of 105 Italian companies in this sector are analyzed, after which a cluster analysis is performed employing the most significant performance indexes. The companies are then analyzed within each cluster with respect to age, size, geographical location and business diversification. The results of our analysis show that the majority of companies attained a high level of performance, although this positive outcome was mitigated by the gradual decrease of the average values of performance indicators during the period concerned. The companies that achieve the best performances belong to longstanding business groups, are medium-large sized and are located in the north of the country. Regarding business diversification, in the first two years, the specialised companies outperformed the diversified companies.

Sustainability and Circular Economy (CE) concepts have acquired a crucial role in the global economy. In addition, climate change has become one of the dominant issues today, and companies are under pressure to comply with national governments regulations. Studies, that examine the role of digital technologies that supports companies in the transition from a linear economy to the CE are therefore, highly needed. However, while contributions in both fields have increased, there is a scarcity of research that systematizes the literature and clarifies the relationship between the Industry 4.0/Industry 5.0 technologies and CE. To achieve this aim, we perform a systematic literature review of a sample of 98 articles and define a categorization of technologies supporting CE and taxonomy of barriers to the adoption of technologies in circular models.

Purpose In recent years, economic, environmental and social sustainability has become one of the fastest-growing research fields. The number of primary and secondary papers addressing the triple bottom line is growing significantly, and the supply chain (SC) management discipline is in the same wave. Therefore, this paper aims to propose a novel tertiary systematic methodology to explore, aggregate, categorise and analyse the findings provided by secondary studies. Design/methodology/approach A novel tertiary systematic literature review approach, including 94 secondary studies, is proposed and used to analyse sustainable SC literature. The papers have been analysed using a research protocol, including descriptive and content analysis criteria. Findings This tertiary study does not only provide an overview of the literature on the topic of sustainability in SCs but also goes further, drawing up a categorisation of main research areas and research perspectives adopted by previous researchers. The paper also presents a rank of research gaps and an updated and a prioritised agenda. Originality/value This paper provides a novel interpretation of the research topics addressed by the secondary studies and presents a new classification of the literature gaps and their evolution. Finally, a dynamic research compass for both academicians and practitioners is presented.

Abstract During the three-year period 2007–2009, the Italian Regulatory Authority for Electricity and Gas has issued numerous measures concerning the retail market of natural gas. The same period was characterized by a deep economic and financial crisis involving the industrial sector and, in particular, the energy companies. This paper aims to analyse the combined effect of the new regulatory measures and of the economic crisis on the business performance of natural gas retail companies. To that aim, the balance sheets were analysed for a sample of 111 companies and the profitability, financial and liquidity indicators were calculated. A cluster analysis was then performed utilising the most important performance indexes. The firms within each cluster were analysed with respect to the main company characteristics.

Due to the growing concern towards natural resource depletion and the increasing levels of waste generation caused by economic growth, sustainable consumption has gained the attention of both governments and society. Despite this, the market share of sustainable products remains low, and studies analysing the factors influencing consumers’ perception of sustainable products provide inconclusive results. This work aims to help bridge this gap by summarising the main literature results and focusing on practical implications. We perform a systematic literature review to identify the factors influencing consumers’ perception of sustainable products. Next, we classify these factors according to the triple bottom line framework, to provide a holistic perspective on the subject and present useful suggestions for companies. The findings suggest that most studies adopt a partial perspective on sustainability, focusing on only one of the sustainability dimensions or considering a single product category. The results also show that there are numerous factors that can influence consumer perception across all three sustainability dimensions. To increase the market share of sustainable products, companies should try and target new customer segments, by adopting a holistic approach to sustainability and analysing how consumers manage the trade-offs between the factors related to different sustainability dimensions. From a practical perspective, this study provides managers with a solid starting point to identify and assess the value of sustainable products in relation to the sustainability dimensions and the characteristics of the target customer segments.

AbstractThis article aims to assess the evolution of the literature on the link between Industry 4.0 and sustainable development. Through a systematic analysis of the literature, a sample of 234 documents was identified, published between 2011 and 2021. Given the large number of papers collected, the text mining approach was performed to analyze the sample of documents. In particular, the latent Dirichlet allocation model was adopted to group articles in different relevant topics starting from two dictionaries belonging to terms both in the domain of Industry 4.0 and in sustainability. As a result, 11 different topics have been identified that link these two domains. The results showed a strong predominance of Industry 4.0 compared to sustainability models that are very focused only on the environmental aspect. In conclusion, this study emphasizes future research potential by highlighting these existing research areas.

The liberalization of the European natural gas sector radically changed the structure of the competitive environment which in turn forced companies to make changes in order to stay in the market. In Italy the liberalization process also had a strong impact on the strategies adopted by the companies involved. This situation instigated various studies of the changing nature of performance through the analysis of company profits and financial positions throughout the first three years following the market liberalization. This paper focuses on the changes in performance in the natural gas retail market by analyzing the profit and financial position of the companies concerned over the first three years following the market liberalization. The balance sheets of 105 Italian companies in this sector are analysed, after which a cluster analysis is performed employing the most significant performance indexes. The companies are then analysed within each cluster with respect to age, size, geographical location. The analysis is further developed by studying the strategies in terms of business diversification adopted by the operators in response to the radically altered competitive environment. The results of our analysis show that the majority of companies attained a high level of performance, although this positive outcome was mitigated by the gradual decrease of the average values of performance indicators during the period concerned. There appear to be several reasons for this decline: the performance observed during the three-year period was strongly influenced by regulatory factors; increased competition resulted in reduced profit margins; and exceptionally mild climatic conditions over this period significantly decreased the volume of gas sales. Finally, it should be noted that the best performance was achieved by companies based in northern Italy which were members of longstanding groups and were single rather than multi-business companies. This result contrasts with the failure of the business diversification strategy, which was widely adopted by enterprises from the utility sectors following the liberalization process.