Is the systemness of social organizations related to their evolution? This research question has not yet received appropriate attention by the literature on management and organization theory. The author believes that addressing it can constitute a substantive opportunity to understand key intertwined associated processes, such as organizational survival, competitive success/advantage, or failure. In this article, the author attempts to contribute to fill the aforesaid gap adopting a critical Darwinist approach.

The author approaches the issue of the evolution of the firm from the side of Darwinism and the biological theory of the firm. He focuses the content of Darwin’s most relevant book, The Origin of Species, and confronts himself with contemporary Social Darwinists’s ideas. He maintains that a number of scholars make Darwin say “what” they want him to say, instead of “what” he has actually said. His contribution also relates the full systemness of social organizations to their successful evolution: the author believes that the way the two processes intertwine one with another explains organizational survival, adaptation to the environment, competitive advantage, or failure.

Real estate has always played a key role in the economy of industrialised countries. To date, fine-tuned studies have started to grow and develop to inform about the evolution of real estate management as a per se discipline for education, research and practice. Increasing reviews have also systematised what is hot and what is not in terms of research trends within this field. However, what seems to remain largely unaddressed is the appropriate conceptual and methodological classification of the boundaries delimiting the field itself. We do believe that this gap is not minor for both the research and practice, in that it negatively affects the possibility of conducting appropriate analyses from both qualitative and quantitative perspectives. We have thus conceived this article as an intended contribution to filling the stated gap.

PurposeThis conceptual paper aims at providing the readers of theJournal of Management Historywith an evaluation of the overall impact of Arthur Stinchcombe's liability of newness construct on the management literature about organizational evolution over time.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts an historical approach for discussing the development of those theoretical and empirical trajectories which, drawing on Stinchcombe's seminal underpinnings, have been developed by scholars over the second half of the twentieth century. The most recent enhancements on this topic are also discussed.FindingsThe analysis demonstrates that the impact of the liability of newness on the related literature is great and twofold. On the one hand, it emerges that this concept has directly inspired a number of subsequently formulated constructs, such as the liabilities of smallness, adolescence and aging. On the other hand, it is evidenced that Stinchcombe's seminal insights still constitute one of the most fascinating bases for directing and positioning scholarly efforts within the organizational evolution research domain to date.Originality/valueThe value of this paper is that it adopts a unique way for examining the development of a number of theoretical frameworks and empirical inquiries variously associated with the liability of newness over time. Three time decades are historically identified and the links among them are deepened.

The theme of evolution is a sensitive and complex theme, even more so if it is discussed in the 200 th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth. In philosophy and theology, the sharp contrast between the two prevailing lines of thought (creationism and evolutionism) is evidence of the sensitivity surrounding this subject. Also in social sciences a large number of scholars of complex organizations follow a theoretical framework based on The Origin of the Species , forgetting, however, that in that important work Charles Darwin studied plants and animals, i.e. creatures which are very different from organizations and enterprises. The theoretical contribution of social Darwinism is anyway important. The theme of evolution is discussed in this paper in an intertwined way with that of the systemic nature of the enterprise. The Author underlines that to become system implies rationally conceived and gradual decisions and processes, which go through the enterprise’s cycle of life in a very different way from the casual and often chaotic ways concerning the natural system and the living organisms.

What was the presence of the State-entrepreneur in the Italian economy in the 20th century? Which forms did it assume? What is the weight of the State-entrepreneur in Italy today? Trying to answer these questions, the author carries out an analysis through the historical method. His final thesis is that, notwithstanding the progressive pressures, which started in the 1990s, towards the privatization of national capitalism, the State-entrepreneur is still firmly present in the Italian economy, as if it had always to play a role in the country’s development. The results of the present investigation can turn out to be of interest both to scholars and to policy makers who are committed in the effective implementation of actions aiming at favouring, for the country’s welfare, a careful and balanced relationship between public and private powers.

In providing a seminal explanation of the 'struggle for survival' between newborn organisations and older ones, Arthur Stinchcombe (1965) introduced the 'liability of newness' hypothesis to account for those relevant problems that firms may face in the first years of their life cycle. Despite lively research commitment, an up-to-date systematisation of the theoretical and empirical findings on this topic is missing. This paper aims at contributing to fill this gap through a systematic literature review based on rigorous criteria. Our main results suggest that, although partially integrated, Stinchcombe's theoretical underpinnings are still widely supported within the scientific community to date. These research findings can also contribute to improve knowledge on what is currently known and what prospectively constitutes a challenge for future research in this area.

The paper explores the relationship between firm’s strategy and its structure through the case study of the Italian public utility ENI. Within the liberalization process nowadays occurring in the Italian gas market, the paper analyzes ENI’s performance in the period 2000-06 and focuses on the most relevant strategic and organizational changes of the firm and their relationship with the energy industry evolution. The analysis is based both on public sources – such as official reports by international authorities – and on private nformation, such as in-depth field interviews with managers of the ENI’s G&P Division, ENI’s management surveys, historical archives and corporate governance reports.

Sport activities and the environment around them are widely considered as being important examples of the emerging service economy, which cultivates strong ties with both the financial and the industrial sectors. Sports are social economic activities where developments indicate the existence of a dynamic process. In the global competitive context, sport organisations no longer require generalist managers who can turn their hands to everything, but rather they need managers with the ability to co-ordinate and control complex administration, delegate functions and motivate people. The role of marketing is steadily growing within a sport organisation's business strategies.

This paper is divided into two parts. The first illustrates the present characteristics and future prospects for the development of the third sector in Italy. It then examines the social context in which the third sector develops not only in Italy but also in the rest of Europe. The theoretical perspective that seems to be the most appropriate to the dimensions the third sector has taken on in most Western countries is that of dynamic complementarity between state agencies, for‐profit organizations and nonprofit organizations. In order to foster economic and social innovation, there is a need for collaboration and complementarity of roles among organizations of different types. An economic policy implemented on a rational basis should select its own intervention instruments after building a set of strategic and organizational alternatives, avoiding the exclusive adoption of only one of these, as happened at the time of the almost unlimited provision of state aid to enterprises and with the unproductive rescues of ailing public enterprises.

ABSTRACT ** : Italy's state industry is in a strategic transition, the result of which was not foreseen in the reforms approved by Parliament in the 1990s. Privatization pressures and opposite trends aimed at rejuvenating the state-owned holdings (the major ones being Iri and Eni) coexist in the Italian mixed economy. However, in the absence of a clear strategic intent, the functions of Iri and Eni are destined to whither away, in spite of the success achieved by them in both national and international markets. New pressures are menacing public enterprises. The attitudes of the European Commission, the trends of the European Union's industrial policy, and the drive towards the construction of a single market challenge the competitive skills of Iri and Eni, which in 1992 became joint stock companies .