International award to Pamela Danese, Unipd lecturer, for a study on governance in circular supply chains
Prestigiousinternational award for ProfessorPamela Danese, Professor of Economic and Management Engineering at the Department of Technique and Management of Industrial Systems at theUniversity of Padua.. At the EurOMA 2025conference, held in Milan with the participation of746 scholars from all over the worldand548 scientific contributionspresented, Danese received theChris Voss Best Paper Award Runner Up.
The award-winning paper, entitled“From centralised to shared supply chain governance: insights from a longitudinal case study in the circular economy”, is the result of an international collaboration involving, in addition to Professor Danese, engineerMateja Zavadlav, ProfessorPietro Romano(University of Udine) and Professor Jury Gualandris(Ivey Business School).
The research addresses a highly topical issue: the evolution of governance incircular supply chainsproduction systems that adopt innovative solutions to reduce waste, recover resources and valorise materials that would otherwise be discarded. In stark contrast to traditional, consumption- and disposal-oriented models, circular supply chains promote the ecological transitionthrough reuse and recycling.
The focus of the study is the shift fromcentralised governance models– where decision-making power is concentrated – to shared forms of governancewhere responsibilities and decisions are distributed among a multiplicity of actors. Through a longitudinal analysis conducted on a real network of companies, the study shows how collaboration between companies, public authorities, universities, non-profit organisations and even competitors can lead to the creation ofadvanced recycling systems based oncooperation and sustainability.
The award given at the EurOMA conference – one of the leading international events in the field of operations management – is an important recognition of the excellence of Italian research in the field of circular economy and industrial management.