Tag: award

Fintech Awards 2024: Laura Grassi wins the Woman of the Year award

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè

The second edition of the Fintech Awards, organized by Financecommunity.it in collaboration with ItaliaFintech, took place on March 14, 2024.

 

The initiative, promoted by LC Publishing Group, aims to stimulate competition and growth in the Fintech world by recognizing companies and professionals who have distinguished themselves for their activities in 2023.

The winners were nominated by a  Jury of experts from the corporate world in the Fintech sector, representatives of Financecommunity.it, and representatives of professional Associations.

The criteria considered for the allocation to the best “Individual Professionals” finalists included technical and negotiation skills, knowledge of business dynamics related to the industry, commitment and ability to relate to clients, and professional reputation among colleagues.

Laura Grassi, awarded as “Woman of the Year,” is Professor of Investment Banking and Fintech Lab at the  Politecnico di Milano,  and head of the Fintech and Insurtech Observatory , where she actively engages in innovative research exploring the dynamic landscape of actors and startups, with a specific focus on Europe and international markets.

“It is an honor to be recognized for promoting innovation in financial services. For years, together with my team at Politecnico di Milano, we have dedicated to this mission with passion and determination. We firmly believe that innovation is not just a trend but a necessity that leads to superior performance in the long run and to more useful services for citizens and companies.

Through in-depth research and targeted initiatives, including work within the Fintech and Insurtech Observatory, we lead high-impact projects in the Italian context. From promoting financial identity solutions to supporting startups by providing crucial data for investment decisions and improvement, to facilitating partnerships and open finance projects for both large financial institutions and startups. Our research spans cutting-edge areas such as Generative AI, Banking-as-a-service, and embedded finance, just to name a few.

I am often involved in international projects, including those funded by the European Commission through PNRR and Horizon Europe, for new initiatives that excite us. The two most recent ones focus on supporting startups facing legal, governance, and growth challenges, and on innovating insurance methods to address climate change.

This award is an encouragement to continue on our path, driven by the belief that innovation is the key to a more sustainable financial future, and also a more stimulating one.”

 

The event was organized in partnership with CMS, EY, and PedersoliGattai.

For more information: https://www.italiafintech.org/2024/03/18/i-vincitori-dei-fintech-awards-2024/

Costanza Mariani wins an IPMA Young Researcher Award

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè

 

Her research ‘Empirical Applications of Artificial Intelligence to the Domain of Project Management’ proves successful

 

Costanza Mariani, a researcher from the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, won the IPMA Young Researcher Award 2024.

The IPMA Research Awards aim to promote research excellence to improve project management by contributing to the advancement of knowledge and the development of the industry and are an important recognition for project managers who give their best to achieve the results desired by stakeholders, organisations or the society, while dealing with ever-increasing complexity and volatility.

IPMA Research Evaluation Baseline (REB) assesses and recognises research conducted to the highest global standards and promotes theoretical and/or methodological aspects by assessing applications according to the following criteria: research problem, research process, research results and people in the research.

Based on four demonstrative case studies, Researcher Costanza Mariani’s paper ‘Empirical Applications of Artificial Intelligence to the Domain of Project Management‘ analyses the application of artificial intelligence to four project management processes (selection of projects to be included in a portfolio, risk assessment, risk mitigation action selection, stakeholder classification).

The four cases were validated in real project contexts (specifically in Nuclear Decommissioning and IT projects) and the results obtained through the application of AI were compared with those obtained through normal human-based project selection, risk management and stakeholder ranking processes.

The results showed that the use of AI fosters process efficiency in project management and improves decision-making processes, while also ensuring the possibility of constant monitoring and the implementation of ad hoc corrective actions in progress.

 

For further information: https://awards.ipma.world/news/6487/

Giorgio Locatelli wins an IPMA Global Research Award 2023

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Giorgio Locatelli wins an IPMA Global Research Award 2023
With his project “The successful planning and delivery of megaprojects: a short and long term perspective”

 

Giorgio Locatelli, professor of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, has won an IPMA Global Research Award 2023.

The IPMA Awards recognise project managers who give their best to achieve the desired outcomes for stakeholders, organisations or society, dealing with ever-increasing complexity and volatility. The judges evaluated the applications based on the following criteria: research problem, research processes, research results, and research people.

The ten-year research work of Professor Locatelli finds a compendium in the project “The successful planning and delivery of Megaprojects: a short and long term perspective”.

Megaprojects are projects characterised by large investment commitment (often above 1 billion USD), vast complexity (especially in organisational terms), and long-lasting impact on the economy, the environment, and society.

Locatelli’s research was aimed at rigorously identifying the megaproject characteristics shaping project management success indicators (respecting time, budget, scope – phase 1) and long-term project success indicators (sustainability, value creation for stakeholders etc. – phase 2).

Phase 1 developed and applied an innovative benchmarking methodology combining qualitative and quantitative analysis to collect, select, and investigate good and bad practices and learn from a portfolio of megaprojects. The methodology has been applied to large transportation infrastructure, power plants, and nuclear reactor decommissioning.

Phase 2 leveraged a wider range of theories and approaches. For instance, a social identity perspective to investigate the impact of megaproject environmental responsibility on organisational citizenship behaviours for the environment, a micro foundation perspective to study people’s experience in megaproject; quantitative statistical methods as a structural modelling approach to study Firm and project innovation outcome measures in infrastructure megaprojects.

The students of the “Invest in Foreign Markets” Lab among the best in the international “X-Culture” competition

Posted on | by Mirja Calgaro | Leave a Comment on The students of the “Invest in Foreign Markets” Lab among the best in the international “X-Culture” competition

X Culture, the international business-themed challenge, this year saw the participation of 6,188 students from 171 universities and 53 different countries, divided into 1032 mixed teams. As in every edition, students are asked to collaborate remotely for 8 weeks in the realization of a real internationalization project for one of the four Italian companies selected by Alibaba.com that have subscribed to X-Culture.

The 44 students of the “Invest in foreign markets” Lab of the Master’s programme in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering participated in the competition and were distributed to international teams by working remotely with colleagues from foreign universities. At the end of the competition, 12 students from the Politecnico di Milano distributed in 3 groups won the “Best Team” award, awarded both for the excellent peer-to-peer evaluations they received and for the quality of the final reports they produced, which represent real business plans to support the internationalization of the companies involved.

In addition to this, the Politecnico di Milano also distinguished itself with the “Best Instructor” award, which was awarded to prof. Stefano Elia, supported by Alessio Di Marco and Ludovico Benetel, for the commitment and professionalism with which the students were coordinated in carrying out their project, allowing them to also obtain prizes for the “Best Team”.

Awarded students:

Gabriele Capobianco
Giuseppe Carrabino
Andrea Cigognini
Federico De Cosmo
Sofia Monica Di Vincenzo
Emma Maria Antonietta Rosa
Francesco Faugno
Alessandro Gastaldo
Simone Gianotti
Martina Mauri
Beatrice Raimondi
Mercedes Maria Ugarte Herrero

For further details:

Awards, for the projects and the winning students

Best educators

The European Microfinance Research Award to a team of the School of Management

Posted on | by Mirja Calgaro | Leave a Comment on The European Microfinance Research Award to a team of the School of Management

The award for a study on the positive social impact of fintech.

 

A team of the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano won the European Microfinance Research Award 2022 with paper “FinTech for Good: unveiling social value creation in the fintech sector”. The award was given by European Microfinance Network (EMN), a not-for-profit organisation which promotes microfinance as a tool to fight social and financial exclusion in Europe through self-employment and the creation of microenterprises.

The study carried out by Federico Bartolomucci, PhD candidate, Veronica Chiodo, professor of Social Entrepreneurship, and Andrea Petrolati, Junior Project Manager at Fintech District, investigates the FinTech world, aiming to understand if and how technological innovation generates impact in the financial sector and which is the role played by technology in the value creation process. Results show that FinTechs, operating in underserved markets and combining technological innovation with the intentionality to generate positive social impact, can generate social value both in developed and emerging economies. Results challenge traditional financial players, institutions and social economy actors to re-imagine their relation with them.

 

JSCM’s Best Paper Award to Claudia Colicchia

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Journal of Supply Chain Management awards our Professor’s study amongst all publications of 2019.

 

The paper “The Impact of Supplier Sustainability Risk on Shareholder Value“, authored by Claudia Colicchia, School of Management Politecnico di Milano, Seongtae Kim, Aalto University School of Business, Stephan M. Wagner ETH Zurich, received the Best Paper Award of the Journal of Supply Chain Management (JSCM) during the annual Conference of the Academy of Management. The paper was chosen by JSCM among all those published in the year 2019.

Claudia Colicchia is Associate Professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at Politecnico di Milano. Her research interests include Supply Chain Sustainability, Supply Chain Risk Management, Industry 4.0 and Logistics 4.0, and Citation Network Analysis.

The paper examines the magnitude of the consequences of what are termed as supplier sustainability risks (SSRs). Business scandals like sweatshop labour have received growing attention in the field of supply management. Yet little is known about how detrimental such scandals are to buying firms. To this end, an event study analysis was conducted, followed by regression modelling based on a sample of 196 U.S. publicly traded firms’ SSRs.

The results reveal that SSRs are associated with a 1.00 percent reduction in shareholder wealth. The market reacts negatively but not differently to the two types of SSR: process-related risks and product-related risks. Finally, a firm’s moral capital does play a mitigating role for SSRs and process-related risks; however, it does not provide insurance-like protection for product-related risks.

The Journal of Supply Chain Management is in its 55th year of publication. The Journal has made rapid advances in recent years, as evidenced by a quadrupling of submissions since 2007, and an ever-increasing number of high quality, unsolicited submissions. More tangibly, JSCM has been ranked either first or second for the past seven years among supply chain and operations management journals, based on its Thomson-Reuters ISI Impact Factor and received multiple Emerald Citations of Excellence Awards, which are given to the 50 most outstanding and highest impact articles out of the 15,000 articles published in the top 300 management journals.

For more information:
Kim, S., Wagner, S.M. and Colicchia, C.
The Impact of Supplier Sustainability Risk on Shareholder Value
J Supply Chain Manag, 55: 71-87 (2020)
The study online

Amazon Innovation Award 2020 – PrimePeerz, an innovative and sustainable project

Posted on | by Marta Re Ferrè | Leave a Comment on Amazon Innovation Award 2020 – PrimePeerz, an innovative and sustainable project

Five students in their second year of the Master’s Degree in Management Engineering have won first prize in the Amazon Innovation Award 2020, with the PrimePeerz project.
Giorgio Damuzzo, Nicola De Giusti, Simona Esposito, Fulvio Gargiulo and Romain Lerouge faced the competition as an integrative project during the Logistics Management course held by Professors Alessandro Perego and Riccardo Mangiaracina, going up against 300 other students from Italian and French universities.

They decided to work on sustainability: they were tasked with devising an innovative solution for the processes of product pick-up, packaging, shipping and returns, which would be as efficient as possible and at the same time would result in a reduction of CO2 emissions, an issue which is very important for Amazon at the moment.

The team’s idea focuses on “last mile” delivery, the core concept is the relational economy of human beings, with the intention of exploiting the existing social ties between Amazon’s large customer base in order to reduce the company’s environmental impact.
PrimePeerz aims to establish further consolidation points in the downstream logistics network, by aggregating orders from customers that are linked to each other, thereby reducing the number of shipments, the resulting transport costs and greenhouse gas emissions.

“We are very pleased with the victory, because it shows that we have managed to capture both academic interest and recognition from Amazon, and for us this means we have reasoned in the right way.”

The award, postponed due to the current epidemic, includes a trip to Seattle, where our students will present their idea to managers at Amazon’s headquarters.

Amazon has selected their project to represent the Politecnico di Milano at the national finals, in competition with the Politecnico di Torino and Rome Tor Vergata. In the final, which took place remotely on April 17, Amazon then decreed their project as the winner of the contest.

“It was a shame for us not to be able to celebrate the victory all together physically and to be able to meet Amazon’s representatives in person. We hope to make our dream come true and visit Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle once the health containment measures are completed.”