Innovation &
Digital Ecosystems

Abstract. Post-pandemic Return-to-Office (RTO) mandates, following widespread remote work, have generated significant organizational challenges and employee resistance. This systematic literature review analyzes 26 papers to understand the evolution of RTO research and its organizational implications. Findings reveal three distinct phases: Anticipation & Adaptation (2020-2021), focusing on early remote work experiences and speculative returns; Transition & Contestation (2022-2023), marked by initial RTO implementations, debates, and legal considerations; and Evaluation & Inequality (2024-2025), characterized by critical assessments of RTO impacts, particularly differential effects and the exacerbation of inequalities for marginalized groups. Scholarly discourse has shifted from viewing RTO as inevitable to questioning its necessity and emphasizing the need for flexible, context-specific, and equitable strategies. This study establishes RTO as a key area within distributed work literature, offering practitioners evidence-based insights for managing workplace transitions effectively. 

Reference. Varone & Bolici (2025). From Speculation to Implementation: A Systematic Review of Return-to-Office Research and Its Impact for Organizations. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of WOA 2025 - Pescara, Italy.

Abstract. Work is continually reshaped by innovative technologies and managerial practices. This study employs a bibliometric-based approach to address the conceptual ambiguity in distributed work models research. By analyzing the concepts of remote work, telework, and telecommute, our findings indicate that: i. paradigmatic shifts in distributed work models research primarily occur in response to exogenous events, especially consisting of technological advancements and environmental crises; ii. The terminological structure highlighted in the literature is only partially confirmed; iii. While all concepts share a core thematic focus, telecommute is distinctively more concerned with mobility, sustainability, and infrastructural technologies. Telework and remote work share a more direct organizational focus, with telework being more human-centric and remote work emphasizing technology-oriented connotations. Thus, telework should be preferentially targeted by research on health, wellbeing and organization behaviors, while remote work should be targeted by research at the interplay between distributed work models, organization design and innovative technologies.

Reference. Bolici, Varone & Diana (2025). Innovating Workspaces: The Evolution of Distributed Work From Telecommute to Remote Work. Accepted for publication in Proceedings of ECIS 2025 - Amman, Jordan. 

Abstract. The need for specific skills and competencies evolves in response to environmental, social and organizational conditions. However, the model for certifying competence levels has remained almost unchanged for centuries: universities (and other institutions) verify and certify that a person has reached a certain level of knowledge and through a standalone solution. The output is often a signed and stamped document that undoubtedly contains limitations in the present international, multilingual and dynamic job market. Universities, educational institutions and consortiums are increasingly exploring how technologies enable and support innovative models of competence certification. In this paper, we investigate how blockchain technologies improve the certification system and generate added value for different involved actors: learners, educational institutions and businesses. An exploratory study is proposed to systematize the overall impacts of blockchain in the field of digital certification while focusing on university education as the main research field. We conducted a first set of interviews with key players of the two Italian universities that first adopted a blockchain certification system. The aim is to investigate, through different but complementary organizational theories, the value creation factors and conditions for the various actors in the blockchain-based competence certification ecosystem.

Reference. Bolici, Cuel, Ghiringhelli, and Virili (2022). Ecosystems in blockchain competence certification: An explorative multi-perspective analysis. In Do Machines Dream of Electric Workers? Understanding the Impact of Digital Technologies on Organizations and Innovation, pp. 99-108. Springer International Publishing, 2022.