Search results

Reflexivity supports research teams in developing and implementing interdisciplinarity perspectives, but there is still limited literature on this topic. To fill this gap, we explore how reflexivity can support a research team in its interdisciplinary efforts to create new knowledge for disaster risk reduction.

We present the reflexive journey of our interdisciplinary research team consisting of Ecuador- and UK-based researchers from the social sciences, physical sciences and the arts and humanities and conducting multi-hazard research on Quito. By triangulating data obtained from different material collected during the reflexive journey, we discuss examples of how our team employed reflexivity towards interdisciplinarity.

The reflexive journey allowed our interdisciplinary team to acknowledge and give value to its diversity; to discuss disciplinary language differences, and to gradually develop interdisciplinary working practices and conversations. The journey demonstrates how reflexive practices within research teams allow researchers to overcome disciplinary differences and promote interdisciplinarity to reach research outcomes.

Our reflexive experience shows that adopting reflexivity can be effective in both enhancing interdisciplinarity and addressing the complex nature of risk.

This study aims to systematically review the literature on digital consumers’ decision-making in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector and proposes an integrative framework.

By combining databases such as Web of Science and Elton B. Stephens Company (EBSCO), we identified, analyzed and synthesized 53 peer-reviewed empirical articles that explore the connection between digital solutions in the BFSI sector and various phases and constructs of the consumer decision-making process. We examined the dependent variables (DVs) used to operationalize consumer decision-making, performed a thematic analysis of the papers and proposed an integrative framework.

The reviewed articles have garnered more attention from marketing researchers than from BFSI or artificial intelligence scholars, often employing traditional behavioral and experimental methodologies that have several limitations. We identified 38 DVs used to operationalize consumer decision-making, with the most frequently recurring constructs being “Intention to use,” “Utilization,” “Satisfaction,” “Perceived usefulness” and “Trust.” We propose an integrative framework that groups these DVs into three main clusters: subjects’ perceptions, user experience and adoption/usage choice. This systematic literature review highlights the increasing importance of emotion in recent decades and underscores the difficulty of establishing a framework where relationships between variables are direct and unidirectional, as traditional economic theories assume.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to provide a comprehensive and systematic understanding of the DVs and the research methods used to study the impact of recent digital solutions on consumer decision-making in the BFSI sector. Further, a framework is proposed that can offer a new perspective for consumer research.

Graphs are widely used in the banking and finance domain to support consumers’ decision-making process, but subjects differ in their ability to understand them. This study aims to detect the determinants of the ability to read and process financial information conveyed in the graphical format, i.e. financial graph literacy (FGL) and the relationship between FGL and subjects’ actual financial behavior (FB).

Data are collected by administering a structured questionnaire to the Italian adult population (n = 502). The survey includes different sections aimed at collecting information about sociodemographic and socioeconomic variables, financial literacy and FB. The econometric analyses are developed using OLS and Poisson regressions.

The results show that gender, geographical area, education, marital status and income are crucial determinants of FGL. Moreover, the analysis reveals that an increase in the FGL indicator is associated with a higher propensity for individuals to purchase banking or financial products or actively manage financial resources; results are robust, even controlling for financial knowledge.

Although previous research investigates the impact of graphs in financial decision-making, no studies measure the ability of consumers to read and interpret financial information conveyed in the graphical format. This study is the first to investigate the determinants of FGL and link it to actual FB. Implications for policymakers, regulatory and supervisory authorities and financial intermediaries are discussed.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities are increasingly prominent in the current agendas of firms, regulatory agencies and consumers worldwide. It is vital for banks to understand how consumers perceive CSR activities, as such activities strengthen their brand equity building. This study examines the relationship between financial consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives and brand equity, identifying a mediating influence of consumer trust and satisfaction.

The survey was conducted by distributing questionnaires to Italian banking consumers (941 valid responses). The research hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis.

Our analysis reveals that consumers’ perceptions of banks’ CSR initiatives directly affect brand equity. Moreover, trust and satisfaction positively mediate the relationship between consumers’ perceptions of CSR initiatives and brand equity in the Italian banking industry.

These findings advance understanding by making a novel contribution to the literature; they also have managerial implications. In terms of literature advancement, we provide new evidence related to a context with specific features, namely Italy. From a managerial perspective, this study highlights the importance of informing Italian customers about and promoting awareness of sustainable activities. In turn, client perceptions affect the banks’ value.

This paper aims to analyse the role of a network in the development of female business experiences through the study of the Industrie Femminili Italiane (I.F.I.) (Italian Women’s Cooperative Enterprise), founded in 1903 in Rome to promote women’s work and their economic conditions.

This study applies the embeddedness theory for women’s empowerment that provides a valuable lens to explore the interactions between female entrepreneurs and their social, cultural and economic contexts.

With this study, the authors found that the network structure was used at the beginning of the past century in Italy as a useful instrument for female emancipation and empowerment, extending to common/not exceptional women entrepreneurial opportunities otherwise reserved for rich and noble women. In the interplay among the different “contexts” (political, social, cultural and cognitive), it seems to emerge the incidence of female social relationships in facing an unfavourable political and cultural context, breaking out the norms and allowing the business to exist and influencing, with the activity of the high social standing women, the cognitive structure of the other female workers, make them active participants in this entrepreneurial activity.

This is a single case study that has shed light on a specific female network, and the authors’ findings and considerations are influenced by the shortage of data and sources available. Demonstrating that I.F.I. is the result of the collaboration of women from different social classes involved at different organisational levels, this work shows, from a historical perspective, the importance of female mutual support for their emancipation and the role played by the network structure as an amplifier of possibilities otherwise limited to rich women, the emancipation of women and minorities in countries characterised by important barriers to entrepreneurship.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper analysing a female entrepreneurial network from a historical point of view and its role in overcoming gender barriers within the analysis of the interplaying contexts.

This paper aims to assess the efficiency of emulsified essential oils in glycerol as eco-friendly antimicrobial and plasticized agents added to the biopolymer of gelatin for lining historical oil paintings on canvases.

Cedar oil, cinnamon oil and their mixtures were emulsified in glycerol and incorporated into gelatin adhesive as green biocides and plasticizers. Physical, biological, chemical and mechanical tests were conducted on experimental mock-ups to assess the gelatin-based adhesive formulations for the reinforcement of canvas supports. Scanning electron microscope, colorimetric measurements, antimicrobial activity test, attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, tensile strength and elongation tests were carried out on the mock-ups before and after the artificial aging.

The formulations of gelatin-based adhesive with cinnamon and cinnamon-cedar mixture emulsified in glycerol proved their efficiency on the antimicrobial activity test, chemically delaying the decomposition of gelatin and accordingly providing compatible mechanical properties. Gelatin-based adhesive with emulsified cinnamon oil showed a slight yellowing that was quite improved with the mixture of the cinnamon-cedar-based adhesive formulation.

This study promotes a green approach to lining historical oil paintings by developing green formulations from bio-based origins that minimize the shrinkage and microbial infection of gelatin for lining paintings.