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The purpose of this paper is to contribute understanding tendencies of the Italian demand for craft beer. More in details, it seeks at exploring consumers’ awareness about craft beer, their attitudes, habits and behaviors. It also aims at assessing the impact of each and all these features on consumers’ choice. At last, the paper frames different consumers’ profiles.

The analysis is based on an online survey associated with a choice experiment designed for assessing willingness to buy (WTB) and willingness to pay (WTP) for craft vs industrial beer. Factors influencing consumers’ expenditure for craft beer are explored via an OLS estimation of a simple regression model. Afterwards, different consumers’ profiles are depicted via cluster analysis.

The survey shows that, overall, Italian consumers appreciate craft beers and are interested in this market. Socio-demographic characteristics impact this inclination but have no significant influence on the results of the choice experiment. Market knowledge, preferences and consumption habits influence consumer spending. Five different consumer profiles emerge.

The research proposes a combined original methodology for assessing beer consumers’ features and their impacts on beer WTB and WTP. The complementary perspectives adopted provide new insights on craft beer demand. Results are of interest for craft brewery managers and for the design of policies aimed at promoting and expanding the sector. Enlarging the sample and improving its representativeness would allow for more general results.

The paper focuses on high segments of the Italian wine market. The goal is twofold. First, it aims at understanding to what extent wine experts are influenced by specific quality clues. Second, it seeks at assessing the role and effectiveness of different quality clues in the creation of price

To meet these goals two independent equations are set. The first -estimated via an ordered logit- explaining the rating of a wine with a bunch of attributes of the wine and of its production process. The second equation is a hedonic price model –estimated via an interval regression- where price is a function of a large number of quality clues. The analysis covers 2,523 wines from three Italian Regions as reviewed by Veronelli guide, 2010 edition

The model estimation results indicates that: i) few attributes seems to systematically impact experts’ judgments; ii) many quality clues are associated with significant price premiums; iii) in some cases consumers give value to quality clues along with Veronelli’s experts while in other cases there is no such alignment

This study advances the literature in two different ways. First, modeling two distinct equations that describe the factors affecting, on the one side, experts’ evaluations, and, on the other side, market prices. Second, as it assesses the price premium associated to quality clues whose value hasn’t been considered so far in hedonic price models. We affirm that assessing factors that influence experts brings more transparency and a better segmentation in the guide market and in all experts’ quality signals.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on high segments of the Italian olive oil and wine markets. The main goal is to compare the role and the effectiveness of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the two selected markets. Moreover, the authors investigate how different quality clues in the olive oil and wine sectors are related to prices.

To meet the goal the authors estimate two separate hedonic price models where the price of the product is regressed over different quality clues some of which are sector specific and some are common to the two sectors. The models are estimated on data which come from two of the major Italian guides chosen for their well established reputation and for the richness of information.

The results indicate that: product origin and the relative certification schemes play a relevant role in the formation of prices in both markets; while the olive oil price seems to be more sensitive to farm location than to the certification of origin, the opposite happens for the wines; the higher segments of the Italian olive oil market is increasingly sophisticated and follows the main tendencies established in the quality wine markets where many quality attributes are intensely active.

First, it should be kept in mind that results for higher market segment may not hold for different segments where relevant quality clues may be different. Second, reader should be aware that comparability of the two samples is constrained by limited data availability for the olive oil sector compared to the wine sector.

This study represents one of the first attempts to compare the role of the certification of origin in the creation of value in the Italian agro-food markets.

Social Farming (SF) is an expression of agricultural diversification and multifunctionality, due to its ability to create positive externalities through the inclusion of vulnerable individuals. For this reason, products derived from SF are characterized by social quality attributes, which, however, are not often recognized by the market. This study aims to investigate the reasons behind the lacked recognition of the value created by SF analyzing the willingness to pay (WTP) for such products and the factors affecting citizen-consumers' purchasing behavior.

Data were collected through a convenience sample (N = 350) via a web-based structured questionnaire. Psycho-attitudinal scales, previously validated in literature, were adopted to characterize the citizen-consumers interviewed. A logistic regression was run in order to determine those characteristics of respondents affecting their intention to purchase SF products, while an ordered logistic regression was performed to uncover the determinants of consumers' WTP for SF products.

The results show the relevant role of the level of education, household size and ethical self-identity in affecting the willingness to support SF activities by paying a price premium for its products. Lack of availability and information about SF products are the main factors limiting their purchase.

The study offers interesting results outlining future research fields about market penetration strategies and policy implications.

This chapter explores the role of avatars in fostering cultural diversity and dynamic interaction in educational settings. It delves into the integration of digital tools, particularly avatars, in classrooms to enrich learning experiences. The case study from the University of Salerno's “Cross-Cultural Competence” course illustrates how avatars designed to reflect cultural nuances facilitate virtual interaction among students of different nationalities. This technological integration not only supports pedagogical objectives but also promotes inclusivity and engagement. This chapter emphasizes the necessity of blending technology with traditional teaching methods to enhance educational processes, underscoring the potential of avatars in creating immersive, culturally rich learning environments.

The purpose of this article was to provide an outline of the citation practices of “Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing” by Vargo and Lusch (2004) to identify and discuss the most prominent research topics in which citations were used and to suggest future research based on the results of the analysis.

The authors used a comprehensive framework of citation practices based on iterations of previous literature to analyze the relevant literature, which they identified by accessing, systematically and rigorously, every available contribution matching a set of criteria. The authors then categorized these contributions and highlighted the main topics of research interest in each category.

The findings identify some of the factors in the continuous development of SDL, the way this new marketing logic permeated the scientific debate, the infusion of Vargo and Lusch (2004) into several contributions framed in the new logic or justified through it, and a general perception of a default reference. Additionally, the findings highlight the main topics of research interest in each category.

The analysis enabled the detection of the original paper's influence through advances in service studies, pollination into other fields of research and continuous scientific debate. The authors have highlighted several avenues for research and proposed future research directions.

This research analyzed the effects of the spread of the SDL cornerstone article and emphasized the advantage of using an in-depth approach to the analysis of studies through a framework applied to more than 4,600 studies.

The purpose of this paper is to improve the operational excellence of public sector services such as construction, telecommunication and health care. To achieve this endeavor, the study explores the structural attributes and obstacles in the public services and develops a Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) model for the public sector.

The study involved two stages: first, structured literature reviews; second, a focus group study involving Black Belts and supply chain practitioners. Using the results from the literature reviews and focus group study, the researchers have developed a Green Lean Six Sigma (GLSS) model for the public sectors.

Black belts and supply chain practitioners have identified the success in deploying Lean Six Sigma with green supply chain management. This leads to eradicating the obstacles faced by the public sector, leading to process improvement.

This study proposed an approach for developing a GLSS model for the public services, which can be applicable for other public service organizations.

The current paper presents a predictive model for process improvement in the public sector by integrating green supply chain management with Lean Six Sigma.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of an ethnographic study that used object biography with an archival collection of police surveillance files, the Police Historical/Archival Investigative Files, housed at the City of Portland Archives & Records Center in Portland, Oregon.

Document analysis, participant observation, semistructured interviews, and object biography were conducted over four years, from 2013 to 2017.

Using object biography with the Police Historical/Archival Investigative Files uncovered numerous personal and public relationships that developed between people and this collection over several decades as well as how these records acquired, constructed, and changed meanings over time and space.

This paper argues that the biography of objects is a useful way for studying the relationships records form, the values people assign to them, and how people and records mutually inform and transform one another in shifting contexts of social lives. Recognizing records as having social histories and applying object biography to them contributes to and grows the greater biography and genealogy of the record and the archive—a genealogy important not only for discovering something about the lives of those who create, encounter, steward, and use records and archives but about our shared human experience.

During the 1990s, Italian healthcare organisations (HOs) underwent a process of corporatisation, and the most innovative HOs introduced the balanced scorecard (BSC) to address the need for broader accountability. Currently, there is a limited understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of such a process. Therefore, this study aims to explore whether the BSC is still considered an effective performance management tool and analyse the factors driving and hindering its evolution and endurance in public and non-profit HOs.

We conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis of two pioneering cases in the adoption of the BSC: one in a public hospital and the other in a non-profit hospital. Data collection relied on accessing institutional documents and reports from the early 2000s to the present, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews with the internal sponsors of the BSC.

We found evidence of three main categories of factors that trigger or hinder the adoption and development of the BSC: (1) the role of the internal sponsor and professionals’ commitment; (2) information technology and the controller’s technological skills; and (3) the relationship between the management and professionalism logics during the implementation process. At the same time, there is no evidence to suggest that specific technical features of the BSC influence its endurance.

The paper contributes to the debate on the key factors for implementing and sustaining multidimensional control systems in professional organisations. It emphasises the importance of knowledge-based assets and distinctive internal capabilities for the success of the business. The implications of the BSC legacy are discussed, along with future developments of multidimensional control tools aimed at supporting strategy execution.