Edward Robert Freeman, Chiara Civera, Damiano Cortese and Simona Fiandrino
The purpose of this paper is to link empowerment to the engagement of low-power stakeholders in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs) to suggest how empowerment-based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to link empowerment to the engagement of low-power stakeholders in the context of marine protected areas (MPAs) to suggest how empowerment-based engagement can be strategised to prevent and overcome management crises within a natural common good and ultimately achieve effective co-management.
Design/methodology/approach
This research employs a longitudinal case study methodology. The subject of the study is Torre Guaceto MPA, a natural common good, internationally recognised as a best practice of co-management.
Findings
The case study illustrates specific empowerment areas and actions that help move low-power stakeholders to higher levels of engagement to achieve effective co-management. It also suggests that the main strategic implication of empowerment-based engagement is the creation of empowered stakeholders who can serve as catalysts for sustaining the common through the development of entrepreneurial skills that satisfy joint interests.
Research limitations/implications
The applied methodology of a single case and the peculiar conditions intrinsic to this case can be overcome via the inclusion and comparison of other similar commons.
Practical implications
The study provides a stakeholder management model of empowerment-based engagement that offers concrete evidence of empowerment strategies that can be adopted and adapted by the management of similar natural common goods.
Originality/value
The research fills the literature gaps related to understanding the antecedents of engagement and its strategic implications within natural common pool resources.
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Valter Cantino, Elisa Giacosa and Damiano Cortese
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how sustainability is crucial in maintaining and assigning value to a common good. In particular, the paper identifies several…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse how sustainability is crucial in maintaining and assigning value to a common good. In particular, the paper identifies several characteristics of a business model that could be adopted to manage sustainable innovation strategies that respect the balance among environmental, social and commercial goals.
Design/methodology/approach
This case study involves Fontanafredda, an internationally recognised historical Italian wine company characterised by its highly innovative business approach and sustainable business model.
Findings
Fontanafredda’s approach is connected to the broader concept of the common good the winery has internalised to become an element of its competitive advantage and differentiation. The preservation of traditional values – primarily the respect and valuing of one’s own territory – is a key asset of the winery, which attaches great symbolic and concrete importance to these values.
Research limitations/implications
The study uses a single case study approach and a qualitative method without quantifying the impact of every business choice. For theoretical implications, the study emphasises the strong connection between sustainability and innovation in the management of the common good.
Practical implications
Numerous practical implications are identified regarding several stakeholder groups, such as the management, owners, investors and the various entities linked to the regional promotion and tourism sectors.
Originality/value
This research explores how and why Fontanafredda amounts to more than simply wine production by focusing on the characteristics of its business model, which efficiently handles the link between innovation and heritage for common-good development.
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Damiano Cortese, Christian Rainero and Valter Cantino
This paper aims at understanding whether firms conceive and use social media as disseminators, as well as amplifiers, of their results concerning sustainability and responsibility…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims at understanding whether firms conceive and use social media as disseminators, as well as amplifiers, of their results concerning sustainability and responsibility and whether this practice stimulates stakeholder engagement and participation, laying the foundation for a dialogue on corporate social responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
This research analyses the theoretical background of communication related to sustainability and responsibility and the company–stakeholder dialogue in the food sector. An inductive interpretive approach is provided by conducting a qualitative content analysis related to the communication practices of the food company Ferrero (Italy) from June 2015 to September 2019.
Findings
Companies can use social channels to present their vision, values, approaches and choices related to sustainability and responsibility. Social media can become useful networks to reach stakeholders requiring and claiming for transparency about more and more relevant topics – allowing, at the same time, a two-way relationship and dialogue.
Research limitations/implications
The limitation of the paper is that it presents the observation of a single firm.
Practical implications
The managerial implications relate to the value created by a dialogical communication: this is a strong foundation for enhancing relationships capable of maintaining and increasing the company's reputation. The establishment of an interchange about sustainability and responsibility represents a new way to direct the company and its stakeholders towards mutual support in creating value.
Originality/value
This article contributes to enriching the debate on the degree of knowledge, understanding, response and reaction to social media–based corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication.
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Damiano Cortese and Alex Murdock
The paper suggests moral imagination as an approach to picture sustainable scenarios in the food industry, which are based on knowledge sharing among stakeholders and knowledge…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper suggests moral imagination as an approach to picture sustainable scenarios in the food industry, which are based on knowledge sharing among stakeholders and knowledge management. This can lead to a wider awareness, consequently a deeper understanding and finally more sustainable behaviors and choices in the food sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The research paper analyzes the relevant literature on sustainability, stakeholder theory, knowledge management and moral imagination. It proposes a moral imagination process and provides some cases to clarify its applicability.
Findings
Inter-stakeholder shared knowledge and consequent knowledge management can lead to the projection of more aware sustainable scenarios over time, overcoming a short-sighted or partial vision. The process of moral imagination can be an approach and tool for coping with sustainability-related critical issues, challenges and dilemmas in the food sector.
Research limitations/implications
The article is a research paper, but the suggested process of moral imagination intends to provoke further reasoning and contributions to moral imagination and the stakeholders' role, responsibility and awareness related to sustainability in the food industry.
Practical implications
Even if theoretical, the paper can have well replicable managerial implications and applications in the design of sustainable scenarios in the food sector overcoming the asymmetries and bias. In particular, it is very useful conceiving the choices and outlining the behaviors upon which the firm's actions are based.
Originality/value
The article considers the broad spectrum of sustainability and its wide global reflection as well as the role of all stakeholders without a solely strategic focus and implications.
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Valter Cantino, Alain Devalle, Damiano Cortese, Francesca Ricciardi and Mariangela Longo
The purpose of this paper is to develop an original six-phase model describing entrepreneurial learning in the transition of place-based enterprises toward a sustainable…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop an original six-phase model describing entrepreneurial learning in the transition of place-based enterprises toward a sustainable exploitation of natural common resources (commons).
Design/methodology/approach
The six-phase model proposed by this study explains the learning processes involving place-based enterprises through two important existing theories: adaptive co-management and Lachmann’s evolutionary, embedded theory of entrepreneurship. The proposed model integrates these two theories on the basis of a longitudinal case study on the fishing enterprises in an Italian marine protected area (MPA).
Findings
In the case study, the success factors identified by the adaptive co-management literature proved important in enabling an embedded entrepreneurial learning process consistent with Lachmann’s view. The case analysis allowed the authors to cluster these learning processes around six phases. Further, even if traditional fishing is not knowledge-intensive, this case shows the transition to a sustainable business model required intense efforts of educated institutional work and scientific research. Interestingly, the key learning processes were enabled by the emergence of a larger, networked social entity (a network form of organization) including the community of fishermen, the MPA management and a network of scientists studying the marine area ecosystem.
Research limitations/implications
This study is explorative and relies on a single case study. Despite this limitation, it opens up new research paths in the fields of entrepreneurship, institutional work, network organizations and adaptive management of the commons.
Originality/value
This study is strongly interdisciplinary; it proposes an original model based on a theoretical view that is highly innovative for organization and management studies; and addresses a relevant but overlooked issue with important societal implications.