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This study analyses how family-run businesses operating in the Italian food sector faced the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that affected the global economy, with the support of management accounting systems.

The methodology used is based on a survey questionnaire conducted on Italian family firms involved in food business. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed.

This study categorised the companies into three groups, according to their long-term orientation and the use of management accounting tools. The results highlight proactive versus passive companies that emphasise various recovery paths from the perspective of performance.

Limitations refer to the attention on a single country and the sample size.

The main practical implication refers to management at different levels that should better understand how a clear long-term orientation can maintain the competitive position and pre-crisis performance.

This study examines the measures launched by companies to address challenges originating from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the entrepreneurship theory in family firms as it focuses on the relevance of an ambidextrous entrepreneurial strategy (Helfat and Peteraf, 2009), thanks to an effective combination between exploitation and exploration activities. The study refers to the food sector, characterized by established food traditions and changing consumption patterns.

After reviewing the topics, the authors referred to Goel and Jones (2016) for its representativeness for the research. The authors conducted an explanatory case study in which the authors identified the framework’s three sub-systems impacting the above family business systems. The case study is relevant because Eataly, a family-owned and -managed firm, is gaining recognition while applying a strong entrepreneurial strategy and it is unique in the world for the strength of its commercial strategy and dimensions.

Entrepreneurship strategies can be explained by combined organizational antecedent conditions, represented by three sub-systems: family, business and ownership. The sub-systems’ features and their interrelations play a relevant role in influencing entrepreneurial exploration and exploitation processes.

The study contributes to the actual entrepreneurship theory in family firms because it indicates the relevance of an ambidextrous entrepreneurial strategy, thanks to a combination of exploitation and exploration activities. In addition, it analyses the so-called antecedent conditions in organizations to achieve this favorable combination. Limitations involve the case study method and interview technique, both of which could be expanded.

Several practical implications follow for different stakeholder categories (food sector companies, investors and private/public entities) concerning the management of antecedent conditions, the consequences of entrepreneurial investment policy, and tourism and territorial development.

This research is novel because it combines an ambidextrous entrepreneurship approach (Goel and Jones, 2016) with the family firm’s sub-systems (Tagiuri and Davis, 1982), observing how these sub-systems are relevant to defining and managing effective entrepreneurship strategy in a family food firm. The value added is particularly relevant in the food sector, which is characterized by low research and development. In addition, it requires innovative approaches to stimulate customers’ perception of market demand, to satisfy their needs and to sustain family firms in a highly competitive environment.

Performance management systems (PMSs) must remain dynamic and maintain the ability to withstand the high degrees of complexity brought about by digital technologies (DTs). Academics and practitioners have explored DTs and PMSs separately. This study aims to bridge the academic and practitioner discourse surrounding PMSs and DTs to promote knowledge diffusion and collaboration.

The authors adopted a mixed method approach, combining quantitative and qualitative content analysis, which were validated through semi-structured interviews with academics and practitioners. The authors first conducted a content analysis of the academic literature contained in the Scopus database and the practitioners' literature featured in the Nexis Uni database.

The combined academic-practitioners’ body of knowledge underscores the risk and environmental dimension, as well as the theoretical frameworks employed to explore digitally empowered PMSs. These findings were corroborated by 17 confirmatory interviews conducted with scholars and practitioners.

Due to its scope, the research is limited to publications listed on Scopus and Nexis Uni. Additionally, its qualitative and interpretative nature presents some generalizability issues.

This study connects the intentions of scholars and practitioners concerning PMSs and DTs to promote collaborative efforts and knowledge diffusion. Moreover, considering the broader spectrum of insights, this manuscript postulates new avenues of research that address the key issues and concerns of both academics and practitioners. Finally, this article showcases PMs- and DT-appropriate theoretical frameworks that can inform practitioners’ discourse and work.

The present article draws from the behavioral theory of the firm, and it explores whether various dimensions of organization slack can be employed as variables to measure organizations’ antifragility during times of uncertainty such as the Covid-19 pandemic. Furthermore, considering the limitations and regulations put into place during the most recent pandemic, the present study seeks to explore the moderating effect that collaborative networks might have on the relationship between various dimensions of organizational slack and firms performance.

The present study retrieves data from Thomson Reuters Data Stream, and it gathers observations from manufacturing companies located in Europe. The dataset is composed of observations spanning from the fiscal year 2019–2022. Consequently, through the use of a balanced panel data, the authors conduct multiple regression analysis.

The obtained empirical findings reveal that high discretion slack has a positive effect on companies performance whereas low discretion slack has a negative effect on their performance. Additionally, the obtained findings indicate that low levels of reliance on collaborative networks positively moderates the relationship between organizational slack and firms’ performance. On the other hand, high levels of reliance on collaborative networks negatively moderate the relationship between organizational slack and firms performance.

This manuscript carries several original contributions. It expands the literature stream concerning antifragility and collaborative networks. Additionally, it postulates an operational measure which can be used to indicate firms’ antifragility.

Food and beverage (F&B) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) must diversify their markets and obtain predictable sources of revenues to withstand difficult and volatile periods such as the post-pandemic geopolitical scenario, recently burdened by the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. On the other hand, another strand of the literature suggests that public procurement could be considered a great source of income, enabling solid contracts, revenues and cash-flow stability. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the role of public procurement, the adoption of e-commerce platforms and their interactions in affecting the exporting performances of SMEs operating in the F&B sector.

The study retrieves data from 2,186 Italian F&B manufacturing SMEs relying on Margò by Cribis database. Therefore, it conducts a structured equational model (SEM) to test the developed hypotheses empirically.

The findings reveal that digital selling platforms positively affect exports, whereas public procurement negatively affects F&B SMEs exports. Nonetheless, findings underline that the interaction between public procurement and the adoption of digital selling platforms dampens public procurement's negative effects on exports.

This study brings an original contribution to the F&B literature by conducting empirical research on an extensive sample of firms from one of the most influential countries in the F&B vertical, Italy, with officially registered data. More importantly, to the best of the authors' knowledge, this study pioneers the investigation of the relationship between public procurement and e-commerce platforms in affecting F&B SMEs' export performances.

To address the growing pressure to foster effectiveness, sustainability and quality of life, local governments have focused on developing policies and initiatives designed to make their cities smarter. Despite the growing attention paid to this issue, an important but under-investigated issue is represented by the smart city governance. In this regard, in light of the claimed need for collaboration, the purpose of this paper is to investigate why and how different institutional works carried out by multiple actors may explain the way in which collaborative governance can be constructed in the context of a smart city.

A rich in-depth case study has been carried out exploring the experience of a smart city in the north of Italy. The study explores the institutional works done by multiple actors (Lawrence et al., 2013) and their influence on the governance of the smart city.

Collaboration is perceived to be instrumental in making a city smart, during the design and implementation phase, while generating new challenges that must be overcome by an integration of the political, technical and, especially, cultural work of the collective actors involved.

Despite governance is recognized as a crucial factor for realizing a smartness-orientation, it is scarcely investigated. The main value of the current research is thus its contribution to overcome this gap providing new empirical evidence on the role of multiple actors in the smart city context.

Drawing on the conservation of resources theory and need-threat model, this study aims to analyse the mediating role of efficacy needs (EN) and psychological distress (PD) on the relationship between workplace ostracism (WO) and knowledge hiding (KH) behaviour of employees.

Time-lagged data were collected from 225 employees working in the mobile telecommunication sector through online survey instruments prepared in light of past literature. SmartPLS3 was used to analyse the data.

The results obtained confirm the initial hypothesis that there exists a positive relationship between WO and KH. Furthermore, the results also established the sequential mediating roles of EN and PD between WO and KH behaviour of employees.

This study adds to the literature suggesting that WO represents a real threat to companies that aim to foster knowledge-sharing behaviours. Moreover, it reveals that EN and PD are two underlying mechanisms behind the baseline relationship.

Crowdfunding platforms are important innovations that allow nascent entrepreneurs to gain access to financial resources and crowd inputs to better refine and develop their business idea. The purpose of this paper is to investigate user-generated content (UGC) from both reward-based and equity-based crowdfunding platforms, in order to determine its implications for open and user innovation.

A total sample of 200 most funded technology products was extracted from four distinct crowdfunding platforms. A latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) analysis was performed in an attempt to identify critical latent factors. The analysis was carried out through the theoretical lens of innovation literature, in an attempt to uncover the implications for open and user innovation.

The authors were able to highlight the implications of crowd inputs for open and user innovation, as backers provided nascent entrepreneurs with several types of feedback, ranging from product co-development to strategy and marketing. Furthermore, the study provided an overview of the key differences emerging between reward-based and equity-based crowdfunding platforms in terms of crowd inputs.

The present study features intrinsic limitations of the LDA approach being adopted. More specifically, it only provides a “snapshot” in time of the current sample, rather than investigating its development over time.

The present study solidifies the value of UGC as a resource to mine for trends and feedback.

The study contributes to both the innovation literature and the crowdfunding literature. It bridges several gaps found in both literature streams, by providing empirical evidence to test and verify pre-existing exploratory research.

The popularity of Management Control Systems (MCS) has increased due to rising uncertainty in business operations. They help companies implement strategies, manage information and incentivize managers with common goals. Therefore, the research aims to take stock of the evolution of studies on MCS adoption, identifying trends and future avenues.

While a few systematic literature reviews have investigated the implications of MCS adoption amid specific contexts, a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of the whole research stream is lacking. Consequently, our study analyzes relevant scientific literature on the topic of MCS from 1970 to 2022, through the use of VOSviewer, R Bibliometrix and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to visualize the bibliometric results.

The study provides a comprehensive overview of key emerging topics in MCS literature and the ways in which they have developed over the decades, along with a structured research agenda built upon the literature gaps found amid current and past scientific production. It does so by analyzing scientific production from multiple bibliometric aspects and advanced text-mining techniques to extract common emerging themes from the dataset.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no attempt has yet been made to synthesize MCS literature through a bibliometric review. The bibliometric perspective on MCS enhances scholars' understanding of the historical path and future trends of the literature stream, while helping practitioners update existing MCS conceptualizations in light of contemporary changes.

The purpose of this study is to underscore the impact of the family variable on performance. The authors were interested in understanding whether the differences between Family Firms (FFs) and Non-Family Firms (NFFs), on the one hand, and between large FFs and medium-sized FFs, on the other, were reflected in the performance achieved.

In this paper a sample of 80 industrial companies listed on the Italian Stock Market (FTSE MIB and STAR indexes) were considered, and mixed criteria to distinguish FFs and NFFs (Smyrnios-Romano et al., 1998) were used. The empirical method allowed the development of some research hypotheses by exploiting the Pearson correlation.

There are two main categories of FFs, which correspond to two different strategic and organizational categories, namely, the FFs listed on the large capitalized companies index (FTSE MIB) and the FFs listed on the medium-capitalized companies index (STAR). Each kind of FFs (large FFs and medium-sized FFs) has a specific effect on profitability and financial performance. Specifically, if a company is medium sized, family presence is a relevant variable in achieving better profitability and financial performance than NFFs of the same size; on the other hand, if the company expands to become a large one, the family presence is an irrelevant variable in terms of both profitability and financial leverage (debt ratio).

Limitations of the study concern the definition of the sample, as this paper focused on the industrial sector and the method adopted, as it could be integrated with some econometrical models. The implications of this paper are relevant for families and regulatory bodies because it helps them better understand the effects of governance and company size both on short- and long-term performance. Moreover, the findings of the study can influence the decision-making process of investors to identify the long-term outperformers listed on the Italian Stock Exchange.

This study contributes to the literature on FFs by defining two different categories of FFs, namely, large and medium-sized. It seems that larger companies record a weaker family influence on short-term profitability.