Search results

The aim of the paper is to investigate the determinants leading firms to choose among different voluntary standards within food supply chains. In specific, the authors explored the role of transaction risks, i.e. internal and exogenous risks, in the adoption of different traceability standards.

A survey was conducted within the Italian population of 216 food-processing firms that adopt voluntary traceability schemes. The identification of different transaction risks was based on the literature on supply chain management and transaction cost economics. An ordinal regression model was used in the analysis.

Empirical results highlight that the transaction risks perceived by food firms play a significant role on the kind of traceability schemes to adopt. There is a positive link between internal risks and the decision to implement complex schemes. Moreover, a negative relationship between the perceived exogenous risks and the complexity of the standard adopted is also observed. Exogenous transaction risk lead to the implementation of standards which do not imply strong co-ordination. On the contrary, internal risks imply complex schemes that lead to closer supply chain relationships.

The analysis is limited to cross-sectional data for a single country, and further investigation would help assess the generalisation of the findings.

The analysis can be considered a useful framework to orient firms strategic decisions towards the most appropriate voluntary standard to adopt for an efficient management of vertical relationships within food supply chains.

The present analysis is the first attempt to explain the determinants leading firms to choose among different kinds of voluntary standards within food supply chains. The approach used reveals that transaction risks can be considered a useful framework to explain firms’ strategic decisions related to the kind of schemes to adopt.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the combined effect of Mergers and Acquisitions (M & A) partners’ technological relatedness and the acquirer’s effective utilization of the target’s knowledge on explorative and exploitative invention performance post-M & A.

Based on the knowledge perspective of an M & A, this study measures how much of the target’s knowledge acquired in an M & A has been effectively transformed into new knowledge. A negative binomial regression on a cross-sectional data set of 152 bio-pharmaceutical firms (59 European firms and 93 North American firms) completing at least one M & A in the period between 2001 and 2005 is conducted. The effect of knowledge utilization is assessed by comparing performance six years before the M & A and six years after.

The effective assimilation and utilization of acquired knowledge positively affects both acquirers’ explorative and exploitative performance post-M & As. The combined effect with technological relatedness, measured as similarity and complementarity, further enhances the acquirer’s technological performance. However, while the utilization of similar knowledge significantly affects only exploitative invention performance, the utilization of complementary knowledge influences both, although explorative more than exploitative performance.

The acquirer’s ability to effectively use the target’s knowledge is crucial in order to support the transformation of the inventive potential, such as is embodied in the interaction between an internal and an external base of knowledge, into new explorative and exploitative performance.

To counter the proliferation of out-of-town shopping centres, a spontaneous or planned coalition loyalty programme (CLP), one involving most retailers in an urban network, may positively affect a town centre's capacity to entice customers and may enhance its competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to assess the effectiveness of CLP implementation in town-centre management (TCM) as a tool for enhancing urban commercial-system attractiveness.

The theoretical framework used in this study is supported by the evaluation methodologies of an empirical case study: the Savigliano Card project. CLP performance analysis uses a dynamic network-competitiveness index, an approach based on Laspeyres-type decomposition. The effects on each retailer's profitability are then tested by matching network and regression analyses.

The results suggest that CLPs implementation in a TCM scheme can produce benefits and positive externalities for customers, retailers and urban areas. CLPs can influence a town centre's revitalisation process, improve the attractiveness of the urban commercial network and increase the profitability of private retailers by enhancing cross-selling dynamics.

The paper provides a CLP performance-evaluation methodology and presents the benefits concerning CLP implementation in TCM strategies.

This type of CLP is weakly exploited in marketing theory and practice; therefore, the paper provides theoretical and empirical explanations for the measurement of CLP effectiveness in TCM. In addition, it has significant implications for both practitioners and academics.

The purpose of this research is to provide a systematic insight into corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship (CC) in supply chain development, by analyzing the current literature, contemporary concepts, data and gaps for future discipline research.

This research identifies information from existing academic journals and investigates research designs and methods, data analysis techniques, industry involvement and geographic locations. Information regarding university affiliation, publishers, authors, year of publication is also documented. A collection of online databases from 2001 to 2018 were explored, using the keywords “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in their title and abstract, to deliver an inclusive listing of journal articles in this discipline area. Based on this approach, a total of 164 articles were found, and information on a chain of variables was collected.

There has been visible growth in published articles over the last 18 years regarding supply chain sustainability, CSR and CC. Analysis of the data collected shows that only five literature reviews have been published in this area. Further, key findings include 41% of publications were narrowly focused on four sectors of industry, leaving gaps in the research. 85% centered on the survey and conceptual model, leaving an additional gap for future research. Finally, developing and developed nation status should be delineated, researched and analyzed based on further segmentation of the industry by region.

This research is limited to reviewing only academic and professional articles available from Emerald, Elsevier, Wiley, Sage, Taylor and Francis, Springer, Scopus, JSTOR and EBSCO containing the words “corporate social responsibility”, “corporate citizenship” and “supply chain” in the title and abstract.

This assessment provides an enhanced appreciation of the current practices of current research and offers further directions within the CSR and CC in supply chain sustainable development.

The first problem is to assemble the works of Pucci; for there is no complete edition. His writings, some still unpublished, are scattered in a large number of manuscripts and these contain many variants, resulting from the popular nature of his verse, for much of it was meant to be recited in the streets and squares of his native town and in the oral tradition it has been considerably changed and modified. The Pucci manuscripts, with the exception of four (one in the Bibliothèque Nationale and three in the Bodleian), are to be found in various libraries in Italy, and editors and compilers of anthologies have taken material from them—a bit here and a bit there—in a haphazard way, printing what suited their purpose and often consulting only one of many manuscripts. Consequently there are different versions of some poems and few are edited critically, though the publication last year of Professor Sapegno's anthology Poeti minori del trecento with its 117 pages devoted to Pucci has remedied this state of affairs for some of the most important. The only collection of Pucci's verse—if we discount a group of sonnets and a sonnet sequence, both published by A. D'Ancona—is that of F. Ferri in La poesia popolare in A. Pucci (1909), and this is a very incomplete and uncritical work; but as it includes many poems not found elsewhere, it is essential for reference. Pucci's work in print must therefore be sought in many places: in F. Ferri (op. cit.), in anthologies, in periodicals, in editions of single or of two or three poems, and in many rare publications—often per nozze and therefore particularly difficult to come by, because of the few copies printed.