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This paper aims to investigate the brand identity drivers used online by wineries and to assess cluster identity from the analysis of firms’ specific branding strategies.

Chianti, Chianti Classico and Brunello di Montalcino wine clusters (located in Tuscany, Italy) were selected as the set for this study. A total of 452 wineries websites were analyzed using a text frequency query, and the results were further examined through a discriminant analysis.

The theoretical framework was modeled after a careful analysis of the literature and is composed of three macro-areas of identity drivers: locational, product/process and social attributes. The analysis of winery websites shows the presence of all the drivers examined, which explain not only the wineries’ specific strategies but also the drivers of a particular cluster’s brand identity. A discriminant analysis highlighted that some drivers are able to explain the unique characteristics of the three clusters.

This research seeks to build a holistic investigation of all the identity drivers used by firms online. The specific brand identity focus and the holistic approach can enrich both academics and practitioners with a framework of current branding strategies.

Focusing on the adoption of Total Quality Management (TQM) principles in universities, this research paper explores how the “soft” dimensions of TQM trigger its “hard” dimensions considering them at the individual (micro-) and the university (meso-), and eventually at cluster (system-), levels.

Adopting a qualitative approach, this study presents an in-depth, longitudinal case study of University of Siena, one of the oldest Italian universities, that has been at the core of the research-based cluster on vaccines, today converged in the Tuscan Life Science Cluster. In particular, data were collected between 2018 and February 2022 and consists of archival data (press articles, websites, books), nine interviews to key informants, multiyear experience of the Life Sciences sector by two of the authors and other material put at disposal by university offices, and emails. Data analysis relied on a timeline, a coding procedure that considered three levels of analysis (individual, organization and cluster). Finally, the authors looked at the “how” and “why” the emerged themes have contributed to academic excellence.

This paper unveils how “soft” and “hard” sides of TQM are blended across multiple levels for reaching academic excellence. The grounded model emerged enlightens the importance of an individual “soft” dimension, academic passion (composed by its three subdimensions of individual research, teaching and entrepreneurial passion) and also sheds light on the organizational “soft” and “hard” sides that the university has been able to design for encouraging research, teaching and third mission quality. Academic excellence has been possible thanks to the capitalization of the individual and organizational “soft” sides into real outcomes as represented by the organizational and individual “hard” sides.

The paper suggests the importance of TQM principles applied at universities' level, providing an in-depth description of “soft” and “hard” sides dimensions of TQM and their impact on all the three pillars of academic excellence. The study findings suggest implications for managers and professionals in the higher education domain as well as for policymakers emphasizing the importance of supporting the individual and organizational soft sides of TQM. The authors provide practical implications recommending universities to consider not only the organizational dimensions but also individual ones when pursuing higher education excellence. In particular, individual passion plays a crucial role and universities need to identify ways of nurturing it. The authors also recommend policymakers to think about new ways to sustain universities as crucial actors in boosting a cluster development, as well as to consider higher education institutions, especially in more rural areas, as a privileged player not only capable of nurturing academic excellence but also able of creating an internationally renowned cluster.

TQM principles have been intensively analysed from an industrial perspective focusing on manufacturing and services, while this paper focuses on TQM in universities, presenting a grounded model that blends the individual and organizational “soft” and “hard” sides.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the points of convergence between intellectual capital and corporate responsibility reports with a focus on human capital issues.

To investigate this degree of integration the paper analyzes the common elements between human capital accounting and the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines 2002. The assessment methodology consists of a study of which indicators for employees proposed in GRI guidelines are frequently used in 20 international best practices for intellectual capital reports.

Results show a large overlapping of indicators around three issues: the description of human capital, the reporting on diversity and opportunity, and the measurement of the quality and intensity of training.

The research is focused on human capital that is one of the three dimensions of intellectual capital. It could also be interesting to study the points of convergence between corporate responsibility and the remaining two dimensions of intellectual capital: network capital and organizational capital.

The results demonstrate that the opportunity exists to integrate intellectual capital and corporate responsibility report in a global report, that will be useful to orient the sustainability practices in developing human capital.

This paper sustains the possibility that a correct management of corporate responsibility practices will be an opportunity to develop intellectual capital and a source of value creation.

This methodological paper aims to demonstrate the potential benefits of using consumer neuroscientific methodologies to measure consumers’ subconscious responses when consuming wine during a taste experiment. By comparing conscious and subconscious evaluations during a tasting experience this study illustrates how this methodology offers a more nuanced understanding of the consumer evaluation of wine during a consumption experience.

The research made use of a single-case taste test experiment whereby a wine expert blind-tasted 20 white wine varietals. Throughout each tasting, subconscious responses were measured using electroencephalography (EEG), combined with conscious measures of stated preferences using a questionnaire.

Stark differences were observed between the results of the conscious and subconscious wine evaluation measures, underscoring the complex nature of consumer decision-making and preference development. This study practically demonstrates the use and value of EEG as a consumer neuroscientific methodology in a wine marketing context.

This paper demonstrates the value of neuroscience techniques in identifying differences in the conscious and subconscious wine evaluation measures. This study practically demonstrates the use and value of EEG as a consumer neuroscientific methodology in a wine marketing context.