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Over the last 100 years, research on interlocking directorates has proliferated. The purpose of this paper is to realize a bibliometric analysis of articles on interlocking directorates to identify the evolutionary patterns that characterize the studies on board interlocks.

A bibliometric analysis of articles on interlocking directorates published since 1914 was realized to evidence how research has evolved over time. Papers were classified according to the research topic, the type of article and the use of different theories to explain board interlocks’ causes and effects.

The authors identified four different periods that characterize board interlocks studies: the emerging debate, the earliest modern era, the modern era and the post-modern era.

This bibliometric analysis assesses the extant literature by highlighting emerging trends and identifying several avenues for future research.

The present study aims to contribute to the growing stream of literature about the network perspective of value co-creation via key account management (KAM) by exploring how firms, in complex industrial markets, use key account strategies to create value, not only for buyers and sellers of industrial products/services but also, more widely, for larger ecosystems of stakeholders. The research question this paper seeks to address is how the KAM approach promotes value co-creation in multi-stakeholder ecosystem.

To answer this research question, this study uses a qualitative research approach based on data triangulation. This study focuses on the market access (MA) strategies implemented by a multinational UK-based pharmaceutical company within the Italian multi-stakeholder health-care ecosystem over several years.

The results show that KAM in complex networks acts as a catalyst for value creation, through multiple interactions with different actors and an ad hoc configuration of five strategic levers: product performance, economic impact, institutional relationships, commercial organization and communication. These levers are able to unlock the appropriate value drivers and form a specific “market access mix” implemented by the firm to both promote the adoption of the firm’s products and generate value for all market stakeholders.

The study offers an innovative and comprehensive evidence-based model for designing specific MA strategies aimed at co-creating value within multi-stakeholder ecosystems. The proposed MA mix outlines the fact that knowledge, relationships and innovation are not unique factors that can be leveraged by stakeholders to co-create value.

In industrial markets, different players concur to diffuse the new products and services. However, in high-regulated industries, firms might find substantial limitations to their usual strategies. This paper aims to analyze the strategic marketing approaches adopted by firms to overcome these limitations.

The authors used a case study approach to explore the strategies adopted by two multinational health-care companies to promote their new products in the Italian health-care market.

The two firms adopted three specific strategic marketing approaches: educational activities for all the different players of the market with the involvement of highly reputed partners (e.g. opinion makers, scientific societies and patients’ associations); simulation of the innovation’s impact on the entire system realized; and creation of an ad hoc organizational unit, called market access unit, to deal with the specific issues of this highly regulated market.

The study contributes to the literature on marketing strategies aimed at promoting the diffusion of new products in highly regulated industrial markets by illustrating the strategic approaches that innovative firms can adopt to both achieve regulatory compliance and promote the diffusion of their new products.

This study aims to provide an exploratory analysis of the role of virtual reality (VR) in the cruise context as a contribution to the limited literature on this topic. In particular, the research investigates immersive VR as a critical touchpoint at the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey.

To achieve the research aims, the authors use a case study approach by analysing the “immersive configurator” (essentially a virtual catalogue) implemented by the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC).

Three innovative functions emerged from the study of the MSC’s virtual catalogue. First, it improves the customer experience and engagement through its interactivity. Second, it allows customization of the prospective cruise experience by selecting and changing types of ship, the level of service, the position of the cabin and much more. Third, it becomes a new digital marketing system endowed with large amounts of data.

This study advances the current state of knowledge by presenting an empirical case study on the role of immersive VR at the pre-purchase stage of the customer journey. Second, it offers interesting implications for managers who want to take advantage of the opportunities offered by VR.

The present study analyses the pre-purchase stage in tourism marketing focused on the use of VR in the tourist experience at the time of service delivery. Second, it enriches the tourism literature by integrating supply-side and demand-side perspectives. Third, from a methodological point of view, this paper offers an in-depth qualitative study in a context where scholars have mostly applied quantitative methods.

以邮轮产业为背景, 鉴于少量的相关文献, 本研究对虚拟现实提供了初步研究。 本论文以侵入式虚拟现实作为顾客购买前关键体验点进行了探索。

为实现研究目的, 本论文运用了案例研究发来分析地中海航运公司MSC目前使用的“侵入式配置程序” （尤其作为虚拟目录）。

通过对MSC虚拟目录的研究, 我们发现了其三大创新功能。第一, 可有效的通过互动来提高顾客体验和参与。第二, 可允许对预期的游轮体验通过选择游轮种类, 服务等级, 船舱的位置等, 来进行量身定制。第三, 基于大量数据积累, 可作为数字营销系统。

通过实证案例研究, 本论文对侵入式虚拟现实在顾客预购体验中的研究文献进行了有效推进。其二, 本研究为期望运用虚拟现实的从业人员提供了新颖的实践知识。

本研究在聚焦在虚拟现实技术运用在旅游营销中的前期游客体验。第二, 本研究整合了供给和需求两方面的视角。第三, 从研究方法的角度, 本研究在普遍运用定量研究的领域提供了深入的定性研究。

The purpose of this paper is to identify the communication patterns adopted by special organisations, called Producers’ Consortia, to promote Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) products. In particular, the paper analyses the key differences among the communication patterns in terms of the task assigned to communication, the communication tools employed to convey key messages to customers and the amount of the budget allocated to the mix of communication.

The authors analysed the communication activities conducted by all the Italian Consortia (112 in total) over a period of four years. A centred log-ratio transformation (clr) was applied to make the compositional data treatable in the Euclidean space. A clustering procedure was then followed to identify the different communication patterns adopted by the Consortia. The authors adopted an analytical framework where different communication patterns of Consortia are identified by the mostly used types (traditional advertising, public relations and digital communication) and the corresponding aimed consumer response (i.e. awareness, attitude and engagement).

This paper identifies four relevant and different communication patterns that co-exist in the Italian PDO market. Each pattern responds to a different logic and focusses on a specific task assigned to communication: to increase the awareness of the PDO label, to improve the attitude towards the PDO products and to enhance the engagement with the PDO’s values.

PDO products are key assets of a growing relevance for the European agri-food industry and consumer education is at the very core of the PDO labelling system. By law, the Consortia are in charge of the crucial task of communicating to customers. This research suggests that the communication of PDO is a complex activity that requires a careful choice of the right communication mix. Different patterns are driven by specific logic and are suitable for Consortia with different characteristics. Future research could complete the results of this study using a qualitative analysis of the content of communication activities. Caution should be used when generalising these findings to markets that present relevant differences in consumer food culture.

This research identifies some possible communication mixes that managers of the Consortia can adopt to promote PDO products and some options that can guide the development of their communication activities over time.

This work adds value to the literature on food marketing, and more specifically on food communication, by analysing the yet underexplored issue of how PDO products can be promoted in the “post-modern” food consumption era.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain the different diffusion dynamics of a technology realized under an open source (OS) regime vs a technology realized under a closed-proprietary (CP) regime.

Following a systematic combining approach, theoretical predictions derived from literature on diffusion of innovation and on open innovation were matched with empirical observations derived from a case study of two mobile operation systems, which were released under different technological regimes.

This paper proposes a theoretical framework and a set of original theoretical propositions that can help to explain the differences in the diffusion dynamics of technologies that are released under different regimes (i.e. CP vs OS).

This paper provides managers a better understanding of the diffusion dynamics of technologies released according to an open innovation strategy. In addition, the empirical case study improves the understanding of an important industry (the MOS industry) that has not been fully investigated from the innovation diffusion perspective. Nevertheless, the efficacy and generalizability of the theoretical framework proposed in this paper require future empirical tests.

This paper makes an original contribution to the open innovation and innovation diffusion literature by linking, in a conceptual model, three antecedents of the diffusion of a new technology that previous literature has considered only separately: the regime under which the technology is released (OS vs CP), the contingencies related to the characteristics of the technology and to the network of its adopters, and the resulting barriers to adoption.

This paper aims to investigate if existing theories really explain interlocking directorates in several countries. Literature on interlocking directorates is huge and fragmented. Articles in the principal management and sociological journals easily number in the hundred. However, the question that still remains is if interlocking directorates are firm’s strategic choices or derivate phenomenon whose explanation comes from other drivers underestimated in literature.

At the aim to fill literature gap, the authors realize a longitudinal and cross-national analysis of existing studies on interlocking directorates.

The authors investigate if existing literature really explains interlocking directorates. Then, the authors offer new perspective for future researches.

The paper offers new perspectives on interlocking directorates’ explanations.

Literature on board interlocks agrees that these inter‐organizational ties are effective channels to exchange information and share knowledge. However, studies that consider the nature and the amount of knowledge that firms exchange are still relatively absent. Filling this gap, this paper aims to identify four types of mechanisms that can be recognised as drivers of interlocks' creation. The first two types deal more strictly with the nature of the knowledge that directors sitting on the board of other firms possess. The other two respond to the willingness of firms to increase their exposure to different sources of knowledge.

Through a statistical analysis the authors study the relationship between the presence of board interlocks and the type of knowledge embedded in these inter‐organizational ties. To test the hypotheses the authors conduct a longitudinal analysis of the whole population of Italian listed firms covering the period from 1998 to 2006.

It is shown that interlocking directorates are mainly associated with an exchange of knowledge in the usual domains of the firm while they are rare in the case of new knowledge. That is, ties among firms of the same industry proliferate while interlocks with organizations of different sectors are infrequent. The only exceptions are links between manufacturing and financial firms driven by the need to share sensible information typical in a borrower‐lender relationship.

The paper introduces and tests a knowledge exchange perspective in analysing interlocking directorates. Differently from previous studies it argues that interlocks can be seen as means to link, through shared directors, different knowledge domains. Thus the paper contributes to the understanding of formation and deletion of these kinds of inter‐organizational ties.

Interlocks' network evolves and changes over time. Ties are created and destroyed and firm's position in the network changes. The alternate views on interlocks' evolution existing in literature lead the authors to investigate interlocks' network dynamics through a framework based on structural and qualitative change. This research aims to analyze qualitative and quantitative evolutions of Italian network of interlocks among firms listed on Milan stock exchange.

The paper uses the dynamic network analysis to test the evolution of Italian network of interlocked firms and its consequence for firms' competitiveness

The article evidences interlocking directorates effects on Italian system's competitiveness

This article offers a new perspective of analysis in interlocking directorates' evolution

The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework to analyze the intellectual capital (IC) of new generation business incubators.

The paper carries out a literature-based analysis of the different components of the IC of business incubators and develops a conceptual framework that links the business incubators’ IC to the IC of incubated firms.

The paper provides an analytical model able to support practitioners and scholars to better understand and evaluate the IC criticalities and requirements of incubators. The notion of incubation path is developed.

The paper contributes to the extant literature about the intangible assets of business incubators by analyzing in detail how these structures use their IC to perform their activities.