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City image has been defined as the sum of beliefs, ideas and impressions people hold regarding a city. While abundant literature has explored city image from tourists’ perspectives, few studies have explored residents’ perceptions, and even fewer have compared city image as perceived by tourists and residents. In addition, very few studies have compared tourists’ and residents’ perceptions of city image in small- to medium-sized destinations. Considering these research gaps, the purpose of this paper is to address city image in a medium-sized destination, Verona, in northern Italy with three specific objectives: to examine residents’ perceptions of the city of Verona’s image; to examine tourists’ perceptions of the city of Verona’s image and to compare the perceptions of the two groups.

The research was conducted through questionnaires collected among residents and tourists in Verona. Questionnaires were based on a multi-item scale addressing four dimensions of the city image.

The findings show that residents and tourists hold similar perceptions of city image regarding services and leisure, security and entertainment. The only significant difference in city image concerns the municipal facilities. Specifically, residents are more critical than tourists about this dimension of city image.

The research provides useful implications for policy makers and destination management organisations, and shows some strengths and weaknesses of Verona.

The study addresses the image of a medium-sized city that is typical in the Italian context, thus enhancing knowledge about city image. In addition, by testing and enhancing a scale previously used only to measure residents’ perceptions, the study provides a common measurement instrument to compare tourists’ and residents’ perceptions.

Responsible management of water resources is critical owing to its effects on the environment and society. This study aims to address customer perceptions of a water utility during a severe environmental crisis that affected northern Italy and aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR), perceived crisis response and corporate reputation.

This study draws on legitimacy theory and attribution theory, adopting a quantitative design. In detail, a moderated mediation model is used to investigate the direct effect of CSR on reputation, the mediating effect of perceived crisis response on the relationship between CSR and reputation and the moderating effect of blame attribution on the relationship between CSR and perceived crisis response. In addition, the evolution of the crisis event and its management is traced through the analysis of the water utilities’ sustainability reports published since the beginning of the crisis.

The findings show that CSR affects corporate reputation directly and via perceived crisis response. In addition, CSR improves perceived crisis response, especially when an organization is held responsible for a crisis. The analysis of the CSR report allows for understanding the evolution of CSR policies of water utilities, shifting attention from a merely informative role of sustainability disclosure to a more comprehensive approach to perfluoroalkyl substances risks in the struggle of contributing to sustainable development. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.

The findings suggest some managerial implications about the usefulness of adopting CSR for crisis management and, furthermore, the importance of communicating CSR policies to all stakeholders overall – the customers of public utilities.

This paper focuses on the relationship between CSR, reputation and blame attribution. Literature on this topic is still scarce overall in the field of public utilities. Furthermore, this study is relevant because it faces one of the major European environmental crises that affected the water sector and provides helpful insights for all public utility sectors and, more generally, for environmental crisis management.

This study focuses on memorable customer shopping experience design in the sporting goods retail setting. It aims to identify the phygital customers' needs and expectations that are satisfied through in-store technologies and to detect the in-store strategies that use these technologies to make the store attractive and experiential.

This exploratory study adopted a qualitative research methodology, specifically a multiple-case study, by performing semi-structured interviews with sporting goods store managers.

Sporting goods retailers use various in-store technologies to create a phygital customer shopping experience, including devices, mobile apps, wireless communication technologies, in-store activations, support devices, intelligent stations, and sensors. To improve the phygital customer journey and the phygital shopping experience, retailers meet customers' needs for utilitarian, hedonic, social, and playfulness experiences. Purely physical or digital strategies, as well as phygital strategies, are identified. This research also proposes a model of in-store phygital customer shopping experience design for sporting goods retailers.

Sporting goods managers can invest in multiple technologies by designing a physical environment according to the customers' needs for utilitarian, hedonic, social, and playful experiences. In addition, they can improve the phygital customer shopping experience with specific push strategies that increase customer engagement and, in turn, brand and store loyalty.

This study highlights how the phygital customer experiential journey can be created through new technologies and improved with specific reference to the sporting goods stores.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of actual and ideal congruity in predicting the repurchase intentions of young women in relation to inconspicuous fashion items.

The research focussed on a non-luxury intimate apparel brand, typical of daily use and private consumption. Regression analyses were conducted on a sample of 308 young female consumers to identify the effect of actual and ideal congruity in determining repurchase intentions. A cluster analysis based on actual self-concept was employed to develop a typology for consumers.

Unexpectedly, the findings revealed that ideal congruity is a stronger predictor of repurchase intentions than actual congruity. Further, based on actual self-concept, three profiles of young women emerged: active romantics, self-assureds and reliables. The clusters differed in relation to perceptions of brand personality and the effect of self-congruity on repurchase intentions.

This study was conducted using participants from one university in Northern Italy. Thus, the main limitations of this study relate to sample size and selection. Additionally, this study only investigated the perceptions of young women.

This study suggests that non-luxury intimate apparel items, typical of daily use, are not merely functional purchases, but reflect young women’s self-expression motives. Accordingly, fashion marketers should focus on consumers’ ideal self-concepts to develop effective promotion strategies. Further, specific dimensions of brand personality should be considered in relation to the different clusters.

This study shows that repurchase intentions towards inconspicuous non-luxury fashion items are explained more by self-esteem motives (i.e. ideal congruity) than self-consistency motives (i.e. actual congruity).

Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many restaurants and catering businesses have introduced or improved online food ordering and delivery services (OFODSs). This study aims to identify service quality expectations about OFODSs, to examine their content and to suggest management strategies to meet these expectations.

Adopting a qualitative method, four focus groups were conducted amongst Italian users of OFODSs.

The results reveal three dimensions of expectations, each comprising two categories that can be set along a continuum: (1) basicness of expectations (ranging from implicit to explicit), (2) accuracy of expectations (ranging from fuzzy to precise) and (3) attainability of expectations (ranging from realistic to unrealistic). Content may refer to technical, social, economic, legal and technological aspects. To meet customer expectations, the following strategies are suggested: customer reassurance, flexibility, continuous improvement, customer education, adaptation to customers' requirements and monitoring of exceptions.

This study provides specific activities in which restaurants and catering businesses could invest to enact the management strategies that emerged from the analysis.

This paper proposes a new classification of expectations and framework for improving OFODS quality by managing customer expectations.

This study aims to examine the role of the servicescape in the customer experience management (CEM) of a themed amusement park following the COVID-19 pandemic. Considering the managers’ and customers’ perspectives, this study specifically addresses the following three research questions: first, What changes have occurred in the servicescape following the adoption of safety measures in the park in response to the COVID-19 pandemic? Second, What are the effects of these safety measures in relation to CEM? Third, What are the changes that could be maintained in the future to continue improving the customer experiential journey in the park?

A single case study method was adopted. Gardaland Park was selected as the case for this study. Data were collected from several sources: in-depth interviews with managers of Gardaland Park, focus group interviews with customers, and the corporate website and documentary. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to examine the data.

The findings reveal that safety measures affect the physical, social and digital (e- and smart) servicescape by influencing the aesthetic (reassurance), entertainment (relaxation), escapist (enjoyment and distraction) and educational (learning) experiences. Among the various changes implemented, the digital servicescape can be improved in the future when the pandemic is over by providing flexible solutions in relation to services at the park (e.g. virtual queuing) or on the website (e.g. dynamic booking).

The findings provide park managers with practical advice about servicescape organization to facilitate offering safe and memorable customer experiences.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to address the effects of safety measures on the servicescape and CEM in themed amusement parks after the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study aims to assess whether and how non-born-sustainable business incubators (BIs) – that is, BIs whose business model was not originally sustainability-oriented – promote sustainable entrepreneurship development.

The study adopts a qualitative research design based on grounded theory and an interpretive approach. The analysis is developed by collecting interviews with ten Italian BIs, selected by purposive sampling and examining data using the Gioia methodology.

The results show that BIs, using various specific tools, facilitate the creation of a sustainability-oriented ecosystem. In this context, BIs help start-ups develop a purpose, a cultural mindset and business models that enable them to face the challenges of today’s competitive environment, in which sustainability has become (and will increasingly be) an essential requirement for companies.

This study contributes to the literature by highlighting the active role of non-born-sustainable BIs in promoting the development of sustainable entrepreneurship.

This research has practical implications related to the opportunities for embedding sustainability in BIs’ purpose and defining a framework of operations and practices that can boost innovativeness while having a positive impact on the community and on the environment. Finally, findings suggest that BIs can foster cost reduction when implementing sustainability in start-ups.

The study suggests that BIs, as drivers of social change, could be sustained by public assistance and help from well-established firms to promote the spread of sustainable entrepreneurship culture and the success of sustainability-oriented start-ups.

BIs have the potential to promote sustainable entrepreneurship, but this topic is still under-researched. While existing studies have examined the role of born-sustainable BIs in specific business sectors, this research is one of the first attempts to explore the role of non-born-sustainable BIs in fostering sustainable entrepreneurship.

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study clarifies the roles of authenticity, interactivity and involvement in predicting customer engagement (CE) and, ultimately, customer loyalty towards an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. In addition, the study explores the effect of interactivity in increasing authenticity.

Data were collected through an online questionnaire of a sample of Italian tourists who had previously booked a service on Airbnb. The analyses were conducted by adopting partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The model has high power in predicting customer loyalty to an online peer-to-peer accommodation platform. Specifically, involvement is the primary predictor of CE and customer loyalty. Authenticity and interactivity also have a significant and positive effect both on CE and customer loyalty. In addition, CE partially mediates the relationship between authenticity, interactivity and involvement and customer loyalty. Finally, interactivity has a significant positive effect on authenticity.

The results encourage hospitality service providers to invest in the creation (and co-creation) of authentic experiences to increase CE and customer loyalty. Hospitality managers can also enhance CE by increasing involvement and interaction with customers through various touchpoints (online and offline) in different moments of the customer journey.

This study proposes an original model to predict customer loyalty to peer-to-peer hospitality platforms. The findings shed new light on the drivers of CE and provide empirical support for the mediating effect of CE. The study also contributes to the literature on authenticity by demonstrating the positive effect of interactivity on authenticity.

The purpose of this paper is to profile wayfinders into homogeneous sub-groups according to their wayfinding ability, and to investigate the differences between the clusters identified and their evaluations of satisfaction.

This study uses survey data collected in a hospital in the Northern part of Italy. The survey questionnaire assessed the participants’ self-estimation of wayfinding ability in terms of wayfinding competence, wayfinding strategy and wayfinding anxiety, as well as the wayfinder’s satisfaction.

The findings propose that three factors, namely, individual orientation skills, confidence in servicescape elements and anxiety control, contribute to defining wayfinding ability. Based on these factors, cluster analysis reveals three profiles of wayfinders, as follows: the Easy Goings, the Do-it-yourselves and the Insecures. Group differentiation comes from wayfinding ability and customer satisfaction levels.

The results of this study advance the segmentation literature by analyzing different types of wayfinding ability that can lead to different satisfaction levels.

These findings will help service managers improve servicescape design and help them formulate effective targeting strategies.

While previous research outlined the importance of some factors such as gender differences, familiarity with the service environment and cognitive approaches, this study recommends the examination of the profile of visitors to the service setting to allow them to find their way more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to explore loyalty and switching behavior among corporate energy customers in Italy. Thanks to the recent liberalization process, firms have now the opportunity to evaluate alternative energy providers and try to reduce their energy expenses. Nonetheless their switching rate in Italy is currently as low as 6.3 percent.

The study is based on a cross-sectional analysis of the switching behavior of a sample of 110 Italian small and medium firms that purchase natural gas from a middle-sized natural gas supplier.

The analysis emphasizes the role of price convenience (but not of dissatisfaction with the service provision) as a driver of the intention to switch to a new supplier. The negative impact of procedural and relational switching costs on the intention to switch emerges, as well.

The sample size was quite limited. Moreover participants were all customers of one natural gas supplier only.

The findings highlight the need for gas service providers to focus on customer orientation and loyalty to stimulate customer loyalty and not just customer repurchases.

Whilst a few studies have explored switching behavior and loyalty among private energy customers, this study investigates this issue among corporate energy customers.