Scholars have only recently been focusing on the study of knowledge in the formation of loyalty in cultural festivals and much remains to be understood regarding this. The present study adopts a managerial standpoint and develops a knowledge-based model of attendee loyalty in cultural festivals in which the role of authenticity is also evaluated. It considers two knowledge-based constructs, prior knowledge and acquired knowledge, referring to the cultures and the traditions evoked during the festival, and intercepts their role with respect to loyalty also in conjunction with authenticity. Based on data collected from 306 attendees at a cultural festival organized annually in South Italy, a co-variance-based SEM was performed. Results highlight that prior and acquired knowledge positively influence loyalty. Perceived authenticity acts as a mediator in these relationships. These findings provide theoretical and practical implications for researchers and festival organizers.

This study focuses on Environmental Concern and questions the role that Spiritual Motivation plays in its relationship with Pro-Environmental Behaviour. Drawing upon a sample of approximately 592 individuals who have visited Assisi (Italy), a covariance-based structural equation model (SEM) is developed. The results reveal that Environmental Concern positively impacts Pro-Environmental Behaviour, and Spiritual Motivation mediates this relationship. For younger and more-educated visitors, the influence of Environmental Concern on Pro-Environmental Behaviour is stronger than other groups. Notably, Spiritual Motivation is a mediator within this relationship for all visitor groups considered, yet the mediation effect is more pronounced for older and less-educated visitors.

Young Innovative Companies have received considerable attention in the last decade in entrepreneurship and management literature. These firms need financial resources to develop but lack legitimacy in the eyes of investors. This paper empirically explores the determinants of fundraising by analysing 545 Italian innovative start-ups, as defined by the Law 221/2012. In an institutional perspective we propose a model that considers the effect of three different sources of legitimacy. Results show that team educational and professional diversity, incubation and IPRs play a significant role in legitimating the company in the fundraising process.

Abstract: The market value of global influencer marketing has more than doubled since 2019 (Statista, 2021). The emergence of the so-called virtual influencers (VIs) has redefined the boundaries of possibilities in this “industry” attracting the interest of many brands and raising several questions about their development, ethics, purpose in marketing and perspective. These ‘new’ social media celebrities have also attracted the attention of the scientific community but research has yet to explore how VIs are likely to reshape the practice of marketing. This study aims to better understand the attitudes and reactions of Generations Y and Z (the most attractive target group for influencers) towards VIs—in particular, to find out how VIs are perceived by younger customers and whether VIs can effectively persuade them to buy certain products. Two focus groups were conducted to facilitate an initial response to a relatively new phenomenon, and to gain a social, contextual view of the issue. Our results showed that human influencers still outperform the virtual ones for a number of reasons, ranging from the impossibility of identifying with digital creatures, the inability of the latter to demonstrate the efficacy of the products on themselves and the impossibility, expressed by many respondents, of empathising with entities that appear soulless and largely manipulated by those who—anonymously, behind their backs—are only interested in selling products.

Purpose The purpose of the present study is to investigate travel agencies' social media usage and its perceived effectiveness by small- and micro-Italian travel agencies; the pre-pandemic period is compared to the forecasts for the post-Covid-19 period and different characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs are considered. Furthermore, the study analyses the expected benefits in terms of marketing objectives, such as improving brand image and/or personalizing the offer. Design/methodology/approach The research was developed through a questionnaire administered electronically to travel agents (282 respondents). The resulting data was analyzed by applying the McNemar test, a pairwise t -test and the multivariate analysis of variance. Findings The results show that social media are strategically significant for travel agents, even though their adoption is influenced by different agency aims; the perceived effectiveness results are diversified according to varying agency typologies. Research limitations/implications The two main limitations of the study are its focus on the Italian context only and the missing consideration of the consumer's point of view. The latter prevents an exhaustive assessment of future trends regarding the use of social media in the client–agency relationship. Originality/value The study, which focuses on a little debated topic concerning the relationship between social media and SMEs, organically explores various dimensions related to the adoption of social media by small agencies, also considering the impact of the Covid-19 on the perception of travel agents. As a further element of originality, the research takes into consideration the main social platforms separately rather than the set of tools as a whole.

Scholars have long undervalued the role of knowledge in the formation of festival loyalty. The purpose of this study is to define a knowledge-based model of attendee loyalty at a cultural festival. It evaluates the influence of cultural motivation - descending from knowledge needs - and acquired knowledge in the formation of festival loyalty and assesses the role of festival attachment and satisfaction in explaining the nexus between acquired knowledge and loyalty. A questionnaire survey was administered to 456 attendees at the 'Sponz Fest', a festival organized annually in South Italy. Data were analysed by applying a covariance-based structural equation model in two stages. The results highlight that loyalty depends on knowledge acquisition, which, in turn, is influenced by cultural motivation. Satisfaction and festival attachment act as mediators in the relationship between acquired knowledge and loyalty. These findings offer a new perspective on the explanation of the formation of loyalty to cultural festivals in light of knowledge-based constructs. Moreover, it allows to understand how specific constructs of affective and cognitive nature intervene in explaining why acquired knowledge leads attendants to be more loyal to this type of festival. The managerial implications of these findings are provided for festival organizers.

This paper aimed to investigate consumer scepticism towards third-party sustainability labels in the context of food products, evaluating its role in the formation of the customer's buying behaviour. A covariance-based structural equation model (CB-SEM) was developed, and it included the customer's socio-environmental concern, scepticism toward sustainability labels, reported use of the socio-environmental commitment declared by the producer, and purchase behaviour of sustainably-labelled food products. The model was tested on a sample of 311 Italian high-educated young consumers, a group of sustainability-conscious individuals. The findings highlight that purchase behaviour is positively influenced by two reciprocally-related variables: socio-environmental concern and the reported use of the socio-environmental commitment declared by the producer. While other studies have ascertained that scepticism is an antecedent of purchase behaviour, this study findings highlight it can also be considered a mediator of the relationships between purchase behaviour and other antecedents considered in this model. In addition to advancing the study on the role of scepticism in the formation of purchasing decisions for food products, drawing on signalling theory, this study provides insights for practitioners and policymakers, highlighting the absolute necessity to reassure consumers about the credibility of third-party sustainability labels and providing them with the instruments needed to distinguish the truth from the fluff in sustainability communication.

This study provides insights into young consumers’ responses to sustainable labels. Drawing on signaling theory, the article studies how third-party labels (TPLs) act and interact with company-level claims, trying to better understand their impact on young consumers’ perceptions and willingness to buy (pay for) a chocolate bar. A between-subjects factorial experiment—conducted by manipulating third-party sustainable labels (presence/absence of the labels) and self-declared claims (absence of the claim, formal claim, and friendly claim)—was used to test: (a) the effect of TPLs and self-declared claims on consumers’ perceptions, purchase intention, and willingness to pay, (b) whether this effect was mediated through the perceived credibility of the sustainability message, and (c) what kind of tone-of-voice adopted in the company’s claim was more effective. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 315 consumers (age range: 18–39 years) in South Italy. We found that third-party labels, “alone” were not effective in influencing consumers’ perceptions and willingness to buy/pay, while a self-declared claim, especially if characterized by a formal tone of voice, had a much more relevant impact. The combination of TPLs and self-declaration affected most consumers’ willingness to pay when the copy claim was informal. The perceived credibility of the sustainability message mediated the relationships between self-declared claims and the majority of the dependent variables, while, with reference to the relationship between TPLs and dependent variables, it did not act as a mediator.

In the last decades, the attention of scholars to innovation orientation has grown considerably. Despite this, a shared definition and a common view regarding this concept are still missing. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on innovation orientation (IO). On the basis of relevant literature, we investigate IO with specific reference to Italian small and medium enterprises producing building materials. Following the Benzecri's data analysis approach, characterised by applying in sequence multiple correspondence analysis and cluster analysis, we identify factors which best describe the phenomenon and define a typology of innovation orientations. The paper has important implications for both researchers and practitioners. It can contribute to addressing further research, highlighting the most significant indicators and dimensions of IO. It can also be helpful to practitioners, in order to understand which aspects to emphasise, with the objective of increasing the IO of the firm.

Arts entrepreneurship is not a new area of investigation, but it is far from constituting a consolidated topic. Scholars coming from several fields rediscovered it only in recent years, after a period in which it has been slow to emerge. Since the early 2000s, they developed a heterogeneous literature, which is difficult to disentangle. The purpose of this study is to shed light on arts entrepreneurship literature, outlining the most significant issues emerged and their trajectories for future development. We attempted to achieve the purpose of this chapter through a qualitative analysis of the relevant literature on the topic. Results revealed the most relevant issues to which scholars are devoting their efforts. With respect to these, we tried to identify subthemes and we attempted to trace the trajectories for future research. The first main theme concerns the entrepreneur in the arts, focusing on aspects such as identity and characteristics, and examining training and entrepreneurial education. Another theme regards entrepreneurship and training, which is attracting increasing attention, thanks also to the emergence of specific curricula and arts incubators. Besides these themes, other collateral issues emerged. Ultimately, literature is complex and multifaceted, but it is possible to read it with greater clarity.

In the last years, entrepreneurship scholars devoted more and more attention to entrepreneurship in the arts. The figure of the artist-entrepreneur is particularly debated, wondering whether he has any peculiar characteristics and whether he is able to reconcile entrepreneurial and artistic spheres of action. Drawing on entrepreneurship literature and on the emerging arts entrepreneurship literature, this paper aims at exploring the figure of the arts entrepreneur, highlighting the possible co-existence of the artist and the entrepreneur. Following a qualitative approach, we consider the case of David Bowie, focusing on the period 1964-2016. We draw on secondary data. Data sources are: interviews, the official website, the official social media pages, documentaries. We demonstrate not only that the artist can be an entrepreneur, but also that the artistic and entrepreneurial spheres of action are not in conflict, but instead they are mixed and feed each other.

Innovation can be a driver for value creation, variously understood. The emergence of Corporate Social Responsibility highlighted many potential benefits descending from innovation in industries traditionally considered “low-tech”, where the spheres of value concerning the environment and society are of particular importance in the eyes of a consumer who behaves like a “responsible citizen”. This paper examines a case of “responsible innovation” in an wine cooperative, from which internal and external effects originate, able to increase the multiple dimensions of value, involving both the project leader and the territory.

Scholars have long overlooked entrepreneurship in the performing arts. The difficulty of making firms operating in these contexts economically self-sufficient and the consequent dependence on public funding have long diverted the attention of scholars from this topic. Only recently, especially thanks to the advancements in theory on entrepreneurship, the phenomenon has begun to be examined in these contexts. This paper, which is mainly based on literature on entrepreneurship and on nascent literature focused on arts entrepreneurship, aims at exploring the entrepreneurial phenomenon with reference to a specific art: the theatre. It is focused on a firm operating in Italy, whose institutional system is characterized to be of particular, although decreasing, support for firms operating in cultural industries. The case study identifies the dimensions of entrepreneurship, declined considering the specificity of the activity and the context in which the firm operates.

In the current capitalist system some contexts are characterized by areas of knowledge partly unexploited. This paper attempts to clarify the concept of entrepreneurial ecosystem, focusing on the role of knowledge. In particular, it emphasizes the role of the cognitive surplus, which can be viewed as the element from which it is possible to trigger the entrepreneurial ecosystem, examining its relationship with knowledge spillovers. The function of the coordinating entities, in order to favor the spillover and the cognitive sustainability of the ecosystem, is then considered.

In global markets, firms should be connected to a p lurality of external actors to acquire knowledge for sustainable competitive advan tage. Over the last decade, knowledge management scholars have highlighted the opportunity to acquire a wide spectrum of knowledge from clients, not limite d to their characteristics and preferences. This opportunity is particularly evide nt, considering small software firms operating on commission, due to their interac tion with clients; at the same time, it represents a challenge for small companies , because the knowledge acquired from clients is usually context-specific a nd can become an opportunity.

Scholars tend to examine knowledge spillover particularly with reference to science-based and hi-tech industries, but little is known about this phenomenon within cultural industries. Some entrepreneurship scholars try to figure out how new ventures can arise starting from knowledge spillovers. This chapter shows how knowledge spillovers can occur within cultural industries and why it is usually difficult for these moments to give rise to entrepreneurial initiatives. The chapter offers a case study to provide a deep understanding of the phenomenon and to identify areas for future research.

Obiettivi . La valorizzazione della conoscenza e un tema cruciale negli studi di management. Non tutta la conoscenza prodotta si trasforma in conoscenza utile per l’impresa generante; la parte non sfruttata puo dare origine a knowledge spillover. Il fenomeno e stato ampiamente esplorato con riferimento ai cluster tecnologici e piu recentemente in relazione alle ripercussioni sull’attivita imprenditoriale. Il tema ha, tuttavia, ricevuto scarsa attenzione con riguardo all’industria culturale. Riteniamo che le imprese culturali siano caratterizzate da elevati investimenti in conoscenza, incorporati in una base simbolica, da cui potrebbe originarsi KS con potenziali rilevanti impatti sulla vitalita del territorio. L’obiettivo del paper consiste nell’investigare le caratteristiche dei KS e la possibile valorizzazione facendo riferimento ad uno specifico evento culturale Metodologia . Trattandosi di un’analisi esplorativa, si adotta un approccio qualitativo basato sull’analisi longitudinale di un caso di studio rilevante rispetto al fenomeno esaminato Risultati . I principali risultati della ricerca suggeriscono che negli eventi culturali esistono le pre-condizioni per i knowledge spillover, tuttavia, la loro concreta manifestazione e, conseguentemente, le ripercussioni positive sul territorio risultano complesse. Limiti della ricerca . Lo studio si riferisce all’analisi di un singolo caso;in futuro l’analisi sara estesa a casi in cui dai KS si sono originate nuove imprese Implicazioni pratiche . Dalla ricerca emergono interessanti implicazioni manageriali in termini di reti sociali, nonche suggerimenti ai policy maker per agevolare il processo. Originalita del lavoro . Il lavoro mira a fornire un contributo originale sulla valorizzazione esterna della conoscenza, attraverso i KS e i riflessi sul territorio negli eventi culturali, ambito rilevante ma poco esplorato dalla letteratura.