Family firm’s management composition: the role played by family members’ age in TMT and supervisor levels

Quality & Quantity - Family firms (FFs) are the backbone of entrepreneurial fabric in many countries. Management of such businesses is complex because of their features: the overlap between...     

The impact of market conditions on the organizational structure and effectiveness of firms operating in Italy

In the past decade, several organization theorists have begun to examine the organization—environmental interface in the functioning of complex organizations and have argued that an organization's internal structural arrangement is contingent upon the demands of the external environment. The purpose of this article is to further examine the validity of the findings of these theorists with reference to firms operating in Italy. The variables studied consisted of: a) Market conditions—which was divided into the two categories of high and low competition. b) Decentralization of decision-making, and c) Organization effectiveness. To investigate the impact of decentralization on the organization effectiveness of firms under differing market conditions the statistical techniques of a Mann-Whitney U Test and Kendall's Tau Measure of Correlation were used to compute the scores. The resulting computations provide some support for the contingency theory of organization, but also indicates areas of disagreement.     

Corporative social responsibilities perceptions: an aproximation through Spanish university students’ values

Examining university students’ values and perceptions of Social Corporative Responsibility (CSR) are one area that could lead to a better understanding of European university students’ behaviour to social initiatives offered by the firms, and the socialization that their academic institutions collaborate to generate in their students. The purpose of this study is to respond the following research questions: (a) what is the university students’ value structure?; (b) what are the perceptions of students about the CSR performance?; (c) how do personal values affect the perceptions of students’ CSR?; And (d) what is the relationship between CSR perception and the background variables? A sample of 1,060 university students from Social Sciences and statistical methods as multidimensional scaling, cluster analysis, and categorical principal component analysis have been used. Through the findings, this paper expects to highlight that the education in values and social responsibility is relevance not only for Society but also for Companies and even more High-Education Institutions.     

Management and performance of Non-Profit Institutions: finding new development trajectories—evidence from Italy

This work tries to deal with Non-Profit Institutions (NPIs) recent challenges, addressing a potential response to the need of managerial approaches and schemes to improve the comprehension of the phenomenon. In particular, the main aim is to identify the prevailing trajectories on which to build a potential theoretical “virtuous” management model. In this perspective, using a statistical analysis on a small case study, the research proceeds to test the coherence of theoretical insights with a possible multifaceted pattern for NPIs in which professionalization, civic-engagement and accountability represent the three fundamental dimensions of what could be defined as “The Cuboid of NPIs Management”.

     

Influence of brand equity on the behavioral attitudes of customers: Spanish Tourist Paradores

Quality & Quantity - The objective of this research is to contrast an explanatory model of how brand equity influences the customer’s behaviour and behavioural intentions. It will take...     

The use of life style segmentation to determine if CATV subscribers are really different

The primary purpose of this study was to identify those characteristics of life style which differentiate and segment subscribers of CATV from non-subscribers. The hypothesis which was assessed by the research study can be stated as: There is no significant difference in the life style of cable television subscribers and non-subscribers. The Mann-Whitney U Test was utilized to statistically determine if there existed any significant difference between these two groups and indicated support for the above-mentioned hypothesis. The results indicate that the life style segmentation technique is a viable research tool and can be quite useful in many ways to a manager in the rapidly growing cable television industry.     

Objects and Subjects in Technological Interdependence. Towards a Framework to Monitor Innovation

Technology, even more than other aspects of economic life, is characterized by a strong interdependence across both sectors and organizations. However, we still know little about the determinants and impact of technological interdependence. The standard input-output analysis is unable to explain interdependence in technological life since a large proportion of innovations are either untraded or are disembodied from products. Innovations which are not appropriated by the innovators are not signalled by prices. Moreover, input-output tables do not systematically consider exchanges within economic organizations, such as firms. This paper proposes a more complex accounting framework for innovation which would monitor the technological field of the innovation and the product where it is used, as well as the producer-user interrelationship.     

Special issue: Qualitative and quantitative methods in tourism research

Quality & Quantity -     

On the relationship between energy-related plants and oncological cases in Basilicata (Italy) using soft computing methods

Quality & Quantity - In Basilicata (Southern Italy), in areas around energy-related plants, including oil extraction sites, oil refineries, and underground gas storage plants, we consider a set...