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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of knowledge leader readiness within large companies operating in a changing environment.

A conceptual framework emerged from an analysis of four large companies and a review of the knowledge management literature. Secondary research was conducted to compare the four large companies against the proposed framework.

The conceptual model is a support to understand an organizations’ reaction to external changes and the role of the knowledge leader’s readiness in managing these changes and adjusting the knowledge management accordingly. From the analysis, it emerged that a knowledge leader’s readiness plays a relevant role in a changing organizational environment owing to his ability to acquire, handle and diffuse knowledge within the company.

The study emphasizes the significance of internal knowledge in managing changes. Practitioners could use this framework as a conceptual guide for their daily challenges and to recruit future leaders.

This study aims to contribute to the knowledge management literature by providing a practical model for organizations facing a changing environment. The originality of the model is the design of different managerial profiles that combine the leaders’ disposition to knowledge and their ability to drive change.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the importance of culture as a motivator for young generations to travel and their willingness of using crowdfunding to sustain culture.

Using a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design and through a quantile regression analysis for count data, a sample of 1,721 Italian young people is examined.

The analysis reveals that culture is a significant factor for a trip’s motivation among young generations and crowdfunding represents a key alternative instrument for financing culture.

The research fills the gap in extant literature by clarifying the role of culture in the choice of a touristic destination by young generations. This is a significant achievement since understanding the motivations is crucial to attract tourists at a specific destination and it represents a relevant insight for policy makers.

The aim of the paper is to test and demonstrate the potential benefits in applying reinforcement learning instead of traditional methods to optimize the content of a company's mobile application to best help travellers finding their ideal flights. To this end, two approaches were considered and compared via simulation: standard randomized experiments or A/B testing and multi-armed bandits.

The simulation of the two approaches to optimize the content of its mobile application and, consequently, increase flights conversions is illustrated as applied by Skyscanner, using R software.

The first results are about the comparison between the two approaches – A/B testing and multi-armed bandits – to identify the best one to achieve better results for the company. The second one is to gain experiences and suggestion in the application of the two approaches useful for other industries/companies.

The case study demonstrated, via simulation, the potential benefits to apply the reinforcement learning in a company. Finally, the multi-armed bandit was implemented in the company, but the period of the available data was limited, and due to its strategic relevance, the company cannot show all the findings.

The right algorithm can change according to the situation and industry but would bring great benefits to the company's ability to surface content that is more relevant to users and help improving the experience for travellers. The study shows how to manage complexity and data to achieve good results.

The paper describes the approach used by an European leading company operating in the travel sector in understanding how to adapt reinforcement learning to its strategic goals. It presents a real case study and the simulation of the application of A/B testing and multi-armed bandit in Skyscanner; moreover, it highlights practical suggestion useful to other companies.

This paper aims at understanding how companies in the agri-food are reconfiguring their competitive strategies to face the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Literature has focused mainly on the effect of the pandemic on the supply chain or in its value chain but little has been said on the competitive strategies adopted to overcome the challenges posed by COVID-19 pandemic.

The study was conducted on Italian companies operating in the agri-food industry from May to September 2020, following a mixed method approach. First, a focus group with experts in competitive strategy and agri-food industry has been organized to identify the most important challenges that companies are facing. Second, through a structured questionnaire, data from 123 companies operating in the agri-food industry were gathered and analyzed with K-means clustering method.

Four clusters of companies were identified, each implementing different strategies to face the COVID-19 pandemic: “the cost fanatics”, “the brand focused”, “the sales centered” and “the strategists”. Furthermore, it was possible to identify new trends in competitive strategies to increase the added value that the Italian agri-food industry can provide to the customer.

The paper answers to the need for an investigation of the competitive strategies that agri-food companies have put in place to face the COVID-19 pandemic; moreover, it provides insights on how companies are adapting themselves to this rapidly changing environment. From a managerial point of view, it gives practitioners and managers useful insights on the different strategies that companies are undertaking to maintain a competitive advantage.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze farmer behavior, considering their attitude toward food waste with particular focus on their involvement in the last phase of the process, the retail phase. It assesses the different approaches applied to food waste management and its future.

A sample of 35 farmers in the Porta Palazzo market, the biggest food market in the Turin Area (north-west Italy), was identified and a survey was carried out to determine the behavior and perception of farmers regarding food waste and the management of unsold food.

Results show that there is a high level of interest on the ethical and charitable aspects of food waste and unsold food. However, awareness and knowledge of the initiatives organized by institutions are not sufficient.

If policy makers and institutions have an understanding of farmer behavior, they can implement ad hoc initiatives to reduce food waste and build on the work already done by farmers. Additionally, farmers can help customers to better understand the products.

This study analyzes the perception of the food waste phenomenon for one type of traditional operator in the food supply chain, the farmer. The originality of the paper lies in the fact that it has not only considered the perception of food waste but also the management of unsold food in a market area.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how influencer endorsement services stimulate funding intention in the context of crowdfunding (donation- and reward-based) and the moderating role played by platform trufvst and funder expertise.

To explore the effects of influencer endorsement services (i.e. perceived congruence, social influence and motivation) on funding intention in different crowdfunding campaigns, the authors developed a conceptual model tested using structural equation modelling. The authors also investigated two potential moderators underlying this relationship: platform trust and funder expertise.

The results of the study indicate that there was a positive effect of influencer endorsement services through the dimension congruence and the funding intention, both for reward- and donation-based crowdfunding. Moreover, they suggest that while perceived congruence has a positive effect on funding intention, when the two contexts are compared, only the moderating roles of platform trust over motivation and the funder expertise over motivation are significant and relevant.

The study has implications for both funders and those who seek to raise money for crowdfunding campaigns. The results offer new insights for developing effective crowdfunding campaigns, e.g. leveraging communication strategies based on the context of the crowdfunding (reward- vs donation-based) and the use of influencers as endorsers.

The present study is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first to examine the impact of influencer endorsement services on crowdfunding campaigns, shedding new light on the interdisciplinary connections between service marketing and entrepreneurial finance in terms of fundraising activities. The study opens new and previously under-investigated interdisciplinary research streams. It deepens our understanding of a particular issue relating to the marketing and crowdfunding domain by measuring the impact of the influencer’s endorsement on people’s intention to participate in two different campaigns.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the cross-border acquisition’s process through the Fiat-Chrysler case. Many automotive companies have considered cross-border mergers and acquisition (M & A) as a necessary step to face increasing competition and globalization, but only few of them were successful. In particular, some best practices in terms of lessons-learned are highlighted.

The paper is based on the analysis of a cross-border acquisition: the qualitative approach allows authors to better understand all the dynamics, complexities and problems that characterize companies facing this process (Yin, 1984). Authors used public information, Internet sources and Fiat’s documents to gather all the necessary information.

In a cross-border acquisition, compatibility and complementarity of products and markets are fundamentals, whereas unmanaged cultural differences, as well as misunderstanding of the real motivations, are a slow but deadly poison: integration and a clear common focus on the final target are key factor for success.

The investigation is limited to the strategy used by Fiat-Chrysler. If the authors’ suggestions can be confirmed or improved by using other case studies, guidelines could be very useful to companies dealing with M & A.

The paper offers recommendations on how big companies can manage a cross-border acquisition, illustrates the key steps to be successful and tries to define the necessary elements for a successful M & A.

The paper shows how two real multinational companies operating in the automotive sector have decided to become one entity; moreover, it highlights the fundamental steps of the process, giving to the management a good example of what must happen in reality.

The increasing importance of branding has been highlighted by many authors and there is a general absence of a clearly defined approach taken by companies to penetrate emerging markets with their brands, especially with reference to the Indian market. This paper aims to investigate brand strategies implemented by food and beverage firms going international and, in particular, to determine how to build the brand strategy on entering emerging markets through acquisitions.

The authors had the opportunity to follow the operation conducted by the Lavazza Company in India for three years (2007‐2010), although the majority of the interviews were done in the first two years of the research. The research focused on the brand strategy for the specific case of the Lavazza Company by using a qualitative approach based on interviews with the Lavazza Management. The first session of interviews was carried out during 2007‐2008 with two objectives: to understand the Lavazza Company's values and strategies, the Indian culture and the opportunities that this country could offer the Italian company; to follow the strategy used by the Italian Company in order to manage the period of transition after the acquisition of the two Indian companies. The second session of interviews was carried out during 2009‐2010 in order to verify the current situation and to finalize the framework developed. Interviews lasted two and a half hours on average and when possible were supported by documentation referring to the strategies adopted in India by Lavazza, and to researches and studies either conducted or commissioned by the Lavazza Company.

The key factors to consider when a European leading brand decides to expand abroad in emerging markets are presented to ensure a successful adaptive brand strategy for the entering company. The authors sum up the main steps to follow in a simple framework, namely a process: of pre‐assessment; adaptive brand strategy building; implementation; and monitoring.

The investigation is limited to the brand strategy used by an Italian company entering the Indian market. It is further limited to the investigation of a single company, the Lavazza Company of Turin, and the manner in which the brand strategy was adapted in this specific case. If improvements can be made to the framework by using other case studies, this guideline could be very useful to companies looking for a structure before entering an emerging market.

The paper offers recommendations on how important firms operating in the food and beverage industry can be most effective in managing their brands abroad and illustrate the required steps and strategic choices that companies need to set in place when deciding to go international.

The paper shows how a real multinational company operates in an emerging market. In this way, it is possible for the management to have an example of what happens in reality.

The purpose of this paper is to propose and empirically test intellectual capital (IC) as a mediator in the corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance (FP) relationship.

The empirical research was conducted on 345 European firms listed in the STOXX Europe 600 index. To evaluate the mediating effect of IC, we applied the four-step Baron and Kenny model, tested through an ordinary least squares regression analysis.

The findings highlighted a partial mediation of IC on the CSR–FP relationship, suggesting that the implementation of CSR strategies has a positive effect on the development of firms' IC, which in turn enhances firms' competitive advantage and superior long-term FPs.

We found a new mediator in the CSR–FP relationship and we contribute to a new line of research that aims to study environmental and sustainability aspects strictly interrelated with IC and performances (sustainable intellectual capital).