E-Banking in Italy: An Analysis of the Evolution of Prices, Services and Competition Strategies

There are been many claims that the Internet could represent a “frictionless” and almost perfect market [1]. This belief was particularly evident in that banking industry, where Internet was considered as a source of sustainable competitive advantage for a new generation of banks focused on this sale channel. E-banking in Italy, ever if it was started later then U.S.A. and other european countries as now reached a fast expersion stage. Most of the banks though whit different timing and structures have developped web-sites to growt customers banking and trading access through Internet. At the same time new competitors not in the banking business have recently entered in the market. Our research empirically analysed the e-banking services offered by a sample of 54 Italian banks. We considered as e-banking services all banking services that can be accessed through the Internet. Data on offered services and their prices were collected on a quarterly base. We analysed the following aspects: - Trend in services offered on-line to customers; - Trend in market segmentation and in banks strategies; - The economics emerging from the competition in on-line banking. We used these data for testing the hypothesis of “frictionless market”. The obtained results seem to show that the market of e-banking services is very different from early expectations, and that economies of scale and brand remain as important sources of competitive advantage

The implications of entrepreneurship education on the careers of PhDs: evidence from the challenge-based learning approach

We analysed the academic and business outcomes of 73 PhDs who attended an entrepreneurial education program, co - designed by two universities in collaboration with an international research center, in the last five years, and compared these results against 73 PhDs who did not attend the program. We based our analysis on a mix of quantitative and qualitative data regarding scientific and entrepreneurial achievements, as well as interviews with former pr ogram participants. Evidence from our analysis shows a positive effect of the entrepreneurial education program on the academic and business outcomes of PhDs

Can challenge-based learning be effective online? A case study using experiential learning theory

The COVID-19 outbreak had a major effect on moving online learning activities, also traditionally experiential ones such as those designed upon Challenge-Based Learning (CBL) principles. This article explores the impacts produced on a Challenge-Based Innovation project work carried out in the context of a program developed by Politecnico di Milano and Politecnico di Torino. A survey of 92 students and interviews were carried out to assess the impact on learning outcomes and processes, and four main success factors were identified: informal interaction, time for exploration, asynchronous lecturing, relevant challenges. Suggestions for an effective design of online CBI-like programs are offere

ICT AND THE CHANGING NATURE OF COMPETITION: EVIDENCE FROM INFORMATION INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES IN ITALY

Despite the increasing interest over the transformations induced by ICT on industry structure and competition, there is still not a unified view on the effects of ICT on industrial change. On the one hand, ICT is expected to bring more competition, to reduce entry barriers and to leave more opportunities for small entrepreneurial firms. On the other hand, there is evidence of the increased market concentration favoured by ICT. The changing nature of competition has been so far studied more at firm level and more of the empirical evidence is for highly information intensive economies like the US. This paper tries to bridge this gap analysing 209 industries in Italy between 2002 and 2011. Our results show a significant effect of ICT on industry dynamics. Firstly, we find that information intensive industries showed a higher productivity, a higher market concentration and a greater profit dispersion compared to their counterparts, thus extending related studies that identify mechanisms for ICTenabled value creation in US. Secondly, we do not find phenomena of hi-growth of SMEs in information intensive industries as a consequence of the limited capability of Italian SMEs to use ICT to start hi-growth entrepreneurial ventures, differently from what happens in other countries

The fast response of academic spinoffs to unexpected societal and economic challenges. Lessons from the COVID‐19 pandemic crisis

The rapid emergence of the COVID‐19 crisis has challenged both private and public firms, requiring them to reshape their internal processes and external linkages in the fight against the virus, but also to survive the disrupting economic impact of the pandemic on their activities. Academic spinoffs have not been exempted from these dynamics. In this paper, we present and discuss a case study of an academic spinoff, Omnidermal, which has developed a new, efficient and easy‐to‐realize emergency life support machine for use in intensive and sub‐intensive care units. This case, apart from offering information on the best practices of how spinoffs may contribute socially to the fight against COVID‐19 and – more in general – against other exogenous shocks, also provides insights on their stages of development, evolution patterns and ability to define new solutions. The case shows that when the market needs are clear to a firm (as in the case of medical devices during the COVID‐19 crisis), the ‘legacy competences and practices’ of spinoffs (i.e., technical competences and work practices) can be fully exploited to compress the development time and to realize products demanded by the market. We also identify access to a network as being an essential boundary condition for this process. These results introduce an alternative scope for academic spinoffs. Given the ‘legacy competences and practices’ they are able to develop, they are ideal candidates to respond to the societal and economic challenges posed by a crisis over short periods of time. On the basis of these insights, we draw a series of implications for practitioners, policy makers and academics

Sustained value creation driven by digital connectivity: A multiple case study in the mechanical components industry

This paper investigates how digital connectivity drives new forms of sustained value creation in traditional in- dustries, where many firms still compete and strategize within a traditional industry structure and supply chain logic. We perform a multiple case study with four companies active in the vehicle component industry and implementing digital connectivity in a business-to-business (B2B) setting. Results show that digital connectivity enables greater transparency, trust, and collaboration with customers and creates new forms of value creation through companies’ strategizing actions – aimed at developing highly customized solutions – and critical capa- bilities – needed to configure a customer-centric value chain, integrate buyer-supplier digital resources, and improve the coherence between data-driven decision-making, lean management, and employees’ skills. We shed light on how manufacturers leveraged digital connectivity to successfully assimilate and scale up their digital- related capabilities across different dimensions, transforming their business models in a sustained way. This should also complement a change in the governance of customer transactions, fostering transparency and trust. Fine-tuning and expanding well-established B2B relationships through digital connectivity become a priority for traditional businesses to change to new and efficiently sustained value co-creation forms that can be com- plemented to a successful business model innovation or co-creation strictly linked to larger network connections

The impact of Airbnb on the economic performance of independent hotels: an empirical investigation of the moderating effects

The evidence on the effect that sharing economy accommodation platforms have on the performance of hotels is not univocal, and a general picture about the circumstances under which hotels may suffer the least from this disruption is still missing. This paper contributes to bridge this gap by examining the role that contingent factors can play in reducing the negative impact of Airbnb on the profitability growth of independent hotels. We examine whether the attractiveness of the city zone where hotels are located and their online reputation moderate the effect that the usage of Airbnb listings has on the profitability growth of independent hotels. Using a panel dataset of a sample of 725 independent hotels located in six Italian cities with high tourism attractiveness, and by triangulating ISTAT, AIDA, AirDNA, TripAdvisor and Trustyou datasets, we found that the negative effect of Airbnb on the profitability growth of hotels is reduced when the hotels are located in attractive city zones. However, the online reputation of hotels does not have any significant moderating effect on the relationship investigated. We discuss how these results contribute to understand competitive dynamics in the hotel industry through a lens based on the disruptive innovation theory

Entrepreneurship Education: the impact of different teaching models on the development of new ventures

The creation of innovative businesses (startups and spinoffs) is a phenomenon capable of stimulating the economy. The literature finds that entrepreneurship education (EE) impacts entrepreneurial intention. The aim of this research is to enter the black box of entrepreneurship teaching models in order to uncover their different impact on the creation of university entrepreneurial outcome. University entrepreneurial outcome is measured by the number of spinoffs created by 80 US universities in the Association of University Technology (AUTM) database from 2011 to 2014. This research, through analyses of 1,262 entrepreneurship courses in US universities along a time span of 4 years, shows that demand models and the competence models have a positive impact on the creation of academic spinoffs. Implications for professors teaching entrepreneurship, universities, policy makers and students are discussed