Glocalizing Trust: The Role of IT in a De-Coupling Industrial District

This paper addresses a specific problem that may arise as consequence of the globalization of the markets. This is the incompatibility between local and global standards of trust. The literature highlights the advantage of co-localization for the production of mutual trust. However, the type of trust produced may be informal and indeed largely incompatible with base of trust in open electronic commerce. This paper focuses on the glocalization of trust, the concurrent development of local and global standards of trust. It has two major goals. Identifying the major factors influencing the local production of global-codified trust. Addressing three alternative strategies local system implements to create compatibility: de-coupling, coupling and loosely coupling. We address some initial evidences in the case of a de-coupling district

Earthworm as an alternative protein source in poultry and fish farming : Current applications and future perspectives

Among the different agricultural activities, the livestock is one of the most impacting on the environment. The feeding of animals is often the main responsible of the adverse environmental impact related to animal productions. Above all for intensive production, the consumption of protein feed is a key aspect for the achievement of sustainable production processes. The actual consumption of soybean meal and fish meal is not sustainable due to the related environmental impact and to the increasing prices. Among the different alternative protein sources, in the last 20 years, the attention of research centres and private companies focused on insects, algae and other invertebrates but, up to now, little consideration was paid to the use of fresh earthworm or earthworm meal as a protein feed for monogastric animals. The use of earthworms as an alternative protein source for fish and poultry feeding is an opportunity for providing environmental services via cleaner technologies. Thanks to earthworms, organic wastes and by-products generated by livestock activities can be valorised and become a resource for animal feeding in a circular perspective. In this context, this manuscript was designed to summarize the productivity, suitability and effectiveness issues connected with the utilization of earthworms as alternative protein feed in poultry production as well as in aquaculture. The studies investigating the earthworm meal use are quite old above all those carried out in Europe; however, some general indications can be drawn: both for broiler and fish, the parameters usually evaluated are body weight gain, growth rate, feed intake and feed conversion rate, the acceptability level of earthworm meal in broiler diet is lower than 15% while in trout diet ranges between 25 and 30%. The inclusion of earthworm meal in diets with an inclusion level lower than the acceptability threshold allows good productive performances without affecting the quality of the final food products

Creating trust between local and global systems

Sociale interactie vindt plaats tussen partijen die op verschillende locaties gesitueerd zijn. Tegelijk worden lokale interacties steeds meer gemedieerd door niet-lokale instituten and technologieen, zoals in het geval van een lokale credit card betaling. Het probleem van vertrouwen is vanuit dit perspectief gedefinieerd als het probleem van het compatibilitie creeren tussen gezichtsloze verplichtingen, die zijn gecodificeerd in de wereldwijde instituten en systemen van vertrouwen, en face-to-face werkverplichtingen, die zijn ingebed in lokale netwerken van vertrouwde relaties. Lokaal vertrouwen wordt geproduceerd op basis van socializatie en internalisatie van gemeenschappelijke normen en waarden. Wereldwijd vertrouwen wordt geproduceerd op basis van een combinatie tussen gecodificeerde instituten en systemen van vertrouwen. De capaciteit van lokale systemen om vertrouwen te creeren op wereldwijd niveau hangt af van de capaciteit om vertrouwen in een code die bruikbaar is in het wereldwijde systeem en vice versa te vertalen. Het boek bevat een aantal case studies over industriele districten en bedrijven (o.a. Benetton en Fiat). Ganzaroli laat zien dat er in ieder geval drie modellen zijn voor het creeren van vertrouwen: ontkoppeling (de-coupling), losse koppeling (loosely coupling) en koppeling (coupling) en betoogt dat de losse koppeling het meest ontvankelijke model is. Concurrentie tussen locale bedrijven bevordert op een betere wijze de dynamische vereniging tussen locale en wereldwijde mechanismen en instituten voor het creeren van vertrouwen.This thesis focuses on the problem of creating trust between local and global systems. The development global institutions and technologies, such as the credit card system, tends to replace the value of local relationships of trust based on mutual knowledge and to standardize the way trust is established and created between people and firms. In this thesis we argue that the trust embedded within local networks of relationships represents a value for the whole global society. In this perspective we provides three major contributions. The first is to develop a model to interpret the process of trust creation between local and global systems. The second is to apply this model in a number of case studies of Italian industrial districts. The third is to highlight advantages and disadvantages associated to alternative strategies of trust creation between local and global systems

The influence of foreigners’ buzzing on TripAdvisor ranking of restaurants in Venice: implications for the sustainability of over-touristed heritage cities

Local and global coexist in any tourist destination, and the challenge of tourism sustainability is what remains in the balance between these two dimensions. Social and consumer-generated media are changing how local and global are coming together in the local system. These media\u2019s effects are even more important in overtouristed places, where a significant imbalance between local and tourist development already exists. In this paper, the effects from foreigners\u2019 reviews in crowd-based ranking systems in overtouristed cities are investigated. Based on a case study of TripAdvisor\u2019s restaurant rankings in Venice, our findings suggest that foreigners\u2019 reviews systematically rate tourist experiences\u2019 quality higher than non-foreigners\u2019 reviews, and that their attitude significantly affects the ranking of these experiences. This discloses these systems\u2019 limited reliability in overtouristed cities when it comes to rank quality, as well as the potential risks deriving from their large and uncontrolled adoption. The study concludes that a governance system is needed that is more respectful and inclusive of these places\u2019 specific requirements

Rileggere il marketing. Strategie informative e Gestione della Conoscenza

Il libro analizza alcuni temi emergenti nel campo del marketing legati al trattamento dell'informazione, allo sviluppo delle nuove tecnologie, alla comunicazione sociale e all'etica. Il quadro teorico di riferimento è quelle delle ecologie del valore ovvero sistemi emergenti che producono valore attraverso l'interazione in rete estese di imprese e/o di persone

Knowledge utilisation drivers in technological M&As

Several contributions look at the effect of technological M&As on the acquirer's technological performance. The knowledge-based perspective highlights the critical role that the acquirer's target's knowledge absorption plays as the main driver in enhancing post-M&A technological performance. However, absorptive capacity is a rather complex construct, which includes assimilation, utilisation and transformation of the acquired knowledge. In this paper, we focus on knowledge utilisation and investigate two factors whose effects on post-M&A technological performance have been extensively highlighted: technological relatedness and managerial experience. We contribute to the existing literature with a better understanding of the factors underlying the utilisation of the knowledge acquired in M&As. This should help managers to enhance their capacity to manage integration process post-M&As. Our results are based on a cross-sectional data set of 152 biopharmaceutical acquirers that completed at least one M&A between 2001 and 2005

Exaptation as source of creativity and innovation

In this paper we investigate exaptation as source of creativity and innovation. This term addresses natural features that enhance fitness, but were not built up by natural selection for that purpose. In the management literature this term has been used to address the exploitation of an existing body of knowledge to enter an emerging technological trajectory and gain a competitive advantage in a relative industry. So far, however, little attention has been devoted to the evolutionary dynamics underling and generated by this process. Therefore, in this paper we deepen our understanding of those aspects. Our main contribution is to highlight the discontinuous nature of those changes. Exaptation, differentlyfrom adaptations, are not selected for their contribution to the optimization of an existing function, but for their availability to perform an emerging function. Therefore, exaptations are not selected, but select and contribute to build up the environment valorising their potentia