Economic Turbulence in the Iron Kitchenware Industry in Italy

Companies in turbulent economies are required to face several difficulties, mainly related to the specific features of an extremely volatile environment. Although a similar, hypercompetitive context can be considered a global condition today, it is not perceived in the same way worldwide. Thus, international development could be the best method for exporting to different locations and getting the best opportunities to survive in this unstable environment. Italy is one of the European Union countries affected the most by turbulence and the financial crisis with a loss of competitiveness compared to other countries in the Union. The economic system has changed considerably, rising the bankruptcy cases and lowering reported earnings. This paper claims to give an overview of the Italian situation inside the European Community as Italy is recognized as one of the most industrialized areas of northern Italy; the province of Brescia is home of one of the two Italian districts devoted to the iron kitchenware industry—an industry in which Italy held a leading position worldwide for a long time. Ten years after the financial crisis, and supported by exports flows analysis, we evaluate the Italian competitive position in this industry compared to that of the country’s European competitors. Export data (inside and outside the European Union) in three years (2007, 2010, and 2014) show Italy’s leading global role in this industry but also the negative effect of the crisis on the country, witnessed by the strong rise of other competitors

Financial Crisis, Environmental Turbulence and International Trade. The Case of Italy

In 2007 United States of America gave birth to a global, deep and disruptive phenomenon, well known as Financial Crisis. Despite the specific overseas location it first appears, the global crisis comes very fast in Europe, affecting several Countries in different ways and threating both Government and the economic tissue of the Nations. Since the crisis first appears, Italy has faced the global economies collapse: trade inside and outside the Nation felt down, with a loss of competitiveness of the Country compared to other EU’: lower earns and the credit crunch implicate a raise of failures cases, and a competitive position loss in several industries. Almost ten years after the crisis very begin, and using Italian data, the paper give a measure of the crisis impact on international trade geography for the Country

Digital Revolution in Small and Medium Enterprises’ Human Resources: The Case of Brescia

The measures of intervention introduced by the Italian Piano Industria 4.0 serve as a support for the whole economic tissue uneasy transition toward the fourth industrial revolution paradigm. Considering the structural renewal as the main topic to consider, the plan encourages and offers economic support for the education of human resources, considered as the backbones of a business. This study represents a first attempt of picturing the digital revolution in small and medium enterprises, qualified for limited resources but well known for their dynamic capabilities and great innovation competencies. A framework for the human resources digitalization is offered, considering both selection of new workers and staff education. Accordingly, data on Human Resources (HR) in a time frame of five years are considered, with the support of a local industrial association in a deeply industrialized area, the Brescia province. A direct survey data is also considered, in order to forecast the human resources digital revolution in the next future. As a result, a needed, ongoing digitalization of the Human Resources emerges, through both training activities (the prominent) and new resources selection; also, very next future shows the so called jobs of the future will have no room for wide development in small and medium industries

Elaboration of a Model of Temporary Cooperation in Tourism’ Destination Promotion A Systematic Literature Review

The literature considers cooperation as the best way for a region to achieve a competitive advantage in global, digital markets, and as taking a key role in achieving the promotion of a comprehensive, sustainable destination. In recent years, the body of research on cooperation in tourism has grown considerably, listing several opportunities for decreasing competitive pressure among local tourism actors, while gaining the superior advantages of collaboration. At the same time, the literature does not suggest particular models of cooperation for the tourism industry, as most are borrowed from the manufacturing industry, where cooperation seems widely used and further adapted for the tourism domain. Through an in-depth systematic literature review, this paper matches the theories on cooperation in tourism with the concept of temporary cooperation, in order to adapt a model widely considered in several domains, the virtual enterprise (VE), to the peculiarities of the tourism industry. The adaptation is considered according to the particularities of the tourism industry, and especially when cooperation involves local tourism authorities in global turbulent markets. A cycle model consisting of nine-stages life was built, highlighting the main features of a temporary alliance among authorities: the pivotal role of the destination management organization, the relevance of information and communication technologies for the VE’s operability, the short lifetime of the VE, and the destination’s overall promotion

A Longitudinal Approach to Management Turnover in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Italy

Italian small and medium-sized enterprises have experienced their first generational turnover in the 1970s, when the founders have been succeeded by their heirs. Today, the theme does not seem to be exhausted, as much in literature, which strongly affirms the multidimensionality and criticality of the transition phase, as in the entrepreneurial reality. Part of a more comprehensive research project on management turnover, this study focuses on a specific territory, the province of Brescia, chosen for its strong industrial vocation and considered as representative of the industrial landscape of Italy. The study focuses on the small and medium-sized industrial fabric management, sampled in 524 enterprises that met the research requirements, home for a total of 2640 roles. Management data has been profiled by age, gender, position and company size. The details of the sample confirm the relevance of turnover issues to Italian SMEs. Managers longevity is higher for chairman and higher executives than other roles; furthermore, most of the examined people perform multiple roles at the same time. The longitudinal approach reveals people over 70 years old hold an average of 2 positions per person, with a strong correlation between the three most prevalent management roles analyzed. This research was supported by the SME Industrial Association of Brescia

SHELL MICROSTRUCTURES IN LOPINGIAN BRACHIOPODS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FABRIC EVOLUTION AND CALCIFICATION

The study of the shell microstructure of brachiopods is fundamental to understand their evolutionary history and their biomineralization process. Here, species of forty Lopingian brachiopods genera, representative of twenty-seven different families, are investigated using the Scanning Electron Microscope. The investigated specimens come from different paleogeographic localities in the Palaeotethys/Neotethys oceans. The studied brachiopods show a large variability of the shell fabric, which is mainly related to the organization of its structural units: laminae, fibers and columns, possibly crossed by pseudopunctae or punctae. For the Strophomenata, the laminar fabric of Productida is crossed by pseudopunctae with taleolae and the laminae are often organized in packages, with the blades oriented about perpendicular to each other; this feature is less evident in the laminar Orthotetida, which bear pseudopunctae without taleoae. For the Rhynchonellata, fibrous fabrics are either impuctate in the Spiriferida, most Athyridida and Rhynchonellida, or with punctae, as observed in the Orthida, Terebratulida and in the Neoretziidae (Athyridida). The fibers show a range of sizes and shapes also in the same specimens and the transition to the columnar layer is different than in Strophomenata.The arrangement of the structural units revealed that the disposition of the organic membranes, on which biomineralization took place, was highly variable among the taxa. On the other hand, two distinctive features are analogous among distantly related groups, i.e. the Strophomenata and the Rhynchonellata: the presence of a columnar tertiary layer underlying the secondary fabric and the alternations between fibers/laminae of the secondary layer and columns of the tertiary layer. This suggests that there are common factors controlling the development and evolution of the shell fabric in all rhynchonelliformean brachiopods that can be linked to their taxonomical position, to their environmental requirements and to constraints imposed by their low-energy life-style. This should be taken into account to understand how these calcifying organisms responded and will respond to environmental and climate change in past and future times

Competitive Networking For SME: A Case Study Of Its Success In Italy

Small and Medium Enterprises have limited financial resources, which hampers development possibilities. For small and medium entities, the ambition toward a foreign-market driven income is on the increase. However, going international seems to be harder because of its peculiar financial restraint. This paper intends to give evidence to an empirical case of excellence, which is emerging as a prototype in the agri-food industry since its establishment: the Agribusiness Cluster Brixia (hereafter, ACB). The Agribusiness Cluster Brixia is a well-defined group of companies highly specialized in technology, the Cluster shares. This company integrates skills at every stage of the supply chain, from farm production to food distribution, storing, and processing. The aim of this paper is to test if it has really provided advantages for the partners, and how. These advantages can be in reducing some competitive costs for the partners involved, entering new markets, or by developing new and cooperative solutions to the customers needs

Deep Learning and Mean-Field Games: A Stochastic Optimal Control Perspective

We provide a rigorous mathematical formulation of Deep Learning (DL) methodologies through an in-depth analysis of the learning procedures characterizing Neural Network (NN) models within the theoretical frameworks of Stochastic Optimal Control (SOC) and Mean-Field Games (MFGs). In particular, we show how the supervised learning approach can be translated in terms of a (stochastic) mean-field optimal control problem by applying the Hamilton\u2013Jacobi\u2013Bellman (HJB) approach and the mean-field Pontryagin maximum principle. Our contribution sheds new light on a possible theoretical connection between mean-field problems and DL, melting heterogeneous approaches and reporting the state-of-the-art within such fields to show how the latter different perspectives can be indeed fruitfully unified