Challenging Goliath. Informal Unionism and Digital Platforms in the Food Delivery Sector. The Case of Riders Union Bologna

The growth of digital platforms in many industries attracted the attention of scholars and activists alike. A number of studies, in disciplines such as management, emphasized the role of digital technology in transforming market logics and described platforms as the harbingers of a more democratic organization of economic activities. The more platforms became relevant in intermediating between clients and providers of services and goods, the more conflicts related to working conditions rose, calling for a critical approach to the so-called platform economy. The most recent debate focused on the connection between the rise of platforms and the effects of neoliberalism in relaxing employment regulations and in pushing an increasing number of individuals towards "gig" types of jobs. We deal with these tensions and consider the emerging forms of organization and strategies of workers' movements. We focus on the food delivery sector and on the most popular informal workers' movement in Italy: Riders Union Bologna (Rub). The aim of the paper is to investigate the factors that stimulated the rise of informal unionism in food delivery, and to pinpoint the reasons motivating specific struggling and organizing strategies among platform workers

Challenging Goliath. Informal Unionism and Digital Platforms in the Food Delivery Sector. The Case of Riders Union Bologna

The growth of digital platforms in many industries attracted the attention of scholars and activists alike. A number of studies, in disciplines such as management, emphasized the role of digital technology in transforming market logics and described platforms as the harbingers of a more democratic organization of economic activities. The more platforms became relevant in intermediating between clients and providers of services and goods, the more conflicts related to working conditions rose, calling for a critical approach to the so-called platform economy. The most recent debate focused on the connection between the rise of platforms and the effects of neoliberalism in relaxing employment regulations and in pushing an increasing number of individuals towards "gig" types of jobs. We deal with these tensions and consider the emerging forms of organization and strategies of workers' movements. We focus on the food delivery sector and on the most popular informal workers' movement in Italy: Riders Union Bologna (Rub). The aim of the paper is to investigate the factors that stimulated the rise of informal unionism in food delivery, and to pinpoint the reasons motivating specific struggling and organizing strategies among platform workers

Configuration challenges for the “Made in Italy” Agri-food Industry

The paper presents the results of an exploratory investigation on the approaches to e-commerce strategies by firms in the agrifood sector, with a focus on Italian small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs). The article tries to assess the fit between online sales configurators (OSCs) that enable product customization and the habits of Italian online buyers. The study elaborates the empirical results of two data collection efforts: (i) the first effort is to collect data on the food configurators’ capabilities deployed by a sample of 105 active OSCs and (ii) the second effort is to collect data on the characteristics of the e-commerce websites from a sample of 522 Italian SMEs. Matching the results of the two analyses with existing literature on Italian customers' requirements while shopping for food online, the study provides insights on the opportunities offered by mass-customization delivered via OSCs to food SMEs, especially in terms of customer experience (CE) innovation

Historicizing Entrepreneurial Imprinting: Sensitive Periods, Cognitive Frames and Resistance

Literature in strategy and entrepreneurship resorted to the concept of imprinting to explain the resilience of firms’ traits. Nonetheless, it assumed such a process is at work rather than aiming at its explanation. This article advances a conceptual framework based on three main building blocks - cognitive frame, resource mobilization, and resisting entrepreneurs - combined in a historical perspective, overcoming the existing generalized confusion about "what to study" and "how to study" in the investigation of entrepreneurial imprinting. We offer an original definition of the imprints and a dynamic view based on resistance investigating the replication, substitution, and re-negotiation of imprints in time. The contribution of the present work is twofold: on the one side, it contributes to the ongoing debate on entrepreneurial imprinting by closing some of the gaps that characterized previous literature on the subject, and offering an innovative bridging between imprinting and resistance; on the other side, it answers to the recent call for a deeper integration between historical approaches and entrepreneurship literature

Modelling corneal transparency with reference to stromal architecture

The arrangement of corneal collagen fibrils within lamellae was investigated by comparing fibril positions obtained from electron microscopy with distorted hexagonal, quasi-random and aperiodic arrays. By calculating the wavelength dependence and Fourier transforms of these various arrays it was determined that an aperiodic array based on the sunflower seed head is the most compatible with corneal ultrastructure. An investigation of corneal light scattering away from the central axis was undertaken for the first time. Experimentally it was shown that corneal transmission decreases peripherally, particularly in the far periphery near the limbus. This was shown to be theoretically compatible with calculated positional changes in refractive index and fibril radius, by calculating transmission using the direct summation of scattered fields method. In swollen human corneas, it was determined that there was a notable change in wavelength dependence in the peripheral regions, possibly suggesting an increase in the size and relative number fibril free voids. . Corneal infrared transmission is poorly studied. In this part of the spectrum, the cornea acts as an absorber of incident radiation. It was hypothesised that there should be a systematic variation between corneal hydration and infrared light transmission. Experimentally, by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy a convenient linear relationship between hydration and transmission was found. Riboflavin-UVA crosslinking is used to treat keratoconus, a degenerative corneal disorder. A swelling experiment was performed on porcine corneas in order to elucidate whether the crosslinking mechanism is intra- or inter-fibrillar. Swelling rates for the treated and untreated tissue were not statistically significant, excluding interfibrillar crosslinking. The penetration depth of the riboflavin molecule into corneal stroma was also examined by visible spectroscopy of thin segments of tissue. It was demonstrated that when riboflavin infiltrates a full thickness cornea, the highest concentration of riboflavin is present in the anterior tissue segment.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Leadership e imprenditorialità nel processo di aggregazione delle imprese

Il capitolo definisce il processo di creazione di network inter-organizzativi come un processo imprenditoriale: un insieme di azioni che portano alla ri- combinazione innovativa di risorse e alla loro allocazione a fronte di incertezza sul futuro (Klein, 2017). La letteratura sull’imprenditorialità e i suoi strumenti di analisi consentono di illuminare i processi di creazione di reti di imprese e di individuare competenze, azioni e attività su cui concentrare iniziative di policy e di incentivo all’aggregazione

La scuola come spazio di apprendimento e di innovazione: esperienze a Nord Est

Negli ultimi due anni il Nord Est è stato un interessante laborato- rio di progetti e spazi per avvicinare formazione, lavoro e innova- zione. Il Veneto, in particolare, è una delle regioni più interessate dalla vitalità dei Fab Lab, laboratori di fabbricazione digitale che riuniscono in spazi dedicati alla creatività e alla manifattura di nuova generazione giovani studenti, professionisti, designer. Que- sti spazi, e altri che nasceranno, se opportunamente riconosciuti e valorizzati giocheranno un ruolo cruciale nel dare profondità ed efficacia all’alternanza scuola-lavoro intesa come metodologia di- dattica, ovviando ad alcuni vincoli di sistema e liberando energie innovative sui territori