Annachiara Scapolan

The adoption process of corporate e‐learning in Italy

The diffusion process of e‐learning has been, in recent years, at the centre of several studies. These researches focused mainly on the USA case, where there has been an exponential adoption both in the public and private sectors. From this perspective the paper would give a contribution to understand the diffusion process of e‐learning in a specific country and it deals with the following questions: are there relevant consistencies in the rate and the model of adoption of e‐learning solutions in Italian companies? What are the causes of this process? Building on bandwagon theories and institutional literature, the paper analyses the antecedents of the adoption process in Italy, asking whether it is determined by the rational search for economic benefits, or is it driven by the fear of lost legitimacy or strategic advantage under institutional or competitive bandwagon pressures. The paper also looks into the solutions adopted by the Italian firms, studying their e‐learning strategies. To answer the research questions and to test the related propositions, an empirical study has been developed based on a survey, on interviews and document analysis. Since the e‐learning diffusion process in Italy is at an early stage, the research has been undertaken in two sectors, pharmaceutical and banking, where e‐learning has been adopted to a greater extent than in other sectors.

‘Absolutely free’? The role of relational work in sustaining artistic innovation

Drawing on the relational perspective of artistic innovation, which suggests that different types of ties (weak vs. strong) lead to different outcomes in terms of the development and implementation of new artistic ideas, this study uses an in-depth case study of Italian choreographer Mauro Bigonzetti to explore the role of the relational work artists deploy to develop and implement their artwork. We investigate how artists engage in specific relational actions (broadening, bonding, embedding and dis-embedding) with producing organizations, and how these actions lead to innovation over time. The findings suggest that artistic innovation moves through four stages – proximal innovation, fuzzy innovation, established innovation and maintained innovation – sustained by an artist’s oscillation between a network characterized by strong ties with few organizations and a network characterized by weak ties with many organizations, depending on the artist’s quests for inclusion and differentiation. In this process, a long-lasting relationship between the artist and a specific organization may ‘pivot’ artistic innovation.

Innovation, complementarities and performance in micro/small enterprises

This paper gives an empirical contribution to the debate on new organisational forms, complementarities and their relation to a firms competitiveness by means of a study on the organisational evolution of Micro/Small Enterprises (MSEs), which represent more than 90% of European firms but are not yet well analysed from the organisational point of view. This paper, based on a survey on a sample of 147 Italian MSEs, investigates firstly the diffusion of a set of organisational and technological innovations. Secondly, the question is asked whether entrepreneurs invest in only one type of innovation or if there is a simultaneous adoption of coherent set of innovations. Finally, the relationship between the adoption of a system of innovations and the dynamic of firms performance measured by sales and product innovation is investigated.

Green and nongreen recruitment practices for attracting job applicants: exploring independent and interactive effects

The study is based on the reactions of a sample of Italian graduate students to the websites of seven companies operating in Italy. It addresses two specific issues in the literature about green recruiting practices, namely (1) the distinct and direct effects of green recruiting practices on attracting applicants, and (2) the interactive effect of ‘green’ and ‘nongreen’ recruitment practices on attracting applicants. With regard to the first issue, the study compares the effects on attracting applicants of two green recruitment practices, that is, the green reputation of a company, and the amount of information provided on the recruitment website about the companys environmental policies and practices. With regard to the second issue, the study examines the substitution effect on attracting applicants between the two green recruitment practices, and additive effects on attracting applicants between them and two nongreen recruitment practices (i.e., company reputation, and the amount of company and job information provided by the company recruitment website). In terms of direct effects, the findings support the impact of a green reputation on attracting applicants, but no impact of information on the recruitment website about company environmental policies and practices. In terms of interactive effects, the findings do not confirm the substitution effects between green recruitment practices, but indicate additive effects between green and nongreen recruitment practices. Overall, the article extends knowledge on green recruitment by contributing to the literature on organizational reputation, and the literature on interactive effects among human resource practices. The implications of these two extensions of knowledge for human resource management research and practice are discussed.

Identity and Social Media in an Art Festival

Abstract In recent years, festivals have become prominent events in many cities throughout Europe, playing a crucial role in improving the image of the host city and enhancing its attractiveness to tourists. Festivals are temporary organizations with a short-lived and intermittent nature. Such features could raise several challenges in terms of maintaining a festival’s identity and its attendees’ identification during the periods of inactivity. Drawing on the literature on temporary organizations, organizational identity, and social identification, this chapter investigates how festivals can communicate their central and stable characteristics to audiences by adopting Web 2.0-based communication strategies. To explore this issue, the chapter illustrates the case of an Italian festival, Fotografia Europea, which has changed its communication strategy from a more traditional approach to a Web 2.0-based one.

Embeddedness and locational choices: A study of creative workers in a dance organisation

Locational choices of creative workers have been a matter of heated debate over the last decade. This study proposes a micro perspective aimed at disentangling how the individual decision-making process behind locational choices is activated and develops over time. To this aim, we combine previous geographic research on the issue with research on the role of organisational factors in workers’ attraction and retention. Empirically, we carried out an exploratory case study of dancers in a renowned contemporary ballet company based in Reggio Emilia, Italy. With this study, we highlight how matching professional quests and organisation-specific job opportunities activates locational choices, and we extend geographical approaches to embeddedness by considering the role of organisations as crucial mediating entities between the city context and creative workers.

Public Support and Corporate Giving to the Arts and Culture in Times of Economic Crisis: An Exploratory Analysis on the Italian Case

Abstract In line with the reappraisal of the welfare state concept started in the 1980s and culminated in the recent economic crisis, governments have reduced the public funding available to cultural institutions. Thus, cultural institutions have progressively adopted more market-oriented practices, rethinking their relationship with the world of business in order to get additional economic resources. This chapter addresses corporate support to the arts and culture in the case of Italy, a country where government has traditionally played a central role in supporting culture. Drawing on the extant literature on sponsorships and corporate philanthropy, we propose a cluster analysis carried out on 160 investments in artistic or cultural activities made by 95 mid-sized Italian companies between 2008 and 2015. Results provide an up-to-date empirical evidence of corporate giving patterns in Italy and suggest an original typology of business investments in the arts and culture. Our study, focusing on the case of a Latin country and on a sample of mid-sized companies, extends the empirical settings usually investigated. Moreover, different from previous studies, we elucidate the influence that the characteristics of supporting organizations have on business investments in the arts and culture.

Behavioural competencies and organizational performance in Italian performing arts: An exploratory study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the behavioural competencies of directors and managers working for cultural organizations and their relationship with organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach The study adopts an ESC competency modelling process and the technique of the Behavioural Event Interview as the primary source of data collection. In particular, the authors interviewed 14 directors and managers of six performing arts organizations operating in Emilia-Romagna, a region located in Northern Italy. Findings Findings show that directors and managers of cultural organizations are characterized by a specific set of social and emotional (e.g. persuasion and empathy), whereas cognitive competencies, such as quantitative analysis, are less frequent. Findings highlight also that a balanced portfolio of behavioural competencies emerges as importantly correlated with high organizational performance. Practical implications Findings offer relevant managerial implications for the design and implementation of a coherent set of human resource management practices, which allow cultural organizations to reach above-average performance. Originality/value This study contributes to a better understanding of the relationship between managerial competencies and the performance of cultural organizations, taking into account specific kinds of competencies – namely, behavioural competencies – which have been neglected by the previous literature.

Dibattito su Storie di imprese

Storie di imprese (TAO Digital Library, 2010), dedicated to the organizational transformations of five enterprises (Fiat Auto, Finmeccanica, Ciba Specialty chemicals, Zurich, Poste Italiane) during the 2000-2010 decade, stimulated a wide debate. This publication, which collects the commentaries and discussions of three seminar that took place in different Universities with the participation of scholars from different disciplines, continues the reflection about the crucial question: How do enterprises change?

I fattori di attraction e retention dei talenti. Il caso di una compagnia di danza

Both management and academic literature have increasingly selected talents’ attraction and retention as an important area for research. Despite such a great attention devoted to this issue, there are still some under-investigated areas of interest. For example, previous research has devoted limited attention to cultural industries despite the fact that talents are the key asset of the organizations operating in these industries. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring this under-investigated issue by addressing three research questions. First, we will analyze a cultural organization’s characteristics that are able to attract and retain creative talents; second, we will investigate if attraction and retention are influenced just by organizational elements or also by external factors such as the city where the organization is located. Finally, we will analyze potential differences between attraction and retention factors. In doing so, we will analyze the case of the most important Italian dancing company - Fondazione della Danza Aterballetto. We combined different qualitative methods such as interviews, document analysis, and direct observation. Findings show that a cultural organization’s characteristics that are able to attract and retain creative talents are partially different from those highlighted by previous literature. In particular, the most important attraction factor seems to be the opportunity to work with the main choreographer, while the most important reasons to stay are represented by the creative process and the possibility to meet and work with other artists operating in different creative sectors. This opportunity is appreciated by the dancers who perceive Aterballetto as the centre of a relational network, which extends beyond the organizational boundaries. In the same way, the local socio-cultural context plays an important role in influencing the retention of dancers. Finally, the attraction factors are partially different from the retention ones. At the end of the paper, some possible future lines of research are presented and discussed.