Cristiano Ciappei

Ethical consumption and consumers’ decision making: the role of moral intuition

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the understudied antecedents of moral reasoning and cognitive processes that ultimately shape the ethical consumption. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) and the socio-intuitionist model are integrated. Holistic, inferential, and affective dimensions of intuition are identified as critical antecedents of environmental concerns that then influence the ethical consumption. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling is used to analyze intuitive judgments and ethical concerns in 256 US undergraduates. The New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) is used to measure ethical concerns and the ecologically conscious consumer behavior (ECCB) instrument is used to measure ethical consumption. Findings The results indicate that inferential intuition, but not affective intuition, significantly predicts the ethical concerns (NEP), which in turn significantly influence all five dimensions of ethical consumption behavior (ECCB). Practical implications Managers and marketing strategists should focus on non-rational influences such as moral intuition to effectively promote ethical and responsible consumption. Originality/value The TPB and the intuitionist theory are integrated to reveal empirically how intuitive judgments may affect consumer attitudes and to provide new insights regarding the ethical consumption.

Reciprocity and gift-giving logic in NPOs

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through the lens of the gift-giving theory, volunteers’ motivations for intending to stay with organizations. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 379 volunteers from 30 charitable organizations operating in Italy’s socio-healthcare service sector. Bootstrapped mediation analysis was used to test the hypothesized relationships. Findings Volunteers’ reciprocal attitudes and gift-giving intentions partially mediated the relationship between motives and intentions to stay. Practical implications Policy makers of charitable organizations are advised to be more responsive to behavioral signals revealing volunteers’ motivations, attitudes, and intentions. Managers should appropriately align organizational responsiveness with volunteers’ commitment through gift-giving exchange systems. Originality/value The findings reveal that reciprocity and gift giving are significant organizational variables greatly influencing volunteers’ intentions to stay with organizations. Signaling theory is used to explain how volunteers’ attitudes are linked with organizational responsiveness. Furthermore, this study is the first to use an Italian setting to consider motives, reciprocity, and gift giving as they relate to intentions to stay.

Factors affecting universities’ ability to foster students’ entrepreneurial behaviour: An empirical investigation

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate behavioural and contextual factors affecting entrepreneurial universities’ ability to influence student entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial intention.,Structural equation modelling was used to assess both micro and macro factors impacting on students’ entrepreneurial attitude and intention on a sample of 272 students of the Master of Business Administration at the University of Florence (Italy).,The study contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial universities by assessing the main factors affecting students’ entrepreneurial behaviour. The results stressed how students’ entrepreneurial intent is mainly affected by their entrepreneurial attitude, which is in turn influenced by some of the personality traits analyzed, in particular risk-taking propensity and locus of control. It also emerged how students’ perception of the university environment significantly influences their entrepreneurial attitude and intent.,By investigating the micro and macro factors that mostly affect students’ entrepreneurial intention, the research suggests some implications for future researches into student entrepreneurship, in order to develop specific teaching programmes affecting students’ entrepreneurial experience, character and related skills.,The value of the research relates to integrating psychological factors, geographical elements, and the contextual role of universities within student entrepreneurship in a scarcely investigated location, i.e. the Region of Tuscany (Italy).

Turnaround management and systemic approach: a historical review of the Florentine management school contribution

Despite the attention given by the international literature to the Italian accounting scholars, management related topics have been scarcely considered. After a short excursus on the evolution of the Italian management discipline, the systemic approach of the Florentine School of Thought is discussed. This little studied stream of research is at the same time quite innovative, especially historically speaking, and has contributed to the diffusion of a systemic approach to management or a viable system theory in Italy. Particularly interesting is to see how the evolution of the school has paid attention to turnaround strategies, blending management and accounting perspectives from a coherent view.

Finding the extraordinary and creating the unexpected: Gnome and genius combined in an exceptional ethical heuristic

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present an integrated framework for ethical decision making in uncertain conditions, such as those of entrepreneurship. The model aims to build an exceptional ethical heuristic employable by entrepreneurs. Design/methodology/approach – The theoretical framework is anchored to Aquinas’ theory of practical reason (PR) virtue, specifically its minor virtue gnome, and the Kantian faculty of genius or to better say its modus operandi. Thanks to the composition of these prima facie distant ontologies it is possible to build a “ready-to-use” heuristic. Findings – The paper through a philosophical discussion offers a ready-to-use heuristic that may help entrepreneurs and businesspersons when “navigating” uncertain and troubled situations. In such situations, first it is important to recognize the “exceptionality” of the situation, disregarding where necessary the ordinary criteria of judgment (an act directed by gnome). Second, a creative reconstruction of available knowl...

Community Based Social Media Fashion Branding: Do Fashion Brands Heritage and Prestige Affect Consumers’ Brand Loyalty Intention?

This research explores whether fashion brands heritage and prestige perceived by consumers affect their brand loyalty intention. Specifically, the research aims at investigating if heritage and prestige matter in branding strategist based on engaging consumers in social media brand communities. Social media brand communities initiated by fashion brands represent the setting of this research. In fact, it has been assessed that members of brand communities usually are more informed on brands products and value than the average consumer. In order to achieve the aim of the research, a moderated structural equation modeling analysis has been developed and tested. Results show that, on the one hand, heritage has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between consumers’ engagement in online communities and brand loyalty intention; and, on the other hand, prestige showed a positive moderating effect on such a relationship. Managerial implications and suggestions for future researches are discussed.

Social media brand communities and brand value co-creation: Evidences from Italy

This paper aims to demonstrate how consumers’ identification and engagement in social media brand communities are antecedents of brand loyalty intention and electronicword of mouth (E-WOM). Because E-WOM may be considered as a proxy to measure consumers’ propensity to participate in brand value co-creation, the present study assessed which factors influence value co-creation in social media brand communities. A survey was administered online to members of Italian Nike+ runners’ communities. A multiple mediation analysis based on the use of SPSS PROCESS Macro has been selected as that consumers’ identification in social media brand community influences main methodology of this research. The results showed that consumers’ identification in the community influences consumers’ engagement which, in turn, influences brand loyalty intention. Moreover, this relation is moderated by consumers’ trust.

Bricolage and Social Entrepreneurship to Address Emergent Social Needs: A “Deconstructionist” Perspective

Social entrepreneurship is one of the most discussed issues in recent management literature. In partcular, social entrepreneurship has recently gained the atenton of management scholars interested in understanding its sociological and anthropological aspects. This paper focuses on Claude Levi-Strauss’s noton of “bricolage” and the way it can represent a signifcant opportunity to address emergent social needs. Building on a postmodernist philosophical perspectve, namely Jacques Derrida’s “deconstructonism,” we atempt to unpack the bricolage phenomenon within the social entrepreneurship feld. Following the fndings of an in-depth longitudinal case study, we provide a theoretcal conceptualizaton of possible entrepreneurial solutons to social needs, exploring the signifcant role of bricolage that is consequently interpreted as a suitable entrepreneurial opportunity to address partcular types of social needs that we shall defne, in a way, as emergent.

Additive Manufacturing in SMEs: Empirical Evidences from Italy

Research on innovative technological methods in SMEs’ production processes is progressively receiving attention. However, little is known about the emerging phenomenon of additive manufacturing (AM), which may represent a significant strategic lever for fostering a company’s competitiveness and performance, especially for SMEs. Our aim is to investigate the effects of AM on SMEs’ production process, in order to better understand the relative outcomes of such an innovative technique. We used latent content analysis for empirically analyzing SMEs present in one of the most important Italian gold jewelry districts. Our findings suggest that the AM introduction in a company’s production process effectively results in many positive outcomes, such as process innovation, customer satisfaction, costs, revenues, profits, and competitive advantage. Specifically, there is a positive linkage between AM and a company’s performance. Hence, such an innovative technique may be interpreted as a viable growth strategy for ...

Exploring the link between consumers’ engagement and e-word of mouth in social media brand communities: a path analysis

Recently, marketing researchers have started to explore the impact of Social Media Brand Communities in digital marketing strategies. However, in spite of this interest, scant attention has been paid to the micro-mechanisms stimulating electronic word of mouth (E-WOM) within social media brand community. In this sense, this exploratory research aims to explore how consumers‟ engagement is related with positive E-WOM.