Michela Mari

Servicescape cues and customer behavior: a systematic literature review and research agenda

Although management scholars have devoted considerable effort to researching the effects of servicescapes [Bitner, M.J. (1992). Servicescapes: The impact of physical surroundings on customers and employees. Journal of Marketing, 56(2), 57–71] on customer behavior, we still lack an up-to-date systematization of both theoretical and empirical findings. This paper aims at filling the gap with a systematic literature review based on rigorous criteria. In reviewing the 188 selected papers, attention has been devoted to an in-depth analysis of new research paths on the topic. Our research findings contribute to a deep understanding of the link between customer behaviors and new ways of interpreting specific features of the servicescape. We believe these implications are valuable for both managers and scholars.

Family embeddedness and business performance: evidences from women-owned firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the family context may affect female firms’ performance by contextualising the study within Italy and empirically analysing 307 Italian women-owned firms. Design/methodology/approach – By using ordinal regressions, this paper empirically investigates the influence of three dimensions of the family context on female firms’ performance, namely: the motivations to start a business; the support from the family once the business is established; and the mechanisms to achieve a suitable balance between work and family life. Findings – Overall, the results offer substantial support for the assumption that female business owners benefit from being pulled into the endeavour, from specific linkages with family and also from selected mechanisms to balance work and family life, thus contributing to show how strong the relationship between a firm’s performance and the family context is for women. Originality/value – Today female entrepreneurship represents an im...

Real estate management: past, present, and future research directions

This article aims at discussing how the literature about the real estate management has been evolving over time. To date, both scholars and practitioners substantially converge in maintaining that, if properly performed, that bundle of operations known as corporate real estate management (CREM) can positively affect the overall corporate profitability. Nonetheless, this assumption seems to need more empirical evidence if it wants to be consolidated. Furthermore, although CREM is still the most addressed area of inquiry, over the last years, the attention to related topics, such as the managing of construction projects, has been increasing also. We believe that, in the future, the attention to these topics will increase proportionally to the growing relevance of environmental and social sustainability issues.

Facility management: current trends and future perspectives

This paper aims at systematising academic studies on facility management that have been published since 2006 in order to understand whether facility management, as a scientific discipline, has arrived at its mature stage; whether the strategic shift that is occurring in facility management practice has been grasped by academia to date; and what are the most challenging areas for future research. By reviewing 79 papers in depth, our results show that research in this area is still in its infancy, allowing scholars the possibility of really contributing to the advancement of the field.

Corporate governance e performance delle società per azioni : un'analisi empirica delle public utilities quotate alla Borsa Valori di Milano

What kind of relationship, if any, exists between corporate governance and performance? Despite a lively scholarly commitment, conclusive results on this research question are still missing in the literature. This paper aims to contribute to fill this gap by presenting quantitative evidence from the population of the Italian public utilities listed at the Milan Stock Exchange in the years between 2000 and 2008.