Piermatteo Ardolino

Entrepreneurial Aptitude and Gender-Related Stereotypes: A Research on Competences, Policies and Practices to Foster Entrepreneurial Culture in a Less Favoured Environment

The present work explores gender stereotypes and perception of entrepreneurship in the island of Sardinia, an Italian region characterized by unfavourable socio-economic conditions. Exploring the relation between entrepreneurial aptitude, competences, and social environment is of primary importance for developing entrepreneurship and understanding the evolution of regional human capital. Results of a questionnaire administered to a sample of aspiring, actual, and attempted Sardinian entrepreneurs, suggest that gender stereotypes and perceived inequalities endanger entrepreneurial networks, in spite of pre-existing feminine norms, and gender equality of education, aptitude, competences and regional opportunities. The findings suggest that a pervasive masculine discourse on entrepreneurship can hinder entrepreneurial perception and outcomes, and supplement the extant literature on the importance of a multiple culture perspective. It is suggested that policy-makers should pay attention to gender-related stereotypes and to entrepreneurial aptitude in order to convert detrimental regional and social networks into innovation systems. Practises for future investigations and recommendations to develop knowledge competences are also discussed.

Family Business and Entrepreneurship: Competencies and Organizational Behavior

Family-owned enterprises go through various stages of growth and development over time once the second and subsequent generations enter the business. They present a unique set of challenges and problems, mostly due to generational transition, role confusion, different vision of the business, qualification and skills. This quantitative study aims at increasing the understanding of which competencies are relevant to family business success and how they significantly influence both organizational behavior and family dynamics. Findings highlight the importance of family business as a unique context to study organizational behavior and confirmed how family enterprises are influenced by family culture and kinship ties.

Assessing the Relation between Entrepreneurial Environment and Institutions and Aptitude towards Entrepreneurship: an Experience in Veneto’s Vocational Schools

Satisfaction of those needs which are fundamental to life-quality often depends on availability of opportunities related to human and social capital, which in their turn are favoured by education. As in financial and social crises young people with low qualifications are one of the weakest segments in the labour market as they are exposed to work exclusion, long-term scar effects, and vulnerable market position, public institutions must reinforce policies and practices to foster school-to-work transition. European Union indeed advocates the enhancement of entrepreneurial education related policies and practices. As entrepreneurship is however strongly interlinked with formal and informal institutions, socio-cultural and economic contexts, a similar interplay exists between regional context, enterprise education and vocational training. The present work explores characteristics and aptitude towards entrepreneurship possessed by students of vocational education and training centres in the Italian Veneto region as a case study to explore the degree to which low qualified young students, in contact with an entrepreneurial formal or informal environment, show higher level of knowledge, propensity, self-efficacy and aptitude towards entrepreneurship. Some implications for entrepreneurial education and policies are provided.

Work values and aging workforce. a perspective on value orientations and motivations for post-retirement activities

Population ageing is not only linked to social or health problems, but it also concerns economic and HRM strategies and policies in work organizations. Elderly and retired workers are often still active and recent literature in social sciences has indeed focused on the management and motivation of ageing workforce. The present work aims to explore the relationships between reasons to stay active and the work values of elderly workers, by examining how value orientations affect the reasons behind post-retirement activity. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 480 north-Italian elderly, retired from different jobs who continued to work. Part of questionnaire adopted the Work Important Study/Work Values Scale (WIS/SVP) to explore the work values of aging workforce. As a result, people in retirement appear to be moved mainly by reasons of social connections and usefulness. More personal dimensions related to the need of being appreciated, self-realized, or the need of keep themselves active and busy are considered less important. Interestingly, financial reasons and work continuity are considered not important. In addition, work values and value orientations influence to various degrees these motivations to stay in activity after formal retirement. These findings suggest that HRM practices and policies, capable of motivating older workers to continue to work, should address social and relational issues rather than financial related aspects or continuous career development.

Italian workers in retirement: Reasons for post-retirement activities are influenced from own former job

Differential effect of multi-level science parks on motives and performance of high-tech firms under change in China

Il gruppo e la community

Il gruppo e la community - In these last decades the theme of the group is came back to the actuality also thanks to the coming of the world wide web. From this virtual world are arrived directly in our lifes new ideas, new sensations and new concepts. The aim of this work is to explore the knowledge of two word: the one old, the group, and the one new, the community. Thus, this paper shows some features common to both analyzed subjects: the group and the community. In fact we can find, after a careful study, similar words like: status, roles, leadership, nets of communication and other typical characteristics of them.