Vincenza Odorici

Clusters and rivalry: does localization really matter?

This exploratory study addresses the link between rivalry--which we regard as a cognitive social dimension of competition-- and localization. We adopt a visual-mapping technique to collect data on firms belonging to the packaging-machinery geographical cluster in Northern Italy. We can summarize our results as follows. Entrepreneurs identifying rivals within the cluster also tend to cite a larger number of rivals altogether. A firms proximity to its rivals is a key to a deeper comparison with them. Geographical distance represents a tool for scanning the competitive environment; it is not used as a criterion by which to classify rivalry. From these results, we generate a few propositions that shed a new light on the relationship between rivalry and localization.

Between Supply and Demand: Intermediaries, Social Networks and the Construction of Quality in the Italian Wine Industry

The working of markets implies decisions basedon incomplete and costly information; as aconsequence, the mechanisms through which thisinformation is produced and made available toactors are very important. Most prominent amongsuch mechanisms is the role of intermediaryactors that do not make production orconsumption choices, but influence thesechoices by sorting products into categories. Wefocus on intermediary actors that expressevaluations of products, as a mechanism thatfosters the convergence of supply and demand inexchanges. Personal social networks thatconnect supply and demand perform this rolewhen exchanges are bound to narrow contexts.Intermediaries replace these ties in massmarkets; in such broader context socialnetworks are found here to play an importantrole in the relationships between intermediaryactors and the supply side of the market.The empirical context of our work is theItalian wine industry, characterized by theimportance of wine guides that influence thebehaviors of producers and consumers byevaluating the quality of wines. Theambiguities intrinsic to this evaluationdescribe the grey area within which differentdefinitions of quality are equally legitimate.We analyze the quality ratings of 967 Italianwines reported by the two most prominentItalian wine guides in the period 1996–2000.Our goal is to show that, given the intrinsicambiguity involved in wine evaluation, thereare systematic differences in the scoresassigned to products, and that the pattern ofthese differences reflects variations in thesocial networks that connect the two guides tothe supply side of the market.

Winemakers and Wineries in the Evolution of the Italian Wine Industry: 1997–2006

This work concerns the role of winemakers as independent consultants of wineries with respect to recent changes in the Italian wine industry. Internationalisation and new consumption styles have turned the wine market into a mass market. Furthermore, new actors have emerged that mediate the convergence of supply and demand, and foster the adoption of new winemaking practices. Innovations in winemaking have had to overcome the resistance of the advocates of the traditional conception of quality, institutionalised by the denomination of origin regulations. Independent winemaking consultants and industry media, mainly wine guides, were key actors behind the innovations that fit the new context. We document the growing importance of winemaking consultants, and how they have been complemented by wine guides. We analyse the networks of wineries induced by the multiple affiliations of winemakers, as reported by the oldest Italian guide, I Vini di Veronelli, in the period 1997–2006. In these networks two wineries are tied if a winemaker has an affiliation with both of them. We analyse the evolution of these networks, and assess whether the structural position of a winery is associated with the ratings of its wines.

Serial Entrepreneurship and Born-Global New Ventures - A Case Study

Based on a longitudinal case study, we aim to understand how serial entrepreneurs can foster the development of born-global ventures. We consider a born-global start-up as the final stage of the learning process for a serial entrepreneur, advancing propositions regarding the importance of prior entrepreneurial experience for born-global venture creation and growth. We suggest that the serial entrepreneurs previous entrepreneurial experiences could substitute for the lack of knowledge, opportunity recognition and social networks of a born-global start-up. Thus, we recognize the necessity of a shift in the unit of analysis, from born-global start-up to a global serial entrepreneur, suggesting to follow a dynamic approach when the born-global start-up issue is discussed.

Firm ownership and internationalisation: Is it context that really matters?

This paper considers the potential role played by different kinds of shareholders in a firms international level, distinguishing the firms quoted in the UK from those listed in the countries of Continental Europe (France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Spain). Our results confirm that different kinds of ownership affect the overall level of a firms internationalisation. Family ownership has a negative impact on foreign sales in the UK but not in Continental Europe, while bank ownership has a negative impact on the scope of FDI in Continental Europe but no impact whatsoever in the UK. Institutional investors positively impact the scope of both foreign sales and FDI in the UK, while in Continental Europe they have a negative impact on foreign sales. These different results contribute to explaining why previous studies that have focused on just one country or a single measurement of internationalisation have come up with such contrasting results.

A Model of Innovation and Knowledge Development Among Boundedly Rational Rival Firms

This model explores the consequences of common theoretical hypotheses and empirical stylized facts regarding innovation, knowledge development and knowledge management by geographically clustered, boundedly rational rival firms. Its most innovative feature is that it assumes that the market performance of innovations can be predicted by their ability to bridge between existing pieces of knowledge.

The Scorpion Who Stings the Dog Who Bites: Women Role and Gender Discrimination in Microfinance

Allowing women to access and participate in the economics of life is no longer a “women’s issue”. Gender equality has become a strategic priority for firms to improve their economic and/or social performance. Thus, questioning whether gender discrimination is an issue even in firms directly engaged with the empowerment of women, also becomes an urgency. Commitment is not enough and gender concerns require a strategic approach. In this paper, we investigate gender discrimination in microfinance lending according to the roles females hold in MFIs. Using a panel of 205 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 54 countries, we find that women in MFIs, differently from men, do not discriminate in loan size against women borrowers by gender. Moreover, women hierarchical positions matter in moderating this relationship. Females in operating roles are more effective in reducing gender discrimination than women in leading positions. Whilst we focus on discrimination outside the MFIs, we find results consistent with the fact that gender equality in microfinance can be enhanced by gender equality advocate inside the organizations. Research on women’s empowerment should not only stress the presence of women in the organizations but also their role in the firm and the gender composition of working units. Practitioners pursuing gender equality need to reassess the role of women in the MFIs. Appointing women to powerful positions could be a straightforward solution but ineffective.

Professional emergence and boundary work in the Italian wine industry: ‘Nella botte piccola c’è il vino buono’: Topics and Issues from European Research

Marco Bottura, Raffaele Corrado, Bernard Forgues, and Vincenza Odorici focus on the issue of field-level change by discussing the transformation of the Italian wine industry. Conceptually, apart from different strands of institutional thought, they make particular use of the sociology of professions and the concept of boundary objects in the social studies of science and technology. By applying network analysis, they show the emergence of a new field structure where experts, consultants, ratings and rankings increasingly shape the field. Professional winemakers are of outstanding importance here, as they spread their expert knowledge throughout the network and connect wineries and, ultimately, their products in a hitherto unknown way.

Competitors and Rivals among Clustered and Isolated Firms: An Empirical Investigation and a Computational Model

We carried out an empirical investigation among producers of packaging machines collecting information about their rivals, i.e., those few competitors which they closely monitor. We found interesting regularities that take geographically clustered firms apart from isolated firms, but we could not explain our empirical findings by means of existing theories. By constructing an agent-based model we were able to formulate a simple and plausible mechanism for rival selection which, once combined with well-known aspects of knowledge representation among clustered and isolated firms, is able to generate the empirically observed facts. We submit that this case is exemplary in showing what agent-based models can do, namely, providing sufficiency proofs that help theory-building.