Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effects of social media usage on four knowledge creation processes, namely socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation, and innovation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach A sample of 96 SMEs has been used to gather data through a standardised questionnaire and test the hypotheses through OLS regression models. Findings The results indicate that social media influence positively three out of four knowledge creation processes and that they help to foster the innovation process. Originality/value From a theoretical perspective, the study contributes to literature considering a specific digital tool and its effect on knowledge creation and innovation. In fact, a few studies have considered the impact of social media usage on other variables, such as ROI and productivity, but never on knowledge creation and innovation through a quantitative study. From a managerial perspective, the research suggests managers to implement and involve social media within business and innovation processes.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to focus on how a medium-sized company operating in the food sector should strengthen its business model, thanks to a combination between tradition and innovation. Design/methodology/approach This research focuses on one case study. The subject of the case study under analysis is Golosità dal 1885, an internationally recognized fine food Italian company. Findings Golosità dal 1885 is characterized by a strong combination of tradition and innovation, both in products and processes. The company’s competitiveness is the result of a balanced management of innovation, in respect of the family’s values, thanks to the active presence of two family generations. Research limitations/implications This study is characterized for some limitations, related to the method and to the choice of a single case study. In terms of theoretical implications, the study emphasizes the importance of the link between the food sector and the region it is rooted in. Practical implications Practical implications relate to different groups of stakeholders: for owners and management, for investors, for organizations and institutions working on a territory promotion and in the tourism sector, and for politicians and local authorities. Originality/value The originality of the research is represented by a focusing on how a strategy based on an effective combination between tradition and innovation should increase the competitive advantage, especially in a mature sector – as the food one – characterized by the need to offer a differentiated and innovative range of products and services for overcoming the consumptions crisis.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate how an environmental management system (EMS) might affect the environmental product innovation propensity of a firm through its influence on two factors shaping the knowledge process: the human capital management practices of training and development and the organisational context. Design/methodology/approach To test the study’s hypotheses, an empirical analysis was carried out on 262 companies drawn from 16 developed European markets included in the S&P Europe 350 Dow Jones index over the years 2005-2015.The authors adopted regression analysis by using the ordinary least squares and the binary logit econometric models. Findings Consistently with the study’s predictions, results show that for organisational contexts characterised by the presence of family owners, the EMAS-certified EMS reveals as a significant moderating factor that positively influences their approach to the knowledge management tools for the improvement of the workforce cognitive capabilities, with a significant impact on the firm’s openness towards green product innovation. On the contrary, the ISO 14001-certified EMS tends not to stimulate such proactive behaviour, in both family and non-family firms. Practical implications The findings suggest that an EMS can stimulate the knowledge exploration in the environmental protection field. To this end, top managers should overcome the bureaucratic vision of an EMS and conceive it as a knowledge management tool able to support the learning evolution of the organisation through an effective commitment to human capital management policies of training and development. Originality/value Drawing from social identity and institutional theories, this is the first study – to the best of the authors’ knowledge – that theorises and tests why the adoption of an EMS might stimulate the knowledge advancement of the organisation in a different way, especially in peculiar organisational contexts of family firms where the identity overlap between the family and the firm tends to affect the knowledge management process.

decreases, improved customer satisfaction and eventually, higher profits (Hammer and Stanton, 1999;Vrontis et al., 2017).Nowadays, in times of ever-increasing competition and an extremely dynamic economic environment, the achievement of both efficiency and flexibility to maintain competitiveness is needed even more Ferraris et al., 2017), as much as the need to achieve better performance at the business process level (Zairi, 1997; Karimi et al., 2007). In this context, information technology (IT) capability, i.e. the provisioning of IT to sustain business processes (BP), has become increasingly vital and is acknowledged to contribute to both efficiency and flexibility (Del Giudice and Straub, 2011;Chen et al., 2014). However, firms usually have financial constraints on IT budgets and need to decide how to allocate money on efficiency-enhancing and flexibility-enhancing IT capabilities to support the execution of BP in the best possible way (Heckmann, 2015).BP are central to the conversion of IT investments into performance, but in the literature the impact of IT capabilities at the business process level is still under investigated. In this paper, we test the effect of explorative and exploitative business process IT (BPIT) capabilities on business process performances (BPP) and the positive moderator role of BPM capabilities. Thus, we aim at bringing greater conceptual clarity to the management of ambidexterity at the business process level and empirically validating it. So, based on a sample of 404 firms in the Italian hotel industry, we have examined and found empirical evidence of positive effects of explorative and exploitative IT capabilities on BPP and of the positive moderator effects of BPM capabilities.The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 reviews the literature on ambidextrous IT capabilities, with a particular focus on the business process level. Section 3 proposes four hypotheses relating to the direct effects of explorative and exploitative IT capabilities on BPP and of the moderator effects of BPM capabilities. Section 4 explains the research design of this study, and Section 5 presents the OLS regression test of the hypotheses and the related results. The last section presents a concluding discussion, identifying managerial implications and issues for future research.

PurposeDirect sales at the winery constitute one of the most used indicators for evaluating the success of a wine tourism experience. In this respect, service performance at the winery can have some influence on sales, which assumes that there is a direct link between the service level intensity of the wine tourism offer and the intensity level of direct sales at the winery; thus proposing that the global sustainability of the economic performance of the winery would increase if the wine tourism experience was supported by intense wine tourism services.Design/methodology/approachA descriptive statistical investigation was conducted on a sample of 35 Italian wineries, giving evidence on the adoption of different service categories as part of the wineries' wine tourism offers. From these results, an inferential statistical analysis was conducted to detect the existence of a direct link between wine tourism services and direct sales at the winery.FindingsBased on the current investigation, even though it was of an exploratory nature, the evidence does not in general support a direct link between the service level intensity of the wine tourism offer and the level of intensity of direct sales at the winery. Instead, some evidence points to a potential direct link between logistics services and direct sales. Unfortunately, some evidence emerged regarding the lack of availability of wine tourism services for disabled persons.Originality/valueWine tourism is a relevant success factor for the wine business. Its influence affects not only the wineries' reputation through word-of-mouth, most of all on the social networks but also their image and most importantly their direct sales. Frequently, in fact, wine tourism performance can be evaluated by direct sales performance. As a result of the current investigation, however, it is likely that the intensity level of direct sales at the winery is not the most correct indicator for evaluating the success of a wine tourism experience with high levels of service, especially when considering overall sustainability.

No abstract

A corporate social performance model is dependent on strategies involving the processes of social responsiveness. From this perspective, this article observes that the voluntary disclosure of corporate social performances (CSP-D) is a proactive behavior based on "responsiveness" because it corresponds to the ability to reduce the gap between disclosed content and the perception of the content by stakeholders. The study examines the voluntary disclosure actions undertaken through social media by 60 T&T companies to communicate to their stakeholders how they contribute to reducing environmental negative externalities, plastic pollution in particular. Then, a co-word analysis is carried out, adopting social network maps to highlight and compare the cognitive paths that characterize disclosure and reaction. The findings suggest that when the cognitive pathways of stakeholders tend to converge towards the behavior disclosed by companies, their expectations are met and this enhances CSP-D effectiveness. Finally, social media are suitable for generating this alignment, reducing the legitimacy gap and building a good reputation.

Abstract:The territories are in competition among them for attract human, economic and financial resources. The attractiveness has become the target of recent urban policies. In fact, the constant appeals to events, be they even simple events or events lasting more days, or real places built for the occasion and adaptable to multiple uses, all linked to recreational activities, are a proof. In the tourism field this situation is particularly intense. The local areas can lose the competitive play against the great areas. They must think of diversification of their supply. Therefore, in the dynamic environment of business tourism, the requirements of customers about service quality and location landscape are getting harder than in the past. The widespread hotel model represents one of the possible solution to that needs and recently it is increasing its importance. The model is able to stimulate economic and social value development through the management of several critical success factors. The analysis of a case study "Hotel Chateau Le Cagnard" permits to underline the key factors of success of the widespread hotel for business tourism.