The aim of this paper is to analyse marketing capabilities, through the dynamic capabilities framework, in order to increase understanding of how gradual global SMEs operating in traditional sectors can improve their export performance.The work is based on the exploratory, descriptive, qualitative method of a case study. An Italian SME has been selected on the basis of its export performance and marketing activities. The study has been conducted through secondary data analysis and a semi-structured in-depth interview with the CEO, with the aim of highlighting the relevance of emerging dynamic marketing capabilities connected with international performance.The results show that a SME, which lacks resources for international expansion, can improve its export performance by adapting, integrating, building, and reconfiguring its existing internal and external marketing capabilities for international markets.The principal limitation of this work is that, by analysing a company belonging to the alcoholic beverage sector, where price decisions are often left to importers, it was not possible to analyse dynamic pricing capabilities. This paper offers a contribution to the discussion of the internationalization of gradual global SMEs from the perspective of marketing and dynamic capabilities, missing from the literature, which is mainly focused on the study of multinational and born global enterprises.

The current dynamics of business systems require new ways of conceiving the role of single entities. On this basis, a complex of interactions between the company and the reference context must be activated to guarantee survival dynamics. From these considerations re-emerge the ideas of Peccei ( 2013) and King ( 2013) that recognise in the systemic thought the foundations for a sustainable society. The present study derives from these considerations, and aims at contributing to the advancement of the knowledge necessary to overcome the challenges in the sustainability field. The methodological approach, albeit heuristic, can be traced back to the positive scientific and constructivist method. The results of the study showed the prevalence of qualitative and subjective techniques, accompanied by the so-called inductive method, testifying to the intense interaction between the scholar and the object investigated. With regard to future research, it would be interesting to construct a flexible, scalable and extensible model to recover both a database and an ontology for the theoretical framework.

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The paper aims to jointly combine three different categories of variables (financial ratios, corporate governance data and bank-firm information) to predict SMEs’ default. To this end, a merged longitudinal predictive model was applied to a sample of 973 Italian SMEs that are clients of 36 different co-operative banks. The collected data (for a total of 23 variables included in the model) relate to the years 2012–2014. The main findings reveal the high predictive power of leverage ratio, CEO tenure and ownership concentration, and the number of loans overdue for more than 180 days in the previous 12 months.

Purpose Nowadays, in this highly dynamic and complex context, companies have to act in a socially responsible and sustainable way to survive, creating shared value. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, through descriptive statistics, the elements that Italian banks identify as strategic to increasing their relational and reputational capital and to being in consonance with stakeholder’s expectations. Design/methodology/approach This paper investigates the width (number of intermediaries that included the materiality matrix in their non-financial reports) and the depth (number of indicators in the matrix) of the phenomenon to detect the bank’s attention on critical topics for their stakeholders. Findings The focus is on materiality matrices in order to detect a correspondence among the significant indicators selected by the banks and those value generators for stakeholders. In the perspective used in this work, property is also a stakeholder; indeed, wanting to use the terminology of the viable systems approach, property represents a relevant supra-system as it is critical and influential for the decision makers. Research limitations/implications The main limits are the low number of non-financial reports published by Italian banks, and the little information on the type of stakeholder involved in the building of the materiality matrix. Originality/value The originality of this work is multifaceted. Primarily, there are no similar studies in the banking sector. The present work intends to go beyond the studies already in the literature on mapping and stakeholder prioritisation as well as on the identification and selection of material themes. Moreover, having found, during the analysis of the banks’ reports, the heterogeneity of indicators identified as material, for both banks and stakeholders, the same have been traced back to the related stages identified by Carroll in the pyramid of social responsibility.

The paper presents an analysis of the management control systems, introducing a useful instrument to summarise performance achieved from the organizational network model, with a view to establishing the competitive advantage and the creation of value on the long term. The research approach is based on the qualitative methodology. The research is developed according to the study of national and international literature. The contribution proposes theoretical proof to support the new management control instrument for contractual networks: the Business Network Scorecard. The approach adopted for the development of the network management control instrument (Business Network Scorecard) refers to the principles of the Balanced Scorecard and value creation. So, the reporting system of network performance aims at highlighting the joint results of an economicfinancial nature as well as those of an intangible nature. Through a logic of interception of large aggregates, the results achieved by the network are proposed through the matrix of network objectives, the multidimensional network model, including perspective indicators, 4 indicators of synergy and the comparison report of joint and individual performance of companies.

Innovative services offered by a medium-sized bank, deeply rooted in the territory, generate benefits for the local start-ups and consequently for the local context. The present work aims to verify such research hypothesis, focusing on the analysis of economic-financial implications as well as social ones generated by start-ups projects whose initiatives have been considered deserving of funding and then admitted to micro-credit disbursement by Banca Popolare del Cassinate (BPC).The methodology implemented has a dual nature. The work firstly detects literature contributes about innovative services for business growth such allocation of financial resources for company survival. Secondly, the empirical part of the paper explores the results produces by the project "First Idea", financially supporting the creation and growth of new businesses that present innovative projects and are supposed to generate worth. Reasonably, the research is based on the qualitative approach, using the multi-method layout for data collection, whose validation is performed through the triangulation method.As result, the analysis confirms the benefits generated by the BPC initiatives at different levels, and that without innovation there is not economic growth nor local community development.

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