RISULTATI RICERCA

Literature recommends that companies should try to understand consumer evaluations and reactions so as to meet their needs properly. This study focuses on consumers’ evaluations of and behaviors toward reshoring companies, and identifies two interacting elements useful for this general purpose. The influence of attitude towards reshoring on consumers’ evaluations of, and behaviors toward, reshoring companies is better itemized by the moderating role of perceived motives for reshoring. We propose, and test, the influence of the two variables on consumer willingness to pay for the products of a reshoring company.

Determinants of consumer’s loyal behaviours within the retail context: the role of brand identification This study develops and tests a new theoretical framework allowing to analyse consumer loyalty in an extensive perspective. We assess that brand loyalty can be supported by firms through spreading values and beliefs able to create brand identification and sense of sharing among consumers. Furthermore we capture the complex structure of consumer’s loyal behaviours by introducing a new construct. To do this we extend the Theory of Reasoned Action improving its predictive ability with a new dimension able to measure consumer’s brand identification. We also check for actual behaviours through the specific variable named brand related behaviours. Within this frame we estimate the influence of brand identification on consumer’s intention to act in favour of the retailer and, therefore, on consumer loyalty. The data, coming from a retail context, supports our theoretical proposition. Moreover results offer interesting managerial and theoretical insights and noteworthy research implications. Keywords: brand identification, consumer loyalty, retail context.

Questo articolo traccia le fasi di sviluppo della programmazione negoziata nazionale e di alcuni strumenti originali creati dalla Regione Emilia-Romagna: i programmi speciali d’area (PDA), i programmi di riqualificazione urbana (PRU), gli accordi quadro per la montagna e le Intese per l’integrazione delle politiche territoriali. Il risultato di questa analisi è un quadro caleidoscopico, generalmente positivo e concreto, per quanto la programmazione negoziata sembri vivere una fase di declino a causa di fattori concorrenti, tra cui gli effetti della riforma istituzionale delle autonomie locali, la disponibilità di risorse e la tendenza verso la finanziarizzazione delle politiche di sviluppo territoriale.

L’engagement dei pazienti è riconosciuto come un elemento essenziale per la qualità dei servizi per le patologie croniche. Il contributo si propone di esplorare le dinamiche socioorganizzate che favoriscono l’engagement dei pazienti e la loro trasformazione da consumatori passivi di cura a partner. Sarà presentata una ricerca collaborativa, realizzata con due servizi di un grande ospedale del Nord Italia, in cui pazienti e personale sanitario hanno cooperato per valutare e riorientare i percorsi diagnostico-terapeutici verso processi di lavoro partecipati centrati sul paziente. Strumenti di analisi delle pratiche sono stati l’analisi proattiva del rischio clinico (HFMEA) e l’analisi psicosociale degli snodi decisionali, applicati nell’ambito di focus group misti (pazienti, medici, infermieri, psicologi, assistenti sociali). I risultati hanno consentito di evidenziare l’intrecciarsi di aspetti clinici e organizzativi nelle rappresentazioni della natura dell’engagement e la sua caratterizzazione come un processo oscillante e instabile. Inoltre, attraverso l’analisi del processo d’indagine, è stato possibile identificare assunti e valori professionali che rischiano di dar vita ad una partecipazione apparente. La ricerca offre indicazioni per la progettazione di pratiche di gestione collaborativa dei percorsi di cura.

The literature on career mobility has emphasized the role of perceived employability in handling occupational transitions. Following a multidimensional approach to the concept of perceived employability, this study developed a twosided model to analyse the self-employability perceptions of the unemployed. Combining two dimensions (beliefs relating to the occupational opportunities in the labour market and self-efficacy to intercept these opportunities), the model hypothesized four different profiles of self-perceived employability. The study aimed to verify this model and to explore how the different profiles of self-perceived employability are related to mental health, intention and motives for using employment agencies and reemployment outcomes. The research involved 136 workers who, after losing their job, applied to an employment agency. The study had a four-wave, multi-method design (questionnaire at the first contact with the agency and objective data on reemployment at 3, 6 and 9 months after the first contact). Self-perceived employability profiles were obtained through a two-step cluster analysis based on two variables (job search self-efficacy and perceived reemployment chances). The two-step cluster analysis resulted in a four-cluster structure, confirming the hypothesized model. The analysis showed significant differences between clusters, distress levels, and short- and medium-term employment outcomes: people who evaluate themselves as less employable have higher levels of distress and lower intentions to utilize the agency’s services. The relationship between the employability profile and reemployment at 3, 6 and 9 months shows interesting trends. Our study contributes to the literature on employability, highlighting the relevance of considering different self-perceived employability profiles of unemployed people. Moreover, its suggestions can be useful for career counsellors in profiling workers who are at risk of psychological distress during occupational transitions and who could give up searching for a job.

The work quality of graduates. Survey taken one and three years after graduation This essay analyses the quality (in sociological terms) of work performed by university graduates one and three years after graduation. In addition to a concise theoretical and interpretive overview on consolidated approaches of sociology and of sustained paradigms regarding transformations in labour and its organisation at a productive level, the results of the AlmaLaurea study are outlined according to a series of factors: work contracts; earning expectations; career expectations; expectations of acquisition of professionalism; autonomy at and in the job; and free time. The results are also evaluated in light of the effectiveness of skills acquired at the university. Lastly, the points of reference which emerge as a consequence are compared to the aforementioned theoretical and interpretive considerations in order to extract elements which can be generalised and thus arrive at a more thorough understanding of the topic.

The hypothesis discussed on this paper is that there is a correlation between individual pro-activity (right from the educational stages) and the propensity to select the search methods used in the period of job seeking. The occupational incidence of resourcefulness attitude in young Italian graduates is here analysed starting with the strategies for using the various job search methods. We use original information drawn from a larger survey on a sample of about 5.800 people interviewed three years after graduation. A multiple correspondences analysis enucleates a number of factors that describe the degree of pro-activity and resourcefulness of young graduates. The performance of graduates are evaluated on the basis of a number of socio-graphic variables, of the university path and of the experiences carried during their studies. Finally, are identified the aspects that have the greatest impact on research strategies using a linear discriminant analysis, measuring the magnitude of the effect.

L’articolo rivisita gli anni 1998-2007 della rivista Sociologia del lavoro attraverso una "lente" particolare che cercherà di rendere visibili le "tracce" che il dibattito sulla gestione della conoscenza ed i lavoratori della conoscenza ha lasciato nella rivista. Attraverso queste tracce, s’intende ricollegare e ricostruire i legami tra questa rivista e altre riviste o libri apparsi in contemporanea o che riflettono sul formarsi di un pensiero. Il tema della conoscenza è rilevante, sia perché in quegli anni si afferma una visione della conoscenza come risorsa per l’impresa e il lavoro, sia perché l’attenzione alla conoscenza, come attività situata nelle pratiche lavorative, ha condotto ad un cambiamento epistemologico nel modo di studiare e di concepire la triade tecnologia, organizzazione e lavoro. Lavorare, conoscere, organizzare e innovare sono attività non distinte, né distinguibili entro una pratica lavorativa che intreccia indissolubilmente tecnologia, organizzazione e lavoro.

From community of practices to practices of a community: brief history of a travelling concept (di Silvia Gherardi) - Ideas travel globally and they take root locally. Following the journey of the ideas engendered by the concept of CoP illustrates how it has taken root differently in different communities of researchers. The original idea of CoP, born within a predominantly anthropological literature, underlined the social and situated dimension of learning. Its translation into management studies shifted its emphasis to the problem of identifying and managing/cultivating the dimension of community. Finally, its translation in the context of on-line communities stressed the social competences necessary to make up for a missing interactive dimension with technology. The debate that developed on the absent, undervalued or taken-for-granted dimensions of CoPs, had the effect of demonstrating that the types of CoPs vary greatly, and that is also necessary to distinguish between the theoretical concept and its use to denominate an empirical phenomenon. The chapter discusses a literature, smaller in numerical terms, which proposes a reversal of the concept: from community of practice to practices of a community. The shift from community of practice to practices of a community is more than a play on words. It verbally expresses a change of perspective and epistemology leading toward an extension of the initial formulation toward a wider understanding of it within practice-based studies. This change has been illustrated in relation to the theme of management seen as practice, practices, and practicing.