RISULTATI RICERCA

In the contemporary economic literature it is wide reckoned that the spread of e-Government creates remarkable advantages for all productive subjects and social classes of the country. The presence of an adequate communication infrastructure is a necessary requirement for this phenomenon to be a reality at a national and regional level. The provision of on-line services calls for a high throughput broadband network Connectivity is quite widespread in Italy, even though it is characterized by different situations. In comparison with other Italian regions, the Marches are in a good position thanks to the definition of adequate public strategies meant to enhance data infrastructure as well as to reduce the persistent digital divide in mountain areas and smaller municipalities.

Main results of the four-yearly Structure of Labour Cost Survey are presented in the following paper. Data refer to year 2000. The Survey fulfils requirements of Council Regulation 530/99. Final data resulted from a new integration approach between Istat statistical sources and administrative files. Main features of labour market in EU member states are compared by economic activity and macro-regions: structure of hours (paid and worked), labour cost components and structure of employment. Moreover compared to the previous Survey dated 1997, information on levels and structure of labour cost for “Candidates” Countries in year 2000 now belonging to EU, have been added. In addition, Structure of Labour Cost Survey produces updated indicators for the monitoring of Italian labour market: statistics by position in employment, collective agreements and integration of Compensation of employees. Data refers to business employing at least 10 workers, in sections of economic activity from C to K of Nace Rev.1 classification; reference population consists of 186.925 enterprises distributed as follows: 99.610 in industry, 23.185 in construction and 70.129 in services.

In recent times, SMEs of industrial districts have highlighted a new capacity to extend local supply chains and sales networks abroad. Opening the local business-to-business networks towards a global dimension can have either positive or negative impacts on well-established sources of firms’ competitive advantages in terms of competencies and innovation dynamics. At the same time, through such processes those small firms are also transforming their links with local territories. It is necessary to identify a new organization of the international value chain in order coordinate local specificities and sustain value-added activities. In this scenario internationalization strategies have to be coupled with innovation strategies. The paper will analyze internationalization processes of industrial districts SMEs by discussing a research on more than 700 SMEs; the paper will also discuss the relation among internationalization, innovation strategies and performances.

From a knowledge-based perspective, an industrial district operates as a meta-context with a high density of knowledge production sites (firm contexts), and a high density of knowledge transfer channels that in their turn feed the processes of knowledge creation. We argue that observation of new products aimed to their imitation, inter-firm mobility of human resources, intra-district relations are frequent and effective mechanisms of knowledge transfer because of an high level of cognitive overlapping among district firms. Linked with cognitive combination, the same mechanisms fill an important role in the generation of innovations and the evolution of industrial districts. These systems are also meta-contexts with a high density of incubators (firm contexts) of new entrepreneurship. In fact, the origin of new firms frequently comes through spin-offs, that may be considered a specific form of knowledge transfer and combination. The paper analyses the knowledge dynamics inside districts as well as the cognitive permeability between a district and its external environment. The effects of globalisation on industrial districts are also considered.

This paper is concerned with the proposal for a new approach to measuring the effectiveness of consumer promotions, enabled by individual customer information collected via loyalty cards. Our research has three goals: 1) To discuss the complexity associated with measuring promotional effectiveness and the limits of current methodologies; 2) To propose a new customer-focused approach to promotion measurement as opposed to the current product-focused perspective and demonstrate that it expands the measurability of promotional effects in three dimensions: objectives, in that not only sales volume and market share effects can be tracked, but also customer-specific and assortment-wide effects; time, in that promotional effects can be monitored for longer periods of time and the fulfilment of long-term goals can be measured; space: thanks to geo-marketing analysis, sense can be made of the variability of promotional response in different retail markets, channels and outlets. 3)To suggest implications for further research of the adoption of a customer-focused approach to promotions for retailer-supplier relationships.

Despite the growing attention to consumer policy and consumerism, many markets are still characterized by high consumers’ vulnerability. Consequently, public authorities, consumer associations and consumer information suppliers have become critical actors capable to enhance consumer rationality, thus reducing the demand side asymmetry. The aim of this paper is to explore the degree of cohesion among those actors, using this measure as a proxy to analyze the capacity and willingness to interact in order to reduce consumer vulnerability. The paper shows some empirical evidences based on network analysis methodology. One of the most interesting result concerns the preliminary evidence of an emerging co-ordination among consumer protection actions, as a first step of a consumer policy focused more in preventing demand side symmetry rather than in reacting against damages created by opportunistic firms conduct.

Persuading without Liying: an Empirical Analysis of Decision Making A great deal of research has discussed the effects of presentation order and product category on decision making. However, very few studies empirically test the numerous theoretical suggestions, and such analyses are usually based on ad hoc experiments considering hypothetical situations (or bets) and small convenience samples. Here we investigate the effects of presentation order considering a natural setting and using real data, for two different products (computers and clothes). The empirical results provide support to some of the key-hypotheses advanced by the relevant literature, but also highlight some nuances and differences. These suggest that the effects depend upon the nature of the information considered and upon the type of product. In fact, the effects are emphasized when characteristics are more difficult to compare and where there is a greater interaction between consumers and products.

High tech marketing face a fundamental paradox: it must help managers to elaborate strategies apt to satisfy market needs, while at the same time it cannot use traditional research tools in order to interpret such needs and elaborate ideas for new products with the same efficacy demonstrated in mature and/or stable contexts, due to the intrinsic uncertainties that characterize high tech markets. In this paper we outline some features of non conventional marketing research tools (e.g. empathic design and lead users technique) applied by some leading firms in high tech markets, pinpointing advantages deriving from their application, as well as some drawbacks of implementation. We also outline the main features of emerging phenomena, related to the diffusion of virtual communities and networks of practice, as new organizational mechanisms through which the innovative firm can acquire and combine specific and complementary pieces of knowledge necessary for developing new applications for emerging technologies. Finally, we conclude by discussing some implications of these new approaches to reduce market uncertainties and illustrate some directions for future research. Keywords: high tech marketing; marketing research tools; new product development; communities and network of practice.

High-tech marketing concepts can be useful to understand important aspects of R&D and technology management. This is due to the fact that the acquisition, improvement and exploitation of intangible assets have become critical for firms’ competitiveness. Firms can leverage their R&D investment both internally and externally, as direct producers or buyers and sellers on markets for technologies. Intangible assets are the object of complex transactions and key complementary assets to combine with new innovations. Strategic decisions in technology marketing take into account factors such as the phase of evolution of a technology and the firm’s position with respect to incumbents. This paper offers a theoretical framework to differentiate four possible scenarios, according to the type of innovations, the control over complementary assets and the presence of a dominant paradigm for the exploitation of a technology. The cases of four large industrial R&D labs are used to illustrate these possible scenarios. An effective marketing strategy, clear leadership, and attention to intellectual property issues seem to emerge as determinant factors of success.