RISULTATI RICERCA

For a history of Marketing studies in Italy: Notes between publishing and higher education In this work we describe some aspects of the history of Marketing in Italy, referring both to the universities (didactic and research aspects) and to the publishing industry (books and specialized journals). By the historical point of view, we must remember the importance in Italy, since the second half of the 19th century, of advertising activities. This could have created a propitious situation to Marketing studies already in the early decades of the 20th century, thanks also to the work of dynamic and receptive entrepreneurs about these matters. Instead, especially since 1925-1926, the Fascist regime imposes serious conditionings on the Italian University, which in the field of economic studies bring teaching and research to take care of other topics, especially related to economic doctrine of Corporativismo (Corporatism). After the Second World War marketing studies start developing in Italy, but the diffusion of this discipline in the universities is slow and tiring, despite - for example - the commitment of a scholar like Guglielmo Tagliacarne. Only between the end of the 1950s and the early 1960s Marketing begins to be taught (within courses of Industrial and commercial technique or Market analysis) in some universities; at the same time, Italian editions of American marketing texts begin to be published. In the following decades, the growth of Marketing in higher education goes together with the publication of Italian marketing books and specialized journals in the same matter. However, only at the end of the 20th century and at the beginning of the 21st, we can say that Marketing has found the right place in academic teaching and research. Studying these issues in a historical perspective invites us to deepen the multidisciplinary content of Marketing, in reference both to the sphere of economic and social sciences and to specific aspects such agri-food economy, tourism, foodstuffs, and - finally - the marketing of agricultural products.

The oecd makes use of its role as international organisation (net)working with governments and stakeholders to shape policies aimed at responding to social, economic and environmental challenges, to address the related risks of the agri-food global supply chains. In the oecd’s view, international investment - including in agriculture - is fundamental to the world economy. Whereas the organisation works for a climate favourable to international investment, it also makes clear that it expects that all enterprises operating in the global market, adopt a voluntary "responsible business conduct" (or rbc), addressing the impacts they may have in areas such as human rights, disclosure, employment, environment, corruption" This scenario addresses the global supply chains, including in the agri-food sector, where political, weather, environmental and land tenure risks are high and adopting standards of responsible conduct is crucial. To promote this rbc, the oecd arranged two main instruments: " the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises - a complete set of recommendations and principles for a voluntary responsible business conduct in a global context - and - the network of the National Contact Points (NCPs) - the complex of the institutional arrangements that the adhering Governments should set up to further the effectiveness of the Guidelines. It also arranged the 2016 "oecd-fao Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains" to help enterprises observe the oecd Guidelines in global supply chains of the agri-food sector. This note will focus on the innovative character of this system; on the NCPs’ task to implement and "enforce" the oecd Guidelines (a soft law instrument), and on the ways the international NCPs’ network can contribute to a responsible management of the agri-food supply chains. It will highlight the importance of the cooperation among NCPs, enterprises, governments, worker organisations and NGOs to encourage the widest adoption of the oecd Guidelines. In particular, it will focus on the need for the NCPs of the different countries to co-operate, in search of a common understanding on common issues. Cooperation will be also presented as crucial for managing the non- judicial grievance mechanism entrusted to the NCPs to find a consensual settlement of disputes, arising from the alleged breach of the Guidelines, between one or more stakeholder(s) and one or more enterprise(s), also in the agri-food sector.

Many citizens, despite significant changes in the levels of awareness and responsibility towards environmental, ethical and social issues, remain ‘loyal’ to their lifestyles and their purchasing decisions. This is a phenomenon known as a value-action gap, which occurs when the values and intentions of an individual are not related to his actions. However, the individual characteristics of consumers can be ‘shaken’ by social and collective actions. Alternative Food Networks (AFNs), and among these the short supply chains, interpret different degrees of sustainability and aim to improve the coordination of supply and to involve consumers as active players in the local, typical and organic food system. An example is the ‘Kalulu’ network, on which this contribution focuses, a web platform which shortens the supply chain and transfers on a large scale the mechanism of Purchasing Group. The authors believe that this model, which operates in the rural and urban territory of the Metropolitan City of Rome, is able to bring well-being to the farm and the territory, on the one hand, and to bridge the value-action gap in individuals and families, on the other. Public support for this type of AFN - which develops networks of socio-economic relationships between producers and consumers and communicates the sharing of values - and the involvement of all local community stakeholders could generate a model of alternative governance of rural and peri-urban areas with typical products towards sustainable development. In fact, from the analysis carried out, it emerges that the platform creates a producer/consumer local market which recognizes a fair and sustainable exchange value, which goes beyond the price/quality ratio. In this commercialization model consumers increase their awareness and responsibility of consumption choices in respect of seasonality, traditions and natural organic cycles, reducing waste; while the constancy of purchasing and the reduction of intermediaries guarantee economic needs also for small farmers. This innovative and efficient model of short supply chain, contribute to the reduction of carbon emissions and the protection of the environment, for the benefit of the community.

Social farming is a complex activity that requires, for its development, the contribution of different skills and competences and, therefore, the creation of networks and complex relationships among several actors. According to the Report on Social Farming (rrn, 2017), networks that are built around social agriculture are complex both in terms of agreements and of the plurality of stakeholders involved. The paper aims at presenting the results of the research activity carried out on a group of Italian social farming operators that participated in information and training activities organized by the Italian National Rural Network (nrn) (summer schools and/or study visits) between 2016 and 2018. Aim of the research is to understand the relationships that have been created after participating in these moments and how much these activities improved the strengthening or the creation of territorial networks. The survey was conducted with qualitative methods and the tools used are the interview by questionnaire and social network analysis. All participants at the end of the events were invited to respond to a questionnaire aimed at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the activity and subsequently they were given a questionnaire with cawi methodology aimed at understanding the social farming activities developed after the training. Then a sample of respondents was selected, among those who started new projects or implemented the existing ones. At this stage, data were gathered from an in-depth questionnaire and direct interview. Through the application of Social Network Analysis (sna) the formal and informal links between the participants have been mapped and described. The analysis of the actors has highlighted the high heterogeneity of the subjects involved, which in most cases is constituted by farmers. The network is not very cohesive due to the lack of links between many actors. However, it is an active and inclusive network characterized by redundant links that may be poorly efficient and an obstacle to its further expansion. Within the network, there are actors who simultaneously hold multiple roles representing multiple interests; the nrn no longer appears as a standalone unit that only performs an "institutional function" but as a social subject.

One of the main limitations of traditional agri-environmental policies is that the related measures are usually targeted to individual farms, leading to single and disconnected actions. In order to increase the effectiveness of its environmental action, the cap 2014-2020 has tried to stimulate collective approaches in different ways, both in the context of the greening of direct payments and of the voluntary agri-environmental schemes (aes) of rural development policies. Nevertheless, in Italy so far there have been only a very limited number of attempts to implement collective agri-environmental strategies. The overall objective of this paper is exploring and analysing the attitudes of the Italian stakeholders towards the implementation of agri-environmental collective actions, in order to identify, on one side, the main limitations that are preventing their adoption and, on the other side, to co-design possible solutions and practical actions to stimulate collaborative projects. Data were collected during the first National Forum dedicated to agri-environmental issues, organised by the Italian National Rural Network, by using a participatory approach. The research has identified three main challenges that the Italian agricultural system needs to face in order to enhance and spread the adoption of collective agrienvironmental projects: (i) designing policies that are more effective in supporting the early stages of collective actions (network setting and project development); (ii) a better identification and involvement of intermediate institutions in projects’ coordination and implementation; (iii) improving specific assistance to local farmers for collective projects as well as spreading knowledge amongst other rural stakeholders.

This paper investigates the governance system of 12 Italian Organic Districts (ODs) with the purpose of evaluating the extent to which it adheres to Ostrom’s model (1990) concerning Common Pool Resources (CPRs) management. Starting from the definition of territory as a CPR, ODs can be defined as selforganized and governed communities, able to manage it in the three dimensions (environmental, social, and economic) of sustainability. Results show a partial adaptation of the OD model to Ostrom’s design principles. An exact match is not possible, as some of the features required to comply with these principles are not within the competence of the ODs. In fact, there is still a lack of an adequate control/monitoring and sanction system that limits their capability of governing the commons, i.e. the territory in this case. However, the participatory approach, that is inherent to the governance system of ODs, allows for a certain degree of adherence to Ostrom’s model of CPRs management. Two levels of adherence of the ODs to this model have been identified. The first one is implied in their nature and finds its legitimacy in the framework of rules and laws that regulates organic farming; the second level of adherence is a consequence of the ODs socio-institutional maturity.

The sustainability of food systems is a central issue in academic and political debate at a national and global level. Involving the various actors in food systems through a multi-actor platform approach is increasingly recognized as a way to promote sustainability because it is a strategy capable of ensuring resilience and an effective mechanism to guarantee the co-creation of knowledge and the definition and implementation of innovation. In order to ensure that the actors/ stakeholders involved are an authentic reflection of the food system, understood as a socio-ecological system i.e. the result of interactions between the socio-economic and ecological components, it is essential to use analytical tools that allow a multidisciplinary approach and that can act as devices for knowledge co-creation and promoting of collaborative approaches. This paper uses a modified version of the SES framework, designed to allow the integration of a range of collaboration behavioural factors for sustainable agri-food chains. The objective is to strengthen the analysis of the structural aspects of SES with assessment of the behavioural factors that can significantly influence the path of sustainable transformation that the SES could undertake. The study analyses the implementation of a good practice multi-actor collaboration and gives an ex ante evaluation of the adaptive mechanisms needed to activate an effective transfer, considering: - the structural characteristics of the agri-food socio-ecological systems involved in the "re-use of good practice"; - the quality and density of behavioural factors present in the socio-ecological systems involved in the "re-use of good practice". The "re-using" socio-ecological systems are all quite different, which makes the challenge of adapting the innovation more complicated. The wine producing systems involved show different levels of aggregation and capacity for adding value. There is a high risk that the costs of implementing the innovation will fall principally to the farmers, while the increase in value generated will not. For this reason, it is important to guarantee, through the initial design and subsequent implementation of the multi-actor platform, that the platform can express, recognize, and address these kinds of challenges.

The paper analyses some Italian virtuous experiences of Food Public Procurement, connecting them with the issue of food democracy. In particular, the first paragraphs provide an outline of the main challenges and distortions afflicting today’s food systems, pointing out how and to what extent they are strictly tied to the problems of access to food and participation to food governance. In diets and food consumption behaviours, being them the main driver of the trajectories of food systems, rely the most part of the future of sustainability of agricultural productions and distribution. Food Public Procurement, defining features and quality of an impressive number of meals (18.5 billion per year in 15-member Europe), has the chance to drive and orient a large amount of the food productions towards more sustainable patterns. The results deriving from the critical examination of the four practices of Food Public Procurement in Italy, put into evidence the impacts in terms of parents participation, healthy of meals, agricultural sustainability, local development, distribution of food value chain and workers’ rights. Finally, it is stressed the importance of local food policies and urban Food councils in boosting and favouring the spreading of sustainable Food Public Procurement practices.

Several studies on the effects of foreign direct investments (fdi) in Central and Eastern European Countries show that foreign investors are working hard to raise the level of quality of their suppliers to meet the global quality requirements. In this context, management concepts have been developed to optimize inter-firm relationships. Thus, nowadays, not only intra-firm but also inter-firm processes are developed. By verticalization, we understand the tightening of the procurement relationships leading to the development of vertically integrated firms or vertically cooperating hybrids. In this paper, we take a closer look at vertically cooperating chain systems or networks. The aim of the article is to give an overview of the general mechanisms of chain management in the context of cooperation and coordination issues and then focus on vertical coordination in transition economies. Vertical coordination will be the theoretical basis to analyze a case study of Yerevan Brandy Company (ybc), which serves as a success story and a role model for the building of a supply chain network for other transition economies. This case study is based on an interview with ybc’s heads of grape purchasing and quality control, two of their agronomists working with the farmers, as well as the director of the Vine and Wine Foundation of Armenia, who represents all grape growers and processors. The case study shows tangibly how an international company manages to integrate local smalland medium-sized farmers (grape growers) into its domestic and international value chains by means of cooperation and coordination in the form of contracting.

In 2008, the European Union (EU) started promoting the development of micro, small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the context of Think Small First - Small Business Act (sba). As SMEs represent 99% of all European businesses, they are the backbone of Europe. This phenomenon is even more clear in the Italian agrifood industry where, in 2016, SMEs were about 1,5 million. Nevertheless, most of the Italian SMEs show unsatisfactory economic performances compared to European competitors. Indeed, the small size of firms is a challenge in terms of design and production capacity. To support inter-firms’ cooperation and to enact the principles of the sba, the Italian parliament introduced the network contract (NC) as industrial policy under Law n. 33 of 2009. The NC allows entrepreneurs to collaborate in order to improve, individually and collectively, their innovation capacity and/or their competitiveness. On one side, there is a positive economic return from cooperation. On the other hand, a deeper understanding of networks should be achieved by examining how networks operate and what is the content of the links. Indeed, one of the most challenging issue lies on the disposition of network members to be cooperative. This exploratory study aims to improve the understanding of the NC and its collaborative drivers, by analyzing whether, why and how features related to network characteristics and management perceptions affect companies’ collaboration, competitiveness and innovation capacity. To do this, we perform a multiple case study analysis by interviewing six key informants who have subscribed the NC in the agrifood industry. The study has managerial and policy implications. Findings highlight some keyelements that characterize a network approach and its related advantages, which can bring benefits to companies, while triggering competitiveness, innovation and sustainability at local level. .

The objective of this study is to address the following research question: how could the Interbranch organizations (IBOs) support the implementation of the new cap regulatory approach sustaining the design and the implementation of private orderings in Agro-industry value chains? Our method is based on two steps. First we delineate a conceptual framework based on recent achievements of Transaction Cost Economics. This step is based on the illustration of a three institutional layers architecture which includes macro-, meso- and microinstitutional levels. The next step is to focus on the case study of IBOs and is dedicated to analysis of such arrangements in terms of meso- institutions. The study provides two basic results. First is pointed out that the cap reform calls for the identification of appropriate meso-institutional level. Secondly it is suggested that the efficiency of the micro-institutional level is increased by the integration of the scope of the meso-institutional level.

Network contracts (NCs) have been recently introduced as industrial policy in Italy to promote competitiveness and innovation among small companies. This paper investigates the structure and the characteristics of NCs operating in the Italian agri-food system. For this purpose, a conceptual framework has been first drawn up to consider sectorial affinity and spatial proximity as factors influencing the development of networks of companies. Subsequently, data from Italian Business Register have been extracted and analysed using appropriate statistical tools, in particular local Moran spatial autocorrelation indexes. Results highlight the significant role played by agri-food companies in the NCs aknowkedged in Italy, expecially the ones established among a reduced numbers of companies. NCs involving agri-food companies are mostly characterised by local spatial correlation patterns and by horizontal aggregation among agricultural holdings, rather than by vertical structures along the food value chain. Results, however, show that several other networks involving agri-food companies can instead express more complex processes of re-organization and innovation of the food value chain. In short, the spread of agri-food NCs seems to be congruent with the Italian agrifood model in which territorial links play a significant role to face small scale limits.

The paper aims at analysing rice-price volatility over the last ten years, and at identifying strengths and weaknesses of financial-risk management tools other than derivatives. In particular, it focuses on innovative insurance products, like revenue insurance products, and on their potential use in agriculture. Focus will be on EU Mediterranean countries, specifically on Italy, that is the main rice producer in this area. In Europe, the Common Agricultural Policy (cap) provides risk management tools. For example, the income stabilization tool is a measure to manage income risks. Despite this, it is still not adopted. Our analysis is a first endeavour to emphasize the most relevant issues in creating revenue insurance products for rice farmers in the EU, with focus on the Italian market.

In Italy, the use of contracts is restricted to a small share of the durum wheat production used to obtain high quality pasta in order to ensure the origin of durum wheat. In response to the permanent crisis of this strategic sector, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture introduced the so-called "Fondo grano duro" in 2016. It aims to give financial support to farmers who sign a contract with pasta producers to supply durum wheat. This paper represents a preliminary attempt to approach and investigate the impacts of the "Fondo" on coordination of decisions. Therefore, a case study design was used and several durum wheat contracts funded by the "Fondo" were analysed and classified according to the principles of Transaction Cost Economics (tce). To this regard, findings could pave the way for a discussion on the nature of the "Fondo" in the light of the recent developments of the tce concerning the meso-institutional layer.

The paper analyses the impact of Mediterranean Sea warming on some species of small pelagic fish (pesce azzurro) in the Italian fishing industry. In particular, through a time series regression model, the research examines the productivity trend in physical terms of target species of small pelagic fish from 1950 to 2016, considering the Mediterranean Sea Surface Temperatures Anomalies as an indicator of sea warming, and the Western Mediterranean Oscillation index and the North Atlantic Oscillation index as proxies of climatic variability. The research results show an evident link between the reduction of fish availability and sea warming, with potential repercussions on the incomes of the employees in the fishing industry. Our findings provide interesting suggestions and implications on the theoretical, managerial, and political level, providing insights for new researches.

The paper aims to describe the main characteristics of CBCs, and to highlight their outcomes in economics and social terms. The data, referring to year 2016, originates from the aida database of Bureau van Dijk. However, the sample construction took a number of steps: 1) interviews with privileged witnesses, 2) web search, 3) aida database interrogation; selection of the cooperative enterprises and checking their features, and 4) final database implementation. Our sample, consisting of 32 observations, has been segmented by means of a cluster analysis, with the aim of subdividing the CBCs in homogeneous groups on the basis of the variables under consideration. The results show that CBCs may contribute to prevent inner areas decline, mainly by the provision of essential services to the whole community; this is a benefit created by means of business activity and the participation of its members to its management. Nevertheless, the results also show a limited ability of CBCs to make investments on the areas in which they operate. As a consequence, CBCs have a low employment capacity. In every case, uncertainty on the real CBCs number and the limited sample size do not allow for a generalisation of these results.