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1 – 10 of 23Federico Brunetti, Angelo Bonfanti, Paola Castellani and Elena Giaretta
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss an unconventional approach for developing organizational learning inside companies. The subject of this paper is the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss an unconventional approach for developing organizational learning inside companies. The subject of this paper is the interactive mode of organizational learning – involving shared understanding and sense-making – which has proven useful in the current turbulent era and complex competitive environment.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on an inductive and phenomenon-driven approach. The data collection method consists of interviews with involves informants. The empirical context of the research is Open Factory – the largest open-door event for industrial manufacturing in Italy.
Findings
Companies participating in Open Factory gained several benefits in terms of interactive learning. In particular, intra-organizational knowledge sharing, staff motivation, and more focused organizational identity were reported as the most relevant advantages.
Practical implications
Companies eager to enhance their interactive mode of organizational learning should seriously consider taking part in events such as Open Factory or should strive to create a similar event.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to describe and analyze open-door events for manufacturing companies as a source of organizational learning.
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Angelo Bonfanti, Vania Vigolo, Jackie Douglas and Claudio Baccarani
The purpose of this paper is to profile wayfinders into homogeneous sub-groups according to their wayfinding ability, and to investigate the differences between the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to profile wayfinders into homogeneous sub-groups according to their wayfinding ability, and to investigate the differences between the clusters identified and their evaluations of satisfaction.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses survey data collected in a hospital in the Northern part of Italy. The survey questionnaire assessed the participants’ self-estimation of wayfinding ability in terms of wayfinding competence, wayfinding strategy and wayfinding anxiety, as well as the wayfinder’s satisfaction.
Findings
The findings propose that three factors, namely, individual orientation skills, confidence in servicescape elements and anxiety control, contribute to defining wayfinding ability. Based on these factors, cluster analysis reveals three profiles of wayfinders, as follows: the Easy Goings, the Do-it-yourselves and the Insecures. Group differentiation comes from wayfinding ability and customer satisfaction levels.
Research limitations/implications
The results of this study advance the segmentation literature by analyzing different types of wayfinding ability that can lead to different satisfaction levels.
Practical implications
These findings will help service managers improve servicescape design and help them formulate effective targeting strategies.
Originality/value
While previous research outlined the importance of some factors such as gender differences, familiarity with the service environment and cognitive approaches, this study recommends the examination of the profile of visitors to the service setting to allow them to find their way more effectively.
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The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ needs and expectations regarding servicescape surveillance management (SSM) in order to suggest to service managers how…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify customers’ needs and expectations regarding servicescape surveillance management (SSM) in order to suggest to service managers how they can carefully design a service environment to ensure a high level of security while concurrently enhancing the customer service experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Given that this study is explorative in nature, it is based on a specific method of qualitative data collection: focus group interviews. Three focus group sessions were organised with 24 Italian customers of retail stores, hotels and hospitals. The multi-expectation model proposed by Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml, which distinguishes between what customers consider acceptable (adequate service level) and what they hope to receive (desired service level), was chosen as the reference framework to investigate customers’ needs and expectations from SSM.
Findings
Servicescape surveillance must be compatible with customer satisfaction. Customers are acceptably satisfied when servicescape surveillance offers them feelings of physical safety, psychological security, economic security and the right to privacy. They desire that surveillance also allows them to live a positive service experience in sensorial, psychological, social and temporal terms. However, customers’ expectations of adequate and desired service levels are different in terms of the presence, quantity and visibility of surveillance in the three service areas examined. Interestingly, customers expect to find more visible surveillance measures inside retail stores rather than in hotels and hospitals, but they prefer to receive invisible surveillance in the servicescape.
Practical implications
Service managers should consider surveillance not as a cost or a tool for detecting and punishing inappropriate or criminal behaviour, but rather, as an opportunity for enhancing the customer service experience. They can invest in servicescape design elements, technological surveillance solutions and continuous training of security personnel to meet their customers’ adequate and desired service levels.
Originality/value
This study provides two major contributions. From the theoretical viewpoint, it extends knowledge of the hitherto under-researched area of SSM by identifying customers’ needs and expectations of surveillance and the customer service experience, which are topics usually examined separately in the literature. In terms of managerial implications, it provides store/hotel/hospital managers with recommendations on how to design a servicescape that is both secure and pleasant.
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Angelo Bonfanti, Chiara Rossato, Vania Vigolo and Alfonso Vargas-Sánchez
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many restaurants and catering businesses have introduced or improved online food ordering and delivery services (OFODSs). This…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, many restaurants and catering businesses have introduced or improved online food ordering and delivery services (OFODSs). This study aims to identify service quality expectations about OFODSs, to examine their content and to suggest management strategies to meet these expectations.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a qualitative method, four focus groups were conducted amongst Italian users of OFODSs.
Findings
The results reveal three dimensions of expectations, each comprising two categories that can be set along a continuum: (1) basicness of expectations (ranging from implicit to explicit), (2) accuracy of expectations (ranging from fuzzy to precise) and (3) attainability of expectations (ranging from realistic to unrealistic). Content may refer to technical, social, economic, legal and technological aspects. To meet customer expectations, the following strategies are suggested: customer reassurance, flexibility, continuous improvement, customer education, adaptation to customers' requirements and monitoring of exceptions.
Practical implications
This study provides specific activities in which restaurants and catering businesses could invest to enact the management strategies that emerged from the analysis.
Originality/value
This paper proposes a new classification of expectations and framework for improving OFODS quality by managing customer expectations.
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Giorgio Mion and Angelo Bonfanti
Higher education institutions draw up codes of ethics, but in several countries there are no standards to follow. Most universities have autonomy and can freely draw up…
Abstract
Purpose
Higher education institutions draw up codes of ethics, but in several countries there are no standards to follow. Most universities have autonomy and can freely draw up their codes of ethics in terms of structure and content. The purpose of this paper is to understand the main ethics issues that universities identify in their codes of ethics and what activities they implement to respond to these issues toward appropriate educational management of their institutions in ethical terms.
Design/methodology/approach
This study was performed through content analysis of codes of ethics of Italian public universities (64 codes), and may be considered a single in-depth case study. The main ethics issues and related activities were inductively codified in relation to the research purpose. The four constitutive aspects of business ethics (individual, managerial, organizational and societal ethics) proposed by Melé were chosen as the framework to investigate the main ethical needs and related activities implemented by universities to respond to these ethical issues.
Findings
This research has identified nine main ethical issues and related activities that contribute to guarantee the ethical compliance of universities under the four interrelated aspects different individual behaviors, managerial initiatives, organization strategies and responsibilities toward society. The analysis shows some relevant differences among Italian universities that have important implications in the ethical vision of academic communities and of managerial role in universities.
Practical implications
The research can help managers of higher education institutions to identify the main ethical issues to draw up codes of ethics and to formulate consistent development strategies that are able to improve the conditions of collaboration, work and productive participation in activities for all members of academic communities.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies that connect codes of ethics and higher education. This research brings to light the main ethical issues and related activities that universities can consider to orient their strategic choices toward the public interest as well as educational management improvement.
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Angelo Bonfanti and Georgia Yfantidou
This study aims to detect the dimensions of the in-store customer shopping experience from the sports retailer perspective and to investigate how the role of sports…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to detect the dimensions of the in-store customer shopping experience from the sports retailer perspective and to investigate how the role of sports equipment stores is changing.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study performs semi-structured interviews with retail managers of sports equipment stores.
Findings
This research reveals the importance of the dimensions of immersive design, sensorial ambient elements, social relationships, trialability and real experience sharing in designing a memorable in-store shopping experience in sports stores, and it highlights that the store's role in the sports context is transitioning from sales space to an interactive, immersive, engaging and convivial place. It proposes a model to design the in-store customer shopping experience effectively.
Practical implications
Sports equipment managers can make their physical stores as experiential as possible by investing in expert, passionate personnel and technology in order to create a real in-store experience of the product and the sports practice.
Originality/value
While sports equipment retailers acknowledge the importance of providing customers with a memorable shopping experience by creating an evocative environment and placing multiple touchpoints in stores, management scholars have paid limited attention to sports stores. This study explores the ways in which sports retail managers can design their stores effectively in experiential terms.
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Angelo Bonfanti, Paola Castellani, Elena Giaretta and Federico Brunetti
This paper aims to examine the content dimensions and methods of accelerating the entrepreneurial learning (EL) triggered by participating in learning events, such as…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the content dimensions and methods of accelerating the entrepreneurial learning (EL) triggered by participating in learning events, such as factory tours. It particularly focuses on the Italian case of Open Factory – an open-doors event of industrial manufacturing culture.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a qualitative approach using the “Gioia” methodology. Data were mainly collected through semi-structured interviews with firms participating in and organising Open Factory.
Findings
The dimensions of EL are learning from critical reflection, experience and external sources, while the enablers of EL (factors that accelerate learning) are varied and connected to organisational learning in the form of individual-, team- and institutional-level learning. Based on these results, this paper proposes a model for developing EL triggered by participating in learning events.
Practical implications
This research suggests developing appropriate organisational conditions inside firms, especially by entrepreneurs. These conditions are connected to sharing organisational values to foster learning, such as trust, commitment, involvement, awareness, sharing of experiences, exchange, autonomy and freedom. In addition, this study suggests ways that the EL model proposed in this research can be adapted to other learning events.
Originality/value
This is the first study to connect factory tours to learning events and EL. It highlights the ways that participating in the Open Factory event created the chance to develop learning across organisational levels inside firms.
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Cecilia Casalegno, Matteo Migheli, Angelo Bonfanti and Peter Maple
The purpose of this paper is to add understanding to whether the supply chain (SC) of ancient grains, einkorn in particular, may activate the virtuous mechanisms that…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to add understanding to whether the supply chain (SC) of ancient grains, einkorn in particular, may activate the virtuous mechanisms that enable pursuing a new equilibrium based on relationships and joint interests.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts the single case study as a methodological approach. More precisely, it focusses on the SC of ancient grains in Piedmont (Italy) examining in detail Mulino Marino. Interviews with the management of this single player and to some farmers’ local associations were carried out.
Findings
The einkorn SC in Piedmont Region is an interesting case of short, local and direct SC because it aims at delivering a product that is more sustainable in terms of production, nutritional values and properties. In addition, this study confirms previous studies according to which for an effective supply chain management (SCM) it is important to implement the following conditions: the right equilibrium among SC players’ physiologically conflicting interests, players’ integration and transparent information among all the SC stakeholders, including final consumers.
Practical implications
The study offers implications for food managers involved in the (short) SCM.
Originality/value
Elements of originality can be identified in this research to the extension of studies on SCM in the ancient grains industry.
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Nicola Cobelli, Angelo Bonfanti, Serena Cubico and Giuseppe Favretto
This paper aims to empirically examine career guidance services in terms of e-service quality, information quality and perceived value. It specifically examines students…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to empirically examine career guidance services in terms of e-service quality, information quality and perceived value. It specifically examines students’ perceptions of quality to explore the effects of e-service quality and information quality on perceived value.
Design/methodology/approach
Students from the University of Verona participated in a quantitative survey, and 119 questionnaires were collected to assess the perceptions of respondents on e-service quality, information quality and perceived value about the career guidance e-service.
Findings
The results indicate that students perceive high value for the career guidance services; the perceived value depends on both service quality of the e-platform and information quality of the report; and efficiency is the most important dimension of e-service quality, while adequacy appears to be the most important dimension of the report.
Practical implications
These findings reveal that service organisations such as universities should invest in career guidance services, given that such services are appreciated by students and contribute to reducing the gap between education and job opportunities. In the design phase, service organisations should pay attention to students’ career development needs by developing e-platforms that are easy to use, appealing, efficient and with continuous system availability and reports that include relevant, understandable, reliable and adequate information. It is important to provide students with a report after they have completed a questionnaire.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research empirically evaluating the effects of perceived e-service quality and information quality on perceived value with specific reference to career guidance e-services.
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Paola Castellani, Angelo Bonfanti, Rossella Canestrino and Pierpaolo Magliocca
This paper explores the dimensions and triggers of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) from the service provider perspective. Specifically, it focuses on MTEs offered by…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the dimensions and triggers of memorable tourism experiences (MTEs) from the service provider perspective. Specifically, it focuses on MTEs offered by tourism social enterprises (TSEs) in Italian tourist destinations that are growing in popularity.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted a qualitative approach using Gioia methodology. After a preliminary email survey, data were collected from Italian TSEs using semi-structured interviews.
Findings
MTE dimensions include hedonism, novelty, refreshment, local culture, meaningfulness, knowledge, involvement, surprise and servicescape, while its triggers relate to TSE characteristics – value proposition (authenticity and unconventionality), value constellation (relationships with local communities and public and private institutions) and social and economic profit (generation of revenue, strengthening of business and new employment opportunities). Using these results, this study proposes a model for TSEs to create MTEs.
Research limitations/implications
This study advances the MTE research in relation to TSEs, a specific category of tourism company that plays an essential role in contemporary tourism.
Practical implications
This study makes recommendations to TSE managers on how to create and effectively manage MTEs to ensure survival and competition in the global market.
Social implications
This analysis highlights that TSEs contribute to improving the social conditions of little-known areas through the development of inclusive social projects and the creation of new job opportunities.
Originality/value
To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine MTEs from the TSE service provider perspective.
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