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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This study adopted a qualitative approach using Gioia methodology. After a preliminary email survey, data were collected from Italian TSEs using semi-structured interviews.

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.

This study advances the MTE research in relation to TSEs, a specific category of tourism company that plays an essential role in contemporary tourism.

This study makes recommendations to TSE managers on how to create and effectively manage MTEs to ensure survival and competition in the global market.

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.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine MTEs from the TSE service provider perspective.

This study investigates the drivers of social innovation in disability services with specific reference to the context of nonprofit organizations of social farming. In addition, it highlights the role of stakeholder networks in enhancing the social innovation process and the characteristics of stakeholders and networks driving and supporting social innovation.

Following a qualitative methodology, research was conducted through a case study survey with interviews to 13 nonprofit organizations of social farming for people with disability located in the northeast of Italy.

Insights gained from the interviews revealed that individual, organizational and contextual factors drive social innovation in disability nonprofits. In addition, networks play a key role in enhancing the three drivers of social innovation through the social innovation journey, from opportunity recognition to implementation of the innovation, to its consolidation phases. Characteristics of the networks and the stakeholders involved are also outlined.

Practical implications for social entrepreneurs include the need to establish cross-sectoral partnerships with diverse stakeholders, including private companies.

Implications for policy makers stress the need for ongoing support for nonprofit disability organizations. Social implications are not limited to the inclusion of socially weaker groups; rather, the entire community benefits from the social innovation process.

Social farming represents a valuable solution to meet the needs of disadvantaged people. While much research has investigated the topic of social innovation in social entrepreneurship, only a few studies have addressed social innovation in the context of disability nonprofits involved in social farming.

This paper proposes adequate strategies that companies, public administrators and organisations in the education industry can undertake to successfully face the challenges of digital transformation in a regional innovation system. This research considers stakeholders that operate in the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion (the Tyrol, South Tyrol and Veneto areas), a significant case of moderately innovative European macroregion.

This study undertakes explorative research based on a qualitative method. It adopts a place-based multi-stakeholder approach to emphasise the role of three categories of stakeholders (companies, educational system and regional governments) in facing digital changes. More precisely, interviews with 60 stakeholders from the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion were conducted and examined via both text mining analysis and content analysis. First, correspondence factor analysis was performed using IRaMuTeQ software to identify homogeneous subsets of concepts (pillars–i.e., macroareas of strategic actions). Second, two coding phases were implemented using NVivo software to detect strategic fields of action and specific strategic actions undertaken to address the challenges of digital transformation.

The results highlight that digital transformation is a pervasive challenge of regional innovative system that requires a multifaceted set of strategic actions falling into three main pillars. The first pillar, named “culture and skills”, includes three strategic fields of action as follows: digital education, talents and digital culture. The second pillar, named “infrastructures and technologies”, points out the need of information, interaction and artificial intelligence as key strategic fields of action. The third pillar, named “ecosystems”, highlights the importance of investing in medium- to long-term visions, partnerships and life quality. In brief, this study shows that standalone interventions are insufficient to tackle digital transformation from a systemic perspective. Moreover, this study outlines the potential contribution of each category of stakeholder to foster the digitalisation of the Tyrol–Veneto macroregion.

This study highlights the importance of developing digital culture and skills before investing in digital infrastructure and technology in a moderately innovative macroregion. Companies should alter their vision before reconfiguring their business models, invest in smart working and establish contacts with start-ups. In addition, this study recommends that public administration should mainly invest in digital education and partnerships, while, in terms of education and training organisations, it suggests providing digital skills to several cohorts of both students and workers. Policy implications call for the creation of new occasions of cooperation among stakeholders by fostering “table talks” as strategic and policy actions and by making more financial resources available to encourage the digital transformation processes.

The results of this study may be adapted to the characteristics of other regional innovative systems and used as a reference point in terms of the improvement of business, market and local development.

This paper explores how digitalization affects the academic research publication process by taking into account the perspective of management scholars. It provides an overview of the digital professional services dedicated to academic research, and investigates academics' awareness of, the impact on the publication process of, and scholars' expectations regarding digital services and software.

This explorative study adopted a qualitative approach by performing direct observations of websites regarding digital professional research services and in-depth interviews with national and international management scholars.

The multiple digital professional services dedicated to academic research enable authors to develop a scientific paper independently or with the support of professionals. The scholars' awareness regarding the digital services and software was limited, because of both the plethora of options on the market and the frequent use of the same digital tools over time. In impact terms, these tools enable scholars to improve research quality and to increase productivity. However, the negative effects led scholars to express different expectations about how they can be improved and what difficulties should be overcome to favor the publication process.

The results of this study provide suggestions both for scholars who engage in academic research and digital services and software providers.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, this is the first study to examine the ongoing development of digitalization in support of the research publication process from the perspective of academics.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of effective public speaking (EPS), and its antecedents and effects to provide a conceptual framework for the study of EPS in the field of corporate communication.

This is a conceptual paper whose analytical approach draws heavily on theoretical evidence published mainly in the corporate-communication literature.

Public speaking means communicating with rather than to the audience: it does not denote a one-way broadcasting of information but a conversation between the speaker and audience. Strong arguments (logos) presented in a credible (ethos) and exciting (pathos) manner form the basis of EPS. Delivering an interesting, appealing and engaging presentation (i.e. the antecedents of EPS) requires that public speakers combine skills of logic (i.e. public speaking as science) with an “outside-the-box” approach (i.e. public speaking as art). EPS produces positive effects in the professional growth of an organisation’s human resources, trust in corporate leadership, corporate-change process, motivation of human resources and corporate reputation.

Underestimating the importance of the preparation phase is a critical mistake in EPS performance. Communicating from the heart ensures the speaker achieves the objective to be heard and remembered by the audience. Developing storytelling skill helps to persuade listeners more effectively because they feel more involved in the discourse. It is important to remember that perfection is artificial and imperfection is natural. EPS requires a training oriented towards personal exploration. As such, companies should invest in public speaking courses that adopt techniques such as experiential theatre.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework which can be considered a first step towards compensating for the lack of studies of EPS because, although it does not claim to be thorough in any way, it should encourage future researchers to explore this area in greater depth.

The paper aims to go through signage management from the standpoint of the user in a service quality perspective and by three principal means. First, it gives a literature review on the theme. Second, it identifies the needs that users expect to be satisfied when using signage. Third, it proposes a conceptual framework that encompasses user assessment determinants on signage management quality (SMQ).

Conceptual analysis is based on extensive research through literature on signage management contained in contributions on the theme of physical surroundings, atmospherics and servicescape.

Users, when they enjoy use of signage, may find satisfaction of implicit, expected and unexpected needs. User assessment of SMQ depends on the discrepancy between expected and perceived wayfinding. In particular, personal needs (cognitive-rational and psycho-emotional) affect expected wayfinding. User interactions with servicescape components, including signage, impact on perceived wayfinding.

The paper is conceptually developed, but lacks empirical validation. This study does not pretend to be thorough in any way. It leaves several questions open for future research.

Service managers must understand, from user behavior, how the signage is used, where users make their decisions and where the key points in the servicescape are located. The goal is to permit the user to develop a wayfinding process through the signage components he encounters in the servicescape. Signage should be designed and managed from the standpoint of attractive quality.

Previous research has essentially analyzed signage in terms of design. Signage management has received little and fragmented consideration in a service quality literature. The paper fills this gap. It is one of the first attempts to analyze signage management in a service quality perspective.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of corporate architecture to social value creation. It especially analyses the social effects of investments in experiential corporate architecture that have been carried out by Italian industrial companies.

This study follows a qualitative approach. It is based on a survey and semi-structured in-depth interviews undertaken with six Italian industrial companies. The dimensions of the social-entrepreneurship model (innovativeness, proactiveness, risk management) proposed by Weerawardena and Sullivan Mort were chosen as a framework to investigate the social effects of investments in corporate architecture.

The social effects of the innovativeness dimension are the integration of the company with the territory and development of sustainability. Proactiveness is related to improving the employees’ wellbeing in the workplace and the community’s quality of life. Risk management ensures the development of the local economic-social fabric.

This study combines social entrepreneurship and corporate architecture by highlighting the social effects of corporate architecture. Further, it proposes the structural embeddedness of the company in the territory of reference, a sense for beauty, and a sense of gift giving as further entrepreneurial traits that are generally not proposed in the social entrepreneurship literature.

The results of this study suggest that top management should consider: that investments in corporate architecture are a deliberate strategy of the company; that profits are not a purpose in and of themselves, but rather a means to achieve the social mission’s objectives; and the relationship with architects in terms of mutual involvement in order to understand corporate and local needs and effectively transform them into appropriate architectural solutions.

Corporate architecture can help to solve a number of social problems, such as improving the community’s quality of life, providing employments opportunities, allowing the community to benefit from places of socialisation and aggregation, and offering facilities and services that support culture and encourage cultural exchange. Given that the social benefits are reciprocal, all stakeholders should financially support companies that invest in corporate architecture.

To the knowledge, this is the first study to connect social entrepreneurship and corporate architecture. This research brings to light some Italian industrial companies that are investing in corporate architecture to create social value in the twenty-first century, after the pioneering investments of the Olivetti company.

Since the first definition of open innovation (OI), the indivisible relationship between this concept and entrepreneurship was undeniable. However, the exact mechanisms by which an entrepreneurial approach may benefit OI processes and vice versa are not yet fully understood. The study aims to offer an accurate map of the knowledge evolution of the OI–entrepreneurship relationship and interesting gaps to be filled in the future.

The study adopted a bibliometric analysis, coupled with a systematic literature review performed over a data set of 106 peer-reviewed articles published from 2005 to 2020 to identify thematic clusters.

The results show five thematic clusters: entrepreneurial opportunities, organisational opportunities, strategic partnership opportunities, institutional opportunities and digital opportunities for OI. Investigating each of them, the authors created a framework that highlights future avenues for further developing the topic.

This study is the first of its kind to systematise, analyse and critically interpret the literature concerned with the topic of the OI–entrepreneurship.