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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the production cycle of glazed porcelain stoneware, from the extraction of raw materials to the packaging of the finished product, with the aim of verifying the effects of integrating an environmental impact assessment into the decision-making process for managing the life cycle, to make it economically and ecologically sustainable, in a holistic approach along the supply-chain.

The research is performed using the life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methodologies, to identify environmental impacts and costs, that occur during extraction of raw materials, transportation, ceramic tiles production, material handling, distribution and end-of-life stages within a cradle to grave perspective.

Through the use of a comprehensive analysis of the environmental impact assessment and related externalities, three possible strategic options to improve the environmental performance and costs of ceramic tile production were formulated, leveraging sustainability as a competitive advantage.

This exploratory research opens future lines of investigation, the first of which is to confirm the technological feasibility and market responsiveness to the three strategic solutions hypothesised thanks to the use of an innovative eco-design technique.

The research has allowed testing and validating the tools of environmental impact assessment (life cycle assessment) and economic impact assessment (life cycle costing as structured methodologies in a life cycle management framework, to help companies implement competitive strategies based on sustainability.

The purpose of this paper is to examine what impacts university students perceived from their short-term intensive international courses as part of undergraduate multidisciplinary education.

The study design was informed by interpretative phenomenological analysis. Semi-structured interviews explored informants’ views of their experience to elicit key themes of their experience.

The analysis resulted in four major themes: personal development, generic skills, global perspectives and subject-specific matter. Some text segments were coded with multiple themes, which suggests that the impacts of short-term international courses are multifaceted.

Academic topics of the courses substantially centred around humanities and social sciences at a particular university. This paper furthermore primarily depended on students’ self-reported answers, and it is possible that the participants who chose to enrol in the elective international courses may be principally willing to acquire global competence. Therefore, this study did not set out to present the generalised impacts of any short-term international courses.

The findings could be used as a conceptual tool for the design and evaluation of new and existing courses. In addition, the four major themes that this study elicited are useful as a cue for students’ self-reflection about their own learning experiences.

There have been significant efforts devoted to increasing the quantity of short-term international programs, but there has been less focus on the quality of these programs. This study supports the findings of existing literature but also identified one of the potential unfavourable impacts that short-term international courses may have on students’ development.

The aim of this study is to determine how the different age of consumers impacts on some factors that drive consumers to the purchasing of private label products, considering differences and similarities of behaviors.

The research was conducted through the administration of a questionnaire to evaluate consumers' perceptions about private label food products. To collect data, the convenience sampling method has been used. The valid answers collected and analyzed are 358.

The results of this study highlight that the response of different age groups to the Private Label Brands (PLBs) must be considered in the light of the positioning adopted by the individual retailers. Value for money and satisfaction on previous consumption are relevant for purchasing decisions regardless of the retailer's strategy and the age of consumers. A third factor, price, is important for the whole sample. Focusing on the specific age clusters, the younger respondents seem to be attentive to factors such as healthy and in-store promotion, while the more experienced consumer are attentive to the origin and traceability of products.

An analysis of the main literature on Private Labels showed that the results of research about the role of consumer age in PLB choices are contrasting. This study aims at integrating the literature, measuring how the factors influencing the purchase of PLB products vary for different age groups of consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect on price of different cruise industry characteristics from the point of view of actual prices. The analysis is carried out from the supply side but taking into account the real prices paid by customers.

This paper uses the hedonic price methodology. To develop this research, a database of more than 36,000 prices paid by cruise passengers and different characteristics of ships in 2013 was built. To obtain the results, ten models have been developed with significant adjusted R² of between 0.85 and 0.93 making the models and results robust.

The results show that the main attributes affecting prices are the number of nights of the itinerary, the departure date, the number of days before departure the booking is made, the accommodation type and some facilities, such as casinos, cinemas and swimming pools. The results also yield a ranking of ship companies based on price and quality dimensions. Finally, the authors suggest some implications for management and new research.

This paper offers a new approach in the academic literature of the cruise industry in two respects. First, in its use of a broad database of actual prices paid by passengers – more than 36,000 observations. Second, in the application of the hedonic pricing methodology, widely used in the tourism sector (see the Methodology and Database section) but until now not in the cruising segment.