Search results

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of strategic communication during a change management process within the internationally famous Ferrari corporation. The aim is to show that strategic communication, through its main components, can be a pivotal lever that supports continuous improvement and helps drive organizational success.

The change management process at Ferrari is described and interpreted through the framework of the entrepreneurial organization theory (EOT), from which the four components of strategic communication are derived.

The paper explores the case of Ferrari, which started a reorganization process in which the main actors were employees and strategic communication represented the crucial component.

This paper focuses on one single organization. Additional research is needed to generalize the effectiveness of the proposed strategic communication model.

The paper shows that the four strategic communication components (i.e. aligning, energizing, visioning, and constituting), if applied in an integrated manner, can give insightful stimulus for the management of important change programs.

The paper contributes to the change management literature by linking strategic communication, continuous improvement and entrepreneurial theory.

The strategic role of corporate communication within modern organisations is recognised by both scholars and practitioners. Corporate communication supports management in interpreting contextual dynamics or in aligning corporate strategies with stakeholders’ needs. However, despite the growing acknowledgement of communication relevance, contributions about how professionals could effectively support organisations in creating value lack empirical examination. To fill this gap, this chapter adopts a managerial perspective for examining how communication strategically contributes to create shared value. In particular, it introduces the Creating Shared Value approach to the body of knowledge in strategic communication. A qualitative case study research design has been implemented. It was focused on Barilla Group, the international food company. This chapter enriches the strategic communication perspective by better defining the contribution of communication to the value creation process. It also outlines specific strategic competences that practitioners should acquire if they want to play a strategic role within organisations.

The purpose of this paper is to verify whether, besides the traditional organisational models mainly implemented by wine-making cooperatives, more modern and hybrid organisational forms can be profitably applied within an increasingly competitive wine market.

The study outlined in this paper deployed a mixed method. Specifically, an archived analysis, a survey and a descriptive case study (including visits, interviews and documentary analysis) were the methodological techniques used in this study, which were “in series but integrated” between themselves. In this paper, the landscape of Sicilian wine cooperatives is described by collating and processing different types of statistical sources, which have been integrated by direct surveys undertaken in 2017. Thereafter, the study focussed on a wine cooperative with a specific business model and a strategic edge by analysing its strategic choices and main structural and governance characteristics. Within this case study, a financial ratio analysis, which was based on 2011-2017 financial statements, was conducted to analyse the profitability, financial balance, capital structure and debt relationships of the wine cooperative.

The Sicilian wine cooperative system is still predominantly characterised by partial and vertical integration, implemented by cooperatives which elect to sell mainly bulk wine to wine merchants. In such a context, there is scope for other degrees of integration and strategic inter-firm alliances; the latter includes “vertical quasi-integration”. The study demonstrated how the wine cooperative under investigation is overcoming the structural problems of the regional wine sector and why it is retaining such a strategic alliance with one of the most important Italian wine conglomerates. Indeed, it has acquired greater strength and reliability since its collaboration with the aforementioned wine company. Thus, total revenue and the company’s market share of packaged wine have increased. However, there are still margins for improving sales’ profitability.

This study has territorial limitations but Sicilian wine cooperatives generally play an important role in the regional, Italian and European wine industries. As such, this research should be considered as an exploratory study, deserving further investigation into different strategic choices within the wine cooperative system by performing cross-case comparisons. Results may also be useful in orienting cooperative strategies in Sicily (or further afield) to small-to-medium wine cooperatives, often lacking specific abilities relating to the distribution, marketing and selling of their wine. Public agricultural policies may also be enlightened by these research pathways.

The authors contend that their study provides hitherto missing information relating to inter-firm strategic alliances, which wine cooperatives might implement to enhance their competitiveness and survive in the long-run.

Despite the proven link between internal communication and more effective business results, only a few attempts have been made to answer the essential question of who is responsible for managing internal communication in an organisation. This paper aims to examine the presence of internal communication management (ICM) practices in companies in Latvia and launch a new discussion on who should manage internal communication in a modern company to support business strategy and development.

In the first phase of the study, a survey was conducted in three business sectors in Latvia involved in managing and implementing the internal communications function. Using the multiple case study method, the second phase of the study examined in-depth, ICM and the implementation practices in four different Latvian companies. In total, 13 in-depth interviews were conducted within 4 companies, and thematic analysis was used to analyse the material gained from the interviews.

The target companies and relevant professionals from different fields have divergent opinions about who should manage the internal communication function. From the research across four companies, it was concluded that internal communication was implemented in a fragmented manner. There was a weak understanding of the meaning and goal of internal communication. The potential of effective internal communication in reaching strategic goals has not been realised. Responsibility for ICM is often limited to the reactive performance of public relations departments, human resources or marketing specialists. The companies clearly did not have a defined scope of responsibilities for managing internal communication amongst the different parts of their organisations. It can be concluded that company managers should pay attention to how internal communication is conducted, clearly delegate this function to a manager and define the expected results that meet the company’s strategic goals. The results of this research can be used to inform recommendations for integrating the ICM function.

Only a few research papers have discussed responsibility for internal communication functions. This research particularly fills this gap and emphasises the need to assign responsibility for an organisation’s ICM function as it is the core factor in strategic implementation and input related to business goals.