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The third age can be a period of major food consumption changes. Either voluntary or imposed by health issues, they may be accompanied by alterations in sensory acuity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how lifelong food habits and health-age issues affect food choice at a later age, with the aim of developing strategies to direct aged people toward healthier food habits.

A survey, aimed to investigate differences between current and past food habits, was carried out in a group of 170 Italian older adults. Questions focused on the composition of the main meal, asking participants to describe its actual structure and to highlight differences in previous years’ food habits. A discrete choice experiment (DCE) was planned, during which participants were asked to help formulating innovative pasta sauces with healthy ingredients.

This survey clearly illustrated gender-related differences: women were characterized by a higher consumption of vegetables, while men revealed a more frequent use of wine, pasta and meat. The DCE technique suited older adults’ abilities and enabled the development of innovative sauces, indicating a clear preference for extra virgin olive oil, as compared to cream or butter. Gender-related differences were confirmed: women mainly chose a vegetarian sauce, while men expressed an inclination for red meat.

This is the first report of a successful application of the DCE technique to investigate older adults’ dietary choices. The outspoken preference for olive oil as fat in sauce composition is a positive finding for future actions aimed at directing older adults toward healthier food habits.

The aim of this article is to contribute to the debate on university‐industry knowledge transfer and on the changing organization of knowledge creation activities.

By integrating several strands of analysis, a conceptual framework is developed that associates several properties of knowledge and of the institutional context in which university‐industry relationships take place, to the knowledge transfer governance forms that are most likely to be adopted. The framework is shown to be in accordance with results from the empirical literature, and is validated using an original dataset.

The data analysis confirms that the choice of university‐industry knowledge transfer governance forms on the part of organizations involved in knowledge production and dissemination projects is related to the key dimensions in the conceptual framework.

The conceptual framework developed in this article allows the incentives that drive the choice of specific governance forms for university‐industry interactions to be explained, as well as the processes and rationales that underpin the changing nature of university‐industry relationships to be explained.

The innovation process demands an interaction between environment agents, knowledge generators and policies of incentive for innovation and not only development by companies. Universities have gradually become the core of the knowledge production system and, therefore, their role regarding innovation has become more important and diversified. This study is aimed at identifying the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

This study is aimed at identifying, based on a systematic literature review, the mechanisms of university–industry (U–I) collaboration, as well as the operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process.

The analysis of the 72 selected articles enabled identifying 15 mechanisms of U–I collaboration, proposing a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process.

In this paper, the authors screened nearly 1,500 papers and analyzed in detail 86 papers addressing U–I collaboration, mechanisms of U–I collaboration and operationalization steps of the U–I collaboration process. This paper provides a new classification for such mechanisms and developing a framework presenting the operationalization steps of the interaction process. This research contributes to both theory and practice by highlighting managerial aspects and stimulating academic research on such timely topic.

The purpose of this study is to examine how social disclosures are influenced by the adoption of integrated reporting (IR), focusing on the three social capitals in the international IR framework, namely, intellectual, human and social and relationship capital.

This study takes the form of a single case study involving content analyses of annual reports and integrated reports from 2009 to 2017 (i.e. before and after IR adoption in 2013), as well as in-depth, semi-structured interviews with key preparers of the integrated report at New Zealand Post, to study changes in disclosures towards different stakeholder groups, from an internal organisation perspective. The empirical evidence is analysed through the lens of stakeholder theory.

This study provides empirical evidence that contributes to our understanding of IR’s influence on the disclosure of social information and enhanced stakeholder relations in a public sector context. The study shows that the IR framework promoted a materiality assessment approach with stakeholders, which led to a reduction in social disclosures, while the materiality focus led to the disclosure of social matters more relevant to stakeholders.

IR led to meaningful stakeholder engagement, which led to social disclosure that are more relevant to stakeholders.

This study assesses the influence of IR on social disclosures. The findings will be of interest to organisations seeking to enhance stakeholder relations and/or undertake IR and/or social disclosures.

In the past decade, intellectual capital (IC) measurement and reporting have been feeding scientific debate; however, only few studies address these issues together. The present research aims to provide an integrated view of the topics covered by the existing literature and to highlight the emerging research trends and set the agenda for future research.

This study develops a structured literature review (SLR) of the extant research concerned with IC measurement and reporting, using a comprehensive sample of 1,021 articles extracted from the Scopus database.

The findings of the SLR show that the existing literature focuses on seven research areas: IC and public sector; IC university and education; IC evaluation method; internal and external IC disclosure; IC and CSR; management of IC in organizations; other. Overall, findings indicate that IC measurement and reporting are highly researched topics that continue to attract the interests of scholars. Finally, the SLR analysis has allowed outlining a future research agenda, with particular reference to the IC evaluation method and internal and external IC disclosure research areas.

The main limitation of this research lies in the manual screening of relevant studies, which entails some degree of subjectivity. Furthermore, another limitation research could be considered the use of a single database (Scopus).

The present study brings potential contributions for scholars and practitioners. From a scholarly perspective, the paper provides a systematization of scientific contributions that have dealt with IC measurement and reporting. In particular, it contributes to the scholarly debate bringing into focus various IC measurement and reporting issues in the landscape of private and public organizations. Referring to practical implications, our research supports the strategic use of IC measurement and reporting as a key lever for improving the management of firms. Using an analytical framework that combines insights from the agency, stakeholder and legitimacy theories, this study highlights that IC reporting activity should be used strategically as a means to engage with all firm's stakeholders, in particular with a view to reducing information asymmetry and improving firm reputation.

This paper aims to investigate the link between accounting, religion and art to understand the managerial approach of the Confraternity of Corpus Domini of Urbino and the phenomenon of art commissioning between 1465 and 1513.

This study is based on the interpretive historical method used to understand, through accounting, the managerial role of confraternities within the economic activity of art commissioning. To this purpose, the present analysis is based on a primary source, represented by the book of revenues and expenses, named B1 (1465–1513).

The analysis has provided evidence of the role of Urbino’s Confraternity in supporting art commissioning and its capacity to invest significant resources in favor of the social, religious and institutional environment of the time. Results show the connection between Urbino’s Confraternity and painters based on their commissioning agreements, the relation between painters and the Ducal Court and, finally, the role of the Duke of Urbino in funding the Confraternity’s initiatives for painters. Thus, this study highlights the major role played by Urbino’s Confraternity in art commissioning, an instrumental part of the Confraternity’s mission.

This paper presents a unique case study that brings out the managerial approach in art commissioning through accounting documents which make activities and links visible.

Studies on the impact of tourism in art cities underlined that many cities begun to suffer too many costs because of mass tourism. The problem of costs/benefits balance was in some case further complicated by the quick increase in a peculiar kind of excursionists — the so called false excursionists. Their increase is in fact joined with the spreading around the city of “alternative” accommodations. But false excursionists bring to the destination more costs and less benefits than traditional tourism, as a relevant part of their budget is spent where they are lodging. Thus, this sort of tourism “development” calls for visitors management policies able to reduce costs and maximize the tourism benefits for the city. But these policies require a deep understanding of the relationship between demand and accommodation supply, and between accommodations within and outside the city. And, more important, a continuous monitoring on how these relationships change in time, and why. Pricing and product strategies put into effect by accommodations, joined with changes in the demand behaviour, are in fact the basic variables of a mechanisms that might eventually lead to a substantial increase in false excursionists number and a stagnation in overnight tourists demand, with major consequences on the cost/benefits ratio for the art city as a whole. Aim of this paper is to introduce a set of 10 indicators and, through their application on the Venice situation, show how they can be used to analyze on diachronic terms the impact of accommodation evolution on demand choice.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the relationship between relational capital (RC) and firm performance, by investigating the moderation effect of firm size and its key role in defining conditions for competitive advantage.

The paper uses the interpretative lens of the resource dependence theory, and refreshes consolidated studies rooted in RC. It identifies a set of variables to measure the influence of RC on firm performance, including the cost of goods sold, interest expenses and earnings per share. Content analysis was used to capture specific features of corporate disclosure tools using 51 items pertinent to RC. The authors used a specific disclosure index drawing on data collected from 73 listed firms in France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Data covering the period from 2011 to 2013 were analyzed using six regression models.

Firm size has a moderating effect on the relationship between RC and some variables linked to firm performance.

The study combines an internal and external perspective to investigate the interplay between firms and market environments, and therefore, enriches the ongoing debate concerning the relationship between RC and firm performance. It outlines possible ways through which RC can become an effective source of competitive advantage.

This paper aims to explore the role played by digital transformation (DT) in enabling continuous accounting (CA) and its impacts on intellectual capital (IC). In so doing, the paper provides momentum for the emerging trends of the DT movement in the field of accounting.

The analysis relies on the exploratory case study of Oracle, a multinational computer technology corporation that is constantly involved in DT processes. Data sources include semi-structured interviews and internal documentation.

The paper shows how CA is facilitated by DT, a process that allows collaborative relationships, learning and transparency. These activities contribute to IC empowerment through three main mechanisms: empowerment through dialogue, empowerment through learning and increased reliability of data.

The findings have practical implications by showing how DT applied to accounting provides a highly transparent way to collect, manage and analyze financial data, freeing time for high-value activities, optimizing decision-making processes and increasing IC.

DT and digital technologies have created new opportunities for companies – worldwide – to elaborate and communicate accounting information. The originality of this research derives from connecting DT to the relatively innovative topic of CA.

This paper aims to contribute to the debate about creating shared value (CSV) and clusters, by shedding light on how clusters might generate shared value, i.e. cause social and business benefits, hence focusing on the following research question “do clusters create shared value?”

The study relied on social network analysis methods and techniques. Data have been collected from both primary and secondary sources, in the empirical context of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna. The authors computed three independent and four dependent variables to operationalize the concept of cluster development and shared value creation. A multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure and, more specifically, the most accurate model of that procedure, that is the double semi-partialling method, has been carried out to answer the research question. Finally, empirical evidence has been complemented with other cluster-level data recently collected by the Italian Cluster Mapping project.

The findings confirm how the development of the Motor Valley cluster in Emilia-Romagna contributed to the creation of economic and social growth opportunities for all the actors. The study shows that clusters do create shared value and the chosen cluster development variables do explain much of the business and social impact variables at a very high statistical significance level.

The paper contributes to the under-explored research on clusters and CSV with a very first attempt in providing quantitative evidence of the phenomenon.