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The purpose of this article is to explore how participants with different motivations (educational or leisure), familiarity with the medium (newbies and active Twitter users), and participating instructions respond to a highly structured digital social reading (DSR) activity in terms of intensity of engagement and social interaction.

A case study involving students and teachers of 211 Italian high school classes and 242 other Twitter users, who generated a total of 18,962 tweets commenting on a literary text, was conducted. The authors performed both a quantitative analysis focusing on the number of tweets/retweets generated by participants and a network analysis exploiting the study of interactions between them. The authors also classified the tweets with respect to their originality, by using both automated text reuse detection approaches and manual categorization, to identify quotations, paraphrases and other forms of reader response.

The decoupling (both in space and time) of text read (in class) and comments (on Twitter) likely led users to mainly share text excerpts rather than original personal reactions to the story. There was almost no interaction outside the classroom, neither with other students nor with generic Twitter users, characterizing this project as a shared experience of “audiencing” a media event. The intensity of social interactions is more related to the breadth of the audience reached by the user-generated content and to a strong retweeting activity. In general, better familiarity with digital (social) media is related to an increase in the level of social interaction.

The authors analyzed one of the largest educational social reading projects ever realized, contributing to the still scarce empirical research about DSR. The authors employed state-of-the-art automated text reuse detection to classify reader response.

We explore how sustainable management education (SME) can help prepare future leaders to manage crises effectively. Precisely, the intricacies of articulating moral and economic imperatives for businesses in a manner that engages students in sustainable behavior are a serious challenge for SME. We study how to integrate reminders of moral and economic imperatives in a socially responsible investment (SRI) stock-picking simulation created for SME.

Adopting an experimental design, we analyzed how the reminders affected the average environment social governance (ESG) integration in the portfolios of 127 graduate students in finance over a twelve-week period.

Our results show how essential it is to balance the two imperatives. The highest level of sustainable investment is attained when utilizing both reminders.

Our findings have practical implications for implementing and organizing SME in business schools to educate responsible leaders who are able to effectively manage crises. Learning responsible management is most effective when students are exposed to the inherent tension between moral and economic imperatives. Hence, our findings corroborate the win-win conception of SME.

No management decision study has experimentally measured the effects of SME practices on students' actual behavior. Our research fills this gap by complementing previous studies on the effectiveness of teaching practices, first by drawing on behavioral sciences and measuring changes in students' actual sustainability behavior and second by introducing moral and economic imperatives into an innovative teaching resource (TR) dedicated to SME.

This study aims to investigate, by means of a balance sheet analysis, the equilibrium and capital, financial, economic and income dynamics of Italian wine producers, during and after the international economic crisis (2008-2017). Therefore, three research questions arise: What was the evolution of the main financial indicators and margins? Did the companies that survived the crisis increased their profitability? Have these companies changed their financial and economic balance sheets?

It was analyzed the balance sheets of a medium–large companies sample. The study describes the evolution of three income indices (return on equity compared to the average interest rate on government bonds, return on investment compared to the average rate on loans, return on sales), three asset margins (structural margin, net working capital and treasury margin) and four financial ratios (acid ratio, current ratio, leverage and index of financial dependence). The results were graphically represented, also with the use of interpolation curves.

After the crisis, the sector shows increasing profitability. However, from the balance sheet analysis and the trend of the financial indices, there is a strong imbalance and excessive levels of stocks. Furthermore, the debt situation is excessive: the predominant presence of third-party financing would require enormous recapitalizations and probably an increase in self-financing, which is possible thanks to the constantly growing profitability.

The study takes into consideration only the companies that survived the crisis, therefore, presumably the stronger ones. Moreover, more ratios should be considered to have a more complete picture. It is a uniquely quantitative study based exclusively on the balance sheets data that neglect other important economic factors.

Public policies could use this study for better intervention decisions in support of agricultural and agro-industrial activities. Credit policy above all should consider the results of this research, requesting urgent consideration of possible capitalization warranting the access to regulated financial markets. Besides, internal management may compare company outcomes with average sector outcomes to identify improvement prospects. These kinds of studies are advisable for education and training.

The careful economic and financial analysis of the sector favors the relaunching strategies of the Italian wineries in which many employees work. Supporting companies favors employment, constant incomes for workers’ families along the entire supply chain, from the production of grapes to consumption. A solid sector guarantees development and social and economic well-being.

The study contributes to the literature by providing a quantitative method of analysis of the sector, through the comparative information taken from the balance sheets. Therefore, it expands managerial and accounting knowledge on an important sector for the Italian and world economy.

Since Thomas Kuhn (1962), a historian of science who gave ‘paradigm’ its contemporary meaning, the term ‘paradigm’ has been widely used in science and social sciences to refer to a theoretical framework or thought pattern in any given discipline, or broadly, a set of experiences, beliefs and values that affect individual perceptions of a reality and their subsequent reactions. A dominant paradigm is the widely held system of thought in a society at a particular period of time. For Kuhn, a dominant paradigm can be changed and replaced by a new one, which often occurs in a revolutionary manner in science. In social sciences, ‘paradigm shift’ implies the changing ways of understanding and organising a social reality.

Food insecurity in the Latin American region has become a complex problem that significantly impacts people's physical and mental well-being. The factors causing food insecurity are varied, ranging from social, political, and economic causes. Ensuring access to food is not a task with limited responsibilities; on the contrary, both public and private institutions must contribute to creating sustainable and innovative solutions. In general, it is necessary to ensure that the food system flows correctly, ensuring the availability of balanced and nutritious food for the diet of the inhabitants of a given nation. Alternative solutions apart from the government's help include sustainable cultivation, finger millet, and close cooperation with the farmers from the agriculture sector. The present research aims to consolidate theoretical information on the Latin American situation and seek the leading solutions of the parties involved.

This study aims to examine style-deviation practices in the socially responsible mutual funds (SMRF) industry i.e. how mutual funds game their stated financial objectives to earn a higher relative performance ranking. In addition, the consequences of such practices on sustainable scores and money flows are studied.

A sample of 454 US equity SRMFs is studied. This paper uses panel regressions controlling for time and style fixed-effects.

This study finds that 17.60% of SRMF managers in the sample are engaged in style deviation practices. These practices positively impact the sustainable performance of SRMFs and negatively impact their financial performance. One effect offsets the other and they consequently do not affect money flows. Another finding is that only investors with lower portfolio sustainability scores do show return-chaser behaviour.

This paper reveals that SRMF managers deviating from their stated financial style face a dilemma that is non-existent for their conventional peers that is style deviation practices affect financial and sustainable performance in opposing ways, whereas SRMF investor utility depends positively on both dimensions. The findings are not conclusive about the effectiveness of style deviation practices in attracting SRMF money flows.

SRMF industry has experienced tremendous growth in the past decade. The increased competition in this industry has led managers to strive to attract investors, sometimes by relying on irregular practices that enhance their portfolio results. Regulators should consider how to avoid such perverse behaviour with a view to improving mutual funds transparency.

This is the first research that analyses style deviation practices and their consequences for the SRMF industry.

The purpose of this paper is to document an efficient and accurate approach to generate aerodynamic tables using computational fluid dynamics. This is demonstrated in the context of a concept transport aircraft model.

Two designs of experiment algorithms in combination with surrogate modelling are investigated. An adaptive algorithm is compared to an industry-standard algorithm used as a benchmark. Numerical experiments are obtained solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations on a large computational grid.

This study demonstrates that a surrogate model built upon an adaptive design of experiments strategy achieves a higher prediction capability than that built upon a traditional strategy. This is quantified in terms of the sum of the squared error between the surrogate model predictions and the computational fluid dynamics results. The error metric is reduced by about one order of magnitude compared to the traditional approach.

This work lays the ground to obtain more realistic aerodynamic predictions earlier in the aircraft design process at manageable costs, improving the design solution and reducing risks. This may be equally applied in the analysis of other complex and non-linear engineering phenomena.

This work explores the potential benefits of an adaptive design of experiment algorithm within a prototype working environment, whereby the maximum number of experiments is limited and a large parameter space is investigated.