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This study empirically examines the relationship between human capital ecosystems and entrepreneurial ecosystems. The study also investigates the mediating roles of digital knowledge capability and innovation capability and the moderating role of technology turbulence in the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The study takes inputs from existing literature and resource-based view (RBV) and absorptive capacity theories and develops a theoretical model. Later, the model is validated using the structural equation modeling technique with data collected from India-based startup enterprises.

The authors found a nexus between human capital and entrepreneurial ecosystems. The study also highlights that enterprises' digital knowledge capability and innovation capability significantly influence the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The study also found that technology turbulence has a significant moderating impact on the relationship between digital knowledge capability and innovation capability in entrepreneurial ecosystems.

The study shows the importance of developing human capital for improving enterprises' innovation capability and digital knowledge capability, which are also important to develop the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Entrepreneurs can use the proposed model in their enterprises for appropriately developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem.

The authors propose a theoretical model for entrepreneurial ecosystems, from the human capital perspective, which entrepreneurs could use to improve the overall organizational performance. Moreover, the model uses technology turbulence as a moderator, which is also a novel approach. The study also adds valuable knowledge to the overall body of literature of intellectual capital.

The purpose of this paper is to reveal the impact of strategic competitive innovation types on the financial performance of SMEs during a very critical period: the COVID-19 pandemic. Four strategic competitive innovation types are considered in this study: marketing innovation, organizational innovation, product innovation and processes innovation.

To examine empirically the relationship between strategic competitiveness and financial performance, data were collected from a sample of 426 Lebanese SMEs belonging to seven different sectors.

The empirical findings of principle component analysis model (PCA) and multiple regression model (MR) reveal that the ability to innovate is essential to an SME’s survival during a crisis. The results of this study confirm the existence of a positive impact of marketing innovation and processes innovation on the financial performance of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Moreover, results suggest that, in Lebanese SMEs, product innovation and organizational innovation do not have any impact on the financial performance during the pandemic period.

This research focused on strategic competitive innovation as a broadly considered essential condition for the survival of SMEs during the COVID-19 crises.

This study analyses how family-run businesses operating in the Italian food sector faced the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic that affected the global economy, with the support of management accounting systems.

The methodology used is based on a survey questionnaire conducted on Italian family firms involved in food business. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analysed.

This study categorised the companies into three groups, according to their long-term orientation and the use of management accounting tools. The results highlight proactive versus passive companies that emphasise various recovery paths from the perspective of performance.

Limitations refer to the attention on a single country and the sample size.

The main practical implication refers to management at different levels that should better understand how a clear long-term orientation can maintain the competitive position and pre-crisis performance.

This study examines the measures launched by companies to address challenges originating from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The purpose of this paper is to shed light on how family firms execute open innovation strategies by managing internal and external knowledge flows (KF) to provide a deeper understanding of family firms’ ability to innovate through traditions and create value across generations.

Empirical evidence was collected using an online survey of a sample of 208 Apulian entrepreneurs, who were members of the association of young entrepreneurs of Confindustria in the Apulia region (southern Italy).

The study derives a model that explains the most relevant factors behind the innovation processes developed by young entrepreneurs in family firms: network membership benefits; KF; track record of innovation; and the entrepreneurial attitude of employees.

By integrating insights from different research streams, namely, innovation management, open innovation and family firms, the study provides a novel contribution to the open innovation process in family firms.

The study offers interpretative lenses for entrepreneurs and managers to understand the most suitable knowledge transfer process for encouraging open innovation in family firms, taking into consideration young entrepreneurs’ traditions and interpersonal skills, the KF in local ecosystems and network benefits as the main variables supporting the innovation process.

This study creates a link between open innovation and family firm research by providing an empirically grounded model illustrating how the innovation process is realized in family firms.

The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate how big data collected from social media contribute to knowledge management practices, innovation processes and business performance.

The study used 418 questionnaires collected from firms that actively invest in marketing, advertising and communication in the Italian market. The hypotheses testing and analysis were conducted using structural equation modeling.

The results reveal that customers’ data gathered from social media produce different effects on knowledge management practices and firms’ innovation capacity. Furthermore, increased innovation capacity turned out to affect customer relationship performance directly, while it contributes to gain better financial performance only when it is used to gain relational outcomes.

The outcomes of the study help firms to develop a clear understanding about which big data retrieved from social media can be useful to improve their knowledge management practices and enhance their innovation capacity. Moreover, by investigating the mediating role of big data knowledge management in the context of social media knowledge acquisition and innovation capacity, this study also extends the mediation variables used to understand the relationship between knowledge capabilities and practices and innovation constructs.

This paper aims to identify and elucidate the culinary territorial (regional) characteristics that may support the development of stakeholder relations with and perceptions of a territorial system. It further focuses on these support interactions between destination managers and stakeholders and how online technology can transform them into a word-of-mouth source.

The authors present a theoretical framework, stemming from a case study of a tour operator and its technological (social media, etc.) dynamics on the relational aspects between destination management and stakeholders. Through a combination of qualitative tools and secondary data analysis, this paper analyzes the interrelationships of authenticity and place-as-brand concept, considered as the set of human characteristics associated with a brand in a “living like” travel experience.

Culinary tourism is seen as a relevant and significant factor in facilitating interaction between the destination community and its stakeholders, and a meaningful element, which when technologically communicated and enhanced, strengthens both the perception and the brand image of a destination.

Such new technology-enhanced insights into tourists’ experience could be exploited to plan and implement destination management and development strategies in a way that would be expected, accepted and welcomed by stakeholders, including tourists themselves. In this context, this paper presents and prescribes the role of culinary characteristics and stakeholder relationship management to develop new culinary business models and different destination community approaches toward practical implementation at both the individual (business) and the collective (authorities) levels.

The proposed framework fills the gap in the role of culinary tourism resources particularly in those areas where food has no viable certification even if it essentially constitutes a manifestation of traditions.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the distinctive elements of CSR communications that characterize the communications models of family businesses in the Italian wine industry, and to compare them with nonfamily businesses.

Using a case study approach, a sample of large and medium companies practicing corporate social responsibility was identified. The content of their websites was examined using content analysis and text mining (correspondence analysis techniques and word association analysis using the T-Lab software).

The analysis indicates that the ownership structure nature makes a difference in the online CSR communications process. The cultural identity in both family and nonfamily businesses is founded on intangible factors such as tradition; however, being a family business is a fundamental driver in the online CSR communications process, no longer forming a bond among players in the wine industry, but rather linking with other wine family businesses.

One limitation of this work is the small size of the investigated sample. An added value it contributes is its focus on the Italian wine industry. The paper provides the essential elements that family and nonfamily wine businesses should consider in customizing their CSR communications with the brand’s specific details.

The authors highlighted the similarities and differences of family and nonfamily wine businesses in terms of their online CSR communications. The authors also observed how the family wine business identity, in its multidimensional construct, has common factors with what we call “familiness.” This research could establish a starting point for further work within this important sector.

The purpose of this paper is to observe how the motivational engagement system of the consumers should be established so that communities of practice became a driver to reducing the informative asymmetries of sustainability.

The paper proposes a conceptual framework called connection, discussion and influence (CDI), along which the motivational dimensions to disclose sustainability can be formed. The framework has been tested on 200 firms in the Italian wine industry. A correlation analysis proved to be suitable for identifying groups of representative variables representing the engagement motivations that characterize participation in sustainability-oriented virtual communities.

The findings of this paper suggest that the pro-social behavior represented by the exchange of knowledge oriented toward sustainability is enhanced by the engagement of online community members. This happens when the online community is structured so as to activate a virtuous circle between CDI.

The main limitation of this study is the interviewees do not actually participate in a virtual community, but have only been asked if they would be potentially interested in participating in one, and about the importance they give to specific motivations.

The paper provides important reflections for companies operating in the wine industry that have been called to intervene in the disclosure of sustainability.

The virtuous circle described here is the main contribution of the paper, as it can serve as a driver for managers of virtual communities that choose to disclose their idea of sustainability to reduce informative asymmetries and to engage consumers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the phenomenon of mergers and acquisition (M & A) in high-tech sectors with a special focus on biotechnological firms. Recent years have witnessed an impressive wave of M & As, but these operations, despite their popularity, have produced mixed results for their stakeholders and presented no systemic vision.

The paper is descriptive and the result of a secondary data-based research. Methodologically founded on the works of Rossi et al. (2011, 2013) and following an extensive literature review on M & A processes in high-tech sectors, the paper analyzes the dynamics, trends and attributes biotechnological M & As.

The biotechnology sector, over the economically turbulent past few years, faced a distinct difficulty in attracting significant investor capital. Traditional pharmaceutical companies with sufficient cash from their existing sales but facing a dried-out product and patent pipeline have acquired innovative, but cash-poor biotech firms. The findings indicate that the trends in the biotech industry make consolidation in this sector inevitable. For acquiring firms, therefore, it will be necessary to realize a rigorous process of strategic target identification, due diligence and unified post-merger integration as the only way to create a sustainable shareholder value and high firm performance.

The limitations of the paper are a consequence of its very nature, i.e. the fact that it is a descriptive, secondary data-based research. Further, empirical research is therefore necessary to test the findings, to refine the contextual parameters involved and to prescribe target-specific action.

The value of the paper stems from its definition of the link between the biotech industry attributes and M & A activities, consequently offering a valuable theoretical basis for empirical development and practical application, as well as a context for prescribed actions and processes.