LIBRI DI GERVASIO ANTONELLI

Il volume presenta un’analisi degli strumenti di gestione e di pianificazione del paesaggio, definiti ai diversi livelli di governo del territorio, e i risultati di una ricerca sulle politiche messe in atto dalla regione Marche per la conservazione e la valorizzazione del paesaggio rurale. In questo quadro, fornisce elementi di riflessione sui criteri da seguire per aumentare la “qualità” paesaggistica e la desiderabilità sociale delle misure proposte per la valorizzazione del paesaggio.

In recent years many studies have pointed out the importance of applying business marketing techniques to firms in the agro-food sector. In the perspective attention was mainly focused on the strategies underlying traditional marketing management approaches. Thus, this paper aims to assess both extent to which marketing is applied, and the way in which it is, by the firms and their Consortia operating in the sector of typical and traditional agro-food Italian products recognized by Regulation (EEC) n. 2081/92 as Protected Designation of Origin. The first part of the paper displays an analysis of the traditional marketing management approach in order to rise the question about the appropriateness of its main prescriptions for marketing strategies concerning small and medium-sized agro-food firms. Then, it draws the attention on the growing importance of relationship marketing and shows how the main features from both sides of supply organization and demand specificity of typical products provides evidence about the usefulness of an approach to marketing in the agro-food sector from the point of view of a relationship perspective. The study considers the development of marketing strategies of typical products depending also on the whole production at Consortium level. The second part of the paper deals with an empirical survey carried on a sample of Consortia for Protection of Italian typical products, like cheese and ham, in order to investigate their marketing strategies as well those carried on indipendently from their associated single firms. The results show that Consortia and single firms share the marketing mix in a such a way that the former controls mainly the quality of products and the latter the selling and pricing strategies. However, while larger processing firms try to develop their own effective marketing strategy under an own brand, small producers rely mainly on the marketing activities conducted by Consortia. Further, although all Consortia show a strong interest in marketing and the need to develop general promotion of the Protected Designation of Origin brand, their approach to market seems more consistent with a production oriented philosophy than a marketing orientation philosophy. Finally, the paper shows the importance of better co-ordination and co-operative relationships between the different actors of the supply chain to develop a more effective marketing strategy in the sector of typical products.

The goal of the present study is to examine the extent and the nature of vertical coordination between small and medium food firms and their agricultural inputs suppliers. In particular, we attempt to verify the extent to which single solution depends upon organisational structures, innovative processes and market strategies. To do this, in the first part of the paper, the main elements of the vertical integration and its causes are presented and discussed, with particular attention to the implications for the agro-food system. A theoretical grid is used to interpret, in the second part of the paper, the behaviour of firms. The study has been carried out by means of a survey. A questionnaire was given to a sample of firms operating in the food industries of the region Marche in the sectors of processing pork and poultry meat as well as in wine production. The results show in recent years a growing concern in all of the cases considered on contractual relationships with the suppliers of raw materials, mainly farms. Although these results highlight different solutions across different industries and across the firms of the same industry, in all the cases they show as vertical coordination tends to represent a reference scheme for the management of quality at various stages of the supply chain. In particular, the paper shows that the growing emphasis of consumers on quality and food safety has led to the development of marketing relationships with suppliers of agricultural products. Such a relationship, built with "selected" groups of suppliers, relies mainly on trust and incentives the growth of cooperative solutions which allow to reduce the cost of transactions. Furthermore, such a cooperative solution enables the firms to adjust their offering to changing market environment and to develop competetive strategies based on higher quality and other quality characteristics perceived.