LIBRI DI MICHELA MATARAZZO

Building on the formula of "Figure of Merit" used in technology studies, this work aims at findings analogism in place marketing by presenting "Figure of Merit for Places"; the identified formula represents the possible decision making algorithm that the cluster of Digital Nomads could use to choose a place to live for a period of life. The framework is useful both to place marketers and managers - identifying value proposition and the cost-of-living and cost for accessibility - and to the place demand - discovering the benefits to choose a place to live for a period. The analogism comes from the opportunity to study the Digital Nomads (DNs) that are emerging as a maximizer cluster. They live for different periods in different territories respecting the places and diffusing traditions, cultures, impressions and e xperiences; these characteristics stimulate the place marketing activities of the territories (demand driven) and contribute, indirectly, to place branding strategies (supply driven).

The present paper aims at analyzing the influence of cultural distance on acquisitions from MNEs of Italian mid-sized firms in terms of the economic performance of target firms. In literature a variety of works has focused on cultural distance as an explicative variable of the results of cross-border acquisitions. Using data from the Mediobanca Research Department Database we analyze Italian midsized firms acquired from MNEs between 1999 and 2009, in order to understand whether or not their performance improved over the post-acquisition period. Using a multidimensional measure of cultural distance, we tested the relationship between cultural distance and target firm’s performance in cross-border acquisitions by means of a regression analysis. Our study is the first to examine the impact of cultural distance on post-acquisition performance using the universe of Italian acquired midsized firms. The findings support our hypothesis that cultural distance has a negative effect on post-acquisition performance.

This research analyzes the marketing potential of "made in Europe", which has been little studied in literature on country of origin to date. In particular, the paper shows under what conditions a brand like "made in Europe", may be a viable alternative to the nation brand. To this end, two experiments were employed through an online questionnaire administered to two samples of Italian and German consumers. The results suggest that in situations of product country mismatch, particularly when a product is not associated to the manufacture tradition of the European country, the consumers prefer goods labeled "made in Europe" rather than nationally labeled ones. A number of managerial implications and suggestions for future researches are discussed.

The growing importance of internationalisation strategies leads us to investigate the development trend of the research contributions and attempt to bridge the gap in the Italian versus the international literature. The paper conducts a review of the Italian journals and is a significant step forward in highlighting the relevance of internationalisation as an "exit strategy" from the current global economic crisis and market stagnation. The research reviews the articles published in 11 leading Italian journals in the 1999-2009 period. After analysing the foreign reviews of international management and international business research, the paper surveys the articles and research areas found in the Italian literature on firms internationalisation and compares them with the international literature. A total of 266 articles were identified and subsequently grouped into seven distinct topics in line with the framework adopted. The review then divides each of the topics into sub-topics. The discussion highlights the areas in which key contributions have been made and indicates potential areas for future research in the Italian literature.

Nella seconda fase della net economy la marca sembra acquistare rinnovato vigore ricevendo da Internet un importante contributo in termini di arricchimento dei contenuti semantici e valoriali. Il presente lavoro intende appunto focalizzarsi sul nuovo ruolo della marca in rete nel processo di creazione del valore per il cliente, enfatizzando soprattutto i benefici relativi alla sfera psico-sociologica dell’individuo che rappresentano la base di un’esperienza di consumo unica. In tale ottica, la marca in rete favorisce lo spostamento dell’impresa dall’offerta di prodotti all’offerta di esperienze. Emblematico in tal senso è il caso Ducati.com, in cui all’unicità dell’esperienza proposta fa riscontro l’originalità del modello di business, nonché della mission aziendale. Il sito web fornisce la rappresentazione del mondo che sta dietro al brand, fatto di eventi, personaggi, luoghi, da cui prende vita un’esperienza in grado di coinvolgere emotivamente il visitatore interessato. In tal modo, il cliente sviluppa attaccamento e devozione verso l’impresa, diventando un suo messaggero, un portavoce dei valori aziendali in cui egli stesso si identifica, esprimendoli nel vivere quotidiano.