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PurposeThe increasing adoption of digital technologies such as social media have changed the way consumers share knowledge about products and services among each other. The aim of this paper is to test what factors drive customers to share knowledge about products and services on social media pages.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative survey design was employed for this study. Empirical data were drawn from 358 consumers in Italy, using a purposive sampling technique. The hypothesised relationships were tested using ordinary least squares regression modelling.FindingsThe results of this study reveal that the usage frequency of online reviews (UFORs), social bonds (SBs), subjective happiness (SH) and reciprocity positively impact on customer knowledge sharing (CKS). By contrast, the perceived usefulness of online reviews (PUORs), helping others, customer susceptibility to interpersonal influence (CSII) and informational (INFO) do not impact CKS.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors' knowledge, this study is amongst the first to empirically test the antecedents of knowledge-sharing behaviours about products and services on online social media. The present work offers relevant implications for theory. First, the work enriches the customer knowledge management (CKM) theory by providing empirical evidence on factors leading to the higher sharing of knowledge amongst customers. Second, the work adds to the literature on social media, demonstrating the individual determinants on knowledge-sharing behaviours about products and services in online communities. Practically speaking, this paper identifies some key elements driving CKS in social media conversations. Thus, building upon the findings of this study, the authors provide some guidelines for social media managers and retailers for promoting CKS on social media pages.

Purpose This study aims to propose and test a theoretical model exploring the impact of internal and external factors of social media use by IT organisations on open innovation (OI) adoption with the mediating effect of knowledge management capabilities. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 200 IT firms and partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to analyse the data of this study and to test the research hypotheses. Findings The results revealed that both customer involvement in social media and top management support (TMS) for social media had a significant impact on OI adoption. However, only the relationship between TMS for social media usage and OI link was mediated by knowledge management capability. Practical implications This study stresses the importance of social media policy development for business managers to create an interactive platform for their customers to participate in the activities of the firm. Moreover, the results suggest that for developing open knowledge management capabilities, leaders must focus on and support the use of social media technologies by the firms. Originality/value Social media technologies have taken the world by storm. Organisations and individuals are influenced by the knowledge available on Web 2.0 platforms. Most of the current research has focussed on the impact of social media use on OI in developed countries, but developing nations on the Asian continent have been left out of this discussion. Moreover, while most studies have focussed on the OI outcomes, less efforts have been directed towards understanding and exploring the OI antecedents.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. Building on the resource-based view, this study aims to address the scant research on the context-specific micro-foundations that impact on internationalisation of SMEs in emerging markets. Therefore, the paper explores managerial resources and dynamic capabilities in three categories of international networking, vision, and experience and competence. In this regard, we employ a mixed-method analysis and focus on Iran as representative of a low supportive institutional context for SME internationalisation belongs to emerging markets. Hence, in qualitative analysis, we utilise multiple case study and conduct ten interviews, which led to the identification of fourteen important managerial resources and capabilities. This is followed by expert-based decision-making approaches, taking advantage of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and Matrix-based Multiplication Applied to a Classification (MICMAC), which contributed to investigation the relative function of identified factors as well as proposing a conceptual framework for the inter- and cross-relationships among explored drivers in three targeted categories and provides theoretical and practical suggestions.

While the global COVID-19 pandemic affected all the industries, the Italian agri-food sector positively performed over this period, supported by the exports, underlining the need for new international strategies to authentically engage consumers. This study aims to investigate the impact of customer education (CE) on the perceptions and evaluations of foreign consumers towards Made in Italy products as a part of the food experience in the agri-food sector. After a literature review, the paper illustrates the main topics of customer education, food experience and country-of-origin (COO) effect of Made in Italy. The purposes of the conceptual paper relate to the strategic use of country-of-origin effect by companies in order to promote products and services in foreign markets, and to the analysis of the impact of customer education within the food sector on the perception of Made in Italy products taking into account the new challenges of the current situation.

This paper seeks to investigate the micro-foundations of engaging in open innovation (OI) in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). More specifically, the study aims to understand the characteristics of entrepreneurs managing small companies and whether these influence the proclivity towards openness. A theory building approach is applied with an exploratory multiple case-study analysis consisting of eight Italian SMEs operating in knowledge intensive sectors. The information gathered through interviews indicate that several factors and variables related to the entrepreneur, employees and firm level have an impact on the propensity towards engaging in OI. Regarding the entrepreneur, delegation, trust in internal and external partners, individual ties and risk taking approach increase the approach towards OI. Moreover, it has emerged that several factors regarding employees contribute to establishing OI strategies. The interviews have also underlined that entrepreneur level factors have an impact on employee level factors in the sense that their joint effect leads to increased openness. These factors are also influenced by firm level factors. In terms of implications, this is one of the first studies on the micro-foundations of OI and, to the best of our knowledge, the first taking the entrepreneur perspective.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore how big data can shape ambidextrous business process management (BPM) in terms of exploitation and exploration. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative methodology involving case studies has been chosen to explore the impact of big data deployment on exploitative and explorative business processes. Findings The results of case studies offer some opportunities and challenges for service firms related to both the exploitative and the explorative aspects of BPM driven by big data. Originality/value The deployment of big data in business processes has attracted a large amount of interest recently. However, these studies are mostly conceptual, so empirical research about this complex relationship is quite rare, especially research with specific arguments regarding exploitative and explorative activities. This paper aims to fill this gap by offering empirical evidence for big data-driven business processes.

Objectives First-generation protease-inhibitors (PIs) have suboptimal efficacy in GT-1 patients with advanced liver disease, and patients experiencing treatment failure may require urgent retreatment. Our objective was to analyse the real-life efficacy of interferon (IFN)-free retreatment after PI-failure, and the role of genotypic-resistance-testing (GRT) in guiding retreatment choice. Methods In this multi-centre observational study, patients retreated with IFN-free regimens after first-generation PI-failure (telaprevir-boceprevir-simeprevir) were included. Sustained-virological-response (SVR) was evaluated at week 12 of follow-up. GRT was performed by population-sequencing. Results After PI-failure, 121 patients (cirrhotic = 86.8%) were retreated following three different strategies: A) with ‘GRT-guided’ regimens (N = 18); B) with ‘AASLD/EASL recommended, not GRT-guided’ regimens (N = 72); C) with ‘not recommended, not GRT-guided’ regimens (N = 31). Overall SVR rate was 91%, but all 18 patients treated with ‘GRT-guided’ regimens reached SVR (100%), despite heterogeneity in treatment duration, use of PI and ribavirin, versus 68/72 patients (94.4%) receiving ‘AASLD/EASL recommended, not GRT-guided’ regimens. SVR was strongly reduced (77.4%) among the 31 patients who received a ‘not recommended, not GRT-guided regimen’ (p

Despite the sector or the company’s size, the choice of the strategies is worth; it is about a set of different aspects included by firms into their own strategic and operating procedures. The general aim of this study is to analyse how Italian Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are tackling the challenges by adopting more responsible and sustainable strategies and tools in order to create social and economic value and to compete successfully. Moreover, the paper is focused on setting up a rulebook for family business SMEs in which are specified suggestions about overcoming the crisis and achieving the success.