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Il report analizza l'integrazione della sostenibilità nelle politiche di gestione sviluppate e approvate dai consigli di amministrazione.

The role of the institutional context in the pattern of the implementation of responsible procurement management (RPM) has been object of very limited previous research, although it has been found that it affects the approach to both CSR and supply chain management. The article presents the results of an in-depth comparative study drawing on 47 interviews with managers of 13 companies in Italy and Germany, which have been previously related to different national institutional settings. The analysis demonstrates that the perception of factors influencing RPM implementation differs between Italian and German companies, and suggests that the institutional context affects not only the overall CSR behavior of the company, but also its institutionalization into a specific function. Results show that the institutional context mainly determines the boundaries within which practitioners are able to operate, whereas the ability to effectively bring about changes in their activity mainly depends upon organizational environment.

Despite the growth of the sector, microfinance's academic research in developed countries is still very limited. The paper builds on earlier works, which discuss four technical problems related to the diffusion of microfinance in developing countries. In re-framing their approach to apply it to developed countries, we propose a set of recommendations in order to foster the growth of the microfinance sector: (1) the use of financial institutions to supply microfinance products; (2) the development of an alternative credit scoring in banks; (3) the adoption of a regulatory framework for microfinance; and (4) the use of networks as social collaterals.

The chapter discussed the process of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition for social development.

The paper assess the impact of responsible supply chain management on performance

In this article we introduce an approximation to the study of the apparent contradiction between humility, promoted by the religious discourse, and pride, developed through different practices. We will examine the main spiritual religious feminine model of the 17th and 18th centuries. In order to make a better analysis we will focus on three valencian women: Blessed Inés of Benigànim, Gertrudis Anglesola and Luisa Zaragoza., En este artículo se realiza una primera aproximación al estudio de la aparente contradicción entre la humildad promovida por el discurso religioso y el orgullo manifestado a través de las prácticas en el modelo espiritual femenino de los siglos XVII y XVIII. Para ello analizaremos los casos de tres mujeres valencianas_ la Beata Inés de Benigànim, y las venerables Gertrudis Anglesola y Luisa Zaragoza.

Drawing upon institutional and organisational culture theories, the present work explores organizational commitment to work-life balance practices, thus proposing an original contribution within the field. Indeed, literature on work-life balance is still limited and, among existing studies, few have analysed the relationships with external social pressure (institutional) and internal motivations (organizational values and increase of productivity).rnThe analyses takes into consideration a sample of 107 organisations nearly equally split among profit, non-profit and public sectors in the Italian national context, which represent a well-known model of welfare state. Findings confirm that differences among the three sectors exist in terms of the rationales and the commitment to WLB policies and practices due to different institutional context and organizational cultures.

The Responsible Consumption Propensity Scale (Pedrini & Ferri, 2014) measured both consumers’ commitment to gather information on responsible products and his/her awareness on the possibility to exercise the power of legitimacy or sanction. The scale was used within the context of a study that explored the characteristics that may affect consumers’ perceptions and willingness to purchase socially and environmentally responsible products. The questionnaire contained 14 items. Factor analysis identified two factors: Orientation of consumers towards social and environmental information (5 items; e.g. "I don’t know firms that I think have bad soc/env performance") and inclusion of these dimensions in purchasing decision making (9 items; e.g., "I've bought a fair trade product in the last year"). In a sample of consumers, over 14 years of age, the Cronbach's alpha was 0.842, indicating adequate reliability. Confirmatory factor model with maximum likelihood estimation indicated test validity. (PsycTESTS Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved)

Purpose of the paper: To measure the gap between the propensity towards responsible consumerism and the actual behavior of Italian consumers in real settings. Methodology: We explored the responsible consumerism propensity-behavior gap, taking into consideration a sample of 5.098 Italian consumers and analyzing the most purchased products by the group of 766 consumers that declared a high propensity towards responsible consumerism in the initial part of the survey. Findings: Results confirm the existence of a responsible propensity-behavior gap in real scenarios, since only 37,2% of mostly-purchased products by responsible consumers has a social or environmental label. The analysis of the rationale highlights that purchasing decisions are mainly based on environmental and health-related values, whereas strictly socially-oriented characteristics receive limited attention. Research limits: The study collected data only on Italian consumers and therefore did not allow us to understand the impact of different national cultures on consumers. Practical implications: Since products with pure social or environmental contents target only well-informed consumers, managers should increase consumers’ knowledge around the social and environmental contents of products. If managers want to target a larger share of market, they should develop products that exploit social/environmental characteristics to enhance performance related to traditional attributes. Originality of the study: The study is one of the first to consider both the propensity and actual behavior of consumers. Second, while previous researches had studied behaviors in experimental, hypothetical or ad-hoc setting, this one is the first that investigates behavior by using data on purchases in real settings regardless of the store

The paper analyses consumers’ propensity for socially and environmentally friendly products through socio-demographic indicators. Although the topic has been object of a wide literature, most of the previous studies suffered from methodological or sampling limitations. Hence, the present work addresses such limitations and proposes a study based on a wide heterogeneous sample of 5098 consumers, observed in their real settings. Results show the most responsible consumers are older, well-educated and wealthy, while gender is not a significant antecedent. The in-depth analysis of findings thus confirms the usefulness of socio-demographic variables to understand and determine the profile of responsible consumers. However, the study denies that the propensity to buy responsible products relates to the different sensitiveness of men and women, whereas it underlines that age, education and wealth have a positive relationship. Moreover, the analysis identifies four different profiles of consumer based on the different levels of propensity towards responsible products, which confirms the influence of the socio-demographic variables. This also allows identifying relevant indications on consumers’ decision making, useful to draw indications on possible effective marketing strategies for responsible products.

Although the emphasis on stakeholder dialogue (SD) has recently increased in the extant literature, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the SD initiatives undertaken by firms and the literature is still fragmented. According to focal studies on the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and institutional contexts, this paper aims at advancing the understanding of how institutional contexts impact on the adoption of SD into practice. Moreover, adopting the institutional theory, this study aims to understand how different CSR institutional contexts influence SD, through an analysis of 2,797 SD initiatives realized by 418 companies listed in the FTSE4Good Global index at 31st December 2011 from 20 different countries (in Europe, North America and Asia). Overall, our findings offer contribution to empirical research about the link between SD initiatives and different contexts, thus filling the gap and providing evidences to theoretical debate. Results confirmed that the different CSR institutional contexts determine firms’ SD approach.

Although the emphasis on stakeholder dialogue (SD) has recently increased in the extant literature, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the SD initiatives undertaken by firms and the literature is still fragmented. According to focal studies on the relationship between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and institutional contexts, this paper aims at advancing the understanding of how institutional contexts impact on the adoption of SD into practice. Moreover, adopting the institutional theory, this study aims to understand how different CSR institutional contexts influence SD, through an analysis of 2,797 SD initiatives realized by 418 companies listed in the FTSE4Good Global index at 31st December 2011 from 20 different countries (in Europe, North America and Asia). Overall, our findings offer contribution to empirical research about the link between SD initiatives and different contexts, thus filling the gap and providing evidences to theoretical debate. Results confirmed that the different CSR institutional contexts determine firms’ SD approach.

Research on the growing importance attributed by consumers to Corporate Social Responsibility has emphasised the need to study the features of consumers who are aware of social and environmental issues (i.e. Responsible Consumers). Our research aimed to investigate whether the demographical characteristics distinguish between Responsible Consumer Attitudes, and gather useful information both from a business and academic point of view. Building on previous research into ethical consumers, initially we developed a responsible attitude scale, using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. In a second phase we tested five hypotheses on relation between gender, age, educational level, income, geographical with responsible attitude and data collected from a sample of 5,098 Italian consumers The results show that age, average income and level of education exert a consistent and positive influence on Responsible Attitude. A positive, though smaller, effect of gender and geographical areas can also be seen to affect the appeal CSR holds for consumers. The research improves understanding of consumers who have a Responsible Attitude, who are mainly the final target of CSR initiatives and are probably interested in social and environmental products. It gives two contributions to research of social and environmental consumers. The first is the development a single measure to evaluate the attention given by consumer both to social and environmental concerns in the purchasing (Responsible Attitude). The second is the development and test of five hypotheses on relations between demographics and responsible attitude on a sample of 5.098 Italian consumers. The research is the first large analysis conducted on these issues based on Italian consumers.

Extant studies demonstrated that internal and external variables affecting firms’ behaviors towards CSR are determined by differences in national and cultural contexts (Papasolomou-Doukadis et al., 2005; Juholin, 2004; Fulop et al., 2000; Tencati et al., 2004; Abreu et al., 2005). In this field of studies, a different role is acknowledged to companies in developed and developing countries which have to respond to diverse pressures and requests by stakeholders. The article explores the cross-cultural and institutional differences between developed and emerging economies through an original perspective which analyzes the social and environmental content of corporate reports – whether social or financial. Previous works, indeed, suggested that the country institutional setting – as well as industrial one – affects the disclosure of CSR related information by firms (Kolk et al., 2001; Kolk 2005; Maignan and Ralston, 2002, Meek et al., 1995). The work presents the results of the content-analysis of the reports published by Italian and Brazilian listed companies and compares the different approaches. Results confirm different approaches between the companies in the two countries and suggest driven by the institutional context. While Italian reports include extensive information towards a wide range of stakeholders, Brazilian ones are more specific and aimed at demonstrating the commitment to the critical problems of the national population.

L’articolo analizza la relazione tra il conflitto tra famiglia e lavoro e le pratiche implementate dalle aziende per risolvere tale conflitto. L’attenzione attorno al tema è cresciuta negli ultimi decenni alimentata dalle sempre maggiori difficoltà che i lavoratori sperimentano per rispondere alle proprie responsabilità familiari e lavorative (Allen et al. 2000; Brummelhuis & Van der Lippe 2010; Greenhaus & Powell, 2006). Alla luce della crescente rilevanza del tema, il presente articolo ha l’obiettivo di analizzare l’impatto che le iniziative di work-life balance hanno sul conflitto percepito dai lavoratori. Grazie a un questionario somministrato a 2.419 lavoratori si sono identificati quattro cluster di lavoratori che presentano una differente percezione del conflitto tra famiglia e lavoro: gli armonici, i rampanti, i migratori e i bloccati. Per ogni cluster, quindi, si sono individuate le iniziative implementate dalle aziende che si sono dimostrate più efficaci nel ridurre il conflitto esistente. La ricerca ha quindi evidenziato come l’efficacia delle iniziative di work-life balance dipenda dalla percezione del conflitto da parte dei lavoratori e, quindi, come differenti strategie di conciliazione debbano essere intraprese in risposta ai quattro cluster individuati.

Il capitolo analizza i principali rischi sociali e ambientali che possono emergere lungo la catena di fornitura globale di un'azienda del settore tessile e pelletteria.

In the past few years interest in cross-sectorial partnerships (Selsky & Parker 2005) has grown both in the academic and practitioner field and it has focused on both NGO-business (Vurro et al. 2010; Jamali & Keshishian 2009; Seitanidi & Crane 2009; King 2007; Ahlstrom & Sjostrom 2005; Rondinelli & London 2003) and public-private sectors (Parker & Hartley 2003; Googins & Rochlin 2000); relationships. These studies have mainly focused around the prerequisites and conditions necessary to guarantee the effective implementation and success of the alliance, its sustainability in the long-term period and the main obstacles that might affect. However, further research has been invoked in order to foster the understanding on the institutionalizations process (Vurro et al.2011), the quantification of benefits (Ahlstrom & Sjostrom 2005; Parker & Hartley 2003) and the inter/intra organizational management of the partnership to overcome sectorial differences (Selsky & Parker 2005). The present paper starts from this last suggestion and aims at contributing to the literate development exploring how organizations from different sectors can successfully work together for the realization of a social project. In particular, it explores how they can integrate culture and resources in order to exploit the respective strengths and overcome each other limitations. In other words, attention is devoted to understand how partners can realize powerful synergies (Makower 1994), thus exploiting resources, competencies and skills typical of the different members, in order to reach a better result that could not been successfully achieved otherwise. Bearing in mind this considerations, this article analyzes the case study of the project “Arvore da Vida”, developed by Fiat Brasil. AVSI (an Italian NGO) and CDM (a local NGO), with the aim to promote the social development and the reinforcement of the local community in the urban area of Jardim Terezopolis (Belo Horizonte, Brasil).

Extant studies demonstrated that internal and external variables affecting firms’ behaviors towards CSR are determined by differences in national and cultural contexts (Papasolomou-Doukadis et al., 2005; Juholin, 2004; Fulop et al., 2000; Tencati et al., 2004; Abreu et al., 2005). In The article explores the cross-cultural and institutional differences between developed and emerging economies through an original perspective which analyzes the social and environmental content of corporate reports – whether social or financial. Previous works, indeed, suggested that the country institutional setting – as well as industrial one – affects the disclosure of CSR related information by firms (Kolk et al., 2001; Kolk 2005; Maignan and Ralston, 2002, Meek et al., 1995). Results confirm different approaches between the companies in the two countries and suggest driven by the institutional context. While Italian reports include extensive information towards a wide range of stakeholders, Brazilian ones are more specific and aimed at demonstrating the commitment to the critical problems of the national population.

In recent years Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) gained relevance in business strategy, asking to address social and environmental issues in business. To manage these issues the firms are rethinking their strategy, intro-ducing specific CSR actions and programs, and they are modifying their structure, establishing new positions called “CSR officers”. In this study, we explored the relations above integration of social and environmental is-sues into the firms' strategy, the degree of CSR officers‟ duty and the amount of implemented social and envi-ronmental activities. Data of a survey aimed to 100 CSR officers operating in Italian listed firms was used. We analyze data on implementation of 39 typical CSR actions in each firm. Data proves that recognize a high duty to CSR officer is as important as the integration of CSR into the firm‟s strategy to implement a large amount of CSR actions into the firm.