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Travel influencers are the primary destination endorsers in destination digital marketing strategies. However, tourism live streamers (TLS) are emerging as new influential figures in this realm. They construct more comprehensive and perceived authentic destination images, inspiring viewers to physically visit the broadcasted locale. This study, within the context of cultural tourism, explores through a netnographic approach the visual and discursive strategies of place presentation employed by TLSs to construct these inspiring destination images. It also delves into viewers’ reactions to cultural tourism live streaming to understand the meanings and desires elicited by these broadcasts. Findings highlight that destination images in cultural tourism live streaming are crafted according to the different combination of three standardized segments (destination’s street-view; sight-seeing; dramatization of the cultural experience). These segments trigger in viewers desires for acculturation, a sense of nostalgia, inspiration for future physical travels, willingness for self-disclosure, as well as a feeling of proximity and vicarious travel when injected with dramatization by TLSs.

This working paper is aimed at reconstructing the trajectory of NFTs’ circuits and the socio-cultural value attached to them in each of the transitions through which they progress from design to marketization and circulation. As there is little pre-existing knowledge about NFTs, our work has a discovery-oriented nature, therefore we are developing an exploratory qualitative research design that is aimed at investigating in-depth the anatomy of NFTs and the lived experiences associated with them in the socio-technical contexts where they are situated. Our effort is to depict the socio-cultural and the market ecosystem mobilized by NFTs and the evolving nature of the emotional, social, cultural and financial labor that constitutes them since their inception throughout their life trajectory. The focus is on the interactional nature of the meanings and values which emerge in the conversations, the negotiations, the transformations and the exploitations that are the result of the ‘participatory internet culture’ in which NFTs are rooted (Jenkins et al., 2016). More specifically our research design is based on two main parallel phases: 1. Developing a collection of NFT actors’ biographies; 2. Following NFTs’ relational, market, and consumption dynamics in context. We are currently conducting depth-interviews to explore the variety of identities, perspectives, motivations, stories, practices, and projects to get a deep understanding of the world of NFTs from the subjects’ point of view, uncover their NFT-related lived experiences, and unfold their meanings (Kvale and Brinkmann, 2009). We are recruiting our participants according to the principles of theoretical and snowball sampling to develop a wide coverage of the phenomenon by including a diversified range of perspectives that are both significant and prototypical NFT experiences, as well as different among one another, so as to develop a deeper understanding of our research object (Morse et al. 2009). We are now in the

Commitment to environmental causes is emerging as a fundamental driver of consumption choices, especially for the younger generations. However, studies are missing that delve deeper into how young consumers, particularly Millennials and Gen Zers, dialogically frame their favor and support for sustainable brands. In this paper, we explore how young consumers shape their choices for sustainable brands and products in their social media conversations, which represent the most common ground where sustainable commitments are discussed. We conduct an in-depth netnographic investigation that provides a deep cultural understanding of the system of values, meanings, language, stories, images, and priorities that young consumers associate with sustainable choices. Considering that Millennials and Gen Zers are setting as a top priority to limit the consumption of single-use plastics, our study is set into the communities of plastic-free refillable bottles. Our findings visually map and dig deeper into the specific motivations that young consumers prioritize in conversations when they embrace plastic-free brands. In terms of contribution, our study elaborates on the notion of care as the key priority for young consumers.

Commitment to environmental causes is emerging as a fundamental driver of consumption choices, especially for the younger generations. However, studies are missing that delve deeper into how young consumers, particularly Millennials and Gen Zers, dialogically frame their favor and support for sustainable brands. In this paper, we explore how young consumers shape their choices for sustainable brands and products in their social media conversations, which represent the most common ground where sustainable commitments are discussed. We conduct an in-depth netnographic investigation that provides a deep cultural understanding of the system of values, meanings, language, stories, images, and priorities that young consumers associate with sustainable choices. Considering that Millennials and Gen Zers are setting as a top priority to limit the consumption of single-use plastics, our study is set into the communities of plastic-free refillable bottles. Our findings visually map and dig deeper into the specific motivations that young consumers prioritize in conversations when they embrace plastic-free brands.

How are brands navigating the tension between being a cultural and a market player in woke times? Brand activism resonates of the struggle that brands undertake to be perceived by consumers as committed cultural authority. This led several brands to fall into woke washing allegations and contestations in social media. Our study dives deep into a successful but highly contested Italian media brand – Freeda Media – that was launched as a cultural resource for the feminist cause but suffered from strong consumers’ critique. Findings reveal how emerging contestation and polarization generated by brand activism in social media are the result of the unresolved tension of the brand between being a cultural and a market player. This tension produces a spiral of mismatches between brand conduct and consumer perceptions when the commercial goals of the brand as a market player prevail over the cultural value of material and immaterial resources provided by the brand as a cultural player.

The zoomie is a technologically-mediated self-portrait snapshot, snapped by an individual with a smartphone or a webcam in the flow of a Zoom platform experience (or other similar internet-based videocommunication platforms such as MicrosoftTeams or Google Meet) and then shared on social media. Conceived as a natural evolution of the selfie, the zoomie practice, after being globally popularized during the COVID-19 pandemic, has given rise to a new “zoomie technoculture”. Zoomie technoculture designates the system of meanings, actions, discourse, technologies, people, objects, places, and interactions used by people to present their self, build their relationships and craft their content within and through videocommunication platforms such as Zoom. While literature on selfies is abundant, studies are missing that theorize the new stylistic canons and cultural codes of the zoomie, looking at it as a new object of evolving technoculture (Kozinets, 2019). Through a netnography (Kozinets, 2020), this study provides an inductive theorization of the zoomie and of its stylistic canons and cultural codes of self-presentation and contrasts them with those of the selfie. To this aim, this work highlights the techno-materiality of the zoomie, depicting how technology captures, frames and enables the representation and the circulation of the zoomies in social media platforms. Self-presentation captured in a zoomie reveals a shift from the beautifying and curated logic of selfie to the unkempt and comfy logic of zoomie. While selfies “publicize the private gaze”, carefully embellishing the self, the spaces and the objects with contrived authenticity and commodifizing them as objects of consumer desire; zoomies, in contrast, “privatize the public gaze”. In zoomies, people invite others into the interior, genuine, intimate space of their own subjectivity and make them part of a flow of experience where the self is crafted in connection with other people (see Figure 1). This highlig

This contribution aims to explore the determinants of production systems which allow manufacturing companies to pursue production diversification strategies, with the goal of reaching plant saturation (at least in the short period) of the production capacity in situations of decrease of demand in the markets traditionally served by the company. The empirical analysis, aimed at exploring these relationships, is conducted through the administration of a questionnaire conveyed by the sections of Confindustria of Bergamo and Trento. The preliminary results, which are based on data provided by 39 companies, show that during the 2020 lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, companies characterized by greater production flexibility were able to launch new products (such as disinfectant gels, masks, gowns or sanitary devices), whose production was allowed by current legislation, managing to contain the reduction in the degree of saturation of the production lines and to guarantee the maintenance employment more effectively than other less flexible firms. The aim of the study is to understand the

The recent disruptions such as the Covid-19 pandemic and major social movements like Black Lives Matter have increased the relevance of strategic communication, which shapes how firms are perceived by publics and affect consumers’ behavior towards their offerings. Over the last decades, the academic literature has begun to focus on the topic of strategic communication (Argenti, 2017; Holtzhausen and Zerfass, 2015; Macnamara, 2018; Sandhu, 2009; Zerfass and Huck, 2007) as the omnidirectional diachronic ongoing process of meaning construction (van Ruler, 2018), emphasizing the role of communication departments in complex organizations and, in particular, the importance of communication alignment between organizational objectives, vision, brand and identity (Botan, 2018). Indeed, strategic communication is an “emerging field of knowledge bridging established research fields such as public relations, organizational communication and marketing communications” (Falkheimer and Heide, 2022, p. 15), also defined as an emerging interdisciplinary paradigm (Werder et al., 2018). In this vein, Heide et al. (2018) interpret strategic communication as a discipline that embraces complexity and interdisciplinarity with the aim of fully grasping the different nuances of the organization, without neglecting strategy, orientation, and organizational objectives. One of the first definitions of strategic communication by Hallahan et al. (2007) interprets the concept of strategic communication as the purposeful use of communication by an organization to fulfill its mission. However, this definition has been superseded by other interpretations of the concept, that focus in more detail on how strategic communication can support the organization in fulfilling its mission (Volk and Zerfass, 2018). In this vein, strategic communication has been defined as an overall strategy to improve the strategic positioning of the organization (Argenti et al., 2005). Zerfass et al. (2018, p. 493) define st

Purpose-The Chinese market represents an increasingly popular destination for wine firms and recent opportunities derive from the growth of e-commerce. The aim of this paper is to understand the impact of digital platforms on wine firms' internationalisation in China by adopting the service ecosystems approach. Design/methodology/approach-The authors carried out a case study of Italian premium wine firms from the Valpolicella area by collecting 27 semi-structured interviews with key informants that operate at the micro-, meso-and macro-levels of the internationalisation ecosystem. Italian wine firms were selected as the focus of the analysis, given the recent sales growth of their products in the Chinese market. Findings-Results show that digital platforms hold a key role in the wine firms' internationalisation in China, intervening with resource integration mechanisms, alignment to the cultural context and mediating firms' digital presence in the market. The platformisation dynamics also reveal the existence of enablers and constraints in the firm internationalisation through digital platforms. Research limitations/implications-The authors aim to contribute to the marketing literature by analysing how digital platforms influence the wine firms' internationalisation in China through an original perspective, i.e. the service ecosystems lens. Originality/value-The study adopts the service ecosystems approach to understand the internationalisation of wine firms in the Chinese market through digital platforms.

Purpose – This paper aims at understanding how automotive firms integrate customer relationship management (CRM) tools and big data analytics (BDA) into their marketing strategies to enhance total quality management (TQM) after the coronavirus disease (COVID-19). Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative methodology based on a multiple-case study was adopted, involving the collection of 18 interviews with eight leading automotive firms and other companies responsible for their marketing and CRM activities. Findings – Results highlight that, through the adoption of CRM technology, automotive firms have developed best practices that positively impact business performance and TQM, thereby strengthening their digital culture. The challenges in the implementation of CRM and BDA are also discussed. Research limitations/implications – The study suffers from limitations related to the findings’ generalizability due to the restricted number of firms operating in a single industry involved in the sample. Practical implications – Findings suggest new relational approaches and opportunities for automotive companies deriving from the use of CRM and BDA under an overall customer-oriented approach. Originality/value – This research analyzes how CRM and BDA improve the marketing and TQM processes in the automotive industry, which is undergoing deep transformation in the current context of digital transformation.

Artification and sustainability are gaining momentum in the context and the studies of luxury brands and services: the two macro-themes are related to environmental, social, and economic issues. In recent years, moreover, there has also been increasing recognition of the value that art and culture generate for the economy and society. Given this, the aim of the paper is to understand how some of the experiences of artification have increased the cultural vibrancy of certain cities by enhancing local identity, sense of belonging, and individual and collective well-being. This study adopted a qualitative approach based on participatory longitudinal observations, interviews and secondary data analysis. The findings reveal the current link between artification and sustainability when considering the future of luxury brands and also the role that artification projects could have in urban development in the cities in which they have decided to invest.

Purpose - Previous research has identified factors that enable lean change to be sustained. What remains unknown is how the interaction effects amongst these factors vary as lean change programmes mature. When are particular factors at their most influential? Design/methodology/approach - By using a data and investigator triangulated qualitative research strategy, this paper tests an a-priori model of change sustainability factors. In phase one, the research reveals the influence and significance of the model’s change sustainability factors within 13 manufacturers. In phase two, four factors (Leadership, Political, Individual and Managerial) were selected for in-depth case study analyses in three other manufacturers. Findings - These point to when in the lean change programme, certain factors have the most influence on its sustainability. The Leadership factor is essential at the beginning and remains influential throughout. Employees’ individual commitment (Individual factor) is significant in sustaining the change but comes later and is less influential than other factors in the early stages of lean change. The Managerial factor (management approach, behaviour) is influential in the mature stages of the programme. Practical implications - Recognising where to put maximum focus during a lean change programme as it matures is crucial for management. Originality/value - Sustaining lean changes has not been studied from the perspective of what factors need to be emphasised at different stages in the programme for successful maturity to occur. Through empirical validation, this study helps address this knowledge gap.

L’emergenza che ha colpito tutto il mondo, legata al Covid-19, ha notevolmente accelerato la creazione di uno stretto legame tra i canali definiti classici e le nuove forme distributive. Per innovazioni nella distribuzione intendiamo i canali di distribuzione online (E-commerce) che hanno accompagnato la nostra vita durante i due anni di Lockdown.Nonostante la pandemia abbia notevolmente mutato le abitudini d’acquisto di ogni singolo consumatore, gli istituti di ricerca ci confermano che nel biennio 2021-2022 il desiderio dei clienti di frequentare i punti vendita e di interagire con il personale dei negozi fi sici è notevolmente aumentato. Parlando in particolar modo del mercato della cosmetica, ad esempio, oggi circa due acquisti su cinque14sono frutto del confronto tra consumatore e personale del punto vendita. Questo aspetto ribadisce la centralità delle relazioni non solo nel momento dell’acquisto, ma anche nel presidio del sell-in e conseguentemente del sell-out nella relazione tra industria di marca e distribuzione.In generale, una delle sfide chiave in questo contesto è quella di una corretta pianifi cazione delle strategie di trade marketing per massimizzare l’efficacia dell’implementazione dei veri e propri piani cliente-canale.

L’affermarsi dei canali digitali è ormai una realtà anche nel contesto business to business (B2B). Le potenzialità di tali canali sono notevoli e, indubbiamente, la situazione creatasi dal 2020 a causa della pandemia ha determinato un’accelerazione negli investimenti digitali da parte di piccole, medie e grandi imprese. Le nuove tecnologie hanno richiesto altresì alle imprese un approccio strategico per creare e mantenere una relazione nel lungo termine con la clientela. In tale prospettiva, i touchpoint digitali sono stati integrati con i punti di contatto face to face, per offrire al cliente una seamless experience.

Le nuove professioni dei sales e account manager sono influenzate dall'affermarsi del processo di digital transformation e dall'emergere di un nuovo approccio di humanistic management. Tali trend costituiscono delle opportunità significative per la configurazione di nuove competenze per sales e account manager, considerando un loro significativo orientamento al mercato.

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought several sectors closer to collapse. One of the main sectors to suffer has been the tourism industry, which had to reposition its offer by launching virtual destinations as new tourism experiences through the use of platformed technologies, such as video conferencing platforms, to remain competitive. In this chapter, we explore and critically reflect on how digital visual content strategies can evolve in order to launch and promote new techno-enabled tourist experiences. We do that by conducting a case study in the context of gastronomy tourism. Specifically, we illustrate how Cozymeal – the leading gastro-tourism supplier in United States and Canada – has transformed its digital and social content strategies to promote a new e-gastro tourism format: Zoom cooking class. With the support of our case study, we finally suggest some managerial advice for tourism and gastro-tourism suppliers to be applied in digital branding practices of e-Tourism experiences.

In this chapter, we adopt Arendt’s (The Human Condition. University of Chicago Press, 1958) interpretation of Aristotle’s concept of Eudaimonia and virtuous actions to analyze how consumers pursue a state of individual and communitarian well-being by engaging in thrifting practices. According to Arendt, virtuous actions are supposed to be free, plural communicative performances that allow people to begin something anew, and to express their joy at creating something new by interacting with social groups. With the advent of apps and technologies that are making it easier and easier to resell and buy old clothes or items, we see in thrifting practices a context in which consumers publicly and collaboratively construct a more ethical and sustainable circuit of consumption. In our chapter, we subsequently explore and elaborate on how thrifting can represent a realm where consumers pursue the attainment of a eudaimonic state and a flourishing virtuous life.

The fascinating concept of anthropomorphic technologies refers to those digital technologies appearing as human-like in its design, and in terms of attribution of human-like characteristics to these non-human objects (e.g., chatbots, robots, virtual avatars, and so on). In the healthcare sector, new anthropomorphic technologies may revolutionize the service delivery process, contributing to a reduction in physical distance and enriching the doctor–patient relationship. Furthermore, considering the evolutionary trend toward digital business models in healthcare, these new digital technologies could lead the healthcare system to a futuristic level. Through an exploratory research design, using a sample of 382 participants, in this preliminary study we investigated the combined effect of perceived human-like interaction level and anthropomorphism in influencing individuals’ reactions (intention to use) toward these new medical digital technologies. Discussions for healthcare managers and policymakers, together with food for thought for healthcare management and technology innovation in social services, are offered.

In the current scenario characterized by the Covid-19 pandemic, the use of digital channels such as social media platforms to retrieve information has grown exponentially and, consequently, disinformation is spreading more easily. For organizations, the disinformation phenomenon should be a concern, as it could undermine the relationship of trust between users and organizations with serious damage to them, so much so that organizations can lose the control of their digital and social media management strategies. The aim of this chapter is to address the topic of disinformation and explore the role of digital corporate communication to counter the spread of this dangerous phenomenon affecting organizations. Many organizations, including European Union institutions which are analyzed in this chapter, have understood the importance of digital communication to tackle disinformation. Through communications on social media and on dedicated websites, organizations face this challenge daily . Although social media are digital spaces in which disinformation thrives, they also are a means for organizations to address stakeholders’ concerns through effective digital communication aimed at creating and strengthening relationships of trust with stakeholders.

Il capitolo affronta il tema delle scelte di localizzazione produttiva nel settore della bicicletta in Italia

La pubblicazione nasce con l’obiettivo di sintetizzare i risultati delle analisi condotte sin dal 2014 dall’Osservatorio Italiano dei Congressi e degli Eventi, il progetto pluriennale di ricerca promosso da Federcongressi&eventi – organizzazione senza fine di lucro che rappresenta gli operatori pubblici e privati della meeting industry italiana – e realizzato da ASERI-Alta Scuola di Economia e Relazioni Internazionali dell’Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. La pubblicazione nei primi mesi del 2023 dei risultati delle ricerche condotte negli otto anni di vita dell’Osservatorio appare fondamentale non tanto, o comunque non solo, per attestare il percorso di crescita che il mercato dei congressi e degli eventi ha conosciuto in Italia dal 2014 al 2019 – con un tasso di crescita medio annuo composto del numero dei meeting pari al +4,1% e del numero dei partecipanti pari al +3,7% – quanto per documentare gli effetti della crisi senza precedenti che le sedi per congressi ed eventi si sono trovate a dover affrontare con l’esplosione della pandemia da Covid-19 dal marzo 2020 fino almeno alla metà del 2021, nonché per testimoniare la tempestiva capacità di reazione del settore nell’intraprendere un progressivo cammino di rilancio delle attività dopo i cambiamenti imposti dalla crisi.

Purpose: The beauty industry, like most other industries, face sustainability challenges related to the transition towards a more sustainable service economy. The sustainability challenges have been described as wicked problems where a multidisciplinary and co-creating approach is needed, in order to create sustainable service ecosystems (Field et al., 2021). Furthermore, these challenges entail inherent contradictions, giving rise to tensions (e.g., Smith and Lewis, 2011; Hahn et al., 2015). Previous literature has identified generic organizational tensions (Smith and Lewis, 2011) whereof some particular for corporate sustainability (Hahn et al., 2015). However, there still exists a need to better understand, from a descriptive point of view, industry specific tensions and how they are managed, but particularly, from an instrumental standpoint, the relation between these tensions and the systemic sustainability outcomes they generate (Hahn et al., 2018). By taking a service view on corporate sustainability tensions as arising from multiple resource integrating actors in a service ecosystem (Vargo and Lusch, 2011), we aim to further such an understanding. The research fields on corporate sustainability tensions and sustainable service tend both have a distinct system view in common (e.g., Hahn et al., 2015; Field et al., 2021). As sustainability issues tend to be highly complex and intricate in nature, varying in temporal and spatial dimensions and spanning organizational boundaries, the systems imprint allows for a broader view and recognizing interconnections. Therefore, in this paper, we adopt a service ecosystem view to gain a deeper understanding of the tension in the beauty industry, how they are managed, and the corporate sustainability outcomes they give rise to. Study design/Methodology/Approach: The study adopts a qualitative methodology based on 24 in-depth interviews with several key informants in the beauty service ecosystem, later analyzed using an abd

Purpose: The question of place – ‘where’ sustainability is performed – is a particularly interesting, but relatively unexplored theme in service research (Field et al. 2021). The current service ecosystem design (SED) research leaves the ‘where’ question relatively underexplored – and we posit that such spatial understanding is required for sustainable SED research to realize its full potential. The existing research posits that SED unfolds through collective processes, enabling various actors to shape institutional arrangements and their physical enactments (Koskela-Huotari et al. 2021; Vink et al. 2021). Thus, SED is doubly a spatial affair: it unfolds in a physical and social space, and the spatial elements themselves are also subject to design efforts. However, we still do not know how different physical and social spaces influence SED processes. Thus, we cannot say much about where sustainable service ecosystem design is – or should be – unfolding. In a similar vein, there is limited understanding of how the physical enactments of institutional arrangements should be designed in service ecosystems for improved sustainability outcomes. This is a crucial gap in understanding as ‘whom’ and ‘what’ a service ecosystem serves are questions firmly embedded in ‘where’: places and spaces (Holmes, Fernandes, and Palo 2021). the purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial aspects of sustainable SED. In particular, we seek to answer the following two research questions. First, what mechanisms occur in the places where sustainable SED unfolds? Second, what features characterize places where sustainable SED unfolds? Study design/Methodology/Approach:The present study uses a qualitative case study methodology (Stake 1995; Yin 2012). The empirical material comprises of three longitudinal, in- depth case studies. As the study is exploratory, the aim of the sampling was to illuminate the phenomenon under study as comprehensively as possible. In total, we conducted 30 semi- s

In questo contributo, che si inserisce nel Volume dedicato alla produzione scientifica del Prof. Pietro Genco, si è scelto di affrontare il tema della strategia nelle reti tra impre-se. Il Prof. Pietro Genco ha dedicato parte dei suoi studi al tema delle strategie corporate e di business delle imprese e ha sviluppato anche ricerca sui temi delle strategie nelle PMI. Le PMI fanno leva sulla rete di relazioni di filiera, verticali e orizzontali con altri attori del mercato per dare impulso alla loro competitività. Operare nel contesto di interazioni e di interdipendenze di mercato richiede approcci e azioni strategiche che riconoscono nelle interazioni e nelle interdipendenze sia un volano per lo sviluppo sia un vincolo. Il presente contributo ha l’obiettivo di riflettere sul concetto di strategia riferito all’impresa che viene considerata operare in contesti di mercato “a rete”.

This paper focuses on the Chinese digital market with the aim to understand how context-specific characteristics – such as Guanxi - of Chinese digital platforms and ecosystems affect opportunities for firms entering this market. Through a multiple-case study analysis of Italian food & wine industry and its internationalization activity in China, the Chinese digital ecosystem is analyzed and a multiple-stakeholder view of the interactions within Chinese digital ecosystems is provided, reaching relevant contributions to international marketing literature.

This article explores the overlapping between green supply chains and digital supply chains through a bibliometric analysis of the two scientific domains. Using articles’ bibliographic data, we conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature on green supply chains and digital supply chains to examine the intellectual structure of these research domains. By analyzing 131 studies belonging to five different clusters where digital supply chains and green supply chains overlap, our results reveal different overlapping intensity in the different clusters identified. These results reveal also grey areas in the academic research on green and digital supply chains and they may inspire further research explorations, such as addressing whether and how this approach could produce benefits for companies in terms of environmental and operational performance.

Multiple research efforts are currently unfolding to advance the wide-scale sustainability transformation of services and service ecosystems to address the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While “how” to create service ecosystems and “whom” and “what” these service ecosystems serve have been receiving increasing scholarly attention, current research leaves the “where” question relatively underexplored. Thus, precise theoretical conceptualizations of the role of spaces and places in sustainable service ecosystem design (SED) are lacking. By longitudinally investigating two in-depth case studies, we illuminate the spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Our findings suggest five spatial mechanisms that enlighten how sustainable SED unfolds in relation to spaces and places. We also identify three tensions that affect the implementation of sustainable SED, each tension having both enabling and constraining manifestations. The study contributes to the service research on sustainability by illuminating the previously under-researched spatial aspects of sustainable SED. Results have implications for a broad set of actors involved in sustainable SED, providing advice on how to design new and utilize existing spaces and places to maximize their potential in addressing sustainability challenges.

How are brands navigating the tension of being cultural and market players in woke times? What are the futures of brand activism and how can brands and social media contribute to create conversational spaces for dialogue and social change? Brand activism resonates of the struggle that brands undertake to be perceived by consumers as committed cultural authority. This led several brands to fall into woke washing allegations and contestations in social media. Our study dives deep into a successful but highly contested Italian media brand that was launched as a cultural resource for the feminist cause but suffered from strong consumers' critique. Findings reveal how emerging contestation and polarization generated by brand activism in social media are the result of the unresolved tension of the brand being a cultural and a market player. This tension produces a spiral of mismatches between brand conduct and consumer perceptions when the commercial goals of the brand as market player prevail over the cultural value of material and immaterial resources provided by the brand as cultural player. Our study discusses how brands can navigate this tension and leverage on social media to realize wiser digital techno-futures in postnormal times.

Alongside teleconsulting platforms, existing digital-based healthcare services propose automated solutions such as medical chatbots to interact with patients. Nevertheless, previous research stress their lack of human-like interactions delaying implementation. The advent of Metaverse may fill this gap by “catapulting” patients and doctors into a parallel virtual reality made up of avatars where interactions are as similar as those in the real world. By leveraging on a sample of 689 participants to an international experimental study, this paper investigates the effect of the human-like interactions (manipulated as low in case of medical chatbots vs high in case of doctors’ avatars in the Metaverse) on the individuals’ intention to use such digital-based healthcare services. We analyze the relationship through the perceived anthropomorphism mediating the two options. Moreover, by considering the peculiarities of the doctor-patient relationship resulting not only from professionalism but also from social interactions, we analyze the moderating effect of emotional receptivity. Results show that higher level human-like interactions (i.e., doctors’ avatars in the Metaverse) positively influences individuals’ intention to use such healthcare service via the effect of perceived anthropomorphism. Moreover, such effect is significant only among individuals who exhibit higher level of emotional receptivity.

This paper conceptualizes how to handle resource deficiencies due to disruption and turbulence in supply chains from an Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) perspective. A conceptual framework explores how three resource deficiencies, resource scarcity, resource quality, and lack of availability, impacts upon, and is mitigated via, resource interaction. There is a need for reconfiguring resources to cope with both temporary and permanent disruptions in handling resource deficiencies in complex, turbulent contexts. The three deficiencies can occur within a business network both separately and in combination. The paper outlines a dynamic capabilities perspective on resource deficiencies in business networks by linking resource interaction and capabilities. The reality of resource deficiencies requires a sense of urgency; they are disruptive and most likely unplanned. This challenges mainstream IMP understanding about the dynamics of resource development.

Because of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, online platforms where trav- elers’ comments and reviews are published have grown considerably. More specifically, in the tourism sector, these social evaluations have been shown to have a strong influence as online platforms, such as online travel agencies (OTA), represent a main touchpoint for the formation process of the online corporate reputation. Hence, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the pandemic has influenced the online reputation formation of tourism companies and which are the new reputation pillars emerging from the COVID-19. To achieve this research aim, we analyzed the customers’ reviews as reported publicly on TrustPilot.com, an online platform that allows customers to review businesses after a purchase or contact with their customer service, before and after COVID-19 so as to identify significant changes in the corporate reputational drivers of LastMinute.com. With this study we have identified the four topic clusters and their sentiment in the two periods of consideration, and we have found that the corporate reputation of tourism companies is formed today starting from different consumer needs. Finally, managerial implications for communication professionals operating in tourism firms are presented.

The present study analyzes the recent digital transformation that affected the automotive industry, characterized by an increasing use of big data and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. To understand how automotive firms integrate CRM tools and big data in their marketing strategies, we conducted a multiple-case study by collecting 13 interviews with key informants operating in eight leading automotive firms. Findings suggest new relational approaches and opportunities deriving from the use of big data analytics and CRM under an overall customer-oriented approach, leading to the development of a digital culture.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the role of digital channels in the internationalization strategies of startups operating in the space tech industry. To achieve this research aim, we conducted 9 semi-structured interviews with Italian space tech startups and other actors involved in theses firms’ internationalization process. The preliminary findings of this study reveal that digital channels enhance the internationalization of space tech startups by supporting the building of business relationships, which are key to access international markets. Moreover, digital channels play a crucial role in acquiring new customers abroad and increasing the brand awareness of startups.

Influencer marketing is a well-established destination marketing strategy, traditionally relying on the authority of travel social media influencers (TSMIs) to create inspiring destination images (Glover, 2019; Gretzel, 2017). TSMIs typically use visual social media platforms to showcase destinations (Femenia-Serra et al., 2022). However, the recent rise of audio-visual platforms like Twitch, which boomed during Covid-19, has introduced a new category of influential figures: “livestreamers” (Liu et al., 2021). Livestreamers are authorative individuals, who offer product display and purchase services through trials and experience sharing in an online live streaming room (Hu & Chaudry, 2017). From the Covid-19 pandemic, they have expanded to “travel livestreaming” (Liu et al., 2022) especially on Twitch (Deng et al., 2021), taking viewers on daily walks around cities, showcasing monuments, attractions, and local life and interacting with their audience. Through these outdoor broadcasts, livestreamers showcase a vivid image of these destinations (Zhang et al., 2021), and also offer a moment of socialization to viewers. Therefore, I see in livestreamers a new category of TSMI, producing similarly inspirational but more interacting contents on destinations. Hence, analyzing their broadcasting trajectory can provide valuable insights into how they construct destination images, which can be useful for destination marketers (Zheng et al., 2022). I ground this study in the burgeoning literature on travel live streaming (Liu et al., 2022; Zheng et al., 2022; Deng et al., 2021; Li et al., 2022) and TSMI (Gretzel, 2017; Xu & Pratt, 2018; Femenia-Serra et al., 2022; Jang et al., 2021). These studies highlighted the potential of this format to create a destination image encouraging future travels, and also drew similarities between livestreamers and TSMIs. However, due to the emergent nature of the phenomenon, at present empirical studies are missing that analyze the cult

Influencers and content creators have profoundly impacted business and culture. This textbook, published by Sage Publications, combines cutting-edge conceptual and critical thinking on the subject with practical advice to go above and beyond what existing social media marketing textbooks offer. Using examples from around the world, it examines the influencer phenomenon from a variety of perspectives, including as a form of persuasion, a structural change in media, a culture shift and a challenge to equality. It provides an in-depth look at the influencer ecosystem, including pet and virtual influencers, analyses the business and the practice of managing influencers and creators, examines regulations and ethical implications, and also explains why influencers and creators are becoming indispensable to governments, platforms, and brands. With useful features, readers will gain a 360-degree view of one of the world's most important new media phenomena.

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate small and medium enterprises’ (SMEs) adoption of social media platforms and how they integrated them within their marketing strategies during the COVID-19 outbreaks. Dynamic capabilities – observed as the interplay between sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities – represent the principal theoretical framework used in this research to explain challenges in social media adoption and their effects on these businesses. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts the grounded theory approach to analyze semistructured interviews with 19 key informants from Italian SMEs belonging to diversified industries. Findings – The findings of this research are summarized in a holistic framework that explores three types of capabilities (i.e. sensing, seizing and reconfiguration capabilities) and the marketing outcomes of social media adoption among SMEs. Originality/value – This study attempts to unpack the specific dynamic capabilities that allowed SMEs to be successful in social media adoption during COVID-19 outbreaks.

The circular economy (CE) can bring benefits but also pitfalls to the production processes, affecting a firm's economic performance. Using data from European SMEs,we empirically investigate, from the perspective of self-determination theory, the extent to which the breadth of CE activities, that is, the number of CE activities undertaken by a firm, affects a firm's economic performance. Our study theorizes and shows that there is an inverted U-shaped effect brought about by the number of CE activities on economic performance. This research advances our scientific under-standing of the CE and provides managers with suggestions on how to maximize the benefits generated by the CE in terms of economic performance by implementing the right amount of CE activities.