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This study aims to make a significant contribution to the development of a model for integrating research in the wine sector, innovative knowledge, and family businesses with the traditional mode of production in the context of the introduction of modern production technologies with a view to sustainability and the improvement of services in tourism. From a methodological point of view, the research is based on the case study and, in particular, on Casa Paladin, a family business in the Italian wine sector, which bases its strategy on innovation in production processes and customer relations to obtain high product quality with the aim of meeting consumer needs. The findings underscore the crucial role of family businesses in preserving cultural and traditional elements in the wine sector, with technology and innovation serving as vital drivers for their development. Casa Paladin's commitment to innovation in production processes and products is evident, emphasizing sustainability as a core element that impacts customer relationships and product quality. Enotourism, including tastings, festivals, and fairs, emerges as a significant aspect contributing to the promotion of the company's history, culture, and traditions. This study posits Casa Paladin as a notable example in the Italian wine industry, offering transferable insights for other businesses. Its successful integration of culture, innovation, and sustainability contributes to a broader understanding of the contemporary role of family businesses in the Italian wine sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Resilience and the efficiency of transportation systems are crucial for the economic development of geographical areas, and network analysis applied to railways can provide insight into the importance of branch lines and their impacts on the entire system. This paper explores the behavior of the ERC measure, a local robustness measure, on the railway network in Lombardy, Italy, and analyzes the impacts of deactivating stations or journeys on the network's robustness. Changes in the topological properties of the network were studied by simulating potential external disturbances and analyzing the impact of deleting the most connected stations or railway lines. The numerical results show how the measures provided effectively identify critical stations and journeys within the network structure and outperform classical topological metrics. Since ERC measures take into account all of the alternative paths present in the network, they can provide valuable information for rerouting traffic along alternative paths in case of failures or disruptions. The paper's original contribution lies in demonstrating the effectiveness of the ERC measure in identifying critical stations and journeys within the network structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious tourism and pilgrimages increasingly contribute to developing the social and economic growth of local economies and communities over time. The aim of the present study is to analyse the role of religious touristic routes as sites of pilgrimages and an opportunity to drive a pathway for sustainable tourism development. The study relies on analysing qualitative and quantitative data, through a questionnaire distributed in late 2018; the questionnaire relates to pilgrimages concerning the Camino de Santiago de Compostela and Via Francigena as religious touristic destinations that contribute to the social and economic sustainability of local economies. Indeed, these pilgrimages strengthen the importance of building collaborative processes by enabling religious touristic destinations to open up to better managing and by driving sustainability‐oriented policies, thus enhancing social and economic growth within local communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The retail sector, under the pressure of digitalization and technological innovation, has experienced profound changes in the last decade, and retailers have had to cope with these changes by implementing new business models and competitive strategies with the aim of satisfying the consumers' needs. In the last few decades, the sector has been affected by different new trends, from the birth of supermarkets to the advent of e-commerce, up to the introduction of cashierless stores. The latter represents a new category of store that is totally computer-based and digitalized, in which the use of cameras, sensors and self-shelves minimizes human interaction. Amazon pioneered this emerging concept, with the launch of Amazon Go, but other start-up companies are rapidly entering the cashierless retail market and embracing the challenge. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the knowledge of Italian consumers of cashierless shops, and the relevance of different factors related to this new kind of shops. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of more than 1000 consumers to identify and evaluate the actual situation and knowledge of this phenomenon, which is not yet diffuse in Italy. A statistical analysis, regarding both their knowledge about cashierless stores and the customer experience, is provided to discuss the most relevant factors affecting the customers' perceptions and attitudes, with a comparison per gender and type of users. The results of the provided analysis reveal that the phenomenon is very little known, and this is certainly influenced by the lack of these stores in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper aims at investigating the impact of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2030 on Italian "public interest entities" both in term of approaches to non-financial disclosure and on business strategies. The analysis focuses on the investigation of the relationships between the 17 SDGs and the set of non-financial information defined in bont the EU Directive 2014/95/EU and the related Italian L.D. n. 254 of 30 December 2016. SDGs has been significantly analysed in the literature, considering the effects on sustainability policies adopted by the States, but little attention has been paid to the policies adopted by companies. The awareness of companies towards the business implication connected to the achievemt of these goals translate into a new conscientious path, in compliance with sustainability standards. In this framework, the paper investigates the entire population of Italian companies subject to the publishing of non-financial information disclosure, with the exclusion of banks and insurance companies. For each company under investigation, two kinds of analysis are presented: (1) firstly, the company's level of sustainability derived from the company website; (2) the approach in pursuing the 17 SDGs. The overall results are quite comforting in term of companies' sustainability aptitude. Over the years, Italian public interest entities have implemented active policies linked to the achievement of some specific goals, in compliance with the Italian legislation, although divergences still emerge among the Italian areas, as a result of cultural differences that still exist and affect companies' approaches to sustainability issues. In this regard, the results of the analysis are interesting for government authorities to regulat the pursuit of sustainability goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The significant changes which have occurred in the competitive scenario in which fashion companies operate, combined with deep transformation in the lifestyles of final consumers, translate into the need to redefine the business models. Starting from a general overview of the emerging trends today affecting the fashion industry, the paper will devote particular attention to the analysis of the most important phenomena that are influencing this market and the drivers for long-lasting competitiveness: sustainability and attention to the so-called circular economy. According to the literature, from the consumer behavior's point of view, the younger generations are paying growing attention to these issues. In light of these considerations, this paper aimed to analyze how sustainability and circular economy principles are influencing the perception of the fashion world among the new generations of consumers. After mapping the emerging trends in the fashion industry and analyzing the role of sustainability from both the demand and supply side, this paper presents the results of a survey conducted through an anonymous questionnaire made in collaboration with Insubria University. The results of the survey describe the students' behaviour as regards fashion's emerging trends, with particular attention to sustainability issues and the application of circular economy principles. The survey results were analyzed from both a descriptive and quantitative point of view with the aim to check the different perceptions as regards sustainable fashion and circular economy in fashion, focusing mainly on the so-called Generation Z. The results of the analysis proved to be consistent with the theoretical framework and confirm the relevance of sustainability issues in the fashion industry today in driving the demand of Generation Z, by considering a gender perspective. Moreover, the circular economy is descriptively analyzed with the aim to understand the relevance of the different facets for the entire sample of respondents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One form of cycle tourism can be represented features tourism that focuses on the relation between biking and the discovery of a territory. Geared toward forms of holiday that allow for the low consumption of natural resources and a connection with the landscape, cycle tourism represents a concrete expression of sustainable tourism. As an emerging phenomenon in Italy, cycle tourism requires further understanding in order to identify methods of development and applicable business models. The aim of this paper is to explore the characteristics of cycle tourism’s development in northern Italy in order to identify the links that exist between sustainability and the group of cycle tourists who prefer to spend their holidays discovering little-known or remote territories. For this study, we selected three different destinations in sensitive mountain areas that converge on the common goal to use cycling to rejuvenate the tourism sector. It has been found that the development of cycle tourism in areas not characterized by mass tourism, such as those considered here, is economically, socially, and environmentally beneficial. The business models through which cycle tourism usually develops include a bottom up approach or a top down approach, involving the cooperation of several local destination stakeholders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates whether or not Italian Certified B Corps® in the fashion industry achieved levels of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and financial performance that are comparable to listed companies in the same industry during the Covid-19 pandemic. After a review of the literature concerning B Corps, CSR and the circular economy, as well as some coverage of pandemic impacts, a quantitative approach is used to analyze the data empirically. Based on the data available, the study incorporated the entire population of Italian listed companies and B Corps in the fashion industry. Moreover, this study confirms the relationship between CSR and financial performance. The availability of sustainability documents other than the required social responsibility report does not directly affect a company's profitability, but they are necessary for the long term. The results also confirm the positive relationship between sustainability certification and higher financial performance, as the most sustainable companies were also the most profitable. Certified B Corps® declare their willingness to adopt circular economic principles to the same extent as non-certified listed companies. Moreover, the results show that consumers mainly remember the information disclosed on a company's homepage; therefore, managers should publish more there. However, they should not underestimate the importance of their sustainability report because it is an effective social communication tool, especially in the long term. Finally, obtaining the B Corp certification will allow companies to inform stakeholders of their social responsibility and achieve higher financial results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]