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The currently IT tools provides increased opportunities to organize professional and recreational activities by interactive maps easily accessible for users. An experiment was conducted to understand if the great potential offered by new technologies match with the ability to produce good quality spatial data by users. The goal was to assess whether their knowledge of GIS affected the quality of their mapping activity by online map-based survey with maps as part of on line questionnaire. The attention was paid to university students as target of potential users of these tools, considering different skills acquired during their studies: from theoretical courses of geography, to theoretical and practical courses (dedicated labs) on GIS. The experiment involved more than 200 students of the University of Udine during the academic year 2019–2020. In this framework, a further study was developed investigating factors playing a role in students’ ability to complete the proposed exercises. The analysis was based on a multiple regression model which assumes the number of exercises completed as a dependent variable, and the student profile characteristics (gender, type of student, knowledge of GIS, and other IT skills) as independent variables. The estimated models pointed out both students’ willingness and deep knowledge of GIS as main factors effected the students’ ability to complete the proposed exercises. Fewer effects were associated to their gender and residence.

Al giorno d’oggi è molto comune utilizzare servizi basati su mappe online per pianificare percorsi di trasporto, monitorare attività sportive o cercare l’ubicazione dei negozi, tanto per fare alcuni esempi. Ma questo crescente utilizzo della cartografia interattiva per acquisire informazioni geografiche corrisponde anche a una maggiore capacità delle persone di produrre dati spaziali? Il presente contributo mira ad indagare la familiarità di un gruppo eterogeneo di persone con le mappe online. A tal fine, è stato condotto un esperimento che richiedeva ai partecipanti di identificare la posizione di specifici luoghi su mappe incorporate in un questionario online. L’obiettivo era quello di valutare se la loro conoscenza dei GIS influisse sulla qualità della loro attività di mappatura. L’esperimento ha coinvolto circa duecento studenti dell’Università di Udine ed è stato condotto in parte di persona e in parte a distanza. Gli studenti, iscritti a vari corsi universitari, si differenziano per avere diversi gradi di esposizione alla geografia e ai GIS nel loro percorso formativo. Nell’articolo, dopo una breve presentazione dell’esperimento, descriveremo innanzitutto le caratteristiche degli intervistati, come quelle demografiche, istruzione e competenze informatiche, quindi si analizzerà l’accuratezza della posizione dei dati spaziali che hanno fornito. Infine, si valuterà la partecipazione e la qualità dei dati in relazione alle caratteristiche dell’esperimento. I risultati rivelano che il metodo di supervisione e la formazione GIS sono due fattori importanti per la fornitura di informazioni geografiche di alta qualità. It is extremely common nowadays to employ online map services to plan transportation routes, track sports activities, search the location of shops, to give some examples. Does this growing use of interactive cartography to acquire geographic information also correspond to a greater ability of people to produce spatial data? The following contribution aims to investigate a heterogeneous group of people’s familiarity with online maps. To this end, an experiment which requested participants to identify the position of specific geographic features on maps embedded on an online survey was conducted. The aim was to assess whether their knowledge of GIS affects the quality of their mapping activity. The experiment involved about two hundred students from the University of Udine (Italy) and took place partially in person and partially remotely. The students, enrolled in various university courses, differ in having varying degrees of exposure to geography and GIS in their educational path. In the article, after a brief presentation of the experiment, we will first describe respondents’ characteristics, such as demographics, education and computer skills, and then analyze the positional accuracy of the spatial data they provided. Finally, we will assess participation and data quality in relation to the experiment’s characteristics. The results reveal that the method of supervision and GIS training are two important factors for the provision of high-quality geographic information.

The international market of wine has been characterized by growing competition, expecially in recent years. Wine is one of the main agroalimentary products for Italian export. From wine export depends Italian balance of trade. In this context, the study aims to identify the role of quality wine, which is strongly linked to the geographical location. In fact, this relation seems to be a strong tool in favour of international competition. To this purpose we will describe the multifunctional role of wine growing in a specific area, the Collio, in Italy. Then we will analyse the chosen data set. The data were collected by quality wine producers that are partner of a Consortium. The Consortium safeguards and attests the quality of wine production. Finally, in order to study the data we used descriptive statistics and the twostep cluster analysis technique of spss®. The use of twostep analysis represented a first exploratory application of appropriate statistical techniques to study the relationship among some variables. This technique alongside models of wine producers behaviour permits the analyst to explore wine production segmentation by describing different types of wine producers strategies. Each group was characterised by common behavioural features, which we have outlined below. By observing the clusters of wine producers, we noted that: i) group "1": it was the largest; it was characterized by wine producers which used little or enough promotion, that encouraged the regional Consortium creation and had low regional market for their products (max 25%); ii) group "2": it was characterized by little or enough promotion; some of the wine producers of this group supported the regional Consortium creation, while others were not likely to encouraged it; it was characterized by middle-high regional market quota (more than 25%); iii) group "3": it was the smallest; its wine producers used a lot promotion; there was not a homogeneous support in favour of regional Consortium creation; regional market quota was low (max 25%); iv) group "4": it was similar to group "1", but there was an important difference as regards regional Consortium, in fact, it did not encouraged its creation; it had low regional market quota (max 25%). The information we collected was sufficient to construct a market segmentation model. This type of examination seems to be very useful to wine producers. In fact, it give them the opportunity to understand the strategies of their competitors. Undoubtedly, the data collected allowed us to analyse the role of local territory and the importance of local identity to typical products. Such analysis has become increasingly important for the wine sector, in which there is a specific institution - the Consortium - that has the duty to guarantee and promote mark guaranteeing quality. The Consortium gives wine producers the opportunity to increase the knowledge of consumers about the wine quality. From the data collected we observed the importance of Consortium to wine producers. At the same time, it is generally acknowledged that it is fundamental for wineries to promote local territory to increase the value of its products. Nevertheless, only bigger wine producers hope for the development of territorial brand and the cooperation among several stakeholders.

The Customer Satisfaction Survey for a Chamber of Commerce: A Case Study for a Different Perspective of Analysis - The present paper aims at analysing the Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSS) dataset of an Italian Chamber of Commerce. This dataset has been collected in years 2006-2007 and previously analysed considering the SERVQUAL method. The idea here is to consider an alternative approach allowing for ordinal qualitative variables. Methods and Results The adopted method is a politomic generalization of Rasch model: the Partial Credit Model. The paper focuses on results regarding a single office, but all other analyses confirm these results: the complete analysis shows that the supplied questionnaire are generally valid identifying some minor issues only. Conclusions The paper concludes with some suggestions to improve the quality of the CSS as the reduction of Likert scale levels, the introduction of "extreme" items (allowing for better measures identification), and, last but not least, the necessity of adoption of a better sample selection method. JEL: C19, H41, M31

Shift-share analysis is a well-known and widely used tool for spatial data analysis, though it presents some weaknesses and limitations. In this paper we aim to extend this technique by introducing a spatial structure in the particular case of Italian industrial districts. This extension is possible due to the use of enterprise legal status, together with activity information, available on the Italian Register of Businesses at the Chambers of Commerce. As far as spatial analysis is concerned, in this work we give a more precise territorial meaning to the theoretical concept of neighbourhood.

Nel 1997 un intervento di politica economica regionale, legittimato da una specifica normativa nazionale, cerco di riassorbire l’elevato flusso di consumatori del Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG) che si recavano in Slovenia per fare rifornimento di carburante. Tale manovra introdusse un meccanismo di riduzione territoriale dei prezzi nazionali alla pompa sottomesso all’ipotesi di pareggio di bilancio per le casse regionali, riservando comunque un determinato introito da versare all’Erario nazionale. Dato che gli sconti venivano praticati per singolo veicolo posseduto dai privati cittadini residenti nella regione, ossia indistintamente dalle loro abitudini di rifornimento oltreconfine, affinche la manovra risultasse economicamente sostenibile era necessario che il volume di vendita recuperato fosse tale da compensare gli effetti finanziari degli sconti erogati. Proprio per capire come applicare la normativa e tarare il sistema di sconti differenziato territorialmente, l’amministrazione regionale commissiono uno studio preliminare all’Universita degli studi di Udine. Piu recentemente, gli stessi ricercatori hanno tracciato un bilancio complessivo dei primi dieci anni di manovra, analizzando nel 2009 anche il cambio di scenario del mercato regionale che porto alla crisi del meccanismo e, quindi, a una nuova mobilita transfrontaliera ai fini del rifornimento non solo verso la Slovenia, ma anche verso l’Austria e il Veneto. Questo lavoro intende fornire un quadro di sintesi piuttosto completo per il periodo 1997-2012, partendo dallo studio preliminare e mettendo anche in risalto il ruolo giocato dal sistema camerale regionale. Si tratta di un quadro quasi definitivo poiche nel 2010 il legislatore regionale ha approvato una nuova legge che, con un diverso meccanismo, ha trovato effettiva applicazione solo a partire dal mese di novembre 2011. Il passaggio dal vecchio al nuovo sistema costituisce, di fatto, un punto di rottura non solo dal punto di vista giuridico (non si parla piu di "sconto", ma di "contributo"), ma anche dal punto di vista teorico poiche la nuova ripartizione territoriale e stata decisa su presupposti completamente diversi da quelli utilizzati, e qui proposti, nello studio preliminare del 1997. Il presente articolo parte necessariamente dal quadro normativo, in particolare dalla L. 549/1995 e dalla L.R. 47/1996 e dalle sue successive integrazioni. Questo perche la legislazione non solo regola di fatto la manovra economica messa in essere dal legislatore regionale, ma ha anche fissato alcuni limiti che sono stati rigorosamente applicati nello studio preliminare illustrato nei parr. 2 e 3. In particolare, il secondo paragrafo concentra l’attenzione sugli aspetti piu prettamente statisticieconomici e territoriali proponendo il modello microeconomico di riferimento, basato sulla Cost-benefit analysis, che fornisce un supporto economico alla Cluster analysis di natura prettamente statistica. Inoltre, tale paragrafo illustrera anche il processo di stima delle cinque curve di domanda territoriali e della curva prezzodistanza, quest’ultima necessaria per fornire al decisore pubblico un range di sconti per fascia rispettoso del criterio di proporzionalita inversa previsto dalla normativa. Nel terzo paragrafo, l’attenzione viene rivolta agli aspetti piu finanziari, ossia all’analisi degli effetti sul bilancio regionale del FVG ricordando che, all’epoca, l’obiettivo principale era quello di scongiurare un suo disavanzo. Dopo aver illustrato uno scenario di partenza piuttosto prudenziale e riferito alla partizione in cinque fasce ottenuta per via teorica, sulla base della decisione presa dalla Giunta regionale, soluzione non prevista ex-ante poiche quest’ultima ha derogato rispetto ad alcuni limiti imposti dalla normativa, viene proposto una sintesi degli effetti finanziari stimati per i primi dieci anni di manovra. Nel quarto paragrafo viene illustrato un secondo studio, condotto nel 2009 sempre dai ricercatori dell’Universita di Udine, relativo alle mutate condizioni di mercato indotte dall’entrata in crisi del meccanismo di sconti che, tutto sommato, aveva ben funzionato fino ad allora. Le evidenze empiriche di tale crisi hanno indotto il legislatore, nel 2010, a emanare una nuova normativa che prevede, di fatto, la fine del vecchio meccanismo e la nascita di uno nuovo con una differente articolazione territoriale e un diverso sistema di contributi all’acquisto di carburanti per autotrazione. Di conseguenza, il quinto paragrafo illustra questa novita normativa sottolineando nelle conclusioni che il meccanismo attuale, dopo un inizio promettente, e entrato poco dopo in crisi per effetto dell’aumento delle accise decretate dal governo nazionale.

In a previous work, a spatial shift-share model was proposed. That model took into account both the activity information of the territory and the legal status of the enterprises working inside it. The model presented, which had a twofold form, developed and came together into a unique formulation. The present proposal is able to suitably catch the neighborhood’s effect on the variation of an economical variable measured on the examined territory. This paper does not intend to repropose the aspects regarding the theoretical evolution of the first model. Instead, the principal goal is to make a comparison ceteris paribus between the results obtained with the new model and those reached through the application of the previous one, so to highlight the role of the association between the two factors included inside the decomposition. Italian industrial districts represent the economical context for this application since each model proposed is applicable to each district case without modifying the theoretical structure which is related, to the neighborhood definition. The application proposed here focuses on data on the chair industrial district located in the border region Friuli Venezia Giulia, with reference to the entire period 2000–2004.