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This article introduces the special issue "Transatlantic literary transfers in the Second Italian Renaissance: the circulation of Italian culture in the U.S. in the Post-war Era", presenting new knowledge on the collaborative, transnational network that emerged between Italy and the U.S. in the post-war years and facilitated the circulation of Italian literary products in the U.S. By considering literary objects as a special class of products that participated to the establishment and consolidation of "Made in Italy", and by showing how Italian literary cultures functioned as vectors of a "new" Italian modernity, the article claims that the success of "Made in Italy" was due in no small part to a storytelling strategy that emphasized: (1) the strong friendship between the two nations in the context of the new, globalized world; and (2) the mobilization of the trope of the Renaissance in the service of a projected continuity between Italian early and "new" modernity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay deals with the exploration of Artificial Intelligence (hereafter AI) in fashion design by considering a three-dimensional space based on the following coordinates: [complexity]; [education and training]; [made in Italy]. They outline a very wide space in which different techne - Law, Artificial Intelligence and Design - address the challenges of contemporary society. They outline a thoughtful journey of reflection, including socio-economic and cultural aspects, to technical innovation. Specifically, when addressing issues of technical innovation, the emphasis is not on a simplistic notion of technique as a synonym for technology, alluding to mere technical processes and machines, but on techne as “the method of doing something according to art” (Maldonado, 2005, p.7). In this context, the designer becomes an essential actor in democratic processes, serving as a co-regulator and participating as a rule-maker in the design of rules, algorithms and structures, even before the creation of imaginaries and forms, in the pursuit of convergence (or divergence) between artificial intelligences and human(wet) intelligences.

Starting from the Pitti Trend salon (1985-88), this contribution intends to investigate the function of fashion as a catalysing agent of the creative ferment that swept through Florence during the 1980s, making it one of the capitals of Italian post-modern culture. Moreover, the international nature of the Florentine fair – conceived as a showcase for avant-garde fashion – in encouraging the participation of young Italian and Florentine designers, offers an opportunity for a more general reflection that re-examines the cultural history of Italian fashion.

The essay investigates Emilio Federico Schuberth’s work and his relationship with cinema and television. As one of the most important fashion designers of the Made in Italy, protagonist of Roman social life and costume chronicles, Schuberth has been the first to draw the attention of the press and public opinion to the fashion designer, a new protagonist of show business, cinema and culture. During the 1950s Schuberth built a system of “integrated promotion” between fashion, film, press and television: he created his own personal style, he dressed the most famous Italian and international actresses, he opened his atelier to the cinema industry, he played himself in films and participated in television programs. Schuberth understood the communicative importance of the media system and implemented a communication strategy based on intermediality. The essay describes the methodology of the research, the type of archival sources considered and the use of an interdisciplinary approach, which allowed for a greater understanding of one of the most interesting and least studied figures in Italian high fashion.

From the beginning of the 1980s, Germano Celant curated a series of exhibitions on Italian art and culture, aimed at enhancing Arte povera no longer as an international trend but as an Italian heritage. Together with design but also with cinema, architecture and other creative and productive sectors, fashion played (or should have played, for curator’s purposes) a strategic role that this contribution aims to illustrate. The juxtaposition of works of art with objects of a different nature responded to a previous cultural and curatorial model, which Celant adapted for his very specific purposes. The significant new expansion of the Italian fashion and design industry in the 1980s helped generate interest in Italian creativity, including contemporary art and exhibitions. If on the one hand, this led to a virtuous circle of mutual support, on the other it also inevitably ended up leading to some shifts in meaning.

L'articolo esplora il contributo di Gio Ponti alla definizione postbellica dell'immagine italiana Oltreatlantico attraverso la ricostruzione della collaborazione dell'architetto con le ditte di arredamento Singer & Sons e Altamira. L'identità italiana è declinata nei due casi con sfumature diverse, come diverse sono le due aziende. Singer è una ditta affermata che guardando a un pubblico medio-alto borghese chiede a Ponti progetti semplici e razionali, anche se più vivaci rispetto all'austerità dell'International Style. Altamira è una ditta recente e spregiudicata, più in sintonia col lato capriccioso e sofisticato di Ponti, che risolve la rivalità tra le due imprese distinguendo tra una produzione sobria per Singer e una ricca e creativamente più libera per Altamira. Il secondo orientamento finirà per prevalere gli occhi del pubblico americano, assecondando la costruzione di un'immagine artigianale-decorativa del design italiano e conseguentemente la sua femminilizzazione, tendente a neutralizzarne il potenziale competitivo rispetto alla produzione statunitense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La ricerca affronta le contemporanee tendenze in atto nel settore ceramico evidenziate da un’innovazione di tipo formale ed emozionale, derivanti dal trattamento delle superfici e all’uso del colore nelle decorazioni. Forieri di valori materiali e immateriali, i prodotti che ne derivano sono espressione, da un lato, di un know-how stratificato e peculiare e, dall’altro, di nuove forme di progettualità e di arte. Attraverso i casi studio presentati, il lavoro intende dimostrare le possibilità di sviluppo di nuove soluzioni formali e cromatiche per le superfici dell’artefatto ceramico utili a nuovi modelli di personalizzazione del prodotto e patrimoni emozionali, sviluppati grazie all’utilizzo della stampa 3D, attraverso la modellazione parametrica o grazie al supporto dell’Intelligenza artificiale.

We are going through uncertain times due to the "polycrisis", a context which makes us wonder about the role of Design in simplifying complexity into projects with a 5P perspective. The hypothesis is that the figure of a Transitional Industrial Designer (TID) is emerging to support complex industrial sectors such as Packaging, someone able to interact with all stakeholders, manage digital tools and design project flows. The article illustrates the Packaging Innovation Observatory and Spoke 1 - MICS PNRR Project, in which Design -- in terms of process-oriented design research with a systemic approach -- is a crucial element in bringing different areas of expertise together to achieve sustainable and circular solutions. In addition, a mapping was carried out of the Italian Universities that deal with packaging design, in terms of the approaches and tools used: it shows that the design methods they apply are contributing to training a Transitional Industrial Packaging Designer, who can brings these practices into the manufacturing sector, in a time lapse closer to the market time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Enogastronomic tourism refers to clients’ specific enthusiasm for visiting the area in which a product is made so that they can taste and buy at the source. This form of tourism has indeed become highly popular in Italy too, developing in several branches of the agri-food sector. As a result, a considerable number of Italian wine, vinegar and/or cheese producers are offering their (prospective) foreign clients special tours aimed at tempting them into booking a stay, encouraging them to discover the picturesque natural locations and eventually to buy their top-quality products. With this purpose, the promotional discourse on Italian websites offering such tours must aim “to persuade, lure, woo and seduce” (Dann 1996, 2) visitors, convincing them to discover the Italian countryside and products. Since (re)presenting places and its people is not guided by a “value-free” (Pritchard and Morgan 2001, 177) perspective, but rather by the deliberate intention to promote such destinations, comprehending how discourse is moulded to influence readers’ perception of the local context would seem relevant. This paper aims at investigating the linguistic strategies used in the digital environment to promote enogastronomic tours across Italy by mainly considering how phraseology and units of meaning extend participation framework and open the way for new communicative contexts. Basing the investigation on both quantitative and qualitative methods, the English versions of a corpus of Italian wine, vinegar, beer, pasta, olive oil and cheese websites (around 100) will be taken into consideration in order to analyse how online narrative contributes to promoting this form of tourism as well as to understand how clients’ experience positively coexists with the promotion of local/regional products (Meluzzi and Balsamo 2021).

The first high fashion show organized in Florence in 1951 represented an important event for the development of the Italian fashion sector, increasing the importance of the fashion industry in international trade. Research in economic business history has identified this period as crucial for the advent of the 'Made in Italy' label. The article aims to understand if and how the high fashion shows organized in Florence between 1951 and 1967 influenced the emergence of the Italian fashion industry and the concept of 'Made in Italy'. Supported by data collected from the historical archive 'Italian Fashion Archive of Giovanni Battista Giorgini' and three online archives of digitalized books and newspapers, the analysis sheds light on the perception of the national and international press on the cultural phenomena of Italian fashion and 'Made in Italy'. Results reveal an increasing trend in the frequency of terms related to the Italian fashion industry coinciding with the years of the Florentine events. The analysis evidences the crucial role of the entrepreneurial activity of Giovanni Battista Giorgini, buyer and organizer of the first Italian high fashion show in Florence, for the emergence of the Italian fashion industry and 'Made in Italy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper approaches the subject of traditional craft and local know-how from the perspective of design practice. The specific focus is on those fields of design that produce the so-called culture-intensive goods (Hesmondhalgh, 2002; Bovone and Mora, 2003), such as fashion, home goods and food. They are the result of recombination by design of a specific cultural capital into new shapes and meanings. The paper will focus on the so-called "Made in Italy" and discuss, through best practices selected in those fields, how Design act as a cultural mediator shaping future artifacts rooted in the reinterpretation of the past. On one hand, accessing craft culture and its reiterative attitude of transmission of identity and tradition over times. On the other hand, recombining craft processes into reconfigured practices, encoding different meanings into new narratives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last few years, a growing body of scholarship has identified the importance of race to explain and interrogate the power of fashion as a multibillion dollar manufacturing industry and as a strong symbolic force. Race, and more in general the politics of fashion, have never been so openly discussed in the fashion industry and in the media as they are today, as is also the case for labels such as "Made in Italy." Disrupting the traditional narratives of fashion, a growing awareness among consumers has questioned the ethics of the imagery brands disseminate on the internet and of products that degrade race, gender and religious belief. Following these lines and drawing on fashion and translation studies, I would like to offer a critical examination of the relationship between the Harlem based designer Dapper Dan and the house of Gucci. In particular, the essay highlights the notion of difference inherent in the process of translation as it is practiced by minoritarian groups, which as a result become socially visible. One of the questions posed in the paper is how can cultural translation actually be practiced in order to change existing power relations regulating class, gender and race, rather than consolidate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Il lavoro analizza la case history di una istituzione scolastica che, al variare del contesto intorno a sé, reagisce evolvendosi rapidamente. Di esperienza in esperienza, di sperimentazione in sperimentazione, arriva, nel tempo, a internazionalizzare la propria dimensione operativa. Offre così, ad allievi e personale, una leva motivazionale di incomparabile potenza. Con la consapevolezza di concorrere allo sviluppo del proprio territorio, adeguando la propria struttura organizzativa, e con un middle management affidabile e consonante, sperimenta vie nuove e mai praticate prima. Il processo, condotto con impegno e serietà, porta all’acquisizione di una credibilità istituzionale e alla concreta prospettiva di una convenzione con i Ministeri dell’Istruzione e degli Esteri, che apre scenari promettenti dei quali tutti potranno beneficiare.

This paper contributes to the existing literature on geographical indications and, in particular, on the economic analysis of vegetables bearing a Protected Geographical Indication label. This study deals with the niche topic of methodologies that may be used to select ideal foreign markets for the Radicchio Rosso di Treviso. The aim is to suggest an adequate investigative methodology for identifying the foreign countries that are most suitable targets for promotional strategies. The specific analysis considers many variables, chosen with a view to selecting eligible markets, and ultimately draws up a consistent ranking of the five best nations. To determine the most promising country, the Overall Market Opportunity Index (OMOI) method has been used. This focuses on the most relevant indicators for each of the seven categories used to assess their appeal. The findings show that Denmark can be the best market for focusing the segmentation strategies of the Treviso Radicchio. After this, policy and business implications are addressed and opportunities for future research into emerging related issues are suggested. Strengthening the ranking analysis methodologies used for selecting target markets for the companies that produce Made in Italy luxury foods can also help improve such companies’ competitive profile on international markets [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In marketing studies, many researches have already investigated consumers' responses towards mobile augmented reality (MAR) and the enhancement of user experience. Notwithstanding, little is known on how MAR creates value for consumers and companies, boosting the internationalization process. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the perceived usefulness and value creation of MAR, evaluating both suppliers'/retailers' and consumers' sides in the "Made in Italy" Food and Beverage context. To reach this aim, data were gathered using 5 semi-structured interviews with suppliers/retailers and an online survey administered to 361 consumers. Following a mixed-approach, data were triangulated to enhance generalisation of data. Findings indicate a particular usefulness of MAR for product traceability and communication of nutritional information for consumers. In addition, MAR may help identify falsification for the "Made in" products, especially in international markets such as China and the US. Despite these interesting insights, MAR usage and application are still limited for "Made in Italy" products. Thus, this paper provides new and fresh insights in marketing theory related to new technologies adoption, highlighting interesting implications for marketers working in international contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Among the three international fashion hubs Paris, Milan, and New York that have dominated fashion production since the 20th century, Italian fashion stands out through its transcultural Italophony. Since the historic beginnings of the West, the development of fashion, taste and etiquette in modern Italy plays both culturally and historically a key role in European politics, economics, literature, fine arts, music and theatre. This applies also to Italian design, which is - like fashion - a powerful nonverbal language in cultural, aesthetical and economic terms, expressing a unique and life-affirming sociological habitus. This essay intends to pinpoint the outstanding impact of taste, fashion and design originating from Italy and perceivable all over the world on a transcultural and transdisciplinary level. Starting with antiquity and Renaissance, both disciplines enter a period of prosperity and success during the golden 1950s and 1960s, supported by the rise of Cinecittà, family business structures and crafts enterprises. In early postmodernity, a shift takes place from Alta Moda to Pronto Moda, from fashion as art to popular, serial industrial ready-to-wear, and a complex reciprocal synergetic effect builds up between the fashion and design brands. Both sectors are equal in terms of international influence and versatility, both are associated complementary to each other, and both disseminate a new standard of shapeliness, elegance and peachiness in the whole country as well as on a transnational scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The culture of consumption of Italian products in the United States, built within a wide system of transatlantic exchanges started in the late 19th century, played a key role in the rearticulation of Italian and American identity after World War II. If the diffusion of modern goods and advertising worked as a significant "transcultural mediator", the promotion of Italian products encouraged the American middle class to experience the Italian lifestyle by consuming its exports. In this sense, the history of the American trades of the so-called "Italian aperitif" - product, brand and consumerist ritual at the same time - represents an exemplary case study. In fact, since the early 1910s, the alliance between Italian artists and liquor producers pioneered a modern "artistic sentiment of promotion" which reshaped the international cocktail culture with a peculiar blend of Italian drinks, made with vermouth and bitter, and Italian styles, flourished in the modern domain of "la dolce vita". Combining the production and promotional history of the Italian aperitif with the iconographic analysis of some historical printed ads, the article proposes a first genealogy of an "aperitif visual culture" stemmed in the United States since the early 20th century. Subsequently, the post-war American campaign "Out of this world" by Austin, Nichols & Co. for Campari bitter is examined as a "social iconic act", analysing the illustrated material found in the Galleria Campari archives. From this first observation, the promotional blending between Italian spirits and its cultural "spirit" seems to have a major role in the diffusion of a consumerist culture based on the cosmopolitan values of versatility, conviviality, pleasure, and sophistication which, together with other expressions of Made in Italy, have influenced the social and cultural customs of post-war America. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Italy, living close to or even within a place of business is not in and of itself unusual. Forms of housing in Italy are similar to many other European countries in that people primarily live in mixed-use spaces. It is common to have an apartment above cafés, bars, and bakeries. In this article, I examine how this form of mixed-use residence shapes market practices, decision-making, and labour relations among owners and workers. I argue that the spaces in which employees participate in the market economy also mirror their commitments to family. By examining workspaces across two food certifications in Milan, Italy – a Made in Italy certification (Food Italy) and a halal certification (Halal Italia) – I argue that Italian kinship networks structure how workers in each business operate. This intervention contributes to a larger literature on the cultural dimensions of capitalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Italy is one of the European countries hosting the largest number of Chinese immigrants. In the early 1980’s, the first Chinese new migrants came to Italy, where they would find an employment in the Italian textile industry. Since then, Chinese overseas have played an important role in the field of fashion, a sector of the Italian economy with a high demand in production and manual work. Petty trading and small-scale enterprises are also representations of the Chinese population’s activity in Italy. This article provides statistics concerning the Chinese migrants as an economically active person and the activities of the Chinese community in Italy as a whole.The authors analyze the phenomenon of Chinese labour migration to Italy from the point of view of the “push and pull factors” migration theory. This article illustrates the main factors leading Chinese citizens to leave their home country and shift to Italy, where China turns out to be the point of origin for one of the largest communities of extra-EU immigrants. It is shown that for the Chinese, Italy is a destination country, which is largely due to the already existing migrant network. As a case-study in the frame of this analysis, the authors take Prato (a municipal township located in Tuscany), renowned for hosting the largest Chinatown in Europe (so called “Chinese exclave”).

In many parts of the world today, being a barista is cool. Young, bearded hipsters, tattooed artists, and pretty but disaffected teenage girls serve up their latte art specialties while dressed in attire worthy of fashion blogs. Some coffee brands prefer a distinctive uniform that reflects their marketing strategies while others recommend a look or allow for self-expression. Barista cool is a relatively new phenomenon, however. It appears to have been launched in youth-oriented cultures, such as in the United States and Australia and then re-crafted, like artisan coffee, in trend-setting countries, such as Japan, and re-imagined in countries with long-standing coffee cultures, such as Italy, the birthplace of espresso. Historic Italian espresso producers now encourage branding through uniforms that combine personal style and Italian fashion. New espresso bars in Italy moreover reflect the influences of third wave coffee and global fashion trends. This article seeks to analyze how and why espresso and cool fashion have only recently converged through the use of a variety of sources, such as archival research, interviews, and participant observation.

This paper aims to analyze the work experiences of the Italian designer Giorgio Correggiari in India and Brazil through the concept of Global South, which includes these countries, in order to demonstrate how the connections between the designer and these States are part of a transnational fashion idea. Combining an analysis of the stilista’s private archive and an interview done by the author of this article on March 4, 2019 to Lamberto Correggiari, his brother and partner, the article investigates the public role of Giorgio Correggiari: his political sensitivity towards a post-colonial fashion idea, in which emerges a rejection of the US fashion market and an open criticism of the Made in Italy label.

Questo articolo si focalizza sul commodity system delle insalate di “quarta gamma” in Italia, in particolare nella provincia di Bergamo e nella Piane del Sele. A partire dal dibattito su come il consenso sul cibo “Made in Italy”, con la sua attenzione esclusiva su un'idea di qualità legata a tradizione, artigianalità e sostenibilità ambientale, analizziamo la quarta gamma per interagire con molti processi che nell'agroalimentare italiano sono maggioritari, e sono legati a una produzione che è praticata (e si rappresenta orgogliosamente) come “industriale” e in cui vi sono definizioni molto differenti di cosa è “qualità”. Processi produttivi che anzi tendono a mettere in secondo piano il rapporto con il territorio e con la tradizione, che pongono problemi di sostenibilità ambientale e che, come nel caso qui trattato, vedono la stessa “terra” come un problema e non come un valore. Le insalate di quarta gamma appaiono interessanti da questo punto di vista, per vari motivi: tale prodotto viene venduto quasi esclusivamente nella grande distribuzione e ha rappresentato negli ultimi trent’anni una innovazione tanto nei consumi quanto nella produzione. Quest’ultima prevede infatti sia una riorganizzazione della fase agricola (in particolare, con lo sviluppo di un’agricoltura in serra) sia nuove tecnologie di trasformazione. L’articolo si basa su una ricerca empirica qualitativa, per la quale sono state realizzate 58 interviste in profondità, con produttori agricoli, dirigenti e tecnici di impianti di trasformazione, rappresentanti di cooperative e organizzazioni di produttori, funzionari sindacali, lavoratori, principalmente in Lombardia e in Campania. La struttura dell'articolo è la seguente: dapprima passeremo in rassegna le motivazioni per le quali un'analisi del commodity system dei prodotti di quarta gamma in Italia è interessante per approfondire la portata e le tensioni della “svolta della qualità” che viene definita come egemonica oggi in Italia; in seguito, descriveremo brevemente la struttura di questo commodity system. Passeremo poi alla descrizione e all'analisi di quanto emerso dalle interviste, in relazione in particolare a due temi: l'importanza dell'informatica e della logistica in questo commodity system e le rappresentazioni emerse nelle interviste in merito alla quarta gamma e, più in generale, all'agricoltura, vista come un “servizio” oltre che come un “prodotto” e in cui uno degli aspetti più importanti è quello di evitare la presenza di corpi estranei nelle buste.

The paper offers an in-depth analysis on Cinzia Ruggeri’s design path, a theme not much studied nowadays, relying on unpublished archive documents, oral sources and critical review of the existing literature. The aim of the contribution is to depict the composite panorama of 1980s Italy as a lively laboratory, a sort of harbinger of the successful “Made in Italy” label. Art as an essential starting point for fashion design and experimentation on clothing, and as a stage of research extended to an environmental scale, declined in a sentimental way of living the space: these words describe the journey of Cinzia Ruggeri, the artist and designer that in the 1980s was crowned as the “archi-stilista” and “art-stilista” of the Milanese prêt-à-porter. Her creations manifested the will to experiment and the taste for technological research, such as the usage of liquid crystals on textiles, an innovation that makes the dress an outer mirror of the body, or of luminous LEDs between the frills of an evening dress that lit up with a gesture. Together with Alchimia and Occhiomagico, Ruggeri intertwined the different areas of design culture and transformed the covers of the magazine Domus into a manifesto of postmodern aesthetic. Besides dress, considered something that both clothes the body and adapts to the expression of emotions, Ruggeri’s researches extended to domestic and not-domestic environment.

The article presents the results of a research aiming to discuss growth potentials of small, and medium handicraft firms operating in stagnating sectors. The study uses a methodological approach juxtaposing theoretical analysis of latest scientific literature and economic statistics to empirical studies of selected firms. The analysis shows how single firms succeeded in overcoming structural weaknesses to build competitive position in global markets. The paper focuses on the artistic cluster of ceramic of Nove-Bassano (North-Eastern Italy), and on the firm “Ceramiche Fratelli Lorenzon” as a case study of successful handicraft export-oriented family business. The principal argument of the paper is that firms, and in particular small, and medium handicraft ones, can find growth opportunities even in declining sectors, provided that they succeed in transforming traditional approaches through process, product, and marketing innovation. Secondly it argues that modern technologies, and in particular IT, open new possibilities even to small businesses. Finally, it confirms the still relevant role of “made in Italy” as internationally valued brand.

The present study focuses on “Made in Italy” food products and it investigates the barriers affecting the consumption of Italian products sold by speciality retailers on the German market. To reach this goal, we referred to existing literature which identifies the factors that limit the use of public quality of origin standards, related to socio-demographic factors, consumer ethnocentrism, and product knowledge. Data is collected by means of a survey questionnaire administered face-to-face to a sample of 203 consumers. Data is analysed by means of descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression models. Results indicate that ethnocentrism tendencies may prevent consumers to shop at speciality retailers and that building consumer knowledge about products may increase the purchase of authentic Italian food products, especially among the consumers that are less ethnocentric, helping to support the market position of “Made in Italy” products.

Italian Sounding—i. e., the Italian appearance of a product or service brand irrespective of its country of origin—represents a global market phenomenon affecting a wide range of economic sectors, particularly the agro-food sector. Although its economic impact has been repeatedly stressed from different points of view (policy, economy, culture, etc.), systematic scientific knowledge regarding its social–psychological bases is lacking. Three studies carried out in three different countries (Italy, China, and USA) address this literature gap. Different consumer groups (both native and/or non-native) are targeted regarding major product categories pre-selected categories, which are the major Italian food goods within the specific country according to piloting (oil and/or pasta). In each study, the main independent variable (product version) has been manipulated by presenting real product images (previously pre-selected within the tested food category in each country market), whose “Italianness” degree is effectively manipulated by the main study variable (product version) across three or four levels (Protected Designation of Origin Made in Italy, Made in Italy, Italian Sounding, and Generic Foreign). Main hypotheses are tested via a survey with the specific product images administered to samples in Italy (N = 204, 148 Italians and 56 non-Italians), China (N = 191, 100 Chinese and 91 non-Italian expatriates in China), and the USA (N = 237 US citizens). Across the three studies, results show that Made in Italy products, compared to the other ones, are advantaged in terms of the main dependent variables: reputation profile, general reputation, attitude, and willingness to pay (WTP). Moreover, Italian Sounding products are endowed with corresponding significant advantages when compared to the Generic Foreign by non-Italian samples (although to a different degree according to the different sub-samples). Results reveal the specific social–psychological profile of Italian Sounding products in terms of either weaknesses or strengths when compared to both Made in Italy products and Generic Foreign ones, differently in the eyes of Italian and non-Italian consumers across different countries. Finally, consistently across the three studies, the extent to which a food product is perceived to be Italian increases consumers' WTP for that product, and this effect is consistently mediated by the product's reputation.