Social media adoption in Italian firms. Opportunities and challenges for lagging regions

Social media are an important growth opportunity for firms, especially small‐sized ones operating in peripheral and lagging regions. In this paper, we investigate not only whether firms are able to take this opportunity, but also if they are able to face the challenge of adopting social media at a professional level to obtain a significant economic impact, measured in terms of exporting activities. Exploring the Italian case, our empirical study indicates that smaller firms in lagging areas are more likely to adopt social media but at the same time less likely to use them at a professional level. This reflects poor strategic targets of social media adoption and lower probabilities of enteri…

A micro-founded approach to regional innovation in Italy

Recent regional studies have taken a micro-founded perspective to uncover the influence of the external environment on the firm-level innovative performance. Despite the marked spatial disparities, there is a general lack of recent evidence on Italian regional innovation from a micro perspective. This paper fills this gap in the evidence base by estimating regional Knowledge Production Functions using Italian micro-data collected in the Community Innovation Survey. In particular, here we focus on the regional differences in the relationship between innovative inputs and outputs and on the ability of firms to absorb external knowledge. This analysis allows us to outline different regional in…

Big data analytics and internationalisation in Italian firms

The chapter focuses on the role of big data in developing firms’ international e-commerce. We explore the effect of three different types of big data approaches on the probability of firms entering international markets via web sales. Specifically, we consider the following approaches: (a) use of big data managed by internal firm staff; (b) use of big data managed by specialised consulting firms; and (c) use of big data jointly managed by internal firm staff and specialised consultant firms. Applying qualitative data models on a large sample of Italian firms (about 18,900 firms), we find that the use of big data managed by internal staff or by specialised consulting firms is positively asso…

The Diversification of Sicilian Farms: A Way to Sustainable Rural Development

Rural areas still suffer from a lack of sustainable development, and the diversification of farms may be a step in the right direction. The paper provides a detailed picture of the diversification of Sicilian farms into tourism services. Specifically, we propose a simple indicator of localization intensity of agritourism farms and explore their spatial distribution at municipality level. Our study highlights that Sicilian farms rarely diversify into tourism services, despite being situated in attractive areas. That said, some significant spatial clusters of municipalities where agritourism farms are highly concentrated do emerge from the study.

SMEs' heterogeneity at the extensive margin and within the intensive margin of trade

In this paper, we contribute to the literature on firm-heterogeneity and trade, by looking not only at the firm-level determinants of trade participation (i.e. extensive margin) but also at differences between firms with different levels of trade intensity (i.e. intensive margin). Further, we compare firms that are born ‘local’ and display different scales of international exposure to firms that are born ‘global’, i.e. access international markets soon after their birth. Using a large World Bank dataset of SMEs from 112 countries and qualitative dependent variable models, our analysis uncovers the heterogeneity of SMEs not only at the extensive margin but also within the intensive margin of…

The Regional Economic Impact of Modern Pandemics and Epidemics.

The current COVID-19 pandemic had, and is still having, damaging effects on economic activities. However, similarly to past pandemic and epidemic episodes, its impact risks to be geographically uneven. Based on pandemic and epidemic episodes of the latest two decades, in this paper we try to conjecture the possible future impact that the current pandemic may have on several regional outcomes such as per capita gross domestic product (GDP) and employment. Specifically, we investigate how this impact differs across regions, evaluating some of the different channels through which the heterogeneous effect of health crises may be transmitted to regional economies.

The effect of agglomeration economies and geography on the survival of accommodation businesses in Sicily

The study explores the geographical pattern of the accommodation industry in the Italian insular region of Sicily, focusing on the determinants of the risk of market exit. We adopt a standard framework of business survival analysis where agglomeration economies play an important role. We then extend the analysis by considering the role of geography to explore whether the risk of market exit depends on nearness to desirable amenities. The geography is here measured by the distance from the coast and the altitude of the place where the firm is located. When we look at the entire population of accommodation firms that started between 2010 and 2014, we find evidence that the risk of failure inc…

ESSAYS ON THE DRIVERS OF FIRM COMPETITIVENESS

Sustainable tourism: Measures, evidence and future prospects.

The Chapter aims to provide a critical review of the quantitative approaches so far introduced in literature to measure the sustainable tourism. We focus on both variables and methods employed to obtain synthetic indicators of sustainable tourism and aim to provide some critical insights on potential new challenges caused by the current pandemic. For example, some dimensions of tourism sustainability may become more relevant in future due to the increasing attention by people on health and safety. Finally, a focus on the studies on measurement of sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean area will be provided.

COVID‐19 and tourism: What can we learn from the past?

Abstract The impact of the COVID‐19 crisis on tourism flows is without precedent in terms of speed and severity. In this paper, we try to infer a possible future scenario for the tourism sector, evaluating the medium‐term effects of past pandemics on tourist arrivals. We find that pandemics lead to a persistent decline in tourist arrivals, with the effects being larger in developing and emerging countries. Interestingly, the effects are heterogeneous across countries and episodes, and depend on several economic conditions such as the overall health system performance, the severity of the shock, and the uncertainty induced by the pandemic event.

Is more competition better? Retail electricity prices and switching rates in the European Union.

The European Union (EU) promotes the liberalization of retail electricity markets to achieve lower prices, diversified offers, greater customer participation, and sustainable consumption behaviours. While retail competition has been a reality in most EU member states, most studies find that retail competition is suitable for large customers, but the evidence on small customers is inconclusive. We analyze data on electricity prices and switching rates in 27 EU member states and the UK from 2000 to 2019. We find that retail competition is associated with lower prices and that the effect of full liberalization is greater than that of partial liberalization.