Search results for "Economia"

An exploratory study of sustainable rural tourism in Sicily

2013

Recently, a significant interest was noticed around rural tourism, and particularly agritourism, which represents the main specific application. Rural tourism is a sustainable tourism, since the valorisation and conservation of environmental and territorial resources where economic activity is carried out are its main features. From the official statistical data, it appears clear that this activity, widely spread in Italy, may provide a significant financial support both to agricultural firms and to the whole sector of tourism, and thus allows redistributing touristic flows from coastal towards inland areas. The main aims of the paper are both to analyse the agritourist supply in Sicily com…

Innovation in the Rural Areas and the Linkage with the Quintuple Helix Model

2016

Abstract In this paper we analyze some specific conditions for local development. Our interest is oriented towards a multidimensional aspect of peripheral and rural areas. The rural areas considered as a productive system reflects a strong relationship between the agriculture and the other economic activities, In addition eco-systems must be protected and enhanced to develop innovation models that propose new roles and responsibilities for a new development vision. Following the implementation of the Smart Specialization Strategy and the Quintuple Helix Model this paper underlines the importance of connecting the innovation process with rural territories. We have considered some environment…

Grassroots Social Innovation for Human Development: An Analysis of Alternative Food Networks in the City of Valencia (Spain)

2017

This paper explores the contribution the capability approach (CA) and grassroots innovation (GI) literature makes to a better understanding of the complexity, richness and specificity of bottom-up processes of social innovation (SI), and their specific contribution to social transformation. Using a purely qualitative methodology, the paper addresses a case study—organic food buying groups in the city of Valencia—and examines them through the lenses of SI, GI and CA. By taking four concurrent dimensions of the SI literature (agents, purposes, drivers and processes) and cross-fertilising them with the bottom-up, people-driven character of GI, and the concepts of agency, capabilities, delibera…

The Evaluation of the Cultural Industries Impacts on the Local Economies: The Teatro Massimo Foundation

2022

Thanks to its relevant positive effects, the cultural industry, including the Opera Houses, is becoming increasingly important for economic and social well-being. On the other hand, given their cultural relevance and the high costs, these activities require the support of public funds. This evidence generates the need to quantify the economic benefits deriving from its activities to evaluate the opportunity and the return of the public financial support. The study analyses the case of the Fondazione Teatro Massimo di Palermo offering an estimate of the economic, occupational, and fiscal impact on the municipal, provincial, regional, and national territories. The results show how the Opera H…

Survey on the innovation in the Sicilian grapevine nurseries

2012

This paper deals with quality innovation in the grapevine nursery sector. The vegetative propagation of grapevines, scarcely considered by economic research, is the first step in the wine production chain as it influences both the type and the quality of wines as well as the quality and quantity of the performance of farm investments.This paper gives the results of a study carried out through a structural analysis of both national and regional grapevine nurseries and then through a direct survey of the largest Sicilian nurseries. The survey covers the main structural and productive issues as well as the commercial aspects of eight Sicilian grapevine nurseries and their innovative investment…

Le economicità d’azienda. Profili storici e considerazioni teoriche intorno alla teoria dell’equilibrio economico di Enrico Cavalieri

2014

Spillovers from the oil sector to the housing market cycle

2017

We assess the spillovers from the oil sector to the housing market cycle using quarterly data for 20 net oil-exporting and -importing industrial countries, and employing continuous- and discrete-time duration models. We do not uncover a statistically significant difference in the average duration of booms and normal times in the housing markets of those net oil-importers and net oil-exporters. Similarly, the degree of exposure to commodity price fluctuations does not seem to significantly affect the housing market cycle. However, we find that housing booms are shorter when oil prices increase than housing busts when oil prices decrease. We also show that the net oil-importers are more vulne…

Resisting the extortion racket: an empirical analysis

2018

While the contributions on the organized crime and Mafia environments are many, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the firm’s decision to resist to extortion. Our case study is based on Addiopizzo, an NGO that, from 2004, invites firms to refuse requests from the local Mafia and to join a public list of “non-payers”. The research is based on a dataset obtained linking the current administrative archives maintained by the chambers of commerce and the list updated by the NGO. The objective of this paper is twofold: first, to gather sound data on the characteristics of the Addiopizzo joiners; second to model the probability to join Addiopizzo by a two-level logistic regression model. We …

Organizational models in the Sicilian ornamental plant industry: An empirical analysis based on transaction cost theory

2015

The process of market globalization has led to a redefinition of business models in order to compete in domestic and international markets. In the current competitive scenario, the survival of companies is linked to their ability to reduce or contain the sum of both production and transaction costs. The aim of this paper is to identify the existence of similar organizational models of a sample of Sicilian firms active in the Ornamental Plants sector based on those transaction costs that they support in relation to the sales channel and the other human and firm characteristics. Using a clustering procedure, we identified four well-distinct organizational models whose formation is influenced …

Unbundling technology adoption and tfp at the firm level. Do intangibles matter?

2012

We use a panel of European firms to investigate the relationship between intangible assets and productivity. We distinguish between total factor productivity (tfp) and technology adoption, whereas standard estimations consider only a notion of productivity that conflates the two effects. Although we are unable to address simultaneity, we allow for the existence of multiple technologies within sectors through a mixture model approach. We find that intangible assets have nonnegligible effects that both push firms toward better technologies (technology adoption effects) and allow for more efficient exploitation of a given technology (tfp effects).