This study provides insights into young consumers’ responses to sustainable labels. Drawing on signaling theory, the article studies how third-party labels (TPLs) act and interact with company-level claims, trying to better understand their impact on young consumers’ perceptions and willingness to buy (pay for) a chocolate bar. A between-subjects factorial experiment—conducted by manipulating third-party sustainable labels (presence/absence of the labels) and self-declared claims (absence of the claim, formal claim, and friendly claim)—was used to test: (a) the effect of TPLs and self-declared claims on consumers’ perceptions, purchase intention, and willingness to pay, (b) whether this effect was mediated through the perceived credibility of the sustainability message, and (c) what kind of tone-of-voice adopted in the company’s claim was more effective. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 315 consumers (age range: 18–39 years) in South Italy. We found that third-party labels, “alone” were not effective in influencing consumers’ perceptions and willingness to buy/pay, while a self-declared claim, especially if characterized by a formal tone of voice, had a much more relevant impact. The combination of TPLs and self-declaration affected most consumers’ willingness to pay when the copy claim was informal. The perceived credibility of the sustainability message mediated the relationships between self-declared claims and the majority of the dependent variables, while, with reference to the relationship between TPLs and dependent variables, it did not act as a mediator.

The market value of global influencer marketing has more than doubled since 2019 (Statista, 2021). The emergence of the so-called virtual influencers (VIs) has redefined the boundaries of possibilities in this “industry” attracting the interest of many brands and raising several questions about their development, ethics, purpose in marketing and perspective. These ‘new’ social media celebrities have also attracted the attention of the scientific community but research has yet to explore how VIs are likely to reshape the practice of marketing. This study aims to better understand the attitudes and reactions of Generations Y and Z (the most attractive target group for influencers) towards VIs—in particular, to find out how VIs are perceived by younger customers and whether VIs can effectively persuade them to buy certain products. Two focus groups were conducted to facilitate an initial response to a relatively new phenomenon, and to gain a social, contextual view of the issue. Our results showed that human influencers still outperform the virtual ones for a number of reasons, ranging from the impossibility of identifying with digital creatures, the inability of the latter to demonstrate the efficacy of the products on themselves and the impossibility, expressed by many respondents, of empathising with entities that appear soulless and largely manipulated by those who—anonymously, behind their backs—are only interested in selling products.

Arts entrepreneurship is not a new area of investigation, but it is far from constituting a consolidated topic. Scholars coming from several fields rediscovered it only in recent years, after a period in which it has been slow to emerge. Since the early 2000s, they developed a heterogeneous literature, which is difficult to disentangle. The purpose of this study is to shed light on arts entrepreneurship literature, outlining the most significant issues emerged and their trajectories for future development. We attempted to achieve the purpose of this chapter through a qualitative analysis of the relevant literature on the topic. Results revealed the most relevant issues to which scholars are devoting their efforts. With respect to these, we tried to identify subthemes and we attempted to trace the trajectories for future research. The first main theme concerns the entrepreneur in the arts, focusing on aspects such as identity and characteristics, and examining training and entrepreneurial education. Another theme regards entrepreneurship and training, which is attracting increasing attention, thanks also to the emergence of specific curricula and arts incubators. Besides these themes, other collateral issues emerged. Ultimately, literature is complex and multifaceted, but it is possible to read it with greater clarity.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study is to investigate travel agencies' social media usage and its perceived effectiveness by small- and micro-Italian travel agencies; the pre-pandemic period is compared to the forecasts for the post-Covid-19 period and different characteristics of firms and entrepreneurs are considered. Furthermore, the study analyses the expected benefits in terms of marketing objectives, such as improving brand image and/or personalizing the offer.Design/methodology/approach: The research was developed through a questionnaire administered electronically to travel agents (282 respondents). The resulting data was analyzed by applying the McNemar test, a pairwise t-test and the multivariate analysis of variance.Findings: The results show that social media are strategically significant for travel agents, even though their adoption is influenced by different agency aims; the perceived effectiveness results are diversified according to varying agency typologies.Research limitations/implications: The two main limitations of the study are its focus on the Italian context only and the missing consideration of the consumer's point of view. The latter prevents an exhaustive assessment of future trends regarding the use of social media in the client–agency relationship.Originality/value: The study, which focuses on a little debated topic concerning the relationship between social media and SMEs, organically explores various dimensions related to the adoption of social media by small agencies, also considering the impact of the Covid-19 on the perception of travel agents. As a further element of originality, the research takes into consideration the main social platforms separately rather than the set of tools as a whole.

Scholars have long undervalued the role of knowledge in the formation of festival loyalty. The purpose of this study is to define a knowledge-based model of attendee loyalty at a cultural festival. It evaluates the influence of cultural motivation – descending from knowledge needs – and acquired knowledge in the formation of festival loyalty and assesses the role of festival attachment and satisfaction in explaining the nexus between acquired knowledge and loyalty. A questionnaire survey was administered to 456 attendees at the ‘Sponz Fest’, a festival organized annually in South Italy. Data were analysed by applying a covariance-based structural equation model in two stages. The results highlight that loyalty depends on knowledge acquisition, which, in turn, is influenced by cultural motivation. Satisfaction and festival attachment act as mediators in the relationship between acquired knowledge and loyalty. These findings offer a new perspective on the explanation of the formation of loyalty to cultural festivals in light of knowledge-based constructs. Moreover, it allows to understand how specific constructs of affective and cognitive nature intervene in explaining why acquired knowledge leads attendants to be more loyal to this type of festival. The managerial implications of these findings are provided for festival organizers.