Purpose: – The purpose of this paper is to analyse how a strategy based on the combination of tradition and innovation can offer a competitive advantage to a medium-sized family firm operating in the wine sector. Design/methodology/approach: – This research focuses on one case study. The subject of the case study under analysis is Pio Cesare, an internationally recognized fine wine Italian company. Findings: – Pio Cesare is characterized by a strong combination of tradition and innovation in terms of products and processes. Innovation and tradition are not opposites; on the contrary, a blend of the two has been crucial in achieving and maintaining a sustainable competitive advantage. Research limitations/implications: – The formalization of an effective blend of tradition and innovation, especially in a family business, and an effective dissemination of the company philosophy to future generations, calls for a more in-depth study. This study has some limitations, which determined by the applied methodology. Multiple case study method would be useful. In relation to the interview technique, the authors would set out to increase the number of interviews, by also questioning managers and employees working, as opposed to family members. Practical implications: – Practical implications relate to different groups of stakeholders: for owners and management, for investors, for organizations and institutions working on a territory promotion and in the tourism sector, and for politicians and local authorities. Originality/value: – It identifies which business model a family winery business could be adopted in order to manage such strategies of innovation in respect to traditions, filling the gap in the literature.

Environmental sustainability of Alpine livestock farms

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to identify the cognitive biases of consumer and explain how they are creating barriers in transition towards circular economy (CE).Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper which adopts a consumer-centric conceptualization of CE by focussing on cognitive biases as an underlying and unifying mechanism which is creating barriers in the adoption of CE. This conceptualization explains consumers’ non-adoption of circular business model, highlight synergies across disconnected theories and streams of research originating in different disciplines and at the individual, societal and cultural levels of analysis.Findings: The findings of this paper suggest that circular business models are not fulfilling the psychological, social and cultural needs of the consumers and that in turn lead to barriers in diffusion of the CE. Consumers have a negative connotation with the different circular business model due to their cognitive biases.Practical implications: The paper details about key implications to design effective interventions to modify consumer behaviour in the desired direction for hassle-free transition to CE from the linear economy.Originality/value: This paper offers a shift in CE research from a deterministic approach to conceptualising consumers to a positivist approach to conceptualising consumers.

Purpose: The authors observe the influence of intellectual capital (IC) on innovation performance with the mediating role of interorganizational learning (IOL) in the Pakistani automotive industry. Besides, industrial Internet of things (IoT) technology is used as moderating variables between IOL and innovation performance.Design/methodology/approach: Structural equation modeling (SEM) presents scholars with extra flexibility and enhanced research conclusions. SEM is described as a statistical methodology and the best tool used for hypothesis testing. The authors used partial least squares SEM for testing hypotheses. The simple random sampling technique followed to collect data from respondents, and 492 questionnaires were used for analysis.Findings: The outcomes reveal that IC enhances innovation performance and IOL. Moreover, IOL increases innovation performance. IOL significantly mediates between IC and innovation performance. Industrial IoT technology improves innovation performance. Finally, industrial IoT technology strengthens the positive association between IOL and innovation performance.Practical implications: This study concentrates on the issue of how managers use IOL and industrial IoT technology to take higher advantage of IC that increases innovation performance.Originality/value: This is the initial study that builds a theoretical framework to integrate IC, IOL, industrial IoT technology and innovation performance. Although prior researchers observe the association between IC and innovation performance, less concentration was paid to understand the role of interorganizational leadership and industrial IoT technology in leveraging organizational IC.

In the last 50 years, the diversity of cattle breeds has experienced a severe contraction. However, in spite of the growing diffusion of cosmopolite specialized breeds, several local cattle breeds are still farmed in Italy. Genetic characterization of breeds represents an essential step to guide decisions in the management of farm animal genetic resources. The aim of this work was to provide a high-resolution representation of the genome-wide diversity and population structure of Italian local cattle breeds using a medium-density single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array. After quality control filtering, the dataset included 31,013 SNPs for 800 samples from 32 breeds. Our results on the genetic diversity of these breeds agree largely with their recorded history. We observed a low level of genetic diversity, which together with the small size of the effective populations, confirmed that several breeds are threatened with extinction. According to the analysis of runs of homozygosity, evidence of recent inbreeding was strong in some local breeds, such as Garfagnina, Mucca Pisana and Pontremolese. Patterns of genetic differentiation, shared ancestry, admixture events, and the phylogenetic tree, all suggest the presence of gene flow, in particular among breeds that originate from the same geographical area, such as the Sicilian breeds. In spite of the complex admixture events that most Italian cattle breeds have experienced, they have preserved distinctive characteristics and can be clearly discriminated, which is probably due to differences in genetic origin, environment, genetic isolation and inbreeding. This study is the first exhaustive genome-wide analysis of the diversity of Italian cattle breeds. The results are of significant importance because they will help design and implement conservation strategies. Indeed, efforts to maintain genetic diversity in these breeds are needed. Improvement of systems to record and monitor inbreeding in these breeds may contribute to their in situ conservation and, in view of this, the availability of genomic data is a fundamental resource.