Integrating corporate social responsibility into brand positioning strategies has become a key concept for the brand marketing of many companies. There is a wealth of studies focusing on the effects of CSR for large international brands and companies operating in business-to-consumer markets. However, there is only limited empirical evidence about the relevance of CSR for sales and branding strategies of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in a business-to-distributor (B2D) context. Using a qualitative research design based on an exploratory case study approach, this paper therefore explores how CSR can be incorporated into the brand marketing strategy of a SME in the B2D sector and how CSR is evaluated in terms of brand perceptions and purchase intentions of business partners (n = 25). The findings suggest that although industrial buyers attribute a certain importance to CSR, product design and perceived product quality are nevertheless the main purchase reasons. The paper concludes with discussing practical and theoretical implications.

This paper aims at providing a multisource data analysis, including direct data collection, focussed on daily average distances covered with motorized mobility. Its results can be used as a basis for policies involving a shift towards new propulsions, electric motors or hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) for road vehicles. A number of variables influence the propensity of drivers to use electric traction, even the option of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). This paper addresses one of these variables: the compliancy of electric traction—regarding both hybrid plug-in solutions and full-electric vehicles, in addition to the autonomy of batteries (range)—with the daily travels by road vehicles, mainly by automobiles. We want to understand whether the constraints leading towards a greater independence from crude oil rather than constraints concerning emissions, mainly in urban contexts, might be compliant with the habitual daily trips of drivers. We also want to understand if these daily trips have varied much during recent years and the consequences they may have on operational costs of plug-in automobiles. After introducing a general overview of road-motorized mobility in Italy, the paper compares data from other studies to provide an indication of average daily driving distances. This reveals how different recent analyses converge on a limited range of average road distances covered daily by Italians, which is compliant with ranges allowed by electric batteries, provided that their low energy density in comparison with that of oil-derived fuels do not arrive to imply a significant increase in vehicle mass. Subsequently, average distances in some EU countries are taken from the literature, and the results are also compared with U.S. data. The study extends the analysis of trends on the use of automobiles and road-vehicles to the international context by also addressing average daily distances covered for freight transport in some EU countries, thereby providing a further basis for comparison and for understanding whether the daily motorized mobility can be considered as a stable phenomenon. Finally, an analysis is provided of the economic operational advantages from using plug-in vehicles.

Recently, offshore outsourcing has become extremely important for companies that compete worldwide. In many industries, only companies that manage to be competitive globally can aspire to attain sustainable competitive advantages. Therefore, offshore outsourcing has become essential for many companies and recently has become more and more a vital part of the long-term strategies of the leading firms. The rapidly shifting conditions in the marketplace is forcing management to constantly review and defend its core competencies. Management is now confronted with a higher level of complexity and disruptions brought about in particular by the new waves of globalization and the irresistible march of technological changes. For these reasons, offshore outsourcing is transforming the functions of the traditional firms into a network of competencies. The tendency to offshore most of the productive and economic activities and processes can lead companies to transform themselves into virtual organizations, where all the functions could be outsourced through the formation of flexible networks and agile organizational structures.

Much of the literature on sustainability has tried to define the “virtuous behaviour” of “agents” (man and his social and economic organizations) so that it respects the “sustainability constraint.” This paper provides a “mirror-image” approach, based on the idea that it is above all necessary to understand why men and organizations tend to develop, at times unconsciously and dishonestly, damaging behaviour that turns into non-sustainability. In other words, to orient man toward sustainable behaviour it is indispensable to understand the “reasons” for the behaviour that produces non-sustainable effects. Regarding sustainability problems, we shall introduce the hypothesis that non-sustainable behaviour is not irrational in an absolute sense but derives from the action of three connected “behavioural archetypes” that accurately describe the “natural” behaviour of individuals in pursuing their aims: behaving in a way that will provide evident short-term advantages, both individual and local, while ignoring the disadvantages and harm such behaviour produces in the long run, at the collective and global level. To solve the problem, we shall try to identify the “levers” that weaken the archetypes and reverse their effects, thereby requiring sacrifices which are unacceptable to some. The paper presents four emblematic cases of non-sustainable behaviour and demonstrates that sustainability must become a fundamental strategic driver.

This paper aims at providing a multisource data analysis, including direct data collection, focussed on daily average distances covered with motorised mobility. Its results can be used as a basis for policies involving a shift towards new propulsions, electric motors or hybrid electric vehicles (HEV) for road vehicles. A number of variables influence the propensity of drivers to acquire or use electric traction, even the option of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEV). This paper addresses one of such variable: the compliancy of electric traction regarding both hybrid plug-in solutions and full-electric vehicles, in addition to the autonomy of batteries (range), with the daily travels by road vehicles, mainly by automobiles. We want to understand whether the constraints leading towards a greater independence from crude oil rather than constraints concerning emissions, mainly in urban contexts, might be compliant with the habitual daily trips of drivers. We also want to understand if these daily trips have varied much during recent years and the consequences they may have on operational costs of plug-in automobiles. We are well aware that the average distances do not represent the actual daily runs of vehicles; yet similar distributions of daily distances for different case studies indicate that a high percentage of trips respond to certain features. After introducing a general overview of road-motorised mobility in Italy, the paper compares data from other studies to provide an indication of average daily driving distances. This reveals how different recent analyses converge on a limited range of average road distances covered daily by Italians, which is compliant with ranges allowed by electric batteries, provided that their low energy density in comparison with that of oil-derived fuels do not imply a significant increase in vehicle mass. Subsequently, average distances in some EU Countries are taken from the literature, and the results are also compared with U.S. data. The study extends the analysis of trends on the use of automobiles and road-vehicles to the international context by also addressing average daily distances covered for freight transport in some EU Countries, thereby providing a further basis for comparison and for understanding whether the daily motorised mobility can be considered as a stable phenomenon. Finally, an analysis is provided of the economic operational advantages from using plug-in vehicles. The main aim of this paper is thereafter to investigate the average daily motorised mobility of single vehicles – so not an aggregated motorised mobility as collected by some statistics – by using private motorised vehicles in Italy, with related trends; thereafter, to compare these data with those obtained from other countries, making use of both existing research studies and directly collected data; the final aim is to understand both the compliance of daily activities based on the use of automobiles with the autonomy of batteries (range) and to calculate some economic outcomes.

On average, more than 3,600 people die every day on world’s roads: road accidents result in over 1.3 million deaths and 50 million injuries annually, placing a significant burden on society and generating substantial economic costs for Governments and Regions, which are responsible for healthcare expenditures. This study proposes and applies a novel methodology aimed at quantifying the effects obtainable from the use of the Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) on the base of a real case, in economic terms as well. The real case consists on the analysis of a very large dataset regarding public health and hospital admissions, made possible by the exceptional access to the internal database, available for this scope, of the Piedmont Region (IT). Unlike the decades that have passed, it is now conceivable to identify transport related technological solutions that make it possible to prevent, sometimes even avoid, road accidents or at least reduce their severity. These solutions can be identified in ADAS. In a nutshell, their aim is to create a protective layer that mitigates the risk of accidents or reduces their severity. This concept is analogous to the “onion diagram” used in the railway sector, where multiple layers of protection prevent a single failure from leading to an accident. In essence, ADAS aim to introduce the industrial concept of fail-safe into road transport, at least providing it with a pre-alert: safety has been so far delegated only to the driver’s alertness, caution and dexterity. Through the selective analysis of the health costs linked to road accidents, it is possible to quantify the elements considered important for the choices of public decision-makers on both subjects of health and sustainable mobility: in the Piedmont region, the average cost of a hospitalization following a road accident in 2013 was significantly higher than a hospitalization due to general trauma and values have remained similar in the following years. In the same period, road accidents accounted for 15% of the total number of injuries due to trauma, which implies this share can be affected by the adoption of ADAS, so as analysed within this paper for the years 2017–2019, i.e. before the COVID-19 pandemic. The weight of road accidents on hospitalisation is quantified: on the base of a huge Italian database, the average costs of hospitalisation due to loss of control is quantified. The role of ADAS (Advanced Driver Assistance Systems) for reducing costs of hospitalisation emerges.