Archivio istituzionale della Ricerca - Bocconi
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Strategic Insight from Unstructured Data: Essays on Innovation, Brand Communities, and Entrepreneurship
No full textThis dissertation explores how unstructured data, textual and visual content shared by individuals and organizations, can offer valuable insights into strategic priorities, brand communities, and entrepreneurial activity. Leveraging recent advances in artificial intelligence, particularly natural language processing and computer vision, the three essays apply and extend scalable approaches to analyze patent texts, social media posts, and image-based signals. Together, the studies illustrate how multi-modal unstructured data can uncover overlooked patterns in innovation, brand positioning, and entrepreneurship. The first chapter examines whether and when female leadership promotes innovation that targets women’s needs. Using a text-based measure of female-focused innovation constructed from pharmaceutical patent titles and abstracts, the study finds that female representation in top management teams is not sufficient: only under specific personal conditions, such as parenting daughters, do leaders redirect strategic attention toward more inclusive innovation.
The second chapter proposes a new framework for analyzing brand communities on Instagram. Combining computer vision and community detection, it identifies lifestyle-based consumer segments based on how logos and hashtags co-occur in millions of posts. The analysis of Adidas and Nike across global cities reveals both shared and localized brand meanings, offering a methodological contribution to brand positioning and community analysis.
The third chapter connects narcissistic self-presentation on Instagram to entrepreneurial activity across U.S. cities. Using a deep learning model to identify selfies as a proxy for non-pathological narcissism, the study finds that selfie prevalence is positively associated with startup quantity but not startup quality. The findings contribute to regional entrepreneurship and psychological economics by introducing a scalable, image-based behavioral signal of entrepreneurial orientation.
Across these chapters, the dissertation advances the marketing field by showing how multi-modal, unstructured data, encompassing patent texts, social media images, and hashtags, can be utilized to investigate innovation focus, brand communities, and the drivers of entrepreneurship
Three Essays on Parsimony and Scientific Approaches to Decision-Making
No full textEntrepreneurs instinctively add—features, market segments, hypotheses—yet cognitive research shows that people systematically overlook value-creating subtractions. This dissertation advances the thesis that causal and parsimonious theories of value are a powerful driver of venture performance. Three complementary studies underpin the argument. Chapter I reports a field randomized controlled trial with 254 Italian founders: theory-based training raises the likelihood of subtractive changes by 20.7 percentage points over control and accelerates first revenues. Chapter II develops a formal model that endogenizes optimal theory complexity: under bounded rationality and correlated cues, entrepreneurs balance the marginal informational value of adding new factors and their additional cognitive cost, formalizing the concept of parsimonious theorizing. Chapter III pools eight field RCTs covering 1,556 startups in eight countries: ventures trained to craft lean causal theories grow sales 1.3x-1.7× faster and terminate unviable projects sooner than both evidence-only and control groups. Together, the papers integrate the subtraction neglect bias from psychology with the theory-based view of strategy, demonstrating that parsimony is a rational, generalizable, and managerially actionable pathway to superior entrepreneurial outcomes. Beyond scholarly contributions, the findings guide accelerators and investors: teach founders to articulate novel causal theories, encourage the removal of superfluous features, and monitor subtraction as an early indicator of disciplined opportunity pursuit
Professional identity work in emerging healthcare professions: current perspectives, gaps, and future directions
No full textHealthcare systems are witnessing the rapid emergence of new professional roles, including physician assistants, nurse practitioners, technical physicians, and healthcare data scientists. These occupational groups develop in contexts marked by role ambiguity, contested expertise claims, and fragmented organizational structures, making professional identity work—the processes through which individuals and groups construct, negotiate, and revise understandings of who they are as professionals—a central challenge shaping their development. This targeted conceptual review synthesizes current debates and identifies four strategic dilemmas that arise when emerging healthcare professions attempt to construct collective identity. These dilemmas concern whether to maintain flexible, generative identities or establish standardized, fixative definitions; whether collective professional identity emerges organically from practice or requires deliberate engineering in emerging professions where weak infrastructures leave unclear who has the authority to coordinate identity work; whether to position through differentiation claiming unique expertise or complementarity as essential partners; and whether to pursue jurisdictional control or relational accountability within interprofessional networks. Each dilemma is shaped by internal stratification along career paths, positional power, disciplinary traditions, and geographic locations, while professions simultaneously manage relationships with diverse external stakeholders including other professions, patients, policymakers, and the public. The review identifies critical research gaps concerning the recursive relationship between identity and practice, identity work proceeding without established occupational communities, the neglect of failed professionalization projects, and the underexplored material basis of professional expertise. Professional identity construction is fundamentally political. Understanding these dynamics is essential for workforce policy and professional development models that support person-centered care
Complying in the Shadow off the Award
No full textScholars and practitioners routinely report that the rate of voluntary compliance with international arbitral awards is 90%, meaning that once an award is rendered, it is honored without the involvement of any domestic court 90% of the time. This statistic is often cited as one of the primary benefits of international arbitration. But despite frequent citations to it, the 90% voluntary compliance rate appears to be based more on “armchair empiricism” than rigorous testing.
In this Article, we challenge earlier efforts to test the 90% rate. In doing so, we make three important contributions regarding award compliance: one empirical, one conceptual, and one prescriptive.
Empirically, we develop a new methodology using an original dataset to test the 90% voluntary compliance rate. Our dataset is based on direct sources (International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) arbitration awards and court cases), not surveys that ask respondents to estimate rates. From this data, we calculate a maximum voluntary compliance rate of 74.2% for U.S.-seated ICC arbitrations. This rate is substantial, but also substantially below the 90% often cited in the literature.
Conceptually, our data raise questions about the conventional meaning of “voluntary compliance” as pertaining only to awards with no court action filed. Our data (and other sources) indicate that losing parties frequently satisfy awards after a court action is filed but before formal legal compulsion. Accordingly, we reconceptualize unilateral voluntary compliance as a process of coordinated agreement between the parties that occurs along a spectrum.
Prescriptively, our reconceptualization of voluntary compliance suggests opportunities for parties to increase award satisfaction without court involvement. The familiar theory of negotiation, bargaining in the shadow of the law, posits that parties reach agreements based on outcomes that are anticipated if they do not settle. We posit that parties can increase “voluntary compliance” with awards by facilitating immediate post-award communication, and by including in their arbitration agreements provisions for post-award interest and for shifting post-award costs
Causa Concreta and voluntariness: an old doctrine rediscovered
No full textWhen a contractual performance was useless to one of the parties at the time of contracting or becomes so, his purpose in contracting is defeated. It may be unfair to the other party to allow him to withdraw. But if it is not unfair, can he do so? Leonard Lessius (1554-1623) believed that he could because the contract no longer served the causa or purpose for which he contracted. We will examine the doctrine of causa concreta in Italian law and see why, properly interpreted, it could do the same
Potential conflicts of interest between arbitrators and funders
No full textThe first and arguably still most important question that arose when Third-Party Funding (TPF) arrived in international arbitration is whether the presence of a funder should be disclosed so that arbitrators can make appropriate inquiries and disclosures to avoid any potential conflicts of interest. At that time, some commentators—most notably some of the most prominent funders—initially doubted the very possibility of potential conflicts of interest between funders and arbitrators. These arguments were made forcefully, though ultimately unsuccessfully.
Today, rules and guidelines requiring disclosure have been promulgated by several arbitral institutions, international organizations, and a few States, either through domestic legislation or in investment treaties. Despite these efforts and a general consensus in favor of disclosure, ambiguity remains about whether such disclosure is mandatory. It is also uncertain whether prevailing rules and best practices are uniformly understood or followed.
This chapter provides a basic overview and analysis of third-party funding and arbitrator conflicts of interest. It proceeds as follows: Part I examines the practical arguments for and against disclosure of the presence and identity of third-party funders for the purposes of assessing potential conflicts of interest. Part II surveys the various sources that regulate such disclosure and the ambiguities that remain. Finally, Part III concludes that disclosure of the existence and identity of third-party funding should be a routine practice, either as a result of proffer by the parties or inquiry by the arbitrators. It provides practical tips to manage issues regarding TPF disclosure
People believe if 90% prefer A over B, A must be much better than B. Are they wrong?
Full text linkWe show that consumers confuse consensus information in polls—such as 90% prefer product A over product B—with differences in liking—the extent to which poll respondents like A better than B. Consequently, they interpret a 90% consensus in favor of A as the average liking of A being considerably higher than the average liking of B. We demonstrate empirically and with simulations that—while this can be true—it is more probable that the average liking of A is only slightly higher than that of B. This regularity is robust to the sign and size of the correlation between ratings for A and B, and across most distributions for A and B’s liking. Consumers are not aware of this regularity, and believe that 90% consensus implies A being much better than B. Communicators (marketers, managers, public policy makers, etc.) can capitalize on these erroneous inferences and strategically display preference information as consensus or as liking ratings leading to dramatic shifts in choices. Consumers’ erroneous inferences can be corrected by educating them about the shape of the distribution of liking differences. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications for the understanding and usage of polls
Better Law-making and Evaluation for the EU Digital Rulebook
No full textThis paper critically addresses the application of the Better Regulation principles within the European Union’s evolving legislative framework for the digital economy and evaluates the effectiveness of this framework in addressing the economic and societal impacts of the digital transformation. Focusing on three major pieces of the EU digital rulebook, i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the paper provides recommendations to improve the ex ante and ex post regulatory assessments in order to ameliorate
the digital rulebook and ensure that the EU can regain its competitiveness and promote responsible innovation, while protecting EU values and fundamental rights
In the network of the conclave: social connections and the making of a pope
No full textThe study brings a network perspective to papal elections by mapping the relational architecture of the College of Cardinals. Using publicly available data sources, such as official Vatican directories and episcopal consecration records, we assemble a multiplex network that captures cardinals’ co-membership in various collegial bodies of the Vatican and their consecration ties. We then calculate structural metrics to capture three key mechanisms that we suggest have a crucial role in the dynamics of the conclave: status, mediation power, and coalition building. Our descriptive study—publicly released prior to the May 8, 2025 election of Pope Leo XIV—shows that Cardinal Robert F. Prevost, largely ignored by pundits, bookmakers, and AI models, held a uniquely advantageous position in the Vatican network, by virtue of being central in multiple respects. Thus, although being considered an underdog by many, the network perspective suggests that Cardinal Prevost was de facto one of the strongest “papabile.
L’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio e la risoluzione delle controversie commerciali internazionali nella “nuova guerra fredda”
No full textThe World Trade Organization (WTO) has become a symbol of economic globalization, exerting significant influence over global commerce with its near-universal membership and broad trade coverage. However, recent challenges have emerged, particularly with the functioning of the WTO’s dispute settlement system. The paralysis of the WTO’s Appellate Body since 2019 has left unresolved disputes lingering, raising concerns about the organization’s effectiveness. This article explores the implications of this crisis within the context of shifting geopolitical dynamics, analyzing potential pathways for reform to revitalize the WTO’s dispute resolution mechanism in the context of contemporary geopolitical tensions and rivalry between global powers