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SMALL FIRMS RESILIENCE AND LONGEVITY: AN ENQUIRY IN THE WINE INDUSTRY
No full textThe present thesis is a qualitative study and aims to understand how wealth long term outcomes of a sustainable competitive advantage, as business longevity, are assessed in long lasting firms. A collection of papers addresses the following overarching research question: how resilient small and family firms operating in dynamic environments sustain their competitive advantage for long decades? The wine industry, a sector characterized by century-old firms with a history of up and downs made this business area an excellent empirical contest to investigate the argument.
The Introduction offers the ontological, epistemological and methodological evolution of the enquiry, underlying for each paper (Chapter 1, 2, 3 and 4) issue statements, research question, philosophical orientation, nature of the research process, research methodology and method. Chapter 1 proposes a revised evolutionary model for the resilience strategies of small firms, combining firm and cluster level and explaining how small firms embedded in a local cluster can foster their resilience. Findings show that the resilience of small firms is primarily driven by internal resilience strategies, and their resilience characteristics are fostered by the implementation of internal strategies rather than by the influence of the cluster.
Chapter 2 presents a conceptual framework for the resilience of firms, providing a conceptualization of resilience within the management field. The inductive content analysis of the literature provides four different interpretations of resilience: resilience as an absorptive and adaptive ability, developed at time (t), the timeframe in which a firm is experiencing a change; resilience as proactive capability, improved at time (t-1), the time before the change, and resilience as a reactive capacity, implemented at time (t+1), after the change. Finally, the three emerging categorizations are correlated in the resilience building process, defined as a dynamic capability of the firm.
Chapter 3 focuses on the role of the individual in sustaining the longevity of family firms. The outcome of longevity of family firms is investigated from the perspective of the individual. The study adopts an interpretive research design. The outcome of the analysis is a multilevel model that integrates in the dual relationship firm-family with the level of analysis of the individual, considering owner/managers and their characteristics, as separate entities from the family.
Finally, Chapter 4 investigates through phenomenography how owner/managers of family firms understand and practice resilience. The understanding-based framework explains how, according to four different understandings, owner/managers perform different resilience activities.
Finally, the Conclusion addresses principal findings, the theoretical and methodological contribution of the study, limitations, areas for further studies and practical implications
A dynamic perspective on the resilience of firms: A systematic literature review and a framework for future research
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Technological and provenance study of renaissance earthenware fron Aosta (Italy)
No full textSome archaeological investigations, promoted by Regione Autonoma Valle d’Aosta, Assesorato alla Cultura and Servizio Beni Archeologici, have been carried out in 2005, just in front of the Aosta Cathedral. The excavation revealed the workshop and the kiln where architectural earthenware, used for the Cathedral façade decoration, were produced and fired.
The construction of the new Cathedral façade was started in the second half of XV century and finished in 1526. The polychrome earthenware Renaissance Apostle statues are located in the arch entrance which is decorated with flowers tiles.
Flower tile sherds, clay mixtures, raw clay bricks and firing scraps have been found in the excavation. These findings suggest that only the tiles for the Cathedral decoration were fired in the kiln, as scraps from the sculptures weren’t excavated and the small size of the kiln suggests that the statues were made in another workshop. Evidences from the clay materials suggest two possible provenances: a local deposit, probably known by Romans, and/or a deposit in the Eporediese (Ivrea region).
In this work the manufacture process and the firing conditions are reconstructed through the petrological and mineralogical study of the archaeological findings. Thin sections of tile sherds have been studied to determine their textures and components. Moreover firing tests have been run on mixtures obtained using the original clay materials from the excavation in order to locate the clay provenance area and to compare them with the actual tiles and to reconstruct the technological features of the craftmen.
The observation under polarizing light optical microscope allow to correlate the clay mixtures with the scraps. The yellowish clay found in the excavation has been fired at 850°C and compared with three tiles fragments found in the same spot. The fired yellow clay mixture is texturally characterised by alternating bands consisting of layers with a high temper percentage content and layers with high percentage of matrix. The same texture is observed in the tile sherds from the excavation, supporting that tiles were produced using these raw materials.
Future development of this work is the examination of the clays, tiles, scarps and mixture firing tests by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray Fluorescence
“Sentire la Pietra”: the economic and cultural role of ornamental stones in Piedmont region (Italy)
No full textToday cultural heritage is no longer considered like an historical, artistic and architectural object of interest, but also an evidence of economic, cultural and social activities of a country. An ornamental stone is one of these evidences and could be consider “Cultural heritage”.
In Piedmont region (Italy) there are few local museums that illustrate the material and immaterial value of the stone, like usage and processing. They are called eco-museums and their aim is to preserve, protect and show frameworks of traditional society, in order to pass on the traditions of local country people. They are generally financed by the city council, and their maintenance is mainly based on local people’s charity and availability.
In Piedmont region there are some museums that preserve the historical memory, furthermore the whole city of Turin is an “open museum”, where anyone can admire 150 kinds of ornamental stones, all quarried out in Piedmont. The ornamental stones perfectly describe the town’s identity and are historical and artistically precious.
The aim of this project is to create a stone path through the streets of Turin, with information panels, where citizens, tourists and even children, can appreciate the historical description of the building and of the ornamental materials too. This path could be part of a wider project including a stone museum called “Museo della pietra”.
The main idea is based on a scientific museum, where technical and scientific information (i.e. extraction process, petrographic characteristics, transport and installing methods) are shown the historical ones, by the exposition of historical pictures and video of craftsmen daily life.
The project called “Sentire la Pietra” could be a network composed by the stone city path, the Eco museums and a main museum where reconstructing the local social life, telling the story of ornamentals stone in Piedmont, for both foreign tourists and citizens
Studio dell'alterazione cromatica di materiali lapidei nell'area cittadina di Aosta: un approccio multianalitico
No full textIl progetto presentato parte dalle attività svolte dalla Direzione ricerca e progetti cofinanziati per lo studio conservativo del Teatro romano di Aosta, prendendo come punto chiave le alterazioni cromatiche (definizione NORMAL 1/88: variazione naturale a carico dei componenti della pietra dei parametri che definiscono il colore)1 cui è soggetta la puddinga, un conglomerato di origine fluviale, impiegata dai Romani per l’edificazione della città e, in particolare, per la Porta Prætoria, una delle quattro porte che permettevano l’accesso alla città romana.
L’obiettivo principale dello studio è l’individuazione di una correlazione fra le alterazioni cromatiche della puddinga e l’ambiente, per evidenziare i processi che portano alla variazione dei parametri che definiscono il colore (tinta, saturazione, luminosità), con scopo ultimo la definizione di un piano di conservazione per il monumento
La collezione di marmi antichi del Museo di Mineralogia dell’Università di Pavia
No full textA historic collection of polished squares of marbles has been analyzed for a awareness-raising project of the Mineralogical Museum, Pavia University. Seventy specimens were investigated for a petrographic classification and historical study. The collection setting refers to European fine art collections
of the 19th century.
The decorative stones were probably collected from Roman archaeological ruins and come from historical quarries of Greece, Turkey, Egypt and other localities of the Roman Empire. Rocks range from marbles to alabasters.
Very little historical information is available: probably in the late 19th century the collection was given to the Mineralogical Museum but there is no written evidence of the original composition and
number of marble samples.
The aim of this work is to describe the marble collection, in order to plan a permanent exhibition for teaching purposes
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