Annalisa Caloffi

The origin of a product, if associated with good quality, can contribute to building a positive collective reputation, leading to a potential price premium. However, it is conceivable that a producer markets a product by evoking symbols, images, words, and values typical of places other than where it was designed or produced, creating a “foreign sounding” effect. This study, which focuses on wines available for purchase online, examines whether and to what extent wines with actual or perceived associations with French and Italian production cultures enjoy a price premium. Through an empirical analysis using matched sampling in a multiple treatment framework, this study draws on an original database constructed using web‐scraping and text‐mining techniques. The database contains detailed information on over 17,000 bottles of wine offered online on three major English‐language websites. Controlling for a variety of factors affecting wine performance—at the bottle, winery, and brand level—and segmenting by price range—the analysis finds that Made in France bottles command a price premium. Conversely, Made in Italy, Italian‐sounding, and French‐sounding bottles experience price penalties, with Italian wines suffering greater price penalties than Italian‐sounding alternatives. These results have important implications. For example, wineries that rely on foreign‐sounding branding may face consumer skepticism, leading to price penalties, as observed for French‐sounding wines. Despite this, the better performance of Italian‐sounding labels over Made in Italy wines suggests that certain branding strategies—such as using culturally evocative names—can partially enhance consumer perception even when it is purported.

Managers increasingly use crowdsourcing to address problems in high‐urgency conditions. However, to maximize its benefits, they must determine the appropriate level of openness of crowdsourcing challenges—openness in knowledge sourcing and openness in knowledge use. In this study, we examine how configurations of factors (e.g., problem attributes, crowdsourcing design elements, and solution seeker characteristics) influence crowdsourcing openness in high‐urgency conditions. Drawing on a dataset of 162 crowdsourcing challenges launched between 2020 and 2022 to address Covid‐19‐related problems, we apply fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to uncover the configurations of factors that lead to different levels of openness in knowledge sourcing and knowledge use. Our findings indicate that openness—particularly openness in knowledge use—can be achieved through various configurations by different types of seekers. These insights provide practical guidance for balancing crowdsourcing openness under urgent conditions to maximize innovation and efficiency.

We discuss how public administrations have used crowdsourcing to find solutions to specific problems posed by the COVID‐19 pandemic, and to what extent crowdsourcing has been instrumental in promoting open innovation and service co‐creation. We propose a conceptual typology of crowdsourcing challenges based on the degree of their openness and collaboration with the crowd that they establish. Using empirical evidence collected in 2020 and 2021, we examine the extent to which these types have been used in practice. We discuss each type of crowdsourcing challenge identified and draw implications for public policy.

Purpose: This paper aims to analyse the evolution of Chinese industrial ethnic clusters in Italy, by focusing on the role of social networks and the processes behind the phenomenon of Chinese worker exploitation and entrepreneur “self-exploitation”.Design/methodology/approach: The case study is a sub-cluster of micro and small enterprises owned by Chinese entrepreneurs within the leather industrial district of Florence, Italy. This research adopts the following mixed methods: a small-scale survey to capture the characteristics of the sub-cluster and a social network analysis to describe cluster evolution, complemented by life-course interviews conducted with key informants and entrepreneurs.Findings: Migrant social capital and social networks play a central role in the evolution of the case study sub-cluster. Social networks play a supportive role in migration, job creation, entrepreneurship formation and the creation of business opportunities. Simultaneously, they enhance the phenomenon of worker exploitation and entrepreneur self-exploitation. Furthermore, the more the business community grows, the more the economic performance of ethnic enterprises depends on agglomeration forces produced by the cluster.Practical implications: The findings suggest a series of potential policies to upgrade the ethnic enterprises' capacities, to increase their formality and inclusion in the Italian social and economic systems and sub-cluster.Originality/value: To the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first attempt to examine the evolution of social networks in relation to the phenomenon of Chinese worker exploitation and entrepreneur self-exploitation in an ethnic industrial sub-cluster.