Andrea Runfola

Purpose: Pressing societal challenges, particularly related to sustainability, characterize the current global context and increasingly forge activist initiatives. This paper originally focuses on fashion activism for sustainability and investigates the coexistence of activism and entrepreneurship through the concept of activist entrepreneurship, specifically the role of the activist entrepreneur. Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a qualitative methodological approach, based on ten case studies of activist entrepreneurs in the sustainable fashion sector. For data collection, this paper primarily relies on in-depth interviews. Findings: We propose that three distinct pathways – co-evolution, dialectic, and separation – allow activism and entrepreneurship to coexist, with the activist entrepreneur serving as a unifying element that binds them. Activist entrepreneurs champion sustainable fashion by leveraging both activist movements and their companies' business activities. Simultaneously traversing the three pathways enables the activist entrepreneur to maintain the dual nature; otherwise, through a metaphor, we illustrate how the degradation of any single pathway, or a potential divergence among them, can undermine the very essence of the activist entrepreneur. Originality/value: Set within the context of sustainable fashion, this research adds an empirical dimension to the understudied field of activist entrepreneurship. While the literature has already identified potential intersections between activism and entrepreneurship, the paper clearly presents three pathways that enable their coexistence; when navigated simultaneously, these pathways, even if at varying altitudes and paces, allow the activist entrepreneur to maintain the dual identity. Otherwise, unforeseen trajectories might emerge that warrant further scholarly investigation.

The paper investigates sustainability communication using digital tools—such as social media, websites, emails, and newsletters—and delves into the drivers that determine the undercommunication of sustainability (i.e., the green blushing phenomenon) in digital environments. The paper adopts a qualitative methodology mainly based on in‐depth interviews. It identifies six drivers that prevent companies, or severely limit them, from communicating their sustainability initiatives in digital environments, thus resulting in green blushing. These drivers include the lack of a well‐structured sustainability communication plan, criticalities in the company's skills and internal coordination, challenges in finding sustainability KPIs, issues related to the target audience, difficulties in communicating joint sustainability initiatives, and fear of greenwashing accusations. The paper originally presents interesting theoretical and managerial implications, ending with limitations and indications for further research.

Purpose: The paper delves into the international expansion of luxury SMEs to investigate their internationalization pathways, namely how the internationalization process unfolds in terms of timing of entry into foreign markets, the geographic scope of operations and the scale. The paper examines also the determinants of the internationalization pathways as a set of factors that contribute to developing an asset of foreignness.Design/methodology/approach: The paper adopts a multiple case study approach and reports findings from four cases of Italian SMEs operating in the luxury fashion industry.Findings: SMEs’ specific characteristics at the firm and entrepreneurial levels (i.e. craftsmanship, quality, product creativity, entrepreneurial mindset), country of origin attributes (e.g. Italy’s positive image) and the inherently global nature of the luxury industry, can turn foreignness into an asset of foreignness that allows luxury fashion SMEs to pursue internationalization pathways of born globals.Originality/value: The paper highlights that the global luxury market is not the exclusive domain of MNEs and sheds light on luxury SMEs, overlooked by extant literature. The paper also contributes to understanding early internationalization by highlighting a potential link between internationalization pathways and foreignness and discussed the asset of foreignness by extending it to SMEs.

Drawing on the market-as-network approach from the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group, this paper explores how small and medium-sized companies can leverage their network to become network orchestrators, co-creating value locally and developing business relationships. Specifically, the paper addresses the following research questions: RQ1) How can SMEs act as network orchestrators for local value co-creation? RQ2) How can SMEs leverage local value to develop business relationships? Methodologically, the industrial network theory is applied to an exploratory and single case study of an Italian food company in the pasta sector, Fabianelli. This enterprise boasts a historical tradition firmly linked to its origins and a solid attachment to the Tuscany region where it is located. The paper identifies specific actors, resources, and activities defining a company’s network orchestrator role. Further, it analyzes the value co-created locally to discuss four strategies used by Fabianelli to develop relationships with national and international actors.

1. Moving beyond traditional boundaries seems an essential step to capture one of the most promising connections of our time: the synergy between activism and entrepreneurship. Recent years have wi...

This paper presents a stakeholder perspective to study tensions in hybrid organizations (HOs). In this study, we investigate social enterprises (SEs) as emblematic cases of HO. The paper responds to literature that calls for studies about the interactions with stakeholders and proposes the relational paths SEs can implement to alleviate the emerging tensions between environmental–social and business goals. It also contributes to the academic debate offering empirical evidence on HO‐related tensions. Solving these tensions is beneficial for HOs and in terms of sustainable development. The paper presents a longitudinal case study of a leading SE in the fair trade industry. Fair trade represents an industry where economic, social, and environmental goals may be jointly achieved through the action of SEs. The main paper's contributions regard a stakeholders‐generated view of tensions and the identification of stakeholders‐tailored solutions to managing them. In addition, the proposed ad hoc approach contributes to a deeper understanding of how an SE deals with its hybrid nature.

This paper aims to investigate the features of gamification as a digital marketing tool to deliver a digital luxury experience. The paper employs the qualitative methodology of case study and presents a case of a multi-brand luxury company adopting gamification through the development of a game app. Four features of the gaming luxury experience are discussed: individual and collective gaming experiences, exclusiveness through rarity in luxury gaming, social networking and virtual influencing marketing mechanisms, and cross-fertilization between gaming and e-commerce. The paper expands the knowledge on gamification by highlighting its main features as a digital marketing tool for luxury companies and the benefits it can bring in terms of consumer experience, engagement, and sales. It also contributes to studies on luxury companies by discussing gamification as a means to create digital luxury experiences, particularly suitable for the new generations of consumers, such as Generation Z.

Sustainability is strongly becoming imperative for all fashion companies to respond to stakeholders’ concerns and meet their expectations. While companies are more and more engaged in sustainability practices regarding all the activities carried out, there is also a growing opportunity for them to communicate it to reinforce the brand through various means. One of these is undoubtedly represented by social media. The social media landscape is increasingly characterized by the use of images as a highly impactful way of communication, with image-based social media such as Instagram that are experiencing significant growth among consumers and businesses. Consequently, the paper aims to understand how sustainability is depicted through Instagram by sustainable fashion companies. For these reasons, the paper investigates the use of images on Instagram by two sustainable fashion brands, Patagonia and Stella McCartney. To this aim, the paper employs the visual content analysis on over 300 pictures downloaded from the two corporate accounts on Instagram. The findings show the most used image categories to depict sustainability, and how such categories generate online interaction with users in terms of digital engagement. Implications for sustainable fashion companies and social media managers are provided.

This article deals with the use of heuristics in the decision-making process of entrepreneurial exporting Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in business-to-business settings. It specifically considers the textile industry. Heuristics can be defined as “simple rules” for cognition and action. The article points out the presence of a research gap in the literature on the decision-making of exporting SMEs and deals with the following research question: What heuristics are used in exporting decisions by SMEs in business-to-business markets? Empirically, it discusses the findings of seven case studies of Italian exporting textiles SMEs in business-to-business markets. The results reveal the widespread use of heuristics and formulate propositions about their features. Findings show that heuristics in exporting SMEs in the textile industry are perceived as effective tools for export decisions, corresponding to personal beliefs of the single decision-maker, intentionally built through experience, generalizable to different export markets, and time tested.