Working papers by Stefano Ghinoi
arXiv, 2021
Since the beginning of the 1990s, Brazil has introduced different policies for increasing agricul... more Since the beginning of the 1990s, Brazil has introduced different policies for increasing agricultural production among family farms, such as the National Program for Strengthening Family Farming (Pronaf), the technical assistance and rural extension programmes (ATER), and seeds distribution. Despite the importance of these policies for the development of family farming, there is a lack of empirical studies investigating their impact on commercialization of food products. By considering household-level data from the 2014 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey, we use propensity score matching techniques accounting for the interaction effects between policies to compare the commercialisation behaviour of recipients with nonrecipients. We find that Pronaf has a significant positive impact on family farmers' propensity to engage in commercialisation, and this effect increases if farmers have also access to ATER. Receiving technical assistance alone has a positive effect, but this is mostly limited to smaller farms. In turn, seed distribution appears not to increase commercialization significantly. A well-balanced policy mix could ensure that, in a country subject to the pressure of international food markets, increased commercialisation does not result in reduced food security for rural dwellers.
DEMB Working Paper Series, 2015
In analysing and modelling the Tuscany regional system of innovation poles (www.poliinnovazione.u... more In analysing and modelling the Tuscany regional system of innovation poles (www.poliinnovazione.unimore.it), we examine systematically available information on websites with two objectives: (i) to analyze the variety of language and content that characterize the poles in their online activities; (ii) examine the extent poles refer to the same institutions, enterprises, organizations, projects, and among these, organizations / or activities directly related to the (such as the companies managing the poles laboratories, incubators, the adherents ). This paper offers a linguistic analysis of the websites produced by innovation poles in Tuscany, in order to provide a set of variables for the evaluation of their promotion strategies. The focus of the analysis is the evaluation of original vs. reported information, which is here used as indicator of the innovation poles' engagement in the promotion of their activities. The purpose is to quantify the level of engagement that each single network has built – on its website – through the publication of texts. Through Corpus Linguistics methodology, and using both a quantitative and a qualitative approach (similar to the one proposed by the CADS framework), this papers looks at how the innovation poles taken into account have used a set of 24 terms related to the notions of innovation and promotion (business, businesses, centers, collaboration, knowledge, finance, management, manager, business, business, industrial, innovation, pole, poles, processes, projects, design, research, service, services, development, technology , technologies, territory). By looking at whether these terms appear in original or reported (produced by third-parties) texts, and at how their meanings and connotations are constructed in the former cases, this paper identifies how active have the innovation poles been in promoting their work. In addition to linguistic analysis, text analysis of web pages also allowed to identify main domains (urls) and complete links mentioned on the websites of poles. Adopting a perspective of social network analysis, with information on these virtual networks we analysed two issues relevant to modelling the system of innovation poles: through the quotes of major domains, we highlight the extent to which the web sites have reported the poles connections with each other and with those involved in technology transfer; through the analysis of complete links present on the websites of individual poles we can identify to what extent the poles refer to the same information space. The presentation is structured as follows: section 1 presents the data, tools and methodology used in linguistic analysis; section 2 presents linguistic analysis of the 24 selected terms; in section 3 virtual networks are analysed; section 4 concludes. Appendix 1 presents the technical details on the collection and subsequent data cleansing; Appendix 2 contains the list of the top link complete inside of the poles of the sites surveyed.
Papers by Stefano Ghinoi
Journal of Cultural Economics, 2025
This study presents an empirical investigation into the internationalization processes within the... more This study presents an empirical investigation into the internationalization processes within the opera performing arts industry, which represents a critical component of the broader creative industries. By utilizing data from Operabase, a comprehensive online database of opera-related information, we employ social network analysis to delineate the network of connections established between nations through the mobility of opera artists, mediated by the agencies that represent them. Moreover, the research assesses the influence of factors such as geographical proximity, cultural affinity, market dominance, and reciprocity on these international networks. Our findings provide a nuanced understanding of the internationalization of opera, emphasizing the significance of geographical proximity, reciprocity, and (partially) tradition/dominance in the opera market as key drivers of global interconnectedness in this domain.
Entrepreneurship Research Journal, 2025
The literature on cash holdings has gained increasing relevance within business studies, which hi... more The literature on cash holdings has gained increasing relevance within business studies, which highlights its pivotal role in determining a firm’s resource management strategy. In this study, we adopt a combination of bibliometric analysis and systematic literature review to analyse the development of literature on cash holdings and provide an overview of its theoretical and empirical evolution and identify future research paths. After collecting 46 documents from Scopus and Web of Science published from January 2011 to on 7th October 2024, we created and analysed a thematic map based on a co-word analysis to appreciate the form and content of academic discourse on the topic and investigated the content and main contributions of the 46 publications to understand the evolution of the themes discussed in the literature. Results show that family business studies are still anchored to the traditional topics of the research stream of cash holdings, such as corporate governance, and mostly employ agency theory. We found that current family business research and cash holdings only represent a first step in exploring the topic and act as forerunners for the investigation of another research stream – such as innovation/sustainability – or the employment of alternative theories – such as socioemotional wealth. Overall, we provide some insights for future research.
Sustainability, 2024
Brazil is one of the main agricultural producers in the world, and its agri-food system has been ... more Brazil is one of the main agricultural producers in the world, and its agri-food system has been experiencing concentration and intensification. Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Brazilian government has implemented different interventions to support family agriculture, such as the National Programme for Strengthening Family Farming (PRONAF), the Technical Assistance and Rural Extension Programme (ATER), and different seed distribution programs. Despite the social and economic relevance of these programs, there is a lack of quantitative studies investigating their impact on the resilience of family farms, primarily the promotion of commercialization. We aim to fill this gap by applying propensity score matching techniques to household-level data from the 2014 Brazilian National Household Sample Survey. Only this survey has recorded this type of information to date. We compare the commercialization behavior of policy recipients with that of non-recipients, accounting for interaction effects between different policies. Our results show that PRONAF has had a significant positive impact on family farmers’ propensity to engage in commercialization, and the effect increases if they also have access to technical assistance. Technical assistance alone has a positive effect, while seed distribution appears not to make a significant difference. Our results suggest that an appropriate policy mix can increase the resilience of family farms in emerging countries.
Quality & Quantity, 2024
In the last decades, crypto assets have become particularly popular in financial markets. However... more In the last decades, crypto assets have become particularly popular in financial markets. However, public awareness of the crypto asset landscape is rather limited, and usually associated with sensationalized media coverage of a handful of cryptocurrencies. Moreover, while users of crypto assets primarily collect information on Internet, there is a limited understanding of the relational (online) structures supporting the diffusion of information about these financial products. Therefore, the aim of this study is to uncover the structure of online information referral networks dedicated to crypto assets. By adopting a multi-method approach consisting of web scraping, web analytics, and social network analysis, we use data from the top 200 crypto assets by market capitalization to identify pivotal websites and the overall connectedness of the information referral networks. Our results show that social media and news channel sites play a key role in the information diffusion process, while market and trading sites signal innovation adoption. Overall, cryptocurrencies’ websites do not seem key in the referral network, as opposed to social media websites which, however, cannot be considered mature hubs because of their low connectivity.
RIV. Rassegna italiana di valutazione, Mar 1, 2024
According to the Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Economie Rurale (LEADER) approach, L... more According to the Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Economie Rurale (LEADER) approach, Local Action Groups (LAGs) empower the creation of social capital by enabling social relations among local actors. Re- cent studies have investigated the socio-economic aspects driving this phe- nomenon, but there is a lack of research on the internal dynamics occurring within LAGs. This study aims to investigate this aspect by focusing on an Italian LAG as case study, and using Social Network Analysis to understand how LAG’s internal communication dynamics relate to the activities imple- mented on the territory. Our results show that the LAG operates as an inter- mediary between municipalities and local associations, but it is not able to foster direct relationships between these actors; moreover, the LAG is not able to make the relational elements prevailing over the socio-economic and geographical aspects of the territory.
Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 2024
The multidimensional nature of Circular Economy (CE) has been investigated by using composite ind... more The multidimensional nature of Circular Economy (CE) has been investigated by using composite indicators including variables that sometimes can be assumed only indirectly related to the concept of CE. This paper defines a new composite indicator based exclusively on environmental variables, grouped into the five areas of green enterprise, sustainable mobility, sustainable energy, biodiversity, emissions and pollution and applicable to local territories such as municipalities. Our Municipal Indicator of Circular Economy (MICE) is then tested on the 329 municipalities of Emilia- Romagna region (Italy). Based on our results, MICE detects circularity patterns at local level; moreover, we observe that small municipalities tend to be slower in adopting CE practices, while large municipalities are more proactive and perform better under the different environmental dimensions of CE. Our results confirm what has been found in previous studies, i.e. that CE is linked with industrial specialization.
Social Science & Medicine, 2024
Over the past four years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant uncertainty, suffering, an... more Over the past four years, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant uncertainty, suffering, and economic disruption worldwide. Consequently, governments have faced pressure to ensure fair vaccine access while achieving vaccination targets quickly. Such challenging circumstances can create opportunities for nepotism and bribery, increasing attention to corruption risks associated with the pandemic response. This study investigates the relationship between public attitudes towards corruptive behaviour and the efficiency and equity of the UK's COVID-19 vaccination programme. It combines primary data on public tolerance towards corruptive behaviour with secondary data on the efficiency of the vaccination program at the local authority level in England and Scottland. We employ a survival analysis approach, estimating Cox Proportional Hazards Models, which examine the time taken to reach vaccination targets. Our findings suggest moderate tolerance towards nepotism/favouritism and bribery among the British public, with 28% of survey participants considering monetary bribery and 34% considering nepotism/favouritism as acceptable means to secure early vaccination access. Moreover, while public tolerance towards corruptive behaviour generally had a negative impact on the efficiency of the vaccination programme, it appears to have expedited the vaccination rollout in politically aligned local authorities governed by the Conservative and Unionist Party. However, this positive effect on efficiency appears to have come at the expense of reduced equity in vaccine distribution. These findings underscore the trade-off between efficiency and equity in vaccine distribution during public health crises, emphasising the need for health policies that balance efficiency with equity to ensure fair and effective distribution of vaccines in the future.
Business Strategy and the Environment, 2024
The literature on sustainable dynamic capabilities is becoming increasingly relevant in business ... more The literature on sustainable dynamic capabilities is becoming increasingly relevant in business research. In this study, we adopt a bibliometric approach to analyze the development of the literature, provide an overview of its theoretical and empirical evolution, and identify future research paths. To reach this goal, we collected 602 scientific documents from Scopus published between January 2002 and May 2023. The analysis is based on a two-step process. First, we created and analyzed thematic maps for two different time periods (2002-2016 and 2017-2023) to assess the changes in the themes investigated. Second, we used bibliographic coupling to measure the influence and similarity between 147 scientific documents that were selected from leading scientific journals. Results show the adequacy of the dynamic capabilities framework for understanding the integration of sustainability within business strategies while opening up new perspectives (i.e., stakeholder engagement) and themes. Overall, we observe an increasing interest in reconceptualizing dynamic capabilities while considering their sustainability dimension, with reference to the identification of new micro-foundations and the level of analysis (from an individual or organizational level to an inter-organizational level). This study also proposes avenues for future research, including an exploration of new contexts, such as new industries, through a cross-sectoral analysis approach or the underexplored context of family firms. We also highlight the need to advance our understanding of sustainable dynamic capabilities by focusing on the social dimension, which remains understudied.
RIV Rassegna Italiana di Valutazione, 2023
According to the Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Economie Rurale (LEADER) approach, L... more According to the Liaison Entre Actions de Développement de l’Economie Rurale (LEADER) approach, Local Action Groups (LAGs) empower the creation of social capital by enabling social relations among local actors. Re- cent studies have investigated the socio-economic aspects driving this phe- nomenon, but there is a lack of research on the internal dynamics occurring within LAGs. This study aims to investigate this aspect by focusing on an Italian LAG as case study, and using Social Network Analysis to understand how LAG’s internal communication dynamics relate to the activities imple- mented on the territory. Our results show that the LAG operates as an inter- mediary between municipalities and local associations, but it is not able to foster direct relationships between these actors; moreover, the LAG is not able to make the relational elements prevailing over the socio-economic and geographical aspects of the territory.
Routledge eBooks, May 26, 2023
Social Science Research Network, Feb 23, 2015
This article exploit a data base of 1.522 observations related to Lombardy's municipalities to ru... more This article exploit a data base of 1.522 observations related to Lombardy's municipalities to run a cross sectional estimation of the drivers of MW selection. We find no evidence of a significant correlation between the percentage of selected MW selection and market variables such as the unit charge for waste management, a result probably affected by the high degree of integration existing in Lombardy among collectors and disposal operators. On the contrary, we discover robust and significant correlation with a set of geographical, socioeconomic , and political variables. Among the latter ones, we have a confirmations on the influence of party competition on the percentage of household recycling, with the left wing ruling parties more addressed to it than the rivals, and on the high correlation existing between MW selection and the implementation of a unit pricing scheme. Other positive correlations with the independent variable are shown by per-capita income, while quite surprisingly the education level of citizens seems to play no role.
An adequate understanding of the dynamics that characterize the agri-food market is fundamental f... more An adequate understanding of the dynamics that characterize the agri-food market is fundamental for the development of really efficient economic policies, especially after the two recent hikes in the prices of food commodities. The econometric literature provides today advanced analysis tools such as VAR models: these models are based on a system of equations in which each variable is regressed on a set of deterministic variables, on a number of l delays related to each covariate in the model. To test the effectiveness of this analytical tool at dealing with the issues related to agrifood economy we applied a VAR analysis on prices of major food and energy commodities (oil and biodiesel) referred to the period January 2005-December 2012. Our results identified statistically significant intertemporal relationships between the price of corn, soybeans, rapeseed and oil, and suggested the direction of these relationships; we could conclude that the price of corn and soybeans are generated in the energy market only. Moreover, we used as variables the share of commodities used for the production of biofuels, and we could observe that important alterations on the food market are due to the convenience in producing ethanol and biodiesel, since the portion of the crops used for energy is in direct competition with that devoted to the feeding. This kind of models, therefore, deal adequately with datas and issues of the agri-food system and provide an analytical basis to develop economic policies that take into account the complexity of the global food system.
Evaluation and Program Planning
Small Business Economics, Mar 29, 2023
Knowledge networks in regional clusters are fundamental to support innovation and local developme... more Knowledge networks in regional clusters are fundamental to support innovation and local development. Within clusters, family firms are key in creating business opportunities and supporting the establishment of inter-organizational networks. Yet, their role within regional clusters for knowledge transfers is still not well understood, especially in comparison with non-family firms. This paper applies Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to network data collected from the Parabiago cluster, one of the most important Italian footwear clusters, to contribute to a better understanding of the network strategies of family firms. We identify distinct network strategies associated with the cluster firms, accounting for different knowledge exchange types: technological,
R&D Management
Collaboration enables the sharing amongst individuals of resources and knowledge required to inno... more Collaboration enables the sharing amongst individuals of resources and knowledge required to innovate. In recent years, this phenomenon has increasingly manifested in virtual collaborative spaces such as open-source software communities because of the advancement in the use of online technologies and the heightened need for distance work. However, it is still unclear which underlying mechanisms foster collaboration in these spaces. By using the Linux kernel open-source software community as a case study, we analyze data from the [email protected] mailing list to model the influence of proximity on the likelihood of collaboration between individuals. Our dataset is composed of 10,513 message replies to the PCI mailing list posted by its 654 active members in the years 2013 to 2015. Our results show that geographical proximity does not have a direct impact on collaboration, while organizational features defined by institutional and organizational proximity do significantly affect collaboration. Cognitive and social proximity also significantly, and positively, affects collaboration, but these relationships show an inverted u-shaped form. Our results confirm the need to develop specific theorizing about virtual spaces, as they present unique features when compared to traditional physical environments.
R & D Management, 2023
Collaboration enables the sharing amongst individuals of resources and knowledge required to inno... more Collaboration enables the sharing amongst individuals of resources and knowledge required to innovate. In recent years, this phenomenon has increasingly manifested in virtual collaborative spaces such as open-source software communities because of the advancement in the use of online technologies and the heightened need for distance work. However, it is still unclear which underlying mechanisms foster collaboration in these spaces. By using the Linux kernel open-source software community as a case study, we analyze data from the [email protected] mailing list to model the influence of proximity on the likelihood of collaboration between individuals. Our dataset is composed of 10,513 message replies to the PCI mailing list posted by its 654 active members in the years 2013 to 2015. Our results show that geographical proximity does not have a direct impact on collaboration, while organizational features defined by institutional and organizational proximity do significantly affect collaboration. Cognitive and social proximity also significantly, and positively, affects collaboration, but these relationships show an inverted u-shaped form. Our results confirm the need to develop specific theorizing about virtual spaces, as they present unique features when compared to traditional physical environments.
Small Business Economics, 2023
Knowledge networks in regional clusters are fundamental to support innovation and local developme... more Knowledge networks in regional clusters are fundamental to support innovation and local development. Within clusters, family firms are key in creating business opportunities and supporting the establishment of inter-organizational networks. Yet, their role within regional clusters for knowledge transfers is still not well understood, especially in comparison with non-family firms. This paper applies Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGMs) to network data collected from the Parabiago cluster, one of the most important Italian footwear clusters, to contribute to a better understanding of the network strategies of family firms. We identify distinct network strategies associated with the cluster firms, accounting for different knowledge exchange types: technological,
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Working papers by Stefano Ghinoi
Papers by Stefano Ghinoi