Italian Market Research Articles

A Theoretical Study for Supporting an Autonomous Diesel Power Plant with a Photovoltaic Generator

In consideration of the existing configuration of the Italian electrical market and the need to increase the electri-cal production due to renewable sources, this paper deals with a technical, economic feasibility study of a photovoltaic plant which can support the diesel electric power plant now existing on the Tremiti Islands (South Italy). This study has been ordered by the electric power producer of the above-mentioned islands.

Comparative Analysis of ISO GPS Knowledge and Usage in the Italian Market

This research consists in a detailed analysis of the ISO Geometrical Product Specifications (GPS) system's knowledge and usage in Italy. Data was collected by means of a questionnaire, from a wide range of industrial sectors and academic institutions. The dataset encompasses 143 responses, forming the basis for an in-depth examination of ISO GPS system implementation in Italy. This analysis involves three levels of comparison: (1) an examination of knowledge level and typical usage between Beginners and Experienced individuals, (2) an investigation into ISO GPS adoption patterns in Industry and Academia, with and without specific ISO GPS training, and (3) an exploration of differences among professionals who are responsible for conveying geometric specifications and those in charge of interpreting and applying them. The findings reveal significant insights into ISO GPS implementation in both academic and industrial domains. They highlight the need for the improvement of ISO GPS education offer and the development of more effective utilization practices, with potential implications for future ISO GPS standards development strategies.

Scenes From a Marriage: Bancassurance and Litigation With Clients in the Italian Market

Scenes From a Marriage: Bancassurance and Litigation With Clients in the Italian Market

Collective mobility power: Grassroots unionism in the Italian meat-processing sector

In the last decade, several sectors of the Italian labour market have witnessed a rise in conflictual union activities carried out mostly by subcontracted migrant workers. Taking two grassroots unions in the North Italian meat processing sector as case studies (SICobas and ADLCobas), this paper investigates why and how migrant workers organise themselves through rank-and-file unions. In particular, the paper aims at understanding whether and how migrant workers' mobility power interplays with and influences their associational power, shedding light on the nexus between labour mobility and its mobilisation. After illustrating how grassroots unions develop in the Italian context, the paper analyses how migrant workers enhance their mobility power through rank-and-file unions and how these unions, in turn, utilise members' mobility as a resource to broaden their organisations. In conclusion, the paper argues that the presence of a highly mobile labour force does not weaken and could even strengthen mobilisations. Consequently, mobility power can be conceptualised not only as an individual strategy but also as a collective resource.

Day-Ahead Electricity Price Forecasting in the Contemporary Italian Market

Day-Ahead Electricity Price Forecasting in the Contemporary Italian Market

Time to define food salt targets in Italy starting with cereal-based products: A safe and practical way to reduce the heavy burden of cardiovascular disease

Background and aimsExcess salt intake is the leading dietary risk factor for cardiovascular disease in most countries, including Italy. While the cost-effectiveness of interventions aimed to reduce salt intake has been proved, the WHO recommendation to reduce salt intake by 30 % at the global level by 2025 is far from being reached. Methods and resultsIn Italy, two surveys of the general adult population have established that the average salt intake is still almost twice the WHO recommendation although it was reduced by 1.2 g/day between 2008–12 and 2018–19. Previous investigations had shown that non-discretionary salt added by the industry or by local craft producers represents at least 50 % of the total intake and indicated cereal-based products as the main source of non-discretionary salt.Two recent studies conducted by the Italian Society of Human Nutrition “Young Working Group” have provided updated information on the salt content of almost three thousand cereal-based products currently available on the Italian food market and shown that most of the items evaluated had a sodium content much higher than the sodium benchmarks recently proposed by WHO. ConclusionsItaly has built the foundations of an effective population strategy for salt intake reduction: it is time however to proceed with full commitment to food reformulation if any substantial further progress has to be made. Salt benchmarks for Italy need to be defined for the food categories most relevant to population salt intake and their implementation should ideally be mandatory after consultation with food producers.

Analysis of the Italian honey market

In the areas of the European Union, which are traditionally considered honey producers, we are observing a decrease in nectar resources and a decrease in the number of bee colonies due to anthropogenic factors, the destructive influence of pesticides and other chemical compounds, the development of new parasitocenoses, climate changes and experimental phenomena accompanying these changes, according to FAO, the population bees decreased by 37 %. Due to climate changes, honey production is decreasing in Italy. Honey consumption in the European Union exceeds production with self-sufficiency by 60 %. In 2021, the leading honey suppliers were Ukraine (which supplies 30 % of EU imports) and China (almost 28 % of EU imports). Comparing the data with 2020, we can note the increase in imports from China by 30 %). Since 2015, the European Commission has been monitoring the European honey market, noting a significant percentage of fraud and falsification of honey sold in the EU. Among the imported batches of honey in the EU in 2021 and 2022, almost every second (46 %) is suspected of adulteration, according to the results of “From the Hives” Joint Research Center (JRC) of the European Commission. Honey for sale must comply with Directive UE 2001/110/CE. In the coordinated joint actions of the EU, called “Dagli alveari” by 15 EU member states, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, 320 samples of honey originating from 20 exporting countries were selected. The research aimed to establish the presence of sugar syrups of exogenous origin to increase the volume to obtain more profit. Out of 320 examined samples, 147 (46 %) turned out to be falsified; their indicators did not meet the Directive UE 2001/110/CE, and accordingly, they are not “natural honey”. Falsified batches of honey were imported from Ukraine and China (66 out of 89 is 74 %), and honey originating from Turkey (14 out of 15 is 93 %). Honey imported from Great Britain has the highest adulteration rate (10 out of 10, 100 %). In Italy, a comprehensive action plan has been introduced to prevent the falsification of honey. The new control plan should include a quantitative increase in samples for research and the use of more effective tests to detect falsification: nuclear magnetic resonance (RMN) and high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Honey produced in Italy must have the inscription “Italian honey” on the label, while honey originating from the countries of the European Union must contain the inscription “mixture of honey originating from the EU countries”, indicating the names of the producing countries. If honey comes from non-EU countries, it should be written “a mixture of honeys from non-EU countries” with the name of the producer country added.

Acceptance of alternative meats among different dietarian styles: An explorative analysis in Italy

The global rise in meat consumption is one of the major concerns among food researchers and policymakers. In this panorama, alternative protein sources like plant-based meat, insect-based flours, and cultured meat emerged as potential solutions. Many contributions have been published on consumers’ perception of meat alternatives, however, only a few of them presented a direct comparison between the three categories and none of them explicitly scrutinized the different attitudes that omnivorous, flexitarians or veg*an consumers show towards them. With the aim to fill this gap, an online questionnaire was conducted to explore the willingness to substitute conventional meats with the alternative options. Surveying 678 Italian consumers representing each dietary group this research sheds light on the complexities of consumer attitudes towards alternative protein sources and offers valuable insights for policymakers and marketers seeking to foster sustainable dietary choices. Applying ANOVA and post-hoc comparison of means test, we found that plant-based meat showed promise to non-omnivorous consumers, while hesitation prevailed towards insect-based flours and Title Page cultured meat among all dietary groups. Vegetarians displayed the least willingness to adopt insect-based flours due to potential dietary disruption. Surprisingly, both omnivores and flexitarians exhibited negative attitudes towards cultured meat, possibly due to taste and production concerns. Understanding diverse dietary group preferences is vital for promoting meat alternatives in the Italian market through targeted interventions and education.

Crowdfunding in the accommodation realm and pandemic times: The resilient case of CleanBnB

Abstract Crowdfunding campaigns have recently promoted a range of new business models in different contexts. This study investigates crowdfunding in the accommodation realm from a socio-cultural perspective and across its international dynamics. Drawing on complexity theory, the study explores the successful case of CleanBnb, the leading crowdfunded company in the Italian short-term rental market, and informs hospitality actors on the coping strategies implemented to challenge the Covid-19 pandemic. The study adopts a case study approach, combining primary data collected through an in-depth interview of the CEO and the analysis of secondary data from different company reports. The results highlight the importance of (1) business diversification, (2) grouping opportunities and (3) widening of service range as key factors in pandemic business survival for start-ups operating in the accommodation realm. The study finally discusses post-pandemic scenarios for both the traditional hotel industry and sharing economy operators by offering managerial insights.

Development of an AI-based IT tool to support medical device nomenclature standardization for post-market surveillance by automated mapping from GMDN to EMDN standards

Abstract Introduction The EU Medical Device Regulation 2017/745 has defined new rules for medical device (MD) certification and post-market surveillance (PMS). In particular, a centralized database (Eudamed) has been established to collect and share information about the lifecycle of MD in EU market. To become effective for PMS, the European MD Nomenclature (EMDN), a 7-levels hierarchical system, has been adopted as a free standard among EU to describe MDs to this aim. However, Global MD Nomenclature (GMDN), a poly-hierarchical not-for-free system, was previously used in several EU Member States, and it is still adopted in other countries (i.e., UK, Australia, Brazil). A complete mapping between these nomenclatures is still missing, or not publicly and freely available, and this multiplicity of nomenclatures is going to affect the traceability of MD in PMS, ultimately generating an adverse impact on the patient. Purpose 1) To develop an IT tool to automatically map a given GMDN description to the most appropriate EMDN code, to facilitate and accelerate the uptake of EMDN and the mapping process between nomenclatures. 2) To introduce a user-science approach towards a continuous improvement of the tool, allowing user interaction to highlight potentially incorrect mapping and suggest the most appropriate one, to be further included in the database after manual verification. Methods By text analytics methods, the freely available list of MD on the Italian market, described by EMDN code, was compared with the same MD on the USA market, described by GMDN. As a result, 379317 devices were found present in both the Italian and USA markets, and 9683 different mappings between GMDN and EMDN are used to define an initial mapping from GMDN to EMDN. Then, given in input a GMDN description, semantic similarity was searched in the vocabulary for the proper GMDN with the corresponding EMDN, as well as for all EMDN descriptions, using a pre-trained AI transformer model (all-mpnet-base-v2). As a result, two possible EMDN codes with the respective reliability were given as output. The mapping performance at different EMDN levels was tested using a leave-one-out approach only on 2863 unique GMDN descriptions. Results From the GMDN descriptions, the correct EMDN code at level 1 (22 categories available) was given in 2343 cases (81.84%), at level 2 in 2088 cases (72.93%) and at level 3 in 1605 cases (56.06%). In Figure 1, an example of the developed user interface with the resulting two possible EMDN codes and their reliability, given a GMDN description of interest, is shown. The ability to select the most appropriate mapping, or to suggest a different one is given to the user, thus indirectly giving information for improving the tool. Conclusions The proposed approach provides with good accuracy the automatic mapping between GMDN and EMDN, thus potentially accelerating the nomenclature standardization process and improving effectiveness of MD PMS in EU and beyond.Figure 1

Community structure of the football transfer market network: the case of Italian Serie A

The men’s football transfer market represents a complex phenomenon requiring suitable methods for an in-depth study. Network Analysis may be employed to measure the key elements of the transfer market through network indicators, such as degree centrality, hub and authority scores, and betweenness centrality. Furthermore, community detection methods can be proposed to unveil unobservable patterns of the football market, even considering auxiliary variables such as the type of transfer, the age or the role of the player, and the agents involved in the transfer flow. These methodologies are applied to the flows of player transfers generated by the 20 teams of the Italian first division (Serie A). These flows include teams from all over the world. We consider the summer market session of 2019, at the beginning of the season 2019-2020. Results also help to better understand some peculiarities of the Italian football transfer market in terms of the different approaches of the elite teams. Network indices show the presence of different market strategies, highlighting the role of mid-level teams such as Atalanta, Genoa, and Sassuolo. The network reveals a core-periphery structure splitted into several communities. The Infomap algorithm identifies 14 single team-based communities and three communities formed by two teams. Two of the latter are composed of a top team and a mid-level team, suggesting the presence of collaboration and similar market behavior, while the third is guided by two teams promoted by the second division (Serie B).

Hydrogen cyanamide exposure: a case series from Pavia Poison Control Centre.

Hydrogen cyanamide is a plant growth regulator introduced in Italy as Dormex in 2000, but recalled from the market in 2008. It's currently not authorized in Europe. Inhalation/dermal contact may cause irritation/caustic burns, ingestion of severe organ damage and concomitant alcohol consumption disulfiram-like reaction due to aldehyde-dehydrogenase inhibition by hydrogen cyanamide. To study all exposure cases referred to our centre, evaluating temporal and geographic distribution and analysing clinical manifestations, including the ones after alcohol consumption. We retrospectively evaluated all hydrogen cyanamide exposures referred to our Poison Control Centre (January 2007-December 2021). For each case, age, sex, exposure route/year, geographical location, intent of exposure, alcohol co-ingestion, emergency department-admission Poison Severity Score, signs/symptoms and treatment were analysed. Thirty subjects were included. Median case/year was 1 [1; 2]: 79% occurred after market withdrawal, 92% in Sicily. All exposures were unintentional and work related; 41% of patients also co-ingested alcohol. Mean poison severity score at emergency department admission was 1.54, more severe when ingestion occurred. The most common signs/symptoms were flushing, secondary to peripheral vasodilation (41%), hyperaemia/erythema (29%), dyspnoea (25%), nausea (20%), vomiting (12%), oedema (12%), II-III degrees burns (12%) and pharyngodynia (12%). All patients were treated symptomatically and fully recovered. Hydrogen cyanamide exposure can lead to severe clinical manifestations. Despite its withdrawal from the Italian market, hydrogen cyanamide is still used: through PCC's crucial role in monitoring exposure to agricultural products efforts should be made to contrast illegal trade and increase awareness of its potential toxicity in those countries in which it's still legal.

The Use of Spatial Information in Area-level Models: An Evaluation Based on Auxiliary Data Availability

The small area estimation (SAE) theory is widely used when local or domain-specific reliable estimates based on survey data are needed. Small area model-based estimates use a model that links the response variable to some auxiliary information borrowing strength from the related areas. When geographical information on the areas of interest is available, the specification of a spatial area level model can increase the estimates’ efficiency, depending on available auxiliary data. In this article, we first review the most popular area level spatial models, and we then compare their performance under two alternative scenarios of auxiliary information availability to estimate the average equivalized household income in Italian Local Labour Market Areas (LLMAs) using the EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) survey data. Our findings suggest that the spatial information can “fill the gap” when the covariates do not have a high predictive power, a crucial result when there is lack of auxiliary data. AMS Subject Classification: 62D05, 62G05, 62H11

Covid-19 on stock market performance: evidence from Italy

This paper has explored the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the Italian stock market at an industry level, analysing companies listed in the two major stock indexes: MIB 30 and STAR. Using daily firm-level stock prices (from December 2019, until October 31, 2020), we employed an event-study approach to analyse short-term stock market reactions, considering different pandemic windows period. Results showed that stocks reacted negatively to the announcement of the first case in the country, with deep reversal effects when the country was locked down. Monetary policy measures showed potential to ease stock markets: the announcement of Next Generation Agreement highlights the reversed role of Market Capitalization. Firm-specific variables were included in order to make inferences about firm characteristics that emerged as value drivers during the pandemic: in the first lockdown period, a greater company’s capitalization ensured a greater resilience to the Covid-19 shock. Reversals at both an industry and a company level are observed. Results allow to understand how an outbreak of contagious disease affects stock returns in various sectors, helping investors to develop trading strategies to protect their wealth from future epidemics and providing inputs into the assessment of economic vulnerability to pandemic crises.

Sensory identity of wine from the ancient and almost forgotten grape variety Timorasso

Over the last few decades, there has been a gradual decrease in natural biodiversity, which is leading to the standardisation of wine products. Minor grape varieties possess key traits for producing wines with a specific territorial identity and they contribute to increasing biodiversity. Timorasso is an ancient Italian white grape variety native to the province of Alessandria in the Piedmont region. It fell into oblivion for a period of time due to the advent of phylloxera at the end of the 1800s and the abandonment of rural areas, which almost led to the extinction of this grapevine. This study aimed to identify the sensory properties that characterise Timorasso wine from different producers and production areas and to investigate the diversity of the sensory space. Sixteen Timorasso wines from the 2018 vintage and were evaluated for sensory description by a panel of nine semi-trained judges using the RATA method. The Timorasso wine was found to have a complex aromatic profile spanning fruity (citrus, tropical fruits, tree-fruit and dried/baked fruit), floral, vegetative, balsamic, honey and fuel/petroleum. The multiple factor analysis clearly differentiated wines with fruity notes from those with balsamic, vegetative and fuel/petroleum aromas. The hierarchical cluster analysis evidenced three main clusters. Cluster 1 comprised wines with pale-yellow colour and fruity-related aromas, low sourness, body and alcohol sensations. Cluster 2 comprised wines with dark yellow colour, low sourness, and high intensities of raisin and fuel aromas, probably due to specific oenological practices, such as grape maceration. Cluster 3 comprised wines with high sourness and vegetative odour. The results provide for the first time a sensory map of a grapevine that was almost forgotten until a few decades ago, but which is now considered to be among the most promising white wines on the Italian market.

Labor exploitation in the Italian agricultural sector: the case of vulnerable migrants in Tuscany.

Labor exploitation of agricultural migrant workers is a well-documented phenomenon by investigations and field research in several Italian regions, both in the North and the South. Despite the agri-food excellencies of the "Made in Italy" brand being a source of pride for Italian entrepreneurship, including the viticulture sector, evidence shows that many of these products are the result of different levels of illegal recruitment and labor exploitation. In this article, the authors analyze the impact of recent waves of vulnerable migrants entering the Italian labor market and present the results of a qualitative field research, conducted in Tuscany between 2021 and 2022. Through 60 interviews with exploited migrant workers and 40 interviews with relevant stakeholders, the authors focus on the recruitment process of vulnerable migrants into the agriculture sector and the labor conditions granted to them regardless of their particular migratory status. The article concludes with the analysis of the peculiarities of the Tuscan case study, characterized by the presence of a legal system of labor exploitation.

Precarious work and challenger parties: how precarity influenced vote choice in the 2018 Italian election

AbstractAcross Western European democracies, the last 20 years have seen a growth of precarious employment and the rise of challenger parties. Both trends are especially marked in Italy, where occupational insecurity has become the norm and over half of the electorate has turned to a challenger party. In this article, I investigate the relationship between these two phenomena, addressing the question of whether and how precarity in the labor market influenced vote choice in the 2018 general election. First, I provide descriptive evidence that the Italian labor market shifted from dualism to generalized precarization. Second, I empirically investigate the relationship between precarity and voting in this context. The results show that the perception of precarity, not formal employment status, influenced voting behavior: it fostered participation, increased support for the Five Star Movement, and decreased support for the Democratic Party. These findings challenge core assumptions in the literature, first and foremost about precarious workers' low turnout rate, difficult mobilization, and consequent political irrelevance. They indicate that the electoral weight of precarious workers has increased, and their representation can be electorally beneficial.

Organization of Musical Life in Modern Italy

The process of organizing musical life in modern Italy is analyzed through the prism of new management approaches aimed at the deployment of Italian musical projects in the general sociocultural space. The issues of management and marketing in today's musical life, which are a significant component in the creation of musical projects, are outlined. The main principles of new types of marketing in the context of the promotion of musical projects in Italy are characterized - event, empirical and territorial. The functioning of the national brand project — the Arena di Verona Opera Festival, the hundredth season of which took place in 2023 on the stage of the Roman Amphitheater Arena, is highlighted. The role of the "Arena di Verona" Foundation in the organization of the opera festival has been determined. Creative advertising measures are considered, thanks to which the project is popularized as an artistic phenomenon among the public. It was found that Italian festival marketing in modern musical life functions thanks to the cooperation of state, financial institutions, private business sector, associations and foundations. The specifics of the promotion of Italian music projects are revealed, which includes analysis, planning, implementation of a massscale event with the help of creativity in advertising, constant technological updating. The dependence of the success of musical projects on the exclusive decisions of the organizers, innovative technologies used in scenery, lighting, stage design, etc. is substantiated. The high artistic component of Italian music projects, which attract more fans, always take place in a certain place and time, strengthen the brand of the territory and make the region attractive both for the local population and for tourists, has been identified. It has been proven that the main goal of organizing musical life in modern Italy, working for a high professional result, is to show the world the historical and artistic sights of Italian cities and preserve Italian musical projects as a national cultural brand for future generations.

Operating performance of a Joule-Brayton pumped thermal energy storage system integrated with a concentrated solar power plant

The expected performance of an innovative Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES) system based on a closed-loop Brayton-Joule cycle and integrated with a Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant are analysed in this study. The integrated PTES–CSP plant includes five machines (two compressors and three turbines), a central receiver tower system, three water coolers and three Thermal Energy Storage (TES) tanks, while argon and granite pebbles are chosen as working fluid and storage media, respectively. A sizing of the main components of the integrated plant has been firstly carried out for the design of an integrated PTES-CSP plant with a nominal net power of 5 MW and a nominal storage capacity of 6 equivalent hours of operation. Specific mathematical models have been developed in MATLAB-Simulink to simulate the PTES and CSP subsystem in different operating conditions, and to evaluate the thermocline profile evolution within the three storage tanks during/charging and discharging processes. A control strategy has finally been developed to determine the operating modes of the plant based on the grid service request, the solar availability, and the TES levels. The performance of the system during a summer and a winter day have been analysed considering the integration of the PTES subsystem in the Italian energy market for arbitrage. Results have demonstrated the technical feasibility of the hybridization of a PTES system with a CSP plant and the ability of the integrated system to participate to energy arbitrage, although a lower exergy roundtrip efficiency (about 54 %) has been observed with respect to the sole PTES system (about 60 %).

A Further Step toward Sustainable Development: The Case of the Edible Mushroom Supply Chain.

This study provides an accurate economic characterization of the supply of edible mushrooms throughout Italy within the European context to fill the relevant research gap and highlight barriers and opportunities that are consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals. Italian companies operating in this field were identified and economically characterized using the Chamber of Commerce's Register of Companies. A qualitative web content analysis was then conducted to extract information about the marketed products, mushroom species, and retail channels, as well as the adopted certifications. The obtained data were quantitatively analyzed through descriptive statistics and multiple correspondence analysis. The Italian market is concentrated in northern areas of the country, and the limited company size indicates fragmentation at the production level, which led to Italy not being competitive enough and, thus, heavily rely on imports. Production is limited to less than 10 species, and innovative mushroom-based products, such as burgers, have shown a limited presence on the market, although they are gaining market share online. The novelty of growing kits highlights the potential to use food production waste to create fungal substrates. Investments in training new mushroom growers and studying new formulations and new fungal species are needed; these investments could allow greater market differentiation and be a good opportunity to promote local economies and create new job opportunities, thus meeting the requirements for sustainable development.