The concepts of sustainable development and social economy are currently undergoing a process of convergence, determined by the extension of the concept of sustainability and the role of social enterprise. In a context in which the primary focus of management literature, especially of North American origin, concerns the concept and practices of social entrepreneurship, this paper explores the experiences of European social enterprises and in particular of Italian social cooperatives. Social cooperatives are experimenting with initiatives capable of responding to the emergence of new needs and changes in society in a sustainable way. Based on an analysis of the experience of various social cooperatives operating in the field of renewable energy sources, tourism, and the use of assets confiscated from the Mafia, this paper aims to highlight how social enterprise manages to create contexts of sustainable development, thereby building interorganizational and intersectoral collaborative networks aimed at the activation of new paths for local development. This represents evidence of the specific nature of the social enterprise, which is able to establish a number of coordination mechanisms. It creates new businesses with public and private, and profit and non-profit partners, with the aim of achieving a stated goal, or enters into contractual arrangements, in order to establish business partnerships and build entire local manufacturing supply chains. In this way social enterprise promotes interaction between resources of a public, market and community nature.

Social cooperatives represent the most notable form of non-profit organizations operating in Italy in the social services field, the birth and development of which has been strongly linked to, and conditioned by, the needs and resources of territories and communities. This paper intends to demonstrate how certain socio-economic factors, recognized in economic literature as antecedents of the development of social enterprises, may account for the spread of social cooperatives in different Italian regions. Furthermore, the research results demonstrate an inter-regional differentiation of the shape social cooperation has entered into in Italy. * 214 ANTONIO PICCIOTTI, ANDREA BERNARDONI, MASSIMO COSSIGNANI AND LUCA FERRUCCI Las cooperativas sociales en Italia: antecedentes económicos y distribución regional Las cooperativas sociales constituyen la forma más representativa de organizaciones sinánimo de lucro en el campo de los servicios sociales en Italia. El nacimiento y el desarrollo de estas organizaciones ha estado estrechamente ligado y condicionado por las necesidades y recursos de los territorios y comunidades. Este artículo trata de mostrar como algunos factores socioeconómicos identificados en la literatura económica como antecedentes del desarrollo de las cooperativas sociales pueden explicar su expansión en las distintas regiones de Italia. Los resultados del estudio demuestran, además, que la cooperación social se ha desarrollado bajo diferentes fórmulas en las regiones italianas. Les coopératives sociales en Italie: Antécédentséconomiques et distribution régionale Les coopératives sociales représentent la forme la plus remarquable d'organisations sans but lucratif dans le domaine des services sociaux en Italie. La naissance et le développement de ces organisations ontétéétroitement liés et conditionnés par les besoins et ressources des territoires et communautés. Cet article viseà démontrer comment certains facteurs socio-économiques identifiés dans la littératureéconomique comme antécedents du développement des coopératives sociales peuvent expliquer leur expansion dans différentes régions d'Italie. Les résultats de l'étude démontrent en outre que la coopération sociale s'est installée sous différentes formes selon les régions d'Italie.

Purpose of the paper:The aim of the paper is to identify the economic effects of the generalized application of the social clause, i.e., the mechanism established by the legislation and by the collective agreement that foresees the continuity of employment in public tenders.Methodology: The methodological approach is qualitative and based on a multiple case study method. Through the use of a semi-structured questionnaire, interviews were conducted with the ownership and management of certain companies identified on the basis of dimensional criteria and their governance.Results: The results of the research show how the social clause can generate distortive effects both on the decisions and behaviour of existing or incoming companies that could plan exit strategies from the service or manage different means for the allocation of new employees, respectively, and on the market dynamics in terms of barriers to the introduction of technological and organizational innovations, motivation of employees and expected levels of service quality.Research limitations: This research is exploratory in nature and only considers the business perspective. Possible future research could help to overcome this limitation considering the other actors involved in these dynamics, such as employees, trade unions and public administrations.Practical implications: The article provides several policy proposals and indications that could result in a reduction in procurement costs and an increase in the capability to monitor the quality of the service provided.Originality of the paper: The work focuses on the public procurement field and addresses a specific theme, such as the social clause, via a business strategy perspective.

Introduction. Cycling is one of the most popular and practiced sports both in Europe and globally. However, management studies aimed at defining cyclists’ consumption behavior are still limited. The most recent contributions describe cycling consumption as an activity heavily influenced by the intensity and sociality of its practice but do not highlight the importance of expenditures related to participation in amateur cycling events and cycle tourism experiences. Starting from these behavioral dimensions, the article proposes an original segmentation of the sport and leisure market, leading to the identification of different profiles of amateur cyclists. Material and methods. The research was conducted on a sample of 182 cyclists located in one single Italian region to ensure a high level of social, economic and cultural uniformity. The data was collected by conducting a questionnaire, and its resulting information relating to sport and consumer behavior was processed through a cluster analysis procedure. Results. The results reveal the existence of five different amateur cyclists’ profiles (the parsimonious, the competitive, the ostentatious, the sociable and the experiential), each distinguished by specific behavior in terms of the intensity and way of conducting the sports activity and the propensity to incur different types of expenditure. Conclusions. From a theoretical point of view, the results confirm the effectiveness of behavioral segmentation in the market of sports consumption. From an operational point of view, they provide useful marketing indications for businesses operating in the sport-system chain and destination management operators.

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