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Purpose This paper aims to examine the content dimensions and methods of accelerating the entrepreneurial learning (EL) triggered by participating in learning events, such as factory tours. It particularly focuses on the Italian case of Open Factory – an open-doors event of industrial manufacturing culture. Design/methodology/approach This study adopted a qualitative approach using the “Gioia” methodology. Data were mainly collected through semi-structured interviews with firms participating in and organising Open Factory. Findings The dimensions of EL are learning from critical reflection, experience and external sources, while the enablers of EL (factors that accelerate learning) are varied and connected to organisational learning in the form of individual-, team- and institutional-level learning. Based on these results, this paper proposes a model for developing EL triggered by participating in learning events. Practical implications This research suggests developing appropriate organisational conditions inside firms, especially by entrepreneurs. These conditions are connected to sharing organisational values to foster learning, such as trust, commitment, involvement, awareness, sharing of experiences, exchange, autonomy and freedom. In addition, this study suggests ways that the EL model proposed in this research can be adapted to other learning events. Originality/value This is the first study to connect factory tours to learning events and EL. It highlights the ways that participating in the Open Factory event created the chance to develop learning across organisational levels inside firms.

PurposeThis study expands the debate on the reasons that wine producers adopt sustainable, organic wine production. It aims to ascertain the enabling factors facilitating behavioral intention regarding such an adoption and whether these factors can be combined in a conceptual, measurable model.Design/methodology/approachA sample of 157 Italian winery companies was used. Results were analyzed through the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model, various quantitative methods and a multi-regression model.FindingsGender, age, role, experience in the sector and company existence do not affect behavioral intention. Conversely, performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influences, facilitating conditions, attitude and self-efficacy strongly affect behavioral intention, whereas the determinant anxiety has a negative effect. Further, four factors account for most of the variability in behavioral intention.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to Italian wine producers, and the discussion is based on quantitative results alone. Qualitative data would probably produce a richer, more comprehensive understanding of some phenomena.Practical implicationsManagers and entrepreneurs intending to invest in organic wine production can gain a detailed understanding of factors that affect the behavioral intention toward these technologies by comparing their attitudes with those of Italian producers.Originality/valueSeveral studies have focused on wine consumers' behavior, but very few have investigated wineries' intention to adopt organic wine technology and the likely driving factors.

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PurposeThe aim of the paper is to consider whether constant product innovation is compatible with the ethical management of a business. The question arises out of observations of two pressures exerted by global competition, i.e. the speed of change, which pushes in the direction of continuous innovation, and the determining power of demand, which wishes to see business conduct itself ethically.Design/methodology/approachWith a theoretical approach, the paper highlights how these two pressures are both exerted on business, the advantages for business as well as for the consumers, deriving from the tendency of companies to innovate at all times and in ever shorter times, and the sins that an enterprise may commit when involved in a “competition vortex” created by the pressure of the speed of change.FindingsWhat can a business imprisoned in this vortex do to escape when the fear of being “left behind” blinds it to seeing any other courses open to it? The paper proposes a possibly controversial, and at least challenging, model that can be seen as swimming against the tide, by adopting “slowness” and harmony, and a cluster of related concepts, as its basic tenets.Originality/valueFor this very reason the model proposed is already potentially valid, in a context where complexity and uncertainty give value to the original and the new. The paper is seen to be useful for managers and scholars of management, with particular focus on business ethics and product innovation.