Interview for Italian Festival on Emotional Engagement and state of the industry

Alessandro Sorbello from Brisbane and Dr Eliane Karsaklian take out Best Research Award at the prestigious International Academy of Business and Economics Conference held on June 16-18 2016, at the University of Florence and Pisa.

Alessandro Sorbello www.alessandrosorbello.com from Brisbane and Dr Eliane Karsaklian
http://ubi-orbi.com/our-founder  takes out Best Research Award at the prestigious International Academy of Business and Economics Conference held on June 16-18 2016, at the University of Florence and Pisa.

Sorbello has been working on his doctoral research with Dr Eliane Karsaklian who is Paris based director of a trilingual Professional Master Program in International Negotiation at Université Sorbonne, one of the most reputed universities in the world. Sorbello flew to the University of Florence to receive the award and present the keynote address together with Dr Karsaklian.
Sorbello and Karsaklian presented ‘From Lasagna to Lamborghini, Leveraging the power of an Italian Festival as a comprehensive marketing tool: The Case of Italian Week in Australia’ to scholars from more than 70 universities from around the world.

The research is a case study of the Queensland based Italian Week Festival and explores the marketing potential revealed by the festivals intentional creation of ‘emotional engagement’ with its participants and its subsequent residual effects on consumer behaviour.

Alessandro Sorbello is the passionate producer and creative catalyst behind Italian Week and has been since its inception.  Over the past 10 years, the festival has increased from 2000 people in 2007 to over 1 million people in 2016. These are people that saw Australia’s largest tribute to Italy with “the Illumination” in the heart of Brisbane as 6 major structures including the iconic Story Bridge and QPAC and Brisbane’s City Hall were illuminated in Green white and red to celebrate the Italian national day.

In 2010 Alessandro was awarded the title of ‘Cavaliere’ (Knight) from the President of the Republic of Italy for the development of the Italian Week festival for the promotion of Italian culture in the modern context in Australia.

Sorbello explained “The theories we have been applying to the production of the event have been validated and celebrated in Italy and it’s very exciting so looking forward to where we can go from here, well I am especially excited to be further developing the concepts of emotional engagement and presenting our findings to the marketing and event community”

Interview for EaMMa on Festivals in Queensland

Entertainment and Media Map Australia abbreviated to EaMMa, is an extensive entertainment database that maps out and describes different entertainment sectors in Australia. Here you will find contact info, interviews and descriptions about many different creative companies. The website was created in 2000 and for the past 16 years last year undergraduate and postgraduate students at QUT are the ones that runs and improves on it. EaMMa has been documented to be helpful towards job seekers and industry specialist, and between October-January 2015, the site had 6000 hits and the numbers are increasing.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). From Lasagna to Lamborghini, Leveraging the Power of an Italian Festival as a Comprehensive Marketing Tool: The Case of Italian Week in Australia. Paper presented at the International Academy of Business and Economics 2016 Florence and Pisa, University of Florence, School of Economics and Management.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016c). From Lasagna to Lamborghini, Leveraging the Power of an Italian Festival as a Comprehensive Marketing Tool: The Case of Italian Week in Australia. Paper presented at the International Academy of Business and Economics 2016 Florence and Pisa, University of Florence, School of Economics and Management.

June 16, 2016

Key Note Address

International Academy of Business and Economics - 2016

Summer Conference June 16 – 18, 2016 University of Florence and the University of Pisa

Official Luncheon

Keynote Speakers:
Cav. Alessandro Sorbello - Griffith University, Australia
Dr. Eliane Karsaklian - LARGEPA - Sorbonne, France

Topic: FROM LASAGNA TO LAMBORGHINI, LEVERAGING THE POWER OF AN ITALIAN FESTIVAL AS A COMPREHENSIVE MARKETING TOOL: THE CASE OF ITALIAN WEEK IN AUSTRALIA

Time: Friday, June 17, 2016, 12:15 PM – 2:15 PM

Venue: University of Florence, School of Economics and Management

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Grounded Theory and Emotional Engagement: What do we Learn From the Field? Review of Business Research, Volume 16(Issue 2), pp. 59-70.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Grounded Theory and Emotional Engagement: What do we Learn From the Field? Review of Business Research, Volume 16(Issue 2), pp. 59-70.

June 8, 2016

Abstract

Festivals’ ability to trigger emotional engagement and its consequent impact on consumption habits in real and delayed time has not been studied so far. The purpose of this research was to study the inputs and outputs of emotional engagement as perceived by professionals in the Italian Week Festival in Australia. The design was grounded on real-life experiences via a qualitative study based on 32 semi-structured interviews with professional experts involved in the production and execution of the festival. This generated key dimensions of emotional engagement. Results indicate that Italian Week does generate emotional engagement which in turn changes consumption habits during the Festival and at the same time, enhances its the residual effect.

A better understanding of the underlying key components of emotional engagement can represent a competitive advantage to Festival producers. We contribute with a conceptual framework for emotional engagement and implications for both academics and practitioners.

Keywords: Festival, grounded theory, emotional engagement, identity, hedonism, typicality 

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Fun, Culture and Emotional Engagement Increases Sales: The Residual Effect of Italian Week in Australia. European Journal of Management, Volume 16(2), 113-126.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Fun, Culture and Emotional Engagement Increases Sales: The Residual Effect of Italian Week in Australia. European Journal of Management, Volume 16(2), 113-126.

April 6, 2016

Abstract

The proliferation of Festivals around the world can be attributed to the fact that they are highly profitable in a short time. However, few measures have been taken about the residual effect of these events generated by the emotional engagement. In this research we outline a model for emotional engagement (The Emotional Engagement Model – TEEM) which provides a general framework to understand the impact of emotional engagement on both participants with high and low involvement in Italian culture. Our research studied the residual effect caused by emotional engagement in the Italian Week Festival in Australia through a qualitative study based on 32 semi-structured interviews which generated key factors leading to establish emotional engagement with Italian culture from which a structured questionnaire designed for an online survey with 282 respondents was conducted. Results indicate that Italian Week is able to generate emotional engagement which in turn enhances the residual effects on post-festival consumption behaviour.

Keywords: Emotional Engagement, Fest-Vibe, Consumer Behaviour, Central and Peripheral Route, ELM, Italy, Culture, Profitability 

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Residual Impacts of COO in Cultural Festivals: A Case Study of Italian Week in Australia. Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 16 (Issue 1), pp. 45-60.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Residual Impacts of COO in Cultural Festivals: A Case Study of Italian Week in Australia. Journal of International Management Studies, Volume 16 (Issue 1), pp. 45-60.

June 13, 2016

Abstract

Controversial findings in COO (Country of Origin Effect) research state that it influenced consumer

behaviour while others stated the opposite. However, no research has been conducted to study the impact of emotional engagement in regards of consumer purchase behaviour during Festivals. This research aims thus to study COO effect on consumption behaviour thanks to emotional engagement as well as its residual effect in the case of Italian Week in Australia. This research was composed of two studies. Thanks to a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews generated a list of key factors leading respondents to establish emotional engagement with Italian culture.  Next, the key factors generated by the qualitative phase of our research were quantified through an online survey with 282 respondents.

Results from this research indicate that thanks to COO, Italian Week is able to generate emotional engagement which in turn enhances the residual effect of the festival and its impact on attendees’ consumption behaviour. The positive country of origin effect towards Italy enables Festivals such as Italian Week to target Italy lovers thanks to marketing activities highlighting Italian brands and services and developing emotional engagement. This research explores an unstudied field in international marketing, more specifically in the COO effect field. Research about COO has focused on products and brand consumption to date and none has analysed the impact of COO in services, specifically regarding cultural festivals.

Keywords: Italy, country of origin, stereotypes, Italian Week, cultural festivals

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). The Multidimensionality of Identities and Emotional Engagement: The Case of Italian Week in Australia. International Journal of Strategic Management, Volume 16(Issue 1), pp.105-119.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). The Multidimensionality of Identities and Emotional Engagement: The Case of Italian Week in Australia. International Journal of Strategic Management, Volume 16(Issue 1), pp.105-119.

May 16, 2016

Abstract

Consumer Identification has been extensively studied as being a condition for creation of communities and for shaping consumption patterns. However, no research has been conducted to explore the effects of experiential meaning on consumer identification and their consequent emotional engagement in Festivals. We outline a model for emotional engagement (The Emotional Engagement Model – TEEM) which provides a general framework to understand the impact of experiential meaning in stimulating consumer identification with the culture. A qualitative study generated key factors leading respondents to establish emotional engagement with Italian culture which were then used in an online survey. Our results demonstrate the ability of Italian Week in creating emotional engagement thanks to the fusion of three different types of identification – self, social and cultural – which we called Multidimensional ID. 

Key words: Cultural Festival, Emotional Engagement, Consumer Behaviour, Consumer Identification, Experiential meaning

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Everybody Wants To Be Italian: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Engagement Created by a Cultural Festival. International Journal of Business Research, 16(2), 49-62

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Everybody Wants To Be Italian: A Qualitative Study of Emotional Engagement Created by a Cultural Festival. International Journal of Business Research, 16(2), 49-62.

March 1, 2016

Abstracte

A yearly festival which demonstrated the joy of all things Italian was developed as a communications method to reinvigorate Queensland’s waning Italian community. This qualitative case-study examined the role of a focal point in creating emotional engagement and how this engagement developed cultural unity by exploring the role emotions play in the creation of successful festivals. Findings suggest that when both utilitarian and hedonistic needs of festival attendees are met, the opportunity to create emotional engagement develops. The success of the festivals use of engagement produced an enhanced sense of cultural unity leading to a desire to share and repeat the experience among the attendees, as evidenced by increased visitors and an appreciation of what it is to be Italian. This ability to create emotional engagement is also appreciated in bringing together individuals with both high and low involvement in the Italian community in Queensland. 

Keywords - Focal Points, Communication, Festivals, Emotional engagement, Cultural Engagement, Cultural Identity, central and peripheral routes

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Country of Origin Effect on Emotional Engagement: An Analysis of Italian Week in Australia Based on ELM. European Journal of Business Research, 16(1), 63-72.

Sorbello, A., & Karsaklian, E. (2016). Country of Origin Effect on Emotional Engagement: An Analysis of Italian Week in Australia Based on ELM. European Journal of Business Research, 16(1), 63-72.

European Journal of Business Research

March 1, 2016

Abstract

We studied the COO effect on emotional engagement in the case of Italian Week in Australia. We outline The Emotional Engagement Model (TEEM) which provides a general framework to understand the impact on COO on the creation of emotional engagement for participants with high and low involvement in Italian culture. A qualitative study generated key factors in establishing emotional engagement with Italian culture. Results from this research indicate that thanks to COO, Italian Week is not only able to generate emotional engagement but also generate positive COO to attendees with low involvement.

Key words: Country of Origin, Cultural Festival, Emotional Engagement, Consumer Behavior