My research develops along several theoretically interdependent lines, united by a constructivist epistemology and by the use of diverse qualitative methodological approaches. Data collection typically relies on interviews, focus groups, participant observation, ethnography, and archival data. Analysis combines content analysis, narrative methods and grounded theorizing with topic modeling and multiple correspondence analysis. The main areas of research are the following:
1. Arts and cultural management.
A first line of research concerns the study of cultural and creative industries in their material and symbolic dimensions, with particular attention to the relationship between skills and the production of cultural goods and services. The approach integrates organizational perspectives with the study of cultural production. This line of research began during my doctoral studies and continued through collaborations with the research groups on arts and cultural management at the Universities of Bologna and Venice: GIOCA Ricerche (Gestione e Innovazione delle Organizzazioni Culturali e Artistiche) and M.a.c.lab (Laboratorio di Management delle Arti e della Cultura). At the University of Rome Tor Vergata it has taken shape through my role as vice-coordinator of the Master’s program in Economics of Culture and as scientific lead of the Horizon Europe project Hephaestus. Within this project, the research investigates controversies surrounding the preservation of traditional crafts—such as Venetian gondola-making—and the prefigurative potential of craft as an alternative organizational form.
2. Innovation, entrepreneurship, and organization in digital and post-human contexts.
My research explores the intersections between digital innovation and organization, with particular attention to dynamics in post-human workplaces and to the role of the digital humanities. I have examined how entrepreneurship can be integrated into educational pathways in the humanities and how human and post-human agency can be mapped through Deleuzian theoretical lenses. I have also contributed to the development of tools such as MITAO, designed to make automated text analysis techniques accessible to researchers in the humanities.
3. Critical and methodological analysis of organizational and institutional processes.
More explicitly theoretical studies have addressed, on the one hand, the relationship between Total Quality Management (TQM) and Human Resource Management (HRM); on the other, I have analyzed complex organizational processes—such as the privatization of the Italian steel industry—through a Gramscian perspective. I have also employed topic modeling techniques to map modes of theorizing within academic fields and the evolution of knowledge domains.
4. Accessibility, inclusion, and social sustainability.
A more recent line of research addresses issues of inclusion for people with disabilities, such as the accessibility of public and private buildings. Related to this theme is a stream of work focusing on sustainability in its social, economic, and environmental dimensions, particularly through the analysis of its role in craft work.
5. European identity, public discourse, and institutional change.
My research on European identity focuses on the performativity of public discourse, exploring how institutional actors and firms use communication to promote or resist institutional change. This work is situated within the theoretical framework of neo-institutionalism and includes an investigation of the role of European Union cohesion policies in strengthening citizens’ identification with the Union’s founding values. A significant part of this research was developed within the Horizon project Perceive, in collaboration with the Department of Organization Studies at the Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien.
