Plenary Keynote Lectures

Maja Meško, Full professor
Faculty of management, University of Primorska, Slovenia
http://www.fm-kp.si/en/about/staff/about/mesko_maja/371

Topic: Impact of disruptive technologies on changes in the business environment

​The aim of the study is to analyse the impact of disruptive technologies on changes in the business environment. Disruptive technologies are strongly changing forms of business (services, design, operations, production systems through processes, etc.) and are influenced by the increasing exposure of the business sector to the constant social and technological changes in the environment. The question is how disruptive technologies are changing the established business environment and stimulating business changes in the complex cross - "social interactions of the cyber community". The aim of conceptual research of the literature review and business cases is to define the changed strategy in the overall environment, I. E. hard areas - infrastructure, services, production, transport, mobility and natural resources; and soft areas: culture, social inclusion and the economy - prosperity and added value for all those involved. 

Antonia Azzini, PhD
Senior Researcher C2T | Innovation Manager
Consorzio per il Trasferimento Tecnologico - C2T
Laboratorio R&S accreditato ad ARIANNA - MIUR | CRTT sistema QUESTIO regione Lombardia
​https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-azzini-0b629313/

Topic: The impact of Data Mining in Knowledge Management and CRM: Recent Trends in Italian SMEs

​The digital innovation increasingly present in recent years has strongly influenced, and is still bringing, a continuous change in social and economic logic. Moreover, the novel strategies implemented in various contexts force companies to continually renew, with particular attention to all the new ICT investments that the company must continuously employ. The concept of a data-centric business model, which has been the subject of discussion in the literature and in the market for several years, is becoming increasingly interesting, and is therefore applied by SMEs, particularly in all economic sectors where new competitive scenarios arise. Obviously all this happens with a particular attention to investments in IT. Indeed, technologies and solutions involving processes such as data and information management and exploitation are among the most dynamic sectors in today's market. Nevertheless, by considering the italian scenario, it is difficult for SMEs to obtain important positions, with good profits, in the market, especially wrt the global market.The growth of the global market causes new problems for enterprises. Extracting knowledge from the huge amount of data available to an enterprise (whether it is data generated inside or outside) has been recognized as one of the most valuable ways to obtain a competitive advantage. In this sense the recognition of the importance of Data Mining allowed this research area to be among the fields of computer science that has produced the biggest amount of research and development in recent years. In particular, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) has increasingly assumed a key role in the profitability and operations of companies, thanks to the management of the relationships with the market to which they are addressed. As widely reported in the literature, the objective of CRM has been based on the study and identification of the needs of the market to which a company turns. The aim is leveraging these aspects in order to increase the company's profitability in the long term, clearly taking into account a number of environmental, social, economic and financial factors that surround a company, but which are constantly evolving. In fact, every day companies are required to implement solutions able to deal with these changes. In this context, the advent of Information Technology (IT) and in particular the introduction of innovative Knowledge Management techniques, and Data Mining more specifically, has transformed CRM, as well as the way companies manage information about their customers.

Maja Baretić
Department of Endocrinology, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Croatia
School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia
​http://www.endokrinologija.com.hr/o-nama/tim/dr-sc-maja-baretic

Topic: The hunger games of profit and health: Linking unethical food marketing to obesity

Marketing strategies often use some aspects of human nature to create better results, balancing between ethics and profit. Decision between doing the right thing and making money raises questions when it comes to important issues like health. The background of obesity results from the interaction of genetic, metabolic, behavioural, and environmental factors. The rapidity with which obesity is increasing suggests that environmental influences, rather than biological changes, accelerated the epidemic. Food-related decision-making can be influenced by perceptual salience; exogenous features playing a key role in biasing attention when multiple food items are present. The area of psychological marketing, known as sensory marketing is based on “embodied cognition” – the concept that bodily sensations help to determine human decisions without conscious awareness. Consumers don’t perceive messages as marketing and don’t react with the usual resistance.  Such marketing strategies are incorporated in daily life without being noticed. They are targeting consumers by using TV advertising, celebrities and interactive digital technologies. While exploring compulsive overeating phenomenon, it is proposed that some foods, have potential for abuse in a manner similar to conventional drug. If obesity is classified as an addiction, much more harm is done by marketing food in inappropriate way than we thought.