Francesco Petronelli | Tongji University (original) (raw)

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Papers by Francesco Petronelli

Many western companies have already gone glocal, adapting their business models according to the ... more Many western companies have already gone glocal, adapting their business models according to the culture of different countries. Since China's growth and integration into the world economy is proving to be a lasting trend, it is easily foreseeable for Chinese companies to adopt the same politics in exporting their products and services overseas. But how can these companies identify which are the Chinese values that are more suitable for European cultures and markets? In this paper we will explain how we want to research significant case studies in order to identify patterns and to design models for good practice, validating our theory by applying them on the Chinese tea industry.

History deeply affects people values and behavior, and the way they are transmitted to the future... more History deeply affects people values and behavior, and the way they are transmitted to the future generations. Sad but true, the factor which has mostly contributed to the cultural development of nations is the economic one. Economic development took different paths, mainly depending on the world resources and the way they are administrated; it sets a constantly changing world order where each nation try to gain a leading role in the game of owning those resources.
On the one hand governments have tried to increase their financial resources to provide wealth for the population as well as leaderships on world markets; on the other they tried to protect their cultural identities from the pollution that the new global policies would have created. As we know today, this cultural melting pot is hardly avoidable, but when we refer to Eastern culture it is undeniable they have struggled in maintaining a strong cultural identity, and a certain cultural control over the population, until they found reasonable opportunities to disclose to the world, owning big capitals and resources.
The big shift the economic history has created from the West of the world to the East is reflected in arts and architectures as much as politics. Money, power and the national uniqueness affected society and created permanent patterns in the way people live together. A basic example comes from the American approach and the Chinese one: American values of self-reliance, independence, emphasis on exchange and competence fight against the Chinese expectation of rewards, high self-monitoring and control. These two behaviors reflect the conflict of owning and sharing, which is the most relevant opposition in the Western and Eastern cultures and it’s directly related to the concepts of Individualism and Collectivism. As John W. Berry said, the former reflects the pursuit of private interests and the latter the pursuit of the common interest of the collectivity.
This attitude affects every aspect of daily life and has often created boundaries in the intercultural communication by bringing misunderstandings even through simple conversations. Silence, for example, can play a tricky role in a conversation between an Individualist and a Collectivist: the former may consider it as a sign of boredom, anger or low interest in the conversation, the latter can use it to save embarrassment, ease tension, respect the feelings of the speaker and, most importantly, to safe dignity.

What is design? Un.l a few decades ago, design was strictly connected to product design and it wa... more What is design? Un.l a few decades ago, design was strictly connected to product design and it was perceived only as a matter of functionality, dressed up in appealing aesthetics, but we now know that there is so much more to it. The concept of design has evolved: the “D” word has spread throughout our daily lives in such an impressive way that we can find it everywhere, almost as an added value, a magic word that suddenly makes everything more precious. And again, we constantly need to re-think the definition of design. The society we live in is a very complex system and we are now facing the biggest change needed since the industrial revolution: our ways of production and consumption are not sustainable anymore and our models are proving to be more and more weak. We need to re- think our systems, and this means a lot of work in each and every field of our society. Design should always aim to recognise what is needed in the society and be able to come up with the best solution to solve a certain problem. In this sense, we can say that design is a context-based discipline, made by design professionals, able to recognise even the weakest signals of problems that have not been solved yet. Although, these problems are not only related to matter: we are not only talking about new products for new tasks. Sometimes, what we need to focus on are problems merely related to managing resources, or connecting people who need something with people who can get that job done. Well, in this sense, we can also say that design is more of an approach, an attitude towards life, therefore reaching the concept of “design thinking”.

Service design always starts from social needs, claims or necessities that have not yet been sati... more Service design always starts from social needs, claims or necessities that have not yet been satisfied, or sometimes from intuitions that can facilitate an existing process about living, purchasing, commuting, etc. improving the quality of living. People are not only users but also designers of these systems, since they are fully involved in them: through experience they gained the right to point out problems and solutions, and most importantly, they have the tools to communicate and make these solutions real in a sustainable way. This process uncovered an inherent ability of social communities, that is creativity, and technology can support this ability through the spread of social platforms, where people share their ideas and collaborate to make them more efficient. This report is about how creative communities join forces and work together to improve their lives, and which are the risks coming from technology as an increasingly important factor in this process.

Conflicts are inevitable and sometimes I would rather say useful. They represent opportunities of... more Conflicts are inevitable and sometimes I would rather say useful. They represent opportunities of growth as much as cultural crashes due to incompatibility of values. As I argued before about Individualism and Collectivism, it is clear that those values, connected to specific expectations, processes and outcomes, hardly match in the game of intercultural communication, but still people have tried to find ways to overcome this difficulty in the new global reality.
The hardest part in the intercultural conflict is matching the ethnocentric biases with the egocentric one. Both Individualists and Collectivists could be given some advices in managing a conflict situation. These advices should be followed minding respect for what is different and far from our mindset. We could easily say that the former should learn to help their opponents to save face and find a way out of the conflict situation, and most importantly they have to be mindful of the historical past and try to focus on the “how” process rather than “why”. The latter should try to openly express opinions and points of view, own responsibility and use “I” statements to describe feelings in order to be direct and self-disclose emotions.
These advices have to be taken as guidelines to overcome the cognitive, affective and behavioral blinders people bring into a conflict, but putting them into practice doesn’t mean we really reached an acceptance of the cultural differences that stand in front of us. Affirming and valuing such differences as diverse human options is just the first step. We will identify ourselves as real peacemakers in a conflict when we won’t feel the need to adapt ourselves to the other person’s behavior or completely shift our conflict style as well as our harmony and balance style. Than respect should be the only advice I could give in order to provide peace, among all the intercultural misunderstandings and incompatibilities, which are never harmful for our personhood, unless we consider them as enriching experiences that will help us in being at peace with ourselves and the others.

Thesis Chapters by Francesco Petronelli

China is the second larger luxury market in the world and it’s predicted to be the first one by 2... more China is the second larger luxury market in the world and it’s predicted to be the first one by 2015.
The concept of luxury has gone through many changes since it first appeared in the Greek philosophical thinking as superfluity, excess and hedonism. It is in the seventeenth century that luxury got closer to its modern definition, related to goods and products which were available only for an elitist group. In the eighteenth century, after the Industrial Revolution and the global trade, luxury goods started to be “mass-produced” and luxury brands were born, enhancing the cultural heritage of the European countries. At this time in history, oriental luxury was made of handicraft products, which were largely appreciated in Europe, imported and imitated. From now on, China continued to produce its luxury “traditionally”, and kept its quality knowledge secret.
In Europe, due to the contemporary economic and social changes, the concept of luxury started to be criticized. This process had two main consequences: luxury brands reinforced their strategies towards new markets, such as China, and tried to be more democratic by making their products available for a larger target; European consumers shaped the concept of “new luxury”, which is linked to rare, customized, self-expressive and experiential goods.
Besides, the economic and social changes affecting China made Chinese consumers embrace the consumption of famous brands luxury goods. This spread had two main consequence as well: owning (or showing off) luxury goods helped Chinese in fulfilling their need to belong to a social group (collectivism) and maintain their reputation and face towards it; local brands started to grow and struggle to compete with the Western ones and enhanced the quality of the “Made in China”.
This process created a paradox, according to which Chinese consumers are fulfilling their traditional social values buying products which are far away from their culture, meeting status and westernization. They are forgetting about their cultural heritage, which is the most important provider of luxury goods.
This study is aimed at analyzing the Chinese consumers’ behavior towards luxury fashion goods along with the discussion on the extant literature. The expected result is to find a new target which could consider luxury as not necessarily linked to brands, but to quality and self-expression, meeting the current European trend of the “new luxury”.
This sophisticated target, which is expected to be found among younger consumers, can be addressed to a market strategy enhancing local quality and production.