Italy: Human Resource Management in Italian family-owned SMEs: sustaining the competitive advantage through B Corp transformation

Romano Lana is a 50-year-old family-owned medium enterprise located in Tuscany (Italy). Notwithstanding its robust financial performance, Romano Lana is struggling to maintain its competitive advantage. Linda, one of the owner’s children appointed as HR manager in the company, is convinced that getting benefit corporation (B Corp) certification will support the transformation needed to become more attractive to skilled employees, much needed to embrace the change required by the increasing competition. However, Linda needs to win the resistance of her father Cecco who strongly believes in the positive aspects of being a family firm (flexibility, reactiveness, cohesiveness) and is convinced that any kind of certification would include bureaucracy and (worthless) procedures.