Il presente lavoro intende investigare la relazione che intercorre fra gli assetti proprietari e l’autonomia manageriale. A tal fine, dopo una ricognizione dei principali filoni di studio, rintracciabili nella letteratura economico-aziendale, è stata condotta un’indagine empirica su di un campione di società quotate nel mercato mobiliare italiano. I risultati empirici conseguiti forniscono interessanti spunti di riflessione per gli indirizzi di ricerca futuri, in quanto confermano i costrutti teorici analizzati.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the board diversity and the investments in innovation in a sample of companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (named Borsa Italiana) and operating in the consumer goods and in the consumer services industry. This sample covers the period from 2006 to 2010 and contains 345 observations. Drawing on the literature review, we pinpointed six hypotheses related to the impact on the investments in innovation of the following independent variables: 1. presence of outside directors; 2. average number of the other positions held by the members of the board; 3. minority shareholder representatives on the board; 4. presence of women on the board of directors; 5. number of committees; 6. frequency of board meetings. Furthermore, on the basis of the previous empirical studies, to measure the investments in innovation (the dependent variable), we chose these accounting ratios: total intangible assets divided by total assets and total R&D costs divided by total sales. From the methodology standpoint, we used both the bivariate statistic (i.e. Pearson Correlations and Anova one way) and the multivariate one (i.e. OLS regression analysis with robust standard errors calculated by the Newey-West, HAC method). Our findings confirm the previous studies and show that, also for the Italian listed companies operating in the industries mentioned earlier, the outsiders as well as the frequency of meetings held by the Strategy Committee assume a relevant role in supporting the investments in innovation. Conversely, the other independent variables concerning board diversity (i.e. women, minority shareholder representatives etc.) are not statistically significant and, as a result, do not influence the investments in innovation.

The contribution of Human Resources to an organization success has been largely acknowledged by the academic and the professional world. The term of Human Capital is taken to include multiple items, such as the employees’ knowledge, abilities, skills and experiences, which are not properly represented in traditional economic-financial reporting. Despite its key role in creating enterprise value, Human Capital does not appear in the company’s Annual Reports. In response to this gap, the goals of this study are: 1) the analysis of how Human Capital Disclosure features in corporate reports, making a distinction between information disclosed in mandatory reports and information disclosed in voluntary ones; 2) the investigation of the relationship between HC disclosure and specific corporate fields, such as firm growth and financial performance. A Content Analysis is performed on the basis of 71 items inherent to the Human Capital framework on mandatory and voluntary reports drawn up by 80 European listed companies, combined with some bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses. The findings show that Human Capital mandatory disclosure is positively related to firm growth and financial performance.

This paper aims to investigate “whether”, two years after the closing, in a recovery process, the private equity (PE) investor has a positive impact on venture backed firm (VBF) performances and “how” it contributes to the turnaround management. To this end, we studied a sample made up by 40 Italian companies of which 10 are venture backed while 30 are not venture backed. The latters can be considered a control group to compare with the venture backed firms. We chose Italian context, since during the period 2005-2008, there has been a steady upward trend of the investments inherent to the turnaround segment. In particular, the compound annual growth rate of the investments for this deal type has been 14%. Moreover, in the same period, the divestitures did not overcome the threshold of 5%. This value was a far more lower than one recorded for other deal types, such as buy-out and expansion. So, the PE investor tends to hold his stake in VBF instead of opting for a quick way-out. Thanks to the adoption of a non-parametric test (i.e. Mann Whitney U), our findings show that the PE investor affects positively on some VBF managerial fields, such as efficiency, economic performances and investments in innovation. Additionally, we run four multivariate regression models by which we pointed out that the PE investor adopts a managerial approach oriented to privilege the investments in innovation rather than the economic performances of the VBF in the short-term. Therefore, besides to the PE investors named “locusts” in the doctrinal debate, there are others that can be observed from a strategic corporate entrepreneurship standpoint, as they judge the stake in the VBF like a long-term investment and, consequently, become a strategic change “agent” during the recovery process. In a special situation, hence, the top management of the VBF might take a less suspicious attitude and consider the opportunity “to open” the equity to a PE investor, as it could contribute to undertake a value creation path. In terms of managerial implications, our empirical evidence are in line with foregoing studies and suggest that the PE investor tends to lay the foundations for the VBF development in the years ahead rather than merely supporting her “rescue”. Indeed, the PE investor seeks to give to the innovation a pivotal role among the entrepreneurial values that should inspire the top management of the VBF.

Gli orientamenti emergenti nel dibattito accademico e professionale unitamente agli interventi legislativi degli ultimi anni hanno contributo ad accrescere l’interesse verso la comunicazione d’azienda. Nel presente lavoro, tramite un approccio metodologico di tipo quantitativo, si persegue la finalità di investigare l’eventuale presenza e la conseguente intensità dell’impatto che, nell’ambito della comunicazione d’azienda «dovuta», l’informativa di sostenibilità – obbligatoria e facoltativa – può esercitare sulle performance aziendali. Considerata la crescente attenzione di numerosi stakeholder verso le ricadute sociali e ambientali del “fare impresa”, a seguito dell’entrata in vigore del D.Lgs. n. 32/2007, come noto, nella suddetta comunicazione possono confluire anche le informazioni pertinenti al processo di integrazione della corporate social responsibility nella corporate strategy, giacché i rapporti con l’ambiente sociale e con l’environment in senso lato possono incidere in maniera significativa sugli equilibri economico-finanziari e patrimoniali del sistema d’azienda. Con specifico riguardo al percorso di studio, nel primo capitolo è stata condotta una breve literature review sulla rilevanza della comunicazione nel sistema d’azienda. Inoltre, traendo spunto dalle prospettive di indagine rintracciate nella dottrina economico-aziendale, sono state formulate dodici proposizioni di ricerca. Nel secondo capitolo sono stati descritti i tratti salienti del campione statistico sul quale poggiano le elaborazioni quantitative effettuate. Nel terzo capitolo, è stata condotta un’analisi descrittiva sulle informazioni di sostenibilità sociale e ambientale riportate nella relazione sulla gestione degli annual report 2008 e 2009. Nel quarto capitolo, infine, vengono “testate” le predette proposizioni di ricerca, al fine di verificarne la validità. Le evidenze empiriche conseguite rivelano che, anche a seguito del D.Lgs. n. 32/2007, l’opportunità di “arricchire” il nucleo di notizie pertinenti alla sostenibilità sociale e ambientale deve essere attentamente vagliata dall’organo amministrativo, giacché un ampliamento della “qualità” e della “quantità” delle informazioni facoltative può concorrere ad ingenerare un miglioramento delle performance economico-finanziarie.

Recent collapses, corporate frauds and the crisis of investors’ confidence have moved things toward the development of ethical codes and the companies’ orientation in the direction of a more sustainable behavior, which is now building up all over the world. In 2011, United Nations (UN) claims that companies have to “seek to prevent or to mitigate adverse human rights impacts that are linked to their operations, products or services by their business relationships, even if they have not contributed to those impacts” (Guiding Principles, No. 13, p. 14). In this perspective, Human rights (HRs) principles are becoming a crucial theme in embedding sustainability issues in key company functions. Indeed, companies should be prepared to disclose actions to address their HRs impacts through a formal communication especially to affected stakeholders. The form and the frequency of this communication may provide suitable and accessible information giving an adequate measure of transparency and accountability to firms’ audiences that may be impacted or to other relevant stakeholders (i.e. investors and so on). Building on these reflections, the research question of the present study pertains the influence of firm approach about the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting on firm commitment towards the safeguard of HRs. The foregoing research question is explored through six hypotheses into which the other determinants investigated are: firm profitability, corporate governance model and firm size. From an empirical standpoint, a longitudinal analysis, covering the time frame 2010-2014, is carried out on a sample of 42 European listed large-size companies operating in the oil & gas industry. Supportive empirical evidence ensues from the adoption of random effects (RE) regression models for panel data.

Negli ultimi decenni, le forme di gestione “indiretta” dei servizi pubblici locali si sono progressivamente diffuse nel contesto economico italiano. Considerato che un tratto distintivo di tali forme concerne il trasferimento delle responsabilità operative di erogazione del servizio a realtà imprenditoriali esterne all’ente locale, il presente lavoro si propone di investigare la relazione che intercorre tra le performance economiche, finanziarie e patrimoniali e le “dimensioni” dell’efficacia (espresse in termini di output prodotti e di outcome generati) nelle aziende che forniscono il servizio del trasporto pubblico urbano su strada. Si approfondisce altresì l’influenza esercitata dalla diversa struttura degli assetti proprietari aziendali sui livelli di efficacia del servizio. A riguardo, particolare enfasi viene data alla presenza – totalitaria o, comunque, di controllo – dei soggetti privati nel capitale sociale delle aziende affidatarie. Con l’ausilio di tecniche statistiche multivariate (regressione con dati panel ad effetti casuali), si conduce un’indagine empirica su di un campione di dati longitudinali costituito da 66 aziende italiane. I risultati conseguiti mostrano che, sotto il profilo economico-aziendale, la ricerca di elevati livelli di economicità nella gestione del servizio di trasporto pubblico locale da parte delle aziende affidatarie rappresenta un obiettivo del tutto “compatibile” con le aspettative di maggiore efficacia dei cittadini/utenti. Inoltre, la presenza di soggetti privati nel capitale sociale delle aziende affidatarie, a certe condizioni, può generare conseguenze negative sul grado di efficacia del servizio fornito.

Urban mobility (UM) represents an increasingly important field in European Union policy agenda. The growing complexity of citizens’ needs and the criticalities related to the global economic downturn have reduced the amount of the public expenditure that can be invested to cover the UM systems’ requirements. From this perspective, private funding is unavoidable. Public-private partnerships are more and more widespread. In particular, we look to a more relevant non-public shareholders’ presence in the ownership structure of urban public-transport companies. Many scholars have investigated the relationship between the presence of non-public shareholders and the economic performance generated by these companies. Nevertheless, less attention is paid to the “intensity” of non-public shareholders’ presence on firm performance. Moreover, cross-country comparisons are infrequently explored. In light of these considerations, this paper aims to test whether a lesser or higher presence (i.e. the intensity) of non-public shareholders in the ownership structure of the urban public-transport companies can affect economic performance. This research issue is investigated by statistical methodologies focusing on a sample made up by 333 companies operating in 12 European Union countries. Findings, managerial implications and suggestions for future research are outlined and discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the content of relational capital disclosure (RCD) information communicated by a sample of European listed companies. It also investigates the links between RCD and certain corporate financial performance indicators. This research did a cross-country analysis on a sample of 80 companies and a content analysis based on 51 items inherent to the relational capital (RC) framework of mandatory and voluntary reports. An RCD index has been used in certain bivariate and multivariate statistical analyses to investigate whether RCD is positively correlated to particular indicators adopted as proxies for measuring company performance. This study evaluates the information disclosed in annual reports or other standalone reports, although companies might communicate such information using other information channels. The main caveat of this study is sample size; therefore, it could be insightful to extend this cross-country study. The research could encourage preparers to improve the disclosure of specific items of RC and could offer useful suggestions to policymakers, for instance, to the European Commission, as it has recently announced new requirements for non-financial information reporting (Directive 2014/95/UE). Given the crucial role of RC in company success and RCD’s importance for the decision-making process, this study provides interesting insights into the debate on RC reporting’s impacts on company performance.

Involvement in CSR activities has proven to have certain advantages for companies, including better financial performance and shareholder wealth maximisation. Firm's value creation process has been strongly influenced by companies' intangible assets and concurrently by the concept of Intellectual Capital. The purpose of this study is to provide evidence from an environmental sensitive industry about the interaction between sustainability and Intellectual Capital, and additionally contribute to the understanding and awareness of an innovative model of corporate reporting, i.e. Integrated Reporting (). Building on these reflections, this empirical study in particular aims at investigating the potential influence on Intellectual Capital performance of firm approach about the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reporting and the adoption of Integrated Reporting. In this regard, we posited five research hypotheses on the assumption of a positive association between Environmental, Social and Governance performance, Integrated Reporting and Intellectual Capital performance. From a methodological standpoint, a longitudinal analysis, is carried out on a sample of 42 European listed large-sized companies. Our findings reveal a crucial role exerted by the adoption of Integrated Reporting on Intellectual Capital performance highlighting consequently the need of further examining in depth the innovative multiple capitals disclosure and the integrated thinking process.