Department Unisu

The European energy sector has gone through a period of significant change since the 1980s. External factors such as regulation, market competition, and technological innovation, as well as internal factors such as ownership, corporate governance, and ...

The diffusion of Public Agencies seems to characterise the approach to public management in European countries. Under New Public Management, the role of politics is to provide strategic planning and economic policy target defini-tion, whereas the administration is responsible for the management of public services. Moreover, the separation between politics and administration is strengthened by downsizing and decentralizing the public

Recent studies and events on immigration highlight the strategic importance of an immigration management. The paper aims at emphasizing that a possible solution is to adopt a multilevel governance perspective which focuses on the main actors and processes involved in the ...

The paper empirically explores how firms’ Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosure varies according to their ownership structure. Three different kinds of ownership structures are considered: family firms (FFs), state-owned firms (SOFs) and firms with dispersed ownership (DOFs). It is the first study examining the relationship between CSR disclosure and ownership structure, which includes in the analysis also FFs and SOFs. The analysis is provided on a sample of 192 listed firms with reference to Italy, a suitable setting for the purpose of the study due to the considerable presence of both FFs and SOFs. Firstly, a content analysis on the CSR documents disclosed by the 192 firms is provided and then data are empirically analysed to test whether the ownership structure influences a firm’s CSR disclosure. Results show that FFs and SOFs disclose less CSR information and the explanation can be found in the lower level of agency problems they have to face. The paper contributes t...

In questi ultimi anni sia i servizi di pubblica utilità di maggiore rilevanza industriale (telecomunicazioni, energia elettrica, gas naturale, servizi idrici) sia i servizi pubblici locali hanno sperimentato, anche se con tempi e modi diversi a seconda del comparto e del paese ...

"Tor Vergata". EMEE's goal is to advance the theory and practice of management from a variety of perspectives, levels of analysis and methods. It publishes original, peer-reviewed, theoretical and empirical papers, with a particular attention to the interdisciplinarity among socioeconomic sciences.

Recent studies and events on immigration highlight the strategic importance of an immigration management. The paper aims at emphasizing that a possible solution is to adopt a multilevel governance perspective which focuses on the main actors and processes involved in the immigration management. Starting from the structural characteristics of this phenomenon with its long-term implications, the paper reviews the relevant literature and analyses the legislation context, giving a detailed picture of the current situation in the area of the Municipality of Rome. We underline the roles played by actors at the central and the local organizational level. Particular attention is given to their areas of intervention. Our results show the existence of overlapping and/or missing actions at the central level, while an important role is played by NGOs.

New Public Management calls for a clear division between politics and the administration, where the former undertakes strategic planning and defines economic targets and the latter is responsible for public service management. In this context, the agency theory underlines a risk of incoherence between administrative action and political target achievement. This paper aims to analyse the governance mechanisms and the related accountability requirement in order to investigate if there is a conflict between the autonomy of public agencies and political target achievement. In particular, according to a multiple case study analysis, this paper considers three Italian public agencies: Revenue Agency (AE), Social Security National Institute (INPS) and National Procurement Agency (CONSIP). The research identifies the variables characterizing the relationship between politics and administration and shows the conditions that allow an autonomous public agency to move in a coherent manner along with political targets.

The business model seems to be a potential source of competitive advantage because it explains how a firm builds and uses its resources to create and capture value. However so far literature on business model and financial performance focus the attention on the "firm" as a unit of analysis without clearly define the boundaries of the economic entity to which they refer. The purpose of this paper is to answer the following research questions: what are the boundaries of the business model of dependent firms (i.e. firms that belong to the same business group)? How can be interpreted the relationship between business models and financial performances of those firms?. We use an exploratory multiple case study analysis of two Italian business groups. The analysis shows that business model of an affiliated-group company could be autonomous, partially autonomous or totally dependent on the business model of the wider business group. In this latter case, we can also say that the affiliated-firm is delegated to realise a part of the business model of whole group, considered as a single economic entity. As a consequence, the business model of the whole group might affect the financial performance of the dependent economic entities. Thus, the effort to study the relationship between business model and financial performance could be strongly biased if the boundaries of the underpinned economic entity are not clearly defined.

The European energy sector has gone through a period of significant change since the 1980s. External factors such as regulation, market competition, and technological innovation, as well as internal factors such as ownership, corporate governance, and culture, have affected the strategic positioning of local utilities providers. In this context, the paper aims at applying a new construct to the public utility sector-the business model meant as a new unit of strategic analysis-in order to better understand the strategic behaviour and competitive positioning of local utilities after the liberalization of the European energy market. As result of a multiple case study analysis, three main business models of local utilities have been outlined: traditional local utility, multiutility company, and global specialist company.

Stemming from value relevance research, this study investigates the ability of accounting and financial data to provide useful information about the economic value of the firm in trouble waters. Because the firm is at the center of a network of interests of many stakeholders, that put some expectations on it, the investors requires useful financial statements information in order to take rational investment decisions about financial instruments, such as equity and corporate debts. Academic literature define value relevant the accounting information able to change the expectations but also to induce a change in the behavior of the decision makers. To ensure that the accounting information reported in the financial statements are value relevant they need to be related to the company current value. The aim of this research is to study the usefulness of accounting information perceived by investors and to understand the process of allocation of resources in the capital market in trouble...

We propose a definition of directors’ conflict of interests (CoI) by critically reviewing the academic literature. Then, we present an exploratory study, based on a content analysis of the leading Italian listed companies that sought to empirically assess the directors’ CoI definitions provided by corporate codes of ethics. We found that despite the presence of CoI statement within corporate codes of ethics, CoI definition is often absent, when present it is not always clear, and differs widely among firms. The consequence is that CoI recognition could be not easy and remedies to prevent and resolve directors’ CoI lose their practical utility.

This study investigates the impact of stock option plans, defined as share-based incentive contracts provided by companies to their employees, on the value relevance of accounting information. The purpose of this study is to analyse the extent to which the value relevance of accounting information is affected by the adoption of stock option plans. Using panel data, the empirical analysis shows that the value relevance of accounting information is affected by the adoption of stock option plans. They are seen by the market as a “cost” and not as an opportunity or an attempt to align different interests. In addition, the research results show that the market performance does not seem affected by the design of the stock option plans. However, the firm’s market performance appears to be more related to the structure of the stock option plans in companies with a higher market capitalization. Thus further research is needed to deeper investigate the impact of the design of the stock option...

Recently many European countries have incurred crises in public finance despite the fact that EU institutions have pushed the national governments toward the sustainability of public finance with compulsory and voluntary rules regarding fiscal governance. This paper investigates the relations between the quality of fiscal governance and the financial virtuosity of national fiscal policy. We proposed a general framework for analyzing the fiscal governance issue and we empirically tested the correlation between the dimensions of fiscal governance and the budgetary performance of EU countries. The results showed a positive correlation between the quality of fiscal governance in the EU countries and financial surplus in the period concerned. However further investigations are needed and an effort should be made to collect uniform data on fiscal governance in the European Union.

While more and more businesses incorporate sustainability in their core business strategy, there has recently been a shift from corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the notion of creating shared value (CSV). This thesis investigates the emergence of new hybrid enterprises and innovative business models. Starting from a literature review about CSR and its evolution into the “Big Idea” proposed by Porter and Kramer, the chapter will analyse the link between business and society, especially in the developing countries where this link is stronger. The main aim is to identify the most effective business models that enhance the competitiveness of a company, while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates. The general idea is that enterprises should have longer-term perspective on how they operate in relation to the external society and environment, addressing societal needs and challenges through the business itself, within a b...