Papers by Massimo Battaglia
Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management, 2017
Sustainable tourism is a multi-stakeholder issue, whose aim is to stimulate the balanced exploita... more Sustainable tourism is a multi-stakeholder issue, whose aim is to stimulate the balanced exploitation of natural resources at the local level and to limit the social and environmental impacts. The businesses operating in the tourism sector mainly consist of SMEs. Their impact, although less significant if considered individually, are significant at the local level, particularly considering the cumulative effects produced by tourism businesses in a specific area and the role such businesses can play in influencing the behavior of tourists/guests. Focusing on the positive impacts and limiting the negative effects at social and environmental levels, represent the key to sustainable tourism for businesses.
CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT STUDIES
Il presente studio si concentra sulla tematica dell'innovazione sostenibile, in particolare, ... more Il presente studio si concentra sulla tematica dell'innovazione sostenibile, in particolare, esplorando se le cooperative, data la loro peculiare natura di business e di governance siano capaci di stimolare e promuovere un'innovazione che abbracci le tre dimensioni della sostenibilità: sociale, ambientale ed economica. A tal fine, è stato analizzato un campione rappresentativo di iniziative innovative intraprese dacooperative di consumatori italiane. Leggendo le iniziative con la lente degli Obiettivi di Sviluppo Sostenibile (SDGs - Sustainable Development Goals) e delle 5P ne emerge non solo che le cooperative si prestano bene a stimolare e promuovere l'innovazione sostenibile, ma che con la pubblicazione dell'Agenda 2030 nel 2015, si è rafforzata la loro innovazione soprattutto nel campo sociale ed economico, oltre che ambientale. Le cooperative italiane sembrano pertanto capaci di rispondere alle nuove sfide della sostenibilità. Lo studio è significativo dal punto...
QUADERNI DI ECONOMIA DEL LAVORO
Sinergie Italian Journal of Management, 2020
Purpose of the paper: This study analyses the implementation and integration of an accounting ins... more Purpose of the paper: This study analyses the implementation and integration of an accounting instrument for employee health and safety. It discusses whether and how the device and related financial information support employee health and safety decision making. Methodology: The framework focuses on the technical, organisational and cognitive factors that may operate as enabling or hindering factors during the implementation and integration process of an accounting instrument. A multiple case analysis of two medium-sized Italian waste management companies was carried out following an interventionist research approach lasted two years. Findings: The analysis reveals that none of the two companies integrated the instrument despite the positive outputs revealed during the implementation phase. A set of interrelated technical, organisational and cognitive barriers emerged. In particular, the difficulty of generating corporate interest in the instrument prevented its integration. Cogniti...
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey-based study performed o... more Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey-based study performed on Italian SMEs in the “hotel, restaurant, café” (HORECA) sector, aimed at investigating the relationship between pro-environmental strategies and competitiveness and how such strategies can be exploited to outperform competitors. Design/methodology/approach – The survey involved 317 Italian SMEs. Regression models have been developed to analyze the causal relationship between three dimensions of competitiveness (competitive advantage over competitors, customer satisfaction and employees’ motivation), and environmental practices that can be adopted by HORECA SMEs. Findings – Top management commitment emerges as a key driver of competitiveness, confirming the strategic relevance of a sound approach to sustainability also in SMEs operating in the tourism sector. Moreover, actions aimed at investing in green food products (e.g. organic food) and awareness campaigns emerge as strong predictor...
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
PurposeThe study analyses how management control supports the organisation's response to the ... more PurposeThe study analyses how management control supports the organisation's response to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.Design/methodology/approachVideo interviews with top and middle-level managers who were directly involved in handling the response to the COVID-19 crisis in late winter and spring 2020 form the empirical base. The object-of-control framework and the distinction between organic and mechanistic management controls inform the exploratory case analysis of a large food retail cooperative in Italy.FindingsBoth organic and mechanistic management control mechanisms enabled an immediate response and management of the crisis. The use of cultural, action and results controls supported employees' health and safety coordination, a tight monitoring of financial performance and social interventions in support of the local community.Originality/valueThe study provides original exploratory insights on the use and role of management control in the context of an unprecedented...
New challenges in corporate governance: Theory and practice
This study aims to propose the contribution of adopting a systems perspective to researching sust... more This study aims to propose the contribution of adopting a systems perspective to researching sustainability in terms of inclusivity and holistic view, by means of the experience of action research carried out in a big Italian retailing cooperative. Among the different systemic approaches, the one proposed herein is the Viable Systems Approach, according to which sustainability, which can be seen as a process that is dynamic and changing over time, is linked to the notion of systemic viability and, as a consequence, to the survival of the system itself
Entrepreneurship Research Journal
Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are the most relevant and recent attempt to integrate sustai... more Sustainable development goals (SDGs) are the most relevant and recent attempt to integrate sustainable development ambitions and environmental concerns in a policy framework. Recently, few studies have been conducted to investigate the gap between sustainability reporting and the SDGs, initiating a new stream of research (Lozano 2015; Rosati and Faria 2019). However, the role of accounting systems as a support for moving toward goals and targets outlined by the SDGs has been poorly deepened in not-traditional profit-oriented businesses. Among these, there are cooperatives: jointly owned benefit corporations. The peculiarity of cooperatives lays in the collective governance and the fact that profits are re-invested in the cooperative or in local projects and activities rather than being distributed to the shareholders. The present study intends to fill this gap by answering the following research question: can a cooperative, given its peculiar nature, contribute to sustainability? To...
Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal
PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the extent to which health and safety action controls, results ... more PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the extent to which health and safety action controls, results controls and informal controls affect the integration of health and safety issues into management actions, which in turn leads to improve health and safety performance. It also investigates the extent to which those health and safety control mechanisms contribute complementarily to the integration of health and safety issues.Design/methodology/approachA survey of 108 Italian non-listed firms tests a set of hypotheses based on complementarity theory and object of control framework.FindingsNot all the health and safety control mechanisms positively influence the integration of health and safety issues into business practices and external stakeholder relations. Complementarity between health and safety control mechanisms is significant only for higher health and safety performance companies, indicating that the health and safety control mechanisms operate as a package.Research limitations/i...
International Journal of Public Sector Management
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scholarship on public management models... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the scholarship on public management models and to advance the theoretical conceptualization of the complexity of performance management systems (PMSs). The paper explores how the characteristics of PMSs vary within and across different organizational units in common institutional context, based on the case of a regional authority in Italy. Design/methodology/approach A framework of analysis considering both objective and subjective factors was derived from a combination of performance typologies in the public sector, namely ideal types of managing performance (Bouckaert and Halligan, 2007) and performance regimes (Jakobsen et al., 2017). The combination of the characteristics of these two models across different Directorates General (DGs) has also been explored through a nested case study (Starman, 2013). Data were gathered via a desk analysis of official documents regarding the planning and programming of a regional authority a...
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey-based study performed on ... more Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a survey-based study performed on Italian SMEs in the “hotel, restaurant, café” (HORECA) sector, aimed at investigating the relationship between pro-environmental strategies and competitiveness and how such strategies can be exploited to outperform competitors. Design/methodology/approach The survey involved 317 Italian SMEs. Regression models have been developed to analyze the causal relationship between three dimensions of competitiveness (competitive advantage over competitors, customer satisfaction and employees’ motivation), and environmental practices that can be adopted by HORECA SMEs. Findings Top management commitment emerges as a key driver of competitiveness, confirming the strategic relevance of a sound approach to sustainability also in SMEs operating in the tourism sector. Moreover, actions aimed at investing in green food products (e.g. organic food) and awareness campaigns emerge as strong predictors of g...
Journal of Cleaner Production
Journal of Business Ethics, 2017
Author Emilio Passetti declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Lara Bianchi declares... more Author Emilio Passetti declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Lara Bianchi declares that she has no conflict of interest. Author Massimo Battaglia declares that he has no conflict of interest. Author Marco Frey declares that he has no conflict of interest Title Page (containing all authors contact details) 1 When democratic principles are not enough: Tensions and temporalities of dialogic stakeholder engagement
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Papers by Massimo Battaglia