RISULTATI RICERCA

Several studies have investigated the role that the budget can play in contexts characterized by continuous changes, emphasizing the necessary incompleteness of accounting practices as a driver for addressing unforeseen or unknown phenomena. Embracing this perspective requires a shift in focus from the budget’s ability to make objectives visible to the process through which those objectives are defined. Any deviation from the initial goals is not as a drift, but it is rather the result of a never-ending process where the budget engages the actor and unveil the narrative hidden within its assumptions, provided that the actor engages in conscious questioning. This raises the question of whether and how the budget can support decision-making processes in highly dynamic environments, encouraging innovative and creative visions of future scenarios. To this end, a case study was conducted on a company operating in the Italian energy efficiency sector. The analysis revealed that the budgeting process stimulated critical thinking among the actors involved, who, by interrogating the figures, uncovered new growth trajectories. They revised the budgeting assumptions prompting a reconfiguration of the business portfolio and financing policies.

The adoption of logics aimed at fostering organizational agility has profoundly changed the structure of traditional managerial models. This implies the need to revise control systems in a direction aimed at making “radical decentralization” (O’Grady, 2019) choices effective and fostering the emotional involvement of employees. The role played by measurement systems has always been particularly important, so it should come as no surprise that there have been significant evolutions in these forms of control. In agile companies, measurement plays an important role in nurturing interactive control mechanisms so as to capture the whole breadth of strategic uncertainties» (Tuomela, 2005). However, proper development of goal-setting processes and effective operation of diagnostic control systems maintain an important role in these contexts as well. These systems must clearly move in the same direction in which the overall control system evolves and thus take on a new physiognomy compatible with the new information and control requirements. In this contribution one of the possible evolutionary forms represented by the «collaborative goal-setting protocol» (Doerr, 2018) called OKR is analyzed.

The integration of digitalization practices in accounting encompasses efforts to optimize resource allocation, promote effective cost management and support rational decision making through the use of innovative digital tools. In the healthcare sector, where a trade-off between available resources and patients’ necessities has been consolidating, performing economic evaluations is crucial. Telemedicine can allow to implement a valuable healthcare offer, while limiting its costs; most evaluations have adopted a cost-effectiveness approach, with oftentimes inconclusive findings and limited focus on other methods. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the scientific literature on telemedicine cost assessment to explore the cost-benefit approach within it. The scoping review methodology allows to map available evidence and assess the literature extension on the cost-benefit method. This literature analysis contributes to knowledge building on the approach and identify challenges that might prevent healthcare organizations from adopting it, while suggesting possible solutions. It allows to organize theoretical knowledge on how cost-benefit analysis can be applied to digital healthcare and from a managerial perspective it provides healthcare organizations with insights on how to structure their strategic resource allocation decisions, considering the necessary investments in technologies and healthcare personnel training, the direct and indirect costs of activities and convenience in converting healthcare services in telemedicine rather than maintaining the traditional modalities.

Aging of population and increasing patient fragility pose to Long-Term Care (LTC) systems the challenge of ensuring economic and organizational sustainability without compromising the quality of care. In such a context, digitalization represents a strategic lever for improving quality, efficiency, and integration of healthcare services. Nevertheless, the literature appears fragmented and lacks coherent measurement models. Adopting a theoretical approach based on organizational performance, the study conducts a systematic literature review (PRISMA protocol) of articles indexed in Scopus, selecting 38 contributions. The analysis highlights the prevalence of US studies, the centrality of the quality of care as the main macro-dimension of the performance, and the poor measurement of economic and organizational sustainability. The main result is the development of an integrated theoretical framework to measure the degree of digitalization of a residential LTC facility and its impact on the quality of care, incorporating experiential and organizational dimensions to capture the relational value of LTC services. The model provides the basis for comparative and longitudinal studies and, theoretically, implies the evolution towards a multidimensional performance measurement paradigm able to integrate technological, organizational, and network aspects in a sustainable and data-driven perspective.

Sustainability information management in the supply chain is a relevant topic already widely addressed in the literature. Indeed, managing sustainability information allows companies to better address business strategy and respond to the information needs of various internal and external stakeholders at different levels in the supply chain. Furthermore, acquiring information on sustainability and processing data increases corporate awareness of the environmental and social risks the company may face. However, concerning the agri-food supply chain, few studies have investigated how information management systems develop and how they evolve over time. Through a qualitative approach, this study proposes the analysis of a case study of a company in the agri-food sector that has numerous agricultural suppliers in its supply chain. The study shows how the information management system has evolved over time, integrating itself into the decision-making process and collecting different information on environmental and social issues. The study offers a practical contribution by showing a definition process of an information collection system, highlighting how this is also linked to the evolution of sustainability strategies and practices.

This paper benchmarks the sustainability practices of 12 leading heating, ventilation, and air conditioning companies (2019-2023) through a two-stage comparative multiple-case study. The proposed integrative tri-axial framework conceptually aligns Life Cycle Assessment with the Environmental dimension, Indoor Environmental Quality with the Social dimension, and Corporate Social Responsibility with the Governance dimension. These lenses organize measurement and governance for ESRS-aligned comparability rather than conducting technical LCAs or IEQ experiments. Stage A synthesizes 168 publicly available documents to assess practices and regulatory readiness. Stage B pilots a standardized benchmarking framework that scores KPI presence, completeness across the environmental, social and governance dimensions, and performance evolution over time. Results show that environmental metrics are more mature and uniform than social and governance indicators. Disclosures emphasize inputs and processes over outcomes and impacts, and CSRD readiness is uneven and closely linked to governance capacity. Alignment with ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 is growing but remains insufficient for ESRS compliance without integrated and balanced reporting. The study makes two main contributions. First, it delivers an industry-wide comparative analysis of sustainability practices in the HVAC sector under the evolving CSRD/ESRS regime. Second, it contributes to management control research by introducing what appears to be the first sector-specific, theory-grounded benchmarking framework for ESG disclosure in this field.

Sustainability is crucial for safeguarding ecosystems and promoting collective well-being, increasingly influencing company management practices through various institutional pressures. Leveraging extended institutional theory (Kauppi, 2013) and the institutional framework proposed by Gonzalez and Zamora-Ramirez (2016), this study explores the drivers that prompt micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to adopt sustainable practices and it examines how these responses differ by firm size. Through an in-depth case study of the Apuan-Versilian marble industrial district in Italy, we analyze the dynamic interplay between institutional pressures and sustainability adoption patterns, and the role of management control. Our findings indicate that institutional pressures have led firms to transition from predominantly symbolic to more substantive sustainability responses. This shift was facilitated by recognizing the economic benefits inherent in sustainability-oriented practices, such as improved raw material efficiency, cost savings, and optimized packaging. Management control tools emerged not merely as outcomes of increased institutional pressures but also as essential enablers for integrating sustainability into strategic decision-making processes. Additionally, the consortium’s role as an institutional mediator significantly supported SMEs, enabling them to overcome resource constraints and adopt sophisticated sustainability practices. The study contributes to existing literature by clarifying the interplay among institutional pressures, firm size, and management control tools sustainability-oriented, highlighting the pivotal role of collective intermediaries.

This paper aims to explore a company’s transformation process into a Benefit Corporation (BC) by analysing the reasons behind their choice, the obstacles encountered, and the effects, also in terms of sustainability, obtained through the specific case of an SME operating in the cosmetics industry. Findings show that the decision to become a BC was driven by the founders’ intrinsic desire to preserve the company’s ethical mission and ensure the continuity of its social and environmental values. The participatory transformation process involved key steps: defining the company’s purpose, stakeholder mapping, materiality analysis, and setting common benefit objectives. Challenges emerged from internal engagement efforts and regulatory complexities. Results demonstrate that becoming a BC enhanced the company’s consistency, accountability, and sustainability performance, enabling it to structure pre-existing practices and increase stakeholder trust. The study contributes to the literature on hybrid organisations and offers practical insights for SMEs pursuing sustainable transformation.

The current entrepreneurial landscape is shaped by the twin transition, which requires companies to rethink their business models across ecological and digital dimensions. To handle these complex shifts effectively, firms should embed sustainability and digital integration within their core values system to ensure long-term socio-economic value creation. In this context, traditional Management Control Systems (MCS) are evolving into Sustainability Management Control Systems (SMCS). These new systems not only support the monitoring of multidimensional performance (economic, social, environmental, governance, and digital) but also enhance firm agility and resilience. Indeed, SMCS should play a crucial role in translating twin transition strategies into actionable initiatives, driving organizational behavior towards ESG objectives, and promoting a culture of sustainable and digitally enabled innovation. Despite their importance, more research is still needed on how MCS can be redesigned to fully support sustainability and digital integration. The articles contained in this issue contribute to reduce this gap across three key areas: (1) strategic corporate governance for sustainability; (2) performance measurement systems that incorporate multidimensional and multi-stakeholder perspectives; and (3) organizational enablers - including culture, risk management, and agile structures - that influence the MCS contribution to sustainable and digitally driven management.

Il contributo analizza il ruolo del romanzo nelle analisi di Henri Lefebvre, proponendolo come strumento di analisi urbana. Nella Produzione dello Spazio e in altre opere, Lefebvre utilizza il romanzo per comprendere la complessità dell’urbano, raccogliendo informazioni su pratiche, spazi, sogni, emozioni e ideologie. La seconda parte del saggio esamina l’uso che Lefebvre fa dell’Ulisse di James Joyce per analizzare lo spazio e la vita urbana capitalista.

Nel mondo anglofono, la prima traduzione inglese de La production de l’espace (1974), pubblicata nel 1991 dalla casa editrice Blackwell muta radicalmente il dibattito degli studi spaziali, tanto che nel campo delle scienze sociali e umane si inizia a parlare di “svolta spaziale”. L’obiettivo di questo articolo è di restituire al lettore l’analisi dell’origine e dello sviluppo della “svolta spaziale” e i suoi legami con il postmodernismo, dimostrando gli errori teorici che hanno portato alcuni autori a leggere Lefebvre in chiave postmoderna.

The research applies the analytical model of the ‘Geography of Discontent’ to examine the populist vote in the Bassano area. The findings suggest that the relationship between territory and populist voting is not as strong and clearcut as argued by the literature. Furthermore, the study focuses on an emerging new ‘conurbation’ that goes beyond the Bassano area to include also those of Cittadella and Castelfranco. This may represent a novel case for placesensitive policies.

Mentre le politiche di supporto alle PMI considerano raramente l’artigianato nello specifico, quelle rivolte alla tutela ed alla valorizzazione dello stesso come insieme di tradizioni e/o come patrimonio culturale trascurano spesso la dimensione aziendale di tali imprese. Attraverso sei casi studio tra Veneto e Normandia (Francia), il nostro contributo evidenzia quali sono gli attori coinvolti e gli strumenti con le quali le politiche pubbliche intervengono con riferimento all’artigianato.

Il terziario logistico sopravanza nel mercato immobiliare e si espande oltre le aree metropolitane verso la diffusione insediativa degli impianti su suoli agricoli. A partire da una ricerca sul campo, l’articolo indaga le ricadute spaziali e le esternalità su ambiente, società e qualità della vita della logistica in provincia di Piacenza, dove dal 1980 si assiste al riflesso locale di tendenze globali e alla trasformazione delle norme urbanistiche, del governo della mano pubblica e del paesaggio.