RISULTATI RICERCA

Questo volume rappresenta il risultato di oltre trent’anni di ricerca sul tema del management ambientale, offrendo un’analisi delle principali sfide caratterizzanti la transizione verso la sostenibilità. Rivolto in primis a studenti e studentesse, ma anche a professionisti e lettori interessati alla tematica, il testo presenta un quadro organico e aggiornato delle politiche ambientali e delle strategie gestionali, evidenziando come la transizione verso la sostenibilità richieda un equilibrio tra regolazione e iniziative volontarie. Stimolando la riflessione e arricchendo il dibattito sul tema, il libro si propone come un nuovo punto di partenza per chi intende condividere un approccio sistemico alla gestione ambientale.

This article has a double objective. The first is to define Corporate Family Responsibility (CFR) and the dimensions of which it is comprised (policies, supervisor and culture). The second is to evaluate the impacts of a flexible environment and CFR at both the organizational level (intent of leaving the company and perceived organizational support) and the individual level (satisfaction with work-family balance). The sample used in conducting the study involves 622 employees from Spain. The results generated by the study indicate that the better the work environment is for employees (access to policies, support from direct supervisors, and a positive CFR culture), the less inclined they are to leave the firm, the more inclined they are to perceive the organization’s support, and the more satisfied they are with their work-family balance. This article also proposes implications and recommendations for future research.

La responsabilità che le aziende hanno nei confronti dei propri dipendenti e, in particolare, le politiche di conciliazione tra esigenze legate alle attività di lavoro e responsabilità legate alla vita privata e familiare. Il volume mira a ricostruire una sorta di “stato dell’arte” del tema, che possa costituire una valida base per tutti quegli studiosi che potranno in futuro essere interessati a svolgere ricerche di carattere maggiormente analitico ed empirico.

Financial distress forecasting models allow to assess the future ability of companies to meet their obligations and to assess the credit risk of companies. Given the limitations of the information used so far to forecast financial distress, this study attempts to investigate whether and how different financial and non-financial variables influence the forecasting of corporate financial distress. A book that can have relevant practical implications for banks, investors, analysts, chief financial officers (CFOs) and managers in general interested in bankruptcy forecasting.

The generational succession in family firms is a typical and inevitable event in corporate evolution. In particular, the Italian production system must constantly reckon with generational succession as it affects about 80,000 companies annually. It is very important that this process is carefully managed because, in Italy, only 31% of family firms survive their founder and only 13% go on to the third generation. The aim of this paper is to indicate the most frequent mistakes made by family firms during the generational transition, through the identification of best practices summarized in six building blocks collected from the literature. In order to substantiate the theoretical argumentations, the article analyzes a case study concerning the family firm Mapei S.p.A., which has recently faced its second generational handover through a virtuous process in all its aspects.

This paper analyzes the information asymmetry between owner/manager and lenders. More specifically, the research investigates the role of corporate governance mechanisms in reducing the agency costs of debt. The findings show that lenders perceive higher agency costs of debt if the controlling shareholder owns a percentage of capital greater than 66%. Results also show that the presence of independent directors elected by minority shareholders on the board mitigates the agency conflicts between borrowers and lenders. In the same way, the audit committee independence reduces the agency costs of debt. Moreover, the study shows that when the audit committee chairman coincides with the board chairman banks perceive more risk and, therefore, a bigger asymmetry. This coincidence increases the concentration of power in the hands of just one person and this enhances the likelihood of opportunistic actions by the management that could damage lenders. This means that it is costly for companies to concede to just one person too much influence over the board activities, because it reduces the effectiveness of the monitoring role played by independent directors, increasing the information asymmetry between borrowers and lenders.

La comunicazione istituzionale d’impresa ha registrato nell’ultimo decennio un progressivo ampliamento del perimetro di riferimento, con crescente risalto delle informazioni di carattere sociale e ambientale. Il volume intende affrontare il tema della comunicazione non finanziaria – e in specie di quella di sostenibilità – alla luce dei recenti snodi normativi, indagando le possibili opportunità per le imprese di sviluppare modelli evoluti di reporting, basati su una visione unitaria e integrata delle molteplici informazioni veicolabili (sociali, economiche, ambientali, di governance) rispetto ai fattori critici per la crescita nel medio-lungo periodo.

Nell’ultimo decennio la letteratura aziendale ha approfondito sovente le relazioni fra governance e disclosure, attenzionando il ruolo delle diverse caratteristiche del modello di governance aziendale e gli effetti dello stesso sul livello qualitativo e quantitativo dell’informazione resa. Questo volume vuole verificare se e come queste caratteristiche influenzino la Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure, anche in ragione dell’evoluzione della normativa in materia. La ricerca ha analizzato il contesto delle società quotate europee, con riferimento a Italia, Germania, Francia e Spagna.

Il volume approfondisce le tematiche di corporate governance nella prospettiva di confronto internazionale e in relazione all’interconnessione dei mercati dei capitali. L’analisi considera l’impatto della globalizzazione sulle strutture di corporate governance, delinea le caratteristiche dei modelli di amministrazione e controllo, esamina i caratteri peculiari dei sistemi di corporate governance in Italia e nei diciannove paesi che propongono sistemi di corporate governance strutturati.

The family firm management literature underrates corporate governance issues both because in family firms the entrepreneur/owner tends to concentrate in his hands almost all the decision power and because the concept of family business is associated with that of small business. On the other hand, the ‘family’ character over firm governance have been traditionally analysed in terms of institutional overlap (family versus business) that causes processes of instability, conflicts, divisions and crisis, both inside the family and between owners and managers.

Our paper, after an extremely literature recap, aims at proposing a different point of view on the corporate governance dynamics in family business and a different path to understand the change processes into this organizations adopting a Situationist View of the Organizations (SVO) that is focused on the continuous work of two processes: action and institutionalization, that build, break and rebuild social reality.

Under this point of view some topics - institutional processes, coalitional games and power dynamics - suggest different considerations about the processes of governance and power. The concept of actor (or strategic actor) is of particular relevance. It refers to an individual (human actor) or, more often, a coalition of individuals able to act strategically for the protection of their specific interests. The concept of strategic actor goes far beyond the organizational boundaries, as often a coalition is composed by both internal and external members.