Dall'organizzazione <i>multi-stakeholder</i> all'impresa reticolare [From the multi-stakeholder organisation to the network enterprise]

Le organizzazioni multi-stakeholder sono a tutt’oggi molto meno diffuse delle organizzazioni mono-stakeholder. Gli approcci più ortodossi allo studio dell’economia quali quello neoclassico e quello neo-istituzionalista tendono a riscontrare in questa evidenza una conferma della capacità delle organizzazioni mono-stakeholder di minimizzare i costi e di raggiungere i più elevati livelli di efficienza. Tuttavia, le teorie dominanti contrastano con altre evidenze secondo le quali le organizzazioni multi-stakeholder, soprattutto quelle non controllate dagli investitori si stanno in realtà diffondendo almeno in alcuni ambiti specifici, quali i settori dei servizi sociali, caratterizzati da pronunciate imperfezioni contrattuali ed asimmetrie informative, oltre che dal carattere relazionale dei servizi off erti. Sembra dunque che, smentendo il teorema di Hansmann, le organizzazioni multi-stakeholder non siano solo colpevoli di aumentare i costi a detrimento dell’efficienza produttiva, ma che sia invece anche in grado di generare maggiore surplus con modalità diverse da quelle tradizionali ed in contesti dove spesso le imprese a scopo di lucro e le organizzazioni a proprietà pubblica non sono in grado di operare. La partecipazione degli stakeholder diversi dagli investitori richiede o suggerisce in molti contesti l’esclusione dello scopo di lucro in quanto essa permette l’internalizzazione di interessi eterogenei ed il superamento all’interno del governo organizzativo delle maggiori imperfezioni contrattuali che si presentano sul mercato. Tuttavia, l’esclusione dello scopo di lucro non è una soluzione necessaria per le organizzazioni multi-stakeholder, che possono ricorrere tanto alla soluzione del governo duale, quanto ad altre forme più blande di partecipazione quali la consultazione ed i flussi informativi. Sembra però di potere affermare che il controllo esercitato dagli investitori sull’organizzazione sia uno degli elementi che più di tutti sfavoriscono la piena internalizzazione di interessi eterogenei all’interno del governo organizzativo a causa del modello di governo tendenzialmente più gerarchico, e dell’instaurarsi di rilevanti contrasti di interesse tra chi controlla l’organizzazione e gli altri soggetti a lei legati. I contrasti di interesse derivano dalla necessità di perseguire prima di tutto gli interessi degli investitori e quindi di massimizzare il valore di mercato dell’organizzazione. Necessità inevitabile quando si consideri che, nell’ipotesi controfattuale di un’impresa di capitale che non massimizza il suo profitto ed il suo valore di mercato, la possibilità di take-over e di scalate ostili verrebbe incrementata. [The article introduces the concept of ‘network enterprise’ as a development of the notion of the multi-stakeholder organization apparently better suited to grasping the structural characteristics and change dynamics of the environmental context in which social enterprises develop.

European Acquisitions in the United States:Re-examining Olivetti-Underwood Fifty Years Later

While Italy's catch-up in the course of the 20th century has been nothing short of extraordinary, it has failed to produce a large number of global business players. Nonetheless, half a century ago an Italian company concluded what was at the time the largest-ever foreign takeover of a US company. The paper analyzes the Olivetti's acquisition of Underwood and frames it in the broader picture of the literature on the management and performance of foreign companies in the United States. We provide a historical narrative focused on three main issues: 1) head office control and subsidiary autonomy; 2) Olivetti's adaptation to the American business system; 3) the development of internal knowledge resources within the subsidiary. Lessons and implications are relevant for business historians and management scholars in general.FDI, acquisition, control, adaptation, knowledge resources, Olivetti, Underwood

A Sardinian early 1st millennium BC bronze axe from Motya

An Iron Age bronze axe was found in Motya (Sicily, Italy) in a prehistoric layer dating from the 10th century BC underneath the 4th century BC patrician residency known as “Casa dei mosaici”. The axe belongs to the double-looped socketed type well known in central Mediterranean in the time span 1200-900 BC, and it is comparable with some coeval Sardinian specimens. The bronze has been characterised using the backscattering electron signal of a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) and EDX (Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy). The resulting composition of the metal alloy is Cu-Sn-As with an addition of Pb in some specific spots

A photograph of four orientalists (Bombay, 1885): knowledge production, religious identities, and the negotiation of invisible conflicts

Abstract By analyzing the history of a photograph taken in a Bombay photo studio in 1885, this article explores notions of the production of knowledge on India and cultural dialogues, encounters, appropriations, and conflicts in colonial British India in the late nineteenth century. The photograph was taken after a Hindu religious ceremony in honour of the Italian Sanskritist Angelo de Gubernatis. Dressed as a Hindu Brahman, he is the only European photographed next to three Indian scholars, but what the image suggests of encounter and hybridity was challenged by the many written texts that reveal the conflicting dialogues that took place before and after the portrait was taken. Several factors were examined in order to decide who should and who should not be in the photograph: religion, cast, and even gender were successively discussed, before the category of “knowledge” became the bond that unified the four men who studied, taught, and wrote on India

Commercio elettronico per la dinamica delle catene agro-alimentari internazionali: un’analisi del potenziale [E-commerce for the dynamics of international agri-food chains: an adoption potential analysis]

Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce is an innovative use of information and communication technologies and refers to the exchange of goods and related information between companies supported by Internet-based tools such as electronic marketplaces (also called electronic trade platforms) or online shops. It provides opportunities for cost-efficiency in supply chain management processes and access to new markets. With regard to the food sector with its chain levels input – agriculture – industry – retail – consumer, B2B e-commerce would take place in the exchange of food products between all levels except retail to consumer (business-to-consumer e-commerce). It is evident and widely known that B2B e-commerce brings key advantages and potentials for European consumers and the European food sector: - The affordability of high quality, traceable food for European consumers is supported as the innovation potentials from e-commerce technologies for cost-efficient processes along the food chain. The healthy choice of quality food will become the easy and affordable choice for European consumers. - The competitiveness of the European food sector with the majority of SMEs increases as B2B e-commerce technologies support cost-efficient transaction processes in food supply chains. In recent years, the availability of sophisticated B2B e-commerce technology has improved tremendously. The “European e-Business Market Watch” initiative from the Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry from the European Commission has shown that only large multinationals exploit the potentials of B2B e-commerce in the food sector for their supply chain management with their business partners. SMEs however, which create the majority of turn over in the European food sector and therefore create jobs and welfare in Europe, are reluctant to take up existing B2B e-commerce technologies into their food supply of selling. The crucial barrier to adoption is that trust between companies is not mediated appropriately by existing e-commerce technology. Currently, the barrier for food sector SMEs towards B2B e-commerce come from - the difficulty to examine the quality and safety of food products. This refers to all kinds of transactions in the food sector, whether supported by e-commerce or not. However, when it comes to e-commerce, the difficulty of physical product examination plays a much larger role as physical product inspection is not possible; - the (perceived) risk of performing a transaction via e-commerce. This includes concerns regarding secure transfer of data, or the possibly unknown transaction partner. Elements for the generation of trust between companies in the food chain and therefore of trustworthy B2B e-commerce environments for the food sector include guaranties regarding food quality, multimedia food product presentations to signal their quality, secure e-commerce technology infrastructures, third-party quality signs to be provided. As trust is highly subjective and depends on culture, food chains in different European countries with a different cultural background require different combinations of trust generating elements regarding the quality and safety of food. Different food chain scenarios with their transaction processes and risks regarding food quality and food safety and related trust elements need to be analysed and differences in trust in different European food chains need to be considered. It is the objective of this paper to identify food chains with trans-European cross-border exchange of food and international food chains in order to analyse the transaction processes and typical risks regarding food quality and food safety. The analysis focuses on trans-European cross-border and international food chains with their chain levels (e.g. production to wholesale trade, wholesale trade to industry, or wholesale trade to retail). In particular, it regards the food categories meat, grains, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits and the particular risks regarding food quality and safety along the chains.e-commerce, B2B transactions, agri-food trade

Employment Pacts in Italy 1992 to 2002

Beschäftigungspolitik, Sozialpakt, Zeitgeschichte, Italien, Employment policy, Social pact, Contemporary history, Italy