The Privatization Process and Its Effects on the Italian Accountability System

The effects of the privatization process have been widely studied, but with controversial results. In many countries this process ended up with public ser-vice providers still owned by the state (partial privatizations). The paper dis-cusses how issues related to the privatization process (corruption, conflicts of interests and lack of accountability) may be discussed from different perspec-tives – New Public Management (NPM), New Public Service (NPS), and New Public Governance (NPG). While in the NPM the privatization process aims at improving efficiency in public service providers, it seems to create some ethical problems if analysed from the NPS. Moreover, NPG, as co-production, networks and cooperation, offers valid alternatives to the privatization process. Through a case study analysis on the public service providers owned by the MEF (Italian Ministry of Economics and Finance) the paper highlights the stop and go characteristic of the Italian privatization process. This situation leads to huge ethical issues. We show the main flaws in the ethical and accountability systems of these organizations suggesting possible solutions using a public governance approach.Privatization; Accountability; Corruption; Conflicts of interest

What does really matter in the internationalization of small and medium-sized family businesses?

During the last decades considerable academic attention has been given to the internationalization of family businesses, as it is often considered a way to revitalize both the family and the business. Despite this increasing attention, the debate on its drivers, challenges and constraints is still inconclusive. The aim of this study is to explore whether incoming generations’ involvement impact the decision to exploit and explore international opportunities and to what extent altruism and competence-based trust mediate that relationship. Three propositions are formulated drawing from international entrepreneurship literature and stewardship theory. To validate this framework, a multiple case study on four Italian family firms has been conducted. The main findings suggest that timing, scope and internationalization modes change in relation to specific family firms’ features. When “epochal” changes (e.g. incoming generation) suddenly break down they contribute positively to the exploration and exploitation of international entrepreneurial activities. Moreover, the existence of interpersonal ties based on altruism and competence-based trust between senior and incoming generations mitigates this relationship

The Role of IPO in Internationalization Process of Family Business. The Italian Case of the Burani Family. Is it a Black Swan?

Considering the growth of global economy and the high competitiveness internationalization process seems to be more important for family businesses. The internationalization theories are often related to the most appropriate tool for their feasibility. Also internationalization strategies need high financial resources that small family businesses often do not possess. The aim of this paper is to show a grey area in the intersection between the studies on family businesses’ IPO and internationalization. We try to contribute to the literature on family business discussing some propositions and highlighting which are the main advantages and the more significant costs associated to the IPO as a tool for internationalization. We argue these propositions through the use of a systematic research on literature and through the case study on the Burani family.Internationalization; Family Business; IPO

Which Conflict? Understanding Conflicts inside the Board of Directors

The analysis of previous studies oncerning corporate governance shows that some variables related to board behavior have not been properly taken into account. The paper analyses board of directors in its decision-making process highlighting the importance that a clear identification of conflict could have on board effectiveness. It emerges that conflict could be distinguished in many typologies affecting board dynamics and decision-making process. The aim of the paper is to identify the mainstream and the other borderline approaches in the existent literature in order to: (i) mark some confusions in the definition or use of the concept of conflict; (ii) point-out its potential in the study of board effectiveness in a behavioural per-spective; (iii) underline the need for operationalizing the concept for a better understanding of its impact on board effectiveness and for a robust future empirical research.Conflict; Board of Directors; Decision-making Process; Board Effetiveness

Governance structures and mechanisms in public service organizations: theories, evidence and future directions

Public services play a central role in the well-being, sustainability and growth of communities, cities and nations. However, globally, public services have emerged from a period of considerable criticism. This period of challenge to public services was generated by the rise of neo-liberal ideologies in the 1980s and 1990s (Hartely et al., 2008). During this period market solutions were implemented instead of State provisions. Privatizations and disinvestments played a central role in that process (Cafferata, 1993) taken place on the grounds that management is underpinned by certain general principles and practices (New Public Management) which can be applied across a range of businesses, organizations and sectors (Pollit and Bouckaert, 2004). The current situation is characterized by new forms of relationships between State and society. The role of both government and public services are considered fundamental in order to create stable social and economic conditions by actively involving citizens and community organizations. Therefore, the inter-relationships between the public, the private and the voluntary sectors in the design and provision of public services are increased (Ferlie et al., 2005). In recent years, two seem to be the key questions: how are public service organizations governed? And, are we asking the right questions? These questions arise from the fact that nowadays, the public sector has differences among countries and many actors are producing and providing public services through different modes of governance. Actually, it is possible that public private partnerships (hereafter denoted as PPPs) (Klijn, 2008), outsourcing, state owned companies, municipal corporations (Grossi and Mussari, 2009; Grossi e Reichard, 2008), third sector and voluntary organizations, citizens, etc. might coexist. However, many issues may arise, for example, from the use of PPPs, co-production with civil society organizations, and other new governance arrangements. These developments open up questions about the extent to which such new organizational forms deliver benefits of innovation, efficiency and responsiveness, as well as their impact on processes of steering and accountability in a democratic context. Even if this fragmented reality gives more challenges to the provision and production of public services and goods to citizens however it raises many accountability problems due to the overlapping of roles and responsibility (Skelcher, 2010). This is the major concern of a networked public sector (Rhodes, 2007) and therefore analyses of public service organizations’ (hereafter PSOs) governance systems are needed. Managing those complex inter-relationships can be harnessed to improve a range of public services by examining them through different theoretical perspectives (e.g. network theories, agency theory, resource and knowledge based theories, political power theories, innovation and change theories, performance and management theories, governance theories, etc.). By using this approach it will be possible to definitely advance both theory and practice, beyond the traditional model of Public Administration (hereafter denoted as PA) and New Public Management (hereafter denoted as NPM), by considering the existence of networked forms of governance, thus arriving at the acceptance of the New Public Governance (hereafter denoted as NPG) as the steering theoretical framework (Osborne, 2006; 2009). These aspects are in line with the new awareness of the social, economic, and cultural contribution of public services, public organizations and government has resulted in a significant period of reform and experimentation (Hinna et al., 2006). Besides, at the heart of these initiatives is the idea that improvements to the ways in which public services can be governed, managed and delivered will produce improved outcomes for citizens (Brandsen and Pestoff, 2006; Pestoff, 2009). The purpose of this thesis, therefore, is a new understanding of public service organizations’ (hereafter denoted as PSOs) governance and management. This is done by using a multidisciplinary approach to explore governance structures and mechanisms, management, innovation, and performance of PSOs. Moreover, the study fills the gap of quantitative analysis to be tested and explored for their meanings and contextual influences by undertaking case studies, and for case studies to generate propositions to be tested with large datasets. Finally, questions of when, how and why governance structures and mechanisms matter to public service performance and accountability, are addressed. The role of governing bodies and internal governance mechanisms seems to be especially important for understanding the dynamics and the processes that in turn affect the overall value creation capacity of PSOs. In this respect, it is important to underline that PSOs primarily aim to produce not profit or market positioning but “public value” (Moore, 1995; 2005; Bozeman, 2009). Public value means what is added to the public sphere and this may be social or economic, or it may be political, environmental or even more broadly about the quality of life. Indeed, a public value perspective requires examining the impact of public services on “costumers” and “users” but also the impact on them as “citizens”. Only by taking into account all these issues and the inherent complexity of the analyzed phenomenon, through this study it becomes possible to investigate the governance structures and mechanisms of PSOs from different angles and “regimes”, with emphasis on differences among national contexts, theoretical frameworks, and methods of analysis

Is Small and Medium-sized Beautiful? The Structure and Evolution of Family SMEs Research

The field of scientific research on small and medium-sized family businesses has been growing exponentially and the aim of this paper is to systematise the body of knowledge to develop an agenda for the future. Adopting comparative bibliometric analyses on 155 articles (from 1989 until 2018) we provide a systematic assessment of the scientific research about small family firms, unveiling the structure and evolution of the field. Bibliographic coupling, co-citation analysis, and co-occurrence analysis are adopted to identify the most influential studies and themes. Four clusters of research are reviewed: succession in family SMEs, performances of family SMEs, internationalisation of family SMEs, and organisational culture of family SMEs. This paper contributes to the field of family SMEs by providing a systematic analysis of the scientific knowledge. Reviewing those clusters allows to providing avenues and reflections for future research and further practice

Mobile underwater sensor networks for protection and security: field experience at the UAN11 experiment

The EU-funded project UAN (Underwater Acoustic Network) was aimed at conceiving, developing, and testing at sea an innovative and operational concept for integrating underwater and above-water sensors in a unique communication system to protect offshore and coastline critical infrastructures. This work gives details on the underwater part of the project. It introduces a set of original security features and gives details on the integration of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) as mobile nodes of the network and as surveillance assets, acoustically controlled by the command and control center to respond against intrusions. Field results are given of the final UAN project sea trial, UAN11, held in May 2011 in Norway. During the experimental activities, a UAN composed of four fixed nodes, two AUVs, and one mobile node mounted on the supporting research vessel was operated continuously and integrated into a global protection system. In this article, the communication performance of the network is reported in terms of round-trip time, packet loss, and average delivery ratio. The major results of the experiment can be thus summarized: the implemented network structure was successful in continuously operating over five days with nodes seamlessly entering and exiting the network; the performance of the network varied greatly with fluctuations in the acoustic channel; the addition of security features induced a minor degradation in network performance with respect to channel variation; the AUVs were successfully controlled from a remote station through acoustic signals routed by the network

Sensor-Based Rehabilitation in Neurological Diseases: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research Trends

Background: As the field of sensor-based rehabilitation continues to expand, it is important to gain a comprehensive understanding of its current research landscape. This study aimed to conduct a bibliometric analysis to identify the most influential authors, institutions, journals, and research areas in this field. Methods: A search of the Web of Science Core Collection was performed using keywords related to sensor-based rehabilitation in neurological diseases. The search results were analyzed with CiteSpace software using bibliometric techniques, including co-authorship analysis, citation analysis, and keyword co-occurrence analysis. Results: Between 2002 and 2022, 1103 papers were published on the topic, with slow growth from 2002 to 2017, followed by a rapid increase from 2018 to 2022. The United States was the most active country, while the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology had the highest number of publications among institutions. Sensors published the most papers. The top keywords included rehabilitation, stroke, and recovery. The clusters of keywords comprised machine learning, specific neurological conditions, and sensor-based rehabilitation technologies. Conclusions: This study provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of sensor-based rehabilitation research in neurological diseases, highlighting the most influential authors, journals, and research themes. The findings can help researchers and practitioners to identify emerging trends and opportunities for collaboration and can inform the development of future research directions in this field

Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccination in Italy: towards new perspectives and new challenges

Human Papilloma virus (HPV) is the cause of a sexually transmitted infection which can lead to the development of genital warts, anogenital and oropharyngeal cancers. In Europe, about 90% of HPV-related cancers and 90% of genital warts are estimated to be vaccine preventable each year. In Italy, around 5,000 cases of cancers are due to HPV infections each year. This explains why HPV infection control is considered a public health priority

Strategies to achieve HPV-related disease control in Italy: results from an integrative approach

Background: achieving Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) - related diseases control is an important challenge in public health. In Italy HPV vaccination uptake does not rise a sufficient level. The aim of this project is to identify strategies to promote HPV vaccination in Italy.  Methods: an integrated approach consisting of a systematic review and a two-step panel consultation was used to identify strategies to increase vaccination uptake among adolescents, population target of the national vaccination program, and to promote vaccination in additional targets. Overall, ten experts in the fields of Gynecology, Public Health, General Practice and Pediatrics were involved along with Patients representatives. Recommendations were elaborated according to a set of criteria drawn from the Evidence to Decision (EtD) framework.  Results: the systematic review led to the identification of three categories of strategies: reminds, education and multicomponent approaches respectively. A strong recommendation was formulated to use reminds tailored to vaccine recipients or their parents, and a moderate recommendation to use reminds directed to health professionals. A moderate recommendation was developed on the implementation of multicomponent interventions. A strong recommendation was yielded with respect to the promotion of HPV vaccination among women already treated for HPV-related diseases, fertile women not previously vaccinated and 25 year-old women undergoing cervical cancer screening. Lastly, a strong recommendation was formulated for catch-up initiatives targeted to women and men turning 18 years of age.  Conclusion: this project led to the identification of several valuable strategies to improve HPV vaccination and strengthen HPV-related diseases control at national level.&nbsp