Is the European Union (EU) Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) effective in shaping sustainability objectives? An analysis of investment funds' behaviour

This paper investigates how investment funds behave in line with European Union (EU)'s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR). The SFDR requires investment funds to take a clear position with respect to sustainability objectives, aiming at addressing the threats of greenwashing. However, we still do not know whether investment funds are managed accordingly. We frame our study within the organizational category theory, using Morningstar Direct data to analyze the category of investment funds declaring sustainability objectives - SFDR Article 9- and a control group with no sustainability objectives - SFDR Article 6. We assess how investment managers are financially incentivized to achieve either sustainability or financial objectives. The analysis evidences unexpected results: investment funds that self-select into opposite categories have incentives to behave similarly from both the financial and sustainability perspectives. Our results show that European investment funds hardly distinguish the attributes of sustainability meanings across opposite categories, reflecting category fuzziness

Investors’ aspirations toward social impact: A portfolio-based analysis

In the last ten years, we have witnessed a proliferation of investors claiming blended value strategies, i.e., pursuing both economic and social returns in their investments. Aside from this rush for self-selecting in a blended value finance context, we still do not know to what extent the investors’ claims actually reflect investment decisions. Evidence suggests that, in some cases, such investors tend to maximize the social performance over the financial performance; in some others, the effect is reverted, but literature currently lacks studies aligning the analysis of the investment decisions with the investment portfolios. Yet, it is still unclear whether blended value investment decisions are enacted as a result of investors’ deliberate strategies and what influences this relationship. In this paper we tackle this issue, analyzing the extent to which investors’ finance firms pursuing goals aligned with their strategic aspirations. Specifically, adopting a Fractional Logistic Regression model, we test the effect of investors’ aspirations toward social impact on the extent to which their investees (i.e., the portfolio of firms in which they invest) pursue social returns. Results suggest the existence of a positive and significant investor–portfolio alignment effect (i.e., the higher the investors’ aspirations toward social impact, the higher the number of investees with higher social aspirations). Yet, this effect is influenced by contingencies at both investor and portfolio levels. Investors with strong aspirations toward social impact that: (i) invest in countries with high levels of social inequality, and (ii) are located in countries that support social progress and maximize, in their portfolios, the presence of businesses pursuing social impact. We discuss implications for future researchers, policymakers and practitioners

Heat stress affects reproductive performance of high producing dairy cows bred in an area of southern Apennines

A 5-year retrospective (from 2008 to 2012) survey was carried out by analyzing data of high producing dairy cows reared in farms located in an area of southern Apennines. The indicators of fertility obtained were related to either season variations or the temperature-humidity index (THI). A significant lower number of conceptions evaluated per month on an annual basis (NCY), i.e., a parameter obtained by subtracting gestation length to the calving date, was found during the summer months; furthermore, this parameter decreased along with THI increase. The number of heats detected varied equally to NCY and represented the main cause of the lower fertility consequent to heat stress (HS). The age at first calving was not significantly affected by either the season or the THI. The mean number of AI/pregnancy in relation to the calving time was significantly affected by the season but it was not related to THI. The number of days open was significantly larger in the animals calved from January to July than from August to December (163±33 vs 123±36 days; P< 0.001); this causes an annual economic loss of several thousand euro in each farm analyzed. In conclusion, HS causes severe economic losses in dairy farms located in southern Apennines that are mainly due to a lower number of heats detected as well as a larger number of days open and semen doses used

Exploring Tension in Hybrid Organizations in Times of Covid-19 Crisis. The Italian Benefit Corporations’ experience

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused an unprecedented social and economic crisis, not least for hybrid organisations, as they must manage the tension arising from their dual mission to create social and economic value. Building on a theoretical framework for hybrid tension, our work contextualises how tensions emerge and are managed in hybrid organisations when they are exposed to exogenous shocks. We address the following research question. How have hybrid organisations managed the tensions arising from their dual purpose during the COVID-19 crisis? Our focus is on Italian benefit corporations, which are organisations combining social and economic objectives. We conduct two focus groups with 12 Italian benefit corporations. Our findings show the emergence of four constructs that capture the responses to the COVID-19 crisis: social and/or commercial orientation; technological characterisation; internal and external stakeholder relationship; openness to changes. We explain the relationship of these constructs via a framework of performing, organising, learning, and belonging tensions

Mission, governance, and accountability of benefit corporations: Toward a commitment device for achieving commercial and social goals

Benefit corporations (BCs) are profit-with-purpose organizations regulated by a legal framework for establishing explicit commitments in terms of multi-stakeholder governance and accountability structures. We comprehensively analyze the theoretical alignment of four concepts (ownership, mission, governance, and accountability) to explain the legal rationale for BCs' unique corporate form. However, the boundaries of BC legislation are blurry, leaving them open to top-down governance arrangements and weak accountability. To explore this ambiguity, this paper investigates whether BCs implement a de facto (i.e., beyond the letter of the law) multi-stakeholder structure with governance models and downward accountability mechanisms that balance different stakeholders' interests, instead of focusing only on shareholder profits. This further highlight the soft boundaries imposed by the BC regulatory framework and suggests that more work is needed to explore the relationship between governance models that differently balance stakeholders' claims and the firm's social performance

Effects of heat stress on reproductive activity in dairy cows bred in the Potenza district

The effect of heat stress on the reproductive performance in dairy cows reared in Apennines areas of Southern Italy was evaluated. Reproductive parameters obtained from three farms during the period 2007-2012 were related to either season variations or the temperature-humidity index (THI), i.e., a complex climate parameter obtained by the maximum temperature and minimum relative humidity. The THI was able to assess the HS effects on parameters as conception rate on an annual basis (CRY) (R=-0.437; P <0.01) but was less efficient for parameters as the conception rate (CR). Whereas (i) CRY is influenced by both heat detection rate (HDR) and CR; (ii) an indirect analysis detected a significant (P< 0.001) reduction in the HDR along with THI increase; and (iii) CR was only partially affected by either THI or season, it follows that the main cause of reduced fertility in the farms surveyed was the HDR. The number of days open was significantly larger in the animals calved from January to July than in those calved between August and December (163±33 vs 123±36; P< 0.001); this increase may be because of the rescue of reproduction activity in the cows calved during the former period coincides with heat stress occurrence

Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in the Cirrhotic: Review of Literature on Indications and Technique

Cholelithiasis is twice more common in patients suffering from liver cirrhosis compared to overall population and in those patients, acute cholecystitis occurs significantly more often. Our goal was to review the literature and to overview the indications, contra-indications, and alternatives in the cirrhotic with biliary stones. We conducted a systematic review of the literature using the key words "Cirrhosis", "cholecystectomy", "laparoscopy"and "indications". Selected articles were reviewed for information specific to indications, contra-indications, and alternatives to laparoscopic cholecystectomy in cirrhotics. Results showed that laparoscopic cholecystectomy might offer several advantages in cirrhotic population, however cholecystectomy can be challenging: specific indications and alternatives to surgery must be discussed case by case. Laparoscopic cholecystectomy can be performed safely in selected patients with cirrhosis; special precautions are warranted regarding pneumoperitoneum pressure, trocar placement and increased safety with Indocyanine-green (ICG) fluorescence cholangiography. Nevertheless, in high-risk cirrhotic patients (Child C) and/or in common bile duct lithiasis endoscopic and non-surgical conservative treatments are preferable

Electric sail static structural analysis with finite element approach

The propulsive characteristics of an Electric Solar Wind Sail are usually evaluated using a simplified model in which all the sail tethers are coplanar and form a sort of rigid disk. However, the three-dimensional arrangement of the tethers is fundamental information in the study of the spacecraft performance, and must be accounted for in refined mission analyses. In this paper, a Finite Element approach is chosen to estimate the deflected shape of the tethers, thus allowing important information on the structural response of the sail to be obtained. A parametric code is developed to perform a static analysis of an Electric Solar Wind Sail, whose requirements are given in terms of payload mass and spacecraft characteristic acceleration. In particular, the tether structural response is investigated using three different beam models, which are compared in terms of accuracy and computational efficiency. The analysis is specialized to the noteworthy case of a Sun-facing sail that is placed at a distance of one astronomical unit from the Sun. The numerical results, which concern a set of possible sail configurations, are compared with those taken from analytical models