Risk Consulting in Public Administration: Evidences of Insurance Brokers in the Emilia-Romagna Municipalities

Over the past years, risk management has been embedded in all public administration and scholars have asserted the need to improve the research about it. This paper aims to understand if an insurance broker has a role in the public administration risk management system, analysing the relationship between the operational risk management activities and control systems in the public administration and the evolution of the insurance broker as a risk consultant. Finally, through a content analysis, this study presents an observation about 331 municipalities from the Emilia-Romagna to understand how many municipalities can have an insurance broker as a partner

Agency Theory Applied to the Italian Revenue Agency: Accountability Policies as Bonding Costs

This paper aims at studying the consequences of the Agency Theory application at the case of the Italian Revenue Agency (afterwards IRA). The major countries in the world entrust the tax administration to the Agencies that make use of various strategies to manage tax revenue and to contrast tax avoidance. In the last years the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (afterwards OECD) has invited many States to increase the tax compliance between Public Tax Administration and Taxpayers and to improve the relationship with these. There are more scientific contributions about the themes like the Agency Theory, the Stakeholder’s Theory and other more on Governance and Accountability policies: many of these will be discussed in this work. In the light of these observations the research question is: given that IRA plays a central role in the tax administration, what happen if we apply the Agency Theory on this? What are the Agency costs in this case? To answer to these question we have studied the Law provisions in the Italian tax field and the “way to do” of the IRA. So, this work not is only a theoretical analysis of the scientific literature but it move to analyse the implications of these on the real case. The conclusions achieved in this paper are based on the analysis of the Italian case that only partially brings a solution to this question. However it represent the first point for us to beginning a future comparison between the evidences in the international context

Museums and Crisis Management due to Covid -19. Effects of Pandemic and the Role of Digital and Social Networks Communication

The overall purpose of this study is the effects of lockdown within Italian museums caused by the Coronavirus disease-19 (Covid-19) emergency. During the pandemic, the museums are being closed, and the use of digital content and social networks seems to have been the solution to overcome the closure problem. The study analyzes the role of digital content and tools in communication to manage the shock due to Covid-19. The basic design of the research recurs to the crisis management model used to analyze three stages crossed by museums as preparedness, reaction, and recovery. The study involved several Italian museums grouped according to the art collection, governance, and funding sources. A semi-structured questionnaire was sent to them. The main findings show the presence of digital as a strategy already adopted by museums before the outbreak. However, the results reveal the absence of a preventive phase as requested by the model of crisis management. At the same time, it has emerged the need to adapt the digital content to guarantee the mission of fruition for the public

Poor Integration between Operational Risk Management activities and Internal Control System in the Municipalities: An analysis of the Italian legislative framework

In the last years, the Public Administration introduced in its strategies logics of Performance Management to increase the services offered to the citizens and the correct treatment of the public goods. The safeguard of the objectives’ achievement also passes for the risk management practices and through the ability of the Municipality to assess their risk and treat these in order to remove or reduce the impact of serious negative events (called also “operational risks”). This work aims to suggest an overall vision on the Risk Management practices, with particular regard of the Operational Risks, provided by the Internal Control System of the municipalities in the Italian legislative framework. The paper aims at sustaining the debate about the introduction of risk logics within the Public Internal Control System to ensure the goal’s achievement and a correct used of the Public resource

Searching for diversity. An overview on board of Italian Cultural Organizations.

Diversity takes on different meanings and synonymous; actually, the theme has been strongly debated in the era of globalization, migration and because of the affirmation of human rights and gender policies. Many studies are related to the analysis of board diversity within the forprofit organizations. Indeed, there is paucity of studies that linked the topic to the role of demographic and non-demographic diversity among cultural organizations and NPOs sector. Italian cultural institutions have been grouped together in a website by the private association AICI. The website was used in the present study in order to map organizations and their boards in terms of multiple diversity variables such visible and invisible parameters. Hereby, diversity is explored among board members of 102 private foundations and associations, including dimensions like age, gender, nationality, educational and professional background. One of the main finds of the research highlights how Italian cultural organizations have a low degree of diversity within the boards of directors

How B-Corporations' mobilize IC (unawares) to create value. Evidence from the Italian ecosystem

Purpose – This work investigates the presence and disclosure unawares of Intellectual Capital (IC) within Italian Benefit Corporations and their capability to create value through the mobilization of IC.Design/methodology/approach – The analysis is developed on a double level. In the first part the work recurs to the qualitative Content Analysis to investigate if the certified BCorps mobilize the IC. In the second part is conducted an empirical analysis on sample of the certified B-Corporations located in Italy to detect the degree of awareness about information, meaning and presence of Intellectual Capital.Findings – The BCorps responding to the assessment tools make an aware disclosure of value creation informations, but they are unaware that within this information there are elements of Intellectual Capital.Originality/value – Bcorps are a new reality to discover and there are few academic researches about this topic.Practical Implications – The lack of awareness about the presence and mobilization of Intellectual Capital makes reflect on the fact that for companies that want to become BCorps or want to renew the certification to continue to be in the BCorps ecosystem they must pay attention to the development of IC

Accounting and the enactment of power: Municipal Reform by Peter Leopold 1774-1775

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to understand the enduring, fundamental contributions of accounting practices in the pursuit of decentralization by governments, with an examination of Peter Leopold’s Reform of the Municipalities in the late 18th century in Italy. Design/methodology/approach – An extensive textual analysis of the very comprehensive collection of primary sources of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany during the de’ Medici and Hapsburg-Lorraine’s rule identified the reasons for Peter Leopold’s decision to decentralize his government’s authority and responsibilities. A systemic comparison of the 1765-66 and 1775-76 financial reports of the Municipality of Castrocaro and Terra del Sole disclosed the importance of the micro-practices of accounting and reporting for the Reform. Findings – In the context of the 18th century Enlightenment, Peter Leopold legitimized his Reform by the introduction of a modern style of government based on the rationalisation of the municipal administrative system and decentralization of central authority and responsibility. The Reform was made feasible by the substitution of a birth right principle with an economic discourse which linked tax payments to property ownership. This had the unintended consequence of increased taxes, higher municipal expenditures, and possible inequalities between municipalities. Research limitations/implications – The findings of the study are dependent on the resources which have survived and are now preserved in the official archives of Galeata and Florence. This work contributes to the extant literature on administrative reforms in a crucial period for the redefinition of sovereignty by the ruling classes, with the rise of the modern State. It extends historical understanding of the public sector with a focus on local government in the 18th century in a non-Anglo-Saxon context. Practical implications – Examination of the Reform of Peter Leopold contributes to an enhanced understanding of present-day decentralization by governments in the context of the new public management (NPM). It provides to NPM advocates a broader temporal and contextual understanding of the impact of current decentralization reforms. Originality/value – Few accounting studies have considered the micro-aspects of decentralization reforms at the municipal level and tried to identify their impact on the wealth of the population. Moreover, Peter Leopold’s Reform is considered one of the most innovative and enlightened of the 18th century, while the remainder of Europe was still overwhelmingly committed to the centralization of administrative apparatuses. Finally, this study relates to the multi-disciplinary debate about the recognition, qualification and accountization of the impact of decentralization of responsibility for the delivery of government services

L’efficacia del controllo di gestione nelle imprese sociali tra attendibilità informativa e Knowledge Accounting. Un’analisi empirica

Lo studio intende indagare l’importanza delle informazioni di cost accounting (Kaplan, 1988) e delle relative implicazioni che le asimmetrie informative, riscontrate al suo interno, possono avere in termini di ricaduta sul sistema decisionale (Bertini, 1990; Cooper e Kaplan, 1988) nel momento in cui i manager sono chiamati ad operare delle scelte di indirizzo strategico. A livello internazionale numerosi sono gli studi che hanno indagato la relazione tra i livelli di conoscenza manageriale in termini di contabilità e la performance del sistema informativo-contabile (Cardinales, 2008; Cloyd, 1997; Bonner e Lewius, 1990), tuttavia poco è stato indagato per quanto concerne il settore non profit ed in particolare l’azienda cooperativa sociale (Costa et al., 2012; Mancino e Thomas, 2005; Thomas 2004; Andreaus 1996; Austin et al. 2006). L’esigenza informativa interna fa sì che si attivi un processo di pianificazione e di controllo di gestione utile per consentire una valutazione di carattere economico-finanziaria, nonché gestionale- organizzativa (Bronzetti, 2007). Rispetto a ciò la contabilità analitica rappresenta uno degli strumenti di base su cui si fonda il sistema di controllo di gestione, fornendo un supporto al sistema decisionale (Brusa, 1995). La formulazione delle domande di ricerca si è innestata sulla relazione e le implicazioni esistenti tra efficacia ed efficienza del controllo di gestione, analizzandone la bontà del sistema di contabilità analitica, il livello di competenza e conoscenza economico-aziendale da parte dei manager e l’utilizzo, da parte loro, delle informazioni derivanti dal sistema di accounting ai fini decisionali. Lo studio ha pertanto indagato: - l’attendibilità del sistema di cost accounting ed il relativo grado di consapevolezza delle informazioni da esso derivanti da parte degli users; - il livello di asimmetria informativa tra il grado di attendibilità effettivo e il grado di attendibilità presupposto dal sistema decisionale; - la correlazione dall’eventuale grado di distorsione in ragione della knowledge management