Corporate Governance and Firm Performance in New Technology Ventures

AbstractThis paper studies the relationship between the features of managerial board, ownership structure and firm performance of a particular type of new technology ventures: the academic spin offs. These are mainly small and medium firms, focused on high technology, research and innovation, that involve private and public actors in their ownership structure. Literature shows that these firms play an important role for economic growth of a country, however in Italy a high degree of academic spin offs doesn't survive for a long time. Managerial competences, corporate governance attributes and financial structure could explain these phenomenon. This study observes a sample of Italian academic spin offs established in the last five years: primary data on corporate governance, industry, ownership structure, financial aspects are taken from the National Register of Firms, University (parent organization) and company website. Statistics show relevant relations between firm performance and corporate governance attributes and confirmed, after the start-up, the inefficiency of the board of directors in which there is an overlapping between academic-founder and manager, suggesting greater openness to outside expertise

Big Data and Decision-Making: A Structured Literature Review

This study provides a structured literature review on the role of Big Data (BD) and Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supporting the decision-making. The study aims to systematize the knowledge, the primary results and research gaps related to BD and BDA in strategic management and in decision-making, providing a future research agenda. Adopting the methodology of Massaro et al. (2015), the review investigates this phenomenon through a longitudinal approach, analyzing a sample of 97 articles published in high-level scientific journals ranked in ABS list, in the Marketing, Strategic Management, Ethics, Gender, and Social Responsibility area. The study unveils the subject of decisions, factors influencing good decisions and the main effects of using BD and BDA in decision-making. Public sector, non-profit organizations and SMEs deserve more attention. Similarly, new organizational factors, data chain dynamics and inhibitors must be explored to remove the obstacles in decision-making

ASSESSING THE BUSINESS INCUBATORS’ PERFORMANCE REFERRING THE LOCAL DEVELOPMENT IN ITALY

Literature assign to business incubators an important role in promoting innovative entrepreneurship and economic growth. This study investigates the relationship between incubators performance and local development in Italy, focusing on those characteristics of regional contexts that enhance the role of incubators. Using a sample of 162 incubators, the regional economic index for 18 regions and the performance data for 405 new technology ventures located within these regions, we show that the local context features play a positive effect on the incubators performance. The nature of founders team of incubators is also important to implement effective entrepreneurial initiatives, while the sectorial specialization isn’t an essential requirement for the success of NTVs. Different factors of local context contribute positively to generate an environment that enhance the incubators’ activities

Scientific network and performance of human resources: Evidence from Italian University in Chemistry field

AbstractThe paper investigates the role of scientific network in knowledge production in chemistry field for the Italian Universities, considering the models of research and teaching evaluation, the intangibles report and the network analysis approach. The analysis shows relevant correlations between the features of network, scientific performance of human resources in teaching and research processes and provides an overview of Italian Universities activity within the knowledge production in Chemistry. The study utilizes a multidimensional statistical analysis and considers the Italian academic researchers, taken from 2001 to 2007, in Chemistry field, chosen for its particular relevance for bibliometric indicators

Discovering the Relationship Between Big Data, Big Data Analytics, and Decision Making: A Structured Literature Review

This paper focuses on providing a structured literature review on the role of Big Data (BD) and Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supporting decision making. The study aims to systematize the knowledge, the primary results, and research gaps related to BD and BDA in strategic management and in decision making by providing a future research agenda. Adopting the methodology of Massaro et al. (2015), the structured literature review investigates this phenomenon analyzing a sample of 97 articles published in high-level scientific journals ranked in ABS list in the Marketing, Strategic Management, Ethics, Gender, and Social Responsibility area. Bibliometric analysis, content analysis, and the PRISMA protocol have been used for the review. The study unveils the subject of decisions, factors influencing good decisions, and the main effects of using BD and BDA in decision making. New organizational factors, data chain dynamics, and inhibitors should be explored to remove the obstacles in decision making. The relationship between BD/BDA and decision making remains underexplored in public organizations, non-profit organizations, and small and medium-sized firms

Big Data and Decision-Making: A Structured Literature Review

This study provides a structured literature review on the role of Big Data (BD) and Big Data Analytics (BDA) in supporting the decision-making. The study aims to systematize the knowledge, the primary results and research gaps related to BD and BDA in strategic management and in decision-making, providing a future research agenda. Adopting the methodology of Massaro et al. (2015), the review investigates this phenomenon through a longitudinal approach, analyzing a sample of 97 articles published in high-level scientific journals ranked in ABS list, in the Marketing, Strategic Management, Ethics, Gender, and Social Responsibility area. The study unveils the subject of decisions, factors influencing good decisions and the main effects of using BD and BDA in decision-making. Public sector, non-profit organizations and SMEs deserve more attention. Similarly, new organizational factors, data chain dynamics and inhibitors must be explored to remove the obstacles in decision-making

A SspI PCR-RFLP detecting a silent allele at the goat CSN2 locus

The comparison between the cDNA sequence obtained and the published sequences of the goat CSN2 alleles showed a new single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) (transition C-T) at the 180th nucleotide of the ninth exon. This mutation, which took place at 124 nt from the polyadenylation site, identifies a silent allele at the CSN2 locus named CSN2 A1. Since the 9th exon C-T transition creates a SspI endonuclease restriction site, the SspI digestion of a PCR product of 360 bp spanning the 9th exon and flanking regions, would allow carriers for the presence of thymine to be identified. The allelic frequency of the CSN2 A1 allele, determined in 170 goats belonging to an undefined genetic type reared in the province of Naples (Italy), was 0.23 It has been observed that the sequences in the 3’ untranslated regions (UTR), proximal to the polyadenylation site, can affect the mechanism of mRNA deadenylation and degradation. Therefore, it is reasonable to hypothesize that the C-T transition might, directly or indirectly, influence the stability of the mRNA and, consequently, the amount of protein produced

Grandfather international : a cross-country comparison of an older people integrated assessment Portugal and Italy

Scientists theorize that aging likely results from a combination of many factors. Genes, lifestyle and disease can all affect the rate of ageing. Studies have indicated that people age at different rates and in different ways. Frailty is a state of increased vulnerability with multisystem loss of physiologic reserves and decreased response to stressors, predicting adverse health outcomes. The phenotype of frailty is characterized by: unintentional weight loss, self-reported exhaustion, weakness (low grip strength), slow walking speed and low physical activity. From our knowledge no studies were found that relate the frailty, hearing, the executive functions of language, speech rate and also the swallowing process. The research question is as follows: Is there any relation between frailty speech, language, hearing and swallow? This study is part of a project between Italy and Portugal involving professionals from various fields.N/

Wind Direction Data from a Coastal HF Radar System in the Gulf of Naples (Central Mediterranean Sea)

Results on the accuracy of SeaSonde High Frequency (HF) radar wind direction measurements in the Gulf of Naples (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea, Central Mediterranean Sea) are here presented. The investigation was carried out for a winter period (2 February–6 March) and for one summer month (August) of the reference year 2009. HF radar measurements were compared with in situ recordings from a weather station and with model data, with the aim of resolving both small scale and large scale dynamics. The analysis of the overall performance of the HF radar system in the Gulf of Naples shows that the data are reliable when the wind speed exceeds a 5 m/s threshold. Despite such a limitation, this study confirms the potentialities of these systems as monitoring platforms in coastal areas and suggests further efforts towards their improvement

scX: A user-friendly tool for scRNA-seq exploration

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has transformed our ability to explore biological systems. Nevertheless, proficient expertise is essential for handling and interpreting the data. In this paper, we present scX, an R package built on the Shiny framework that streamlines the analysis, exploration, and visualization of single-cell experiments. With an interactive graphic interface, implemented as a web application, scX provides easy access to key scRNAseq analyses, including marker identification, gene expression profiling, and differential gene expression analysis. Additionally, scX seamlessly integrates with commonly used single-cell Seurat and SingleCellExperiment R objects, resulting in efficient processing and visualization of varied datasets. Overall, scX serves as a valuable and user-friendly tool for effortless exploration and sharing of single-cell data, simplifying some of the complexities inherent in scRNAseq analysis.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. Source code can be downloaded from https://github.com/chernolabs/scX. User manual available at https://chernolabs.github.io/scX/. Docker image available from dockerhub as chernolabs/sc