NPO Funding in Italy: The Role and the Contribution of Corporate Governance

By adopting mainly the “principal-agent theory”, the study analyses how non-profit organizations (NPOs) corporate governance structure could increase the trust of the donors and therefore affect their ability to receive donations from taxpayers. Starting from a literature review we concentrated our attention on the non-profit sector where NGOs represent the largest category. In Italy, starting from 2006, all NPOs could receive funding deriving from taxes paid by citizens when making tax returns with the so called ‘5 per thousand’ of the personal income tax. We analyzed the corporate governance disclosure practices of the first Italian 100 NPOs that received the highest donations from 5 per thousand. In particular, we elaborated a CGI index that includes governance and informativeness. This paper shows how an efficient and transparent corporate governance structure motivates the donors to donate 5 per thousand to NPOs that demonstrate good corporate governance. The findings suggest that taxpayers are inclined to allocate 5 per thousand to organizations where the information level, from a governance point of view, is high, easily available and clear about the purpose in the specified field of research

Sustainability reporting practices and their social impact to NGO funding in Italy

This study analyses the growing social trends of sustainability reporting practices in non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Taking a preliminary step toward NGO funding, we consider the current lack of information disclosure in existing reporting practices, which are diverse and unsustainable. We investigate key organisational information in order to discover any potential links between funding sources and disclosure practices. In Italy, today there is an on-going effort to encourage public engagement in civil society. A percentage-tax law allows taxpayers to dedicate ‘cinque per mille’ (one-half percent)of their income to NGOs, which is then deducted from their tax obligation (Hereafter, ‘5 per thousand’). Our primary research objective is to understand if there is a link between the ‘5 per thousand’ donations that NGOs receive for providing social impact, and their reporting practices. Therefore, we critically analyse if and how sustainable reporting practices are achieved within the top 100 most funded NGOs that receive the ‘5 per thousand’ donation. We examine public data from official government records published by the Italian Revenue Agency. The findings suggest that sustainability reporting offers a number of financial and social advantages, including social impact that builds trust towards the idea of civil society and its funders. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

Procuring Socially Responsible Services Within Sustainability-Driven Thessaloniki

The procurement of public goods and services accumulates approximatively 14% of the European Union (EU) gross domestic product (GDP). Public procurement (PP) refers to the process where central and local governments purchase and provide services, public works and goods (Uyarra and Flanagan 2010). The European small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are increasingly contributing to these PP practices offering value-added services to local societies. SMEs are the drivers of the local communities as they are providing jobs and stimulate sustainable growth. In the past 5 years, they have created around 85% of new jobs and provided a path to prosperity for millions of families. Therefore, it is important to strengthen their active participation in public tenders, especially local ones. Historically, PP of business services is the primary performer with regard to three key SMEs’ performance indicators in the supply chain process. Public services’ procurement is forming the key public driver of economic growth (European Commission 2016). As a result, it is important to eliminate on-going PP problems that discourage SMEs’ participation to public tenders. This paper explores, taking as an example Thessaloniki, a sustainability-driven PP framework that could surface the exact nature of the ongoing problems that stifle entrepreneurial growth

Overhauls in water supply systems in Ukraine: A hydro-economic model of socially responsible planning and cost management

The poor technical conditions of the water supply systems complicate the quality of urban population life and create a burden on public budgets. We examine the water supply system factors in Ukraine and identify the main parameters that restrain their development. This study examines the development of overhaul planning in water supply systems in Ukraine, taking into account the network equipment-aging factor. We employ a mathematical technique for optimizing the planned costs for overhauls in water supply networks by engaging latent-semantic analysis (LSA). The LSA provides a novel approach to sustainable planning of several economic factors in water supply. The exhibited results underline prominent technical and economic similarities in Ukrainian water supply systems. These results allow us to reveal an unsustainable usage of public funding for overhauls. In addition, the overhaul planning model engaged, improves the Ukrainian water supply sector. It helps the country to abandon the current reactive water management approach and aims towards proactive and sustainable water management. This innovative approach could redefine the public managerial profile, calibrating it towards a socially responsible one, significantly raising the quality of the urban population's living standards

Entrepreneurial Behaviour and Organisational Propensity to Innovate in a Public-Sector Context

The importance of innovation, in both private and public entrepreneurial fields, is the basis of all companies’ strategic choices. This study examines entrepreneurship and innovation, as well as their dynamic interface in value creation, in the public sector. It explores entrepreneurial determinants for public-sector innovation, as collected from managers and employees involved in the water supply and sewage industries in Ukraine. The data, related to a sample of firms, were obtained from a twofold self-administered survey. Adopting an ordered logistic regression model to analyse the data obtained from a survey, it is found that the entrepreneurial determinants of self-awareness, knowledge-enabling and entrepreneurial orientation positively correlate with fostering innovation process. The findings reveal that entrepreneurial leadership and intrapreneurial self-efficacy are mediating determinants. Finally, the results demonstrate that intrapreneurial self-efficacy has more potential than entrepreneurial leadership to stimulate innovation at the individual level, which has both theoretical and practical implications

Financial Reporting in European Football Teams: A Disclosure Analysis of Player Registrations

This paper critically analyses disclosure reporting and transparent valuation of the impairment test application (IAS 36) on intangible assets (IAS 38) in football clubs that prepare financial statements in accordance with IAS/IFRS and UEFA Financial Fair Play Regulations. Following a three-step procedure, the paper examines the financial statements of all the companies listed on the STOXX Europe Football Index for a five-year period (2012-2016). The research reveals some interesting and some controversial findings. Several football clubs exhibit a low level of disclosure and others a high one. Therefore, this study focuses on specific areas that primarily relate to economic and financial communication, as financial statements need to provide contextual disclosure. The study pioneers constructive criticism in relation to financial documentation and reporting produced by football companies. IAS/IFRS require further development in order to adapt typologies of specific sustainable business models for all the companies in the football industry