Exploring human capital: discrimination factors and group-specific performance in the football industry

The aim of the study is to investigate whether discrimination factors exist within professional football clubs, concerning the management of their human capital, by analysing the correlation between the footballers’ wages and their performance. An analysis was conducted to show that discrimination, based both on nationality and race, can affect the strategies adopted by football club managers and in the professional footballer labour market, where players are considered to be the human capital of football enterprises. The research framework consists of an analysis of the existing literature on discrimination in sports and of a quantitative analysis based on an exploratory approach, where the wage differences among Italian Serie A league footballers are compared to the performance of each group of players (organised by race or nationality). The results of the analysis of data for all Italian Serie A clubs show that discrimination (in pay) exists against Italian and white players. In contrast, when small and big clubs are considered separately, the findings relating to small clubs highlight that foreign and black players face such discrimination. The results suggest that managers of professional football clubs apply a discrimination strategy. In addition, the results provide practical implications on the types of discrimination errors that are committed by the management of big and small football clubs. Big clubs tend to overrate the contributions of foreign and/or black players compared to those of Italian and white players, while small clubs tend to overrate the contributions of Italian and white players compared to those of foreign and black players. To reduce discrimination, clubs have to correlate how much players are paid with their performance. Further research is recommended to identify the impact of wage inequality on the football labour market and on professional team management

The role of digitalization as enabler of Intellectual Capital Disclosure towards a sustainable and resilient ecosystem

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the link between Intellectual Capital (IC), digitalization, sustainable development and resilience to develop the governance and the management of the Social-Ecological Systems (SESs). The digital reporting era has changed the ways in which companies relate to their stakeholders and disclose about IC. Recent studies show how it is relevant to continue to investigate how the digital era affects the IC Disclosure (ICD), as well as its contribution to reveal new approaches and opportunities for sustainable development in a resilient ecosystem. The lack of an established academic background on this specific subject represents our main research motivation and highlights opportunities for theoretical and practical contributions. This is an exploratory paper; it is intended to contribute to the existing lacking literature about the support provided by Smart Technologies and Digitalization to ICD development, in the light of the development of resilient and sustainable ecosystems. Our study clarified the relationship between Smart Technologies, Digitalization and ICD, on one side, and explored the potential of technology to improve ICD through a preliminary systematization based on literature. These led to the development of a preliminary framework on pros and cons of digitalization on ICD, from the perspective of internal and external stakeholders. Our framework reinforces the theory that digitalization and smart technologies can blur the borders between organizations and ecosystems and, then, act as catalysts of the fourth stage of IC management

The Impact of Digital Technologies on Food Companies\u27 Information Systems: A Literature Review

Made in Italy companies, and in particular those operating in the food sector, play a fundamental role in the Italian economy and represent its most dynamic component. Technolo- gies, and in particular smart technologies, are becoming a key factor so as to be progressively adopted in manufacturing companies, in particular in the manufacturers of machines, plants, pro- duction equipment, food processing and preservation. Therefore, the implementation and use of innovative accounting information systems also seem essential to transform the strategic plan- ning process by providing new relationships with employees, customers and suppliers, new ways of data analysis to support strategic actions [1], changing competitive dynamics and suggesting new sources of innovation [2]. The rise of the fourth industrial revolution [3] is opening new growth opportunities for territories and businesses, which can achieve superior performance through these technological processes. The aim of this research is to identify, through a system- atic literature review, what is the state of the art on information systems and technologies of the digital world and how they affect organizations belonging to the food sector