Heterogeneity in Managerial Strategies and Internationalization of Firms: the case of Italy

The recent empirical literature on firms’ performance has focused on the multidimensional concept of firms’ managerial strategies. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between firms’ managerial strategies and firms’ performance, accounting for entrepreneur’s specific characteristics, firm’s strategies, organizational capabilities. We also emphasize the role of firms’ internationalization mode. We match and merge three different datasets for Italy, the Capitalia survey, ICE-Reprint and AIDA for the period 2001-2003 and investigate a possible non-linear impact of managerial strategies on firms’ erformance. The specific characteristics of the entrepreneur do not seem to significantly affect firms’ performance, while the mode of internationalization plays a role. We find evidence of some important non linearities when we single out the role of skilled workers and managers in determining firm’s success in highly competitive markets.Managerial Strategies, Internationalization, Panel Analysis, Non-linearities

Location, Internationalization and Performance of Firms in Italy: a Multilevel Approach

Competition is increasingly crossing borders. However, location still matters: the most successful competitors in an industry often cluster in the same geographic areas and companies use the advantages of location to compete at a global level. When competing across borders, firms can coordinate among different activities in a variety of ways to harness network advantages. This paper analyses how Italian firms’ performance, proxied by their propensity to export, depends both on geographical and institutional context and on individual characteristics. Using a multilevel model, we estimate and distinguish the effect of individual (firm level) and context variables (province level) on the performance of internationalized Italian firms.Exports, Multilevel Model, Heterogeneity

The “China effect” on EU Exports to OECD markets – A focus on Italy

This paper analyzes the indirect impact of China on the export performance of major European countries (Italy, France, Germany and Spain) in their main destination markets (OECD countries). Given a strong specialization in manufacturing sector, these EU countries are likely to be at risk from China’s competition, especially in consumer goods. The heterogeneity in the production (and export) structures of EU countries makes Italy, whose productive structure is based on so-called “traditional” sectors, most vulnerable to China’s competitive pressure. Using data for the period 1995-2009, this paper estimates the possible displacement effect at sector level. Results show that there is a considerable variation in different EU countries’ exposure to China’s competition and that, in some sectors the Chinese exports effect is, indeed, strong. This is particularly true for the more recent period, after China has entered WTO and for Italy, both in traditional and more capital intensive sectors.china, trade, italy, gravity model

A spillover analysis of shocks from US, UK and China on African financial markets

AbstractEmerging African financial markets have been recently put forward as an interesting and profitable alternative to diversify risk for international investors. At the same time, they became more integrated with developed financial markets, so that, despite claims that Africa would be sheltered by outside shocks because at the margin of the globalization process, they have been hit by the 2008–09 crisis. This paper analyses the relationships among mature financial markets (US and UK), China, some South Saharan African emerging markets (Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa) and two North African countries (Egypt and Tunisia) over the period 2005–2012, focusing on the role of financial markets' volatility. We study, with the help of a Multiplicative Error fully inter-dependent model (MEM), the dynamics of the financial market volatility (risk), and the interactions with other markets. We present impulse-response functions with a time dependent profile to describe how a volatility shock from one market may propagate to other markets, increasing the fragility of African infant financial markets. Finally, we summarise the role of different markets in propagating risk in the area using a synthetic index (Volatility Spillover Balance) that distinguishes between volatility "creators" and "absorbers". Our results show that South Africa and US shocks significantly affect African financial markets, and China has recently become more interconnected. Furthermore, while US, Kenya and Tunisia are "net creators" of volatility spillovers, South Africa and China turn out to be net "absorbers"

UN COMPITO DI PRODUZIONE ELICITATA PER LA VALUTAZIONE DELL’ITALIANO PARLATO: LE FRASI PASSIVE E LE FRASI ATTIVE CON PRONOME CLITICO

A new elicited production task inducing oral production of actional passive sentences was carried out by school-aged Italian-speaking children with typical development or with Developmental Dyslexia. All children favored active structures with accusative clitic pronouns referring to the patient over passive structures. Oral production of clitic pronouns has been shown to be impaired in Italian-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment and/or dyslexia (Bortolini et al., 2006; Arosio et al., 2010; Zachou et al., 2012; Guasti, 2013), while comprehension and production of actional passives do not seem to be particularly problematic in dyslexic children and dyslexic adults, with few exceptions (Reggiani, 2009; Cardinaletti and Volpato, 2011, 2015; Arosio et al. 2013; Franceschini and Volpato 2014 for hearing-impaired children). Accordingly, qualitative differences in clitic production emerge in our study between typically and atypically developing children, while we do not observe any remarkable difference concerning production of passive sentences. The task employed in the experiment allows us to elicit, analyze and compare production of different typologies of pronominal and non pronominal structures and shows how the linguistic field can contribute to the study of (typical and atypical) language acquisition

Size, innovation and internationalization: a survival analysis of Italian firms

Firms' survival is often seen as crucial for economic growth and competitiveness. This paper focuses on business demography of Italian firms, using an original database, obtained by matching and merging to gain the intersection three firm level datasets. This database allows us to simultaneously consider the effect of size, technology, trade, foreign direct investments, and innovation on firms' survival probability. We show that size and technological level positively affect the likelihood of survival. Internationalized firms show higher failure risk: on average competition is stronger in international markets, forcing firms to be more efficient. However, large internationalized firms are more likely to 'survive'. An Italian internationalized firm to be successful and to survive, should be high-tech, large and innovative

Treating eating disorders in groups: A pilot study on the role of a structured intervention on perfectionism on group climate

AbstractSeveral studies have shown the efficacy of group treatments for patients with eating disorders (EDs) who have negative attitudes towards their bodies, also using the group climate as an indicator of process. Within this field of study, perfectionism has been examined as a factor that maintains eating disorders. This study proposes to comprehend what kind of treatment favours a better group climate, by providing a within‐person comparison between two short group treatments of ED patients, where one was not focused on a specific topic and the other was structured around the topic of clinical perfectionism. Two groups of young adult patients with eating disorders were monitored for three months. Group climate was measured both with the Group Climate Questionnaire, which was administered at the end of each session, and through the clinical accounts written by an observer. The findings revealed that the perfectionism group, in comparison with the control group, presented a significantly higher level of engagement and avoidance, along with a lower level of conflict. In particular, the engagement of the perfectionism group increased in accordance with the therapeutic process, whilst in the control group, it remained relatively constant. The conflict decreased in both groups whilst avoidance increased alongside the sessions of the perfectionism group and decreased in the control group. The group on perfectionism, despite its enhanced high levels of avoidance, was effective in promoting a positive group climate. The clinical implications of structured group treatment for eating disorders, which manage the theme of mind‐body splitting, will be discussed

Concentrated Growth Factors vs. Leukocyte-and-Platelet-Rich Fibrin for Enhancing Postextraction Socket Healing. A Longitudinal Comparative Study

Platelet concentrates (PCs) have been used for over 20 years in dentistry, as an adjunct to oral surgery procedures, to improve hard and soft tissue healing and control postoperative symptoms. Among various PCs, Leukocyte and Platelet-Rich Fibrin (L-PRF) has become very popular due to its excellent cost-effectiveness ratio, and to the simple preparation protocol, but comparative clinical studies with other PCs are lacking. The aim of this split-mouth cohort study was to evaluate the effect of Concentrated Growth Factors (CGF), a recently introduced PC, as compared to L-PRF for enhancing post-extraction socket healing. Methods: Patients in need of bilateral tooth extractions were included. Each side was treated with either CGF or L-PRF. Pain, socket closure and healing index were the main outcomes. Results: Forty-five patients (24 women), aged 60.52 ± 11.75 years (range 37–87 years) were treated. No significant difference in outcomes was found, except for Pain at day 1 (p < 0.001) and socket closure in the vestibulo-palatal/lingual dimension at day 7 post-extraction (p = 0.04), both in favor of CGF. Conclusions: based on the present results, CGF proved to be as effective and safe as L-PRF, representing a valid alternative option for improving alveolar socket healing and reducing postoperative discomfort

The HIV-1 Nef protein has a dual role in T cell receptor signaling in infected CD4+ T lymphocytes

AbstractThe phenotypic changes that are induced by immune activation in CD4+ T lymphocytes provide an optimal environment for efficient HIV-1 replication in these cells. The pathogenic Nef protein of HIV-1 modulates the T cell receptor (TCR) signaling, but whether this has a positive or negative effect on cellular activation is a matter of debate. Here we have investigated the response to TCR stimulation of primary CD4+ T lymphocytes infected with wt or Nef-deficient HIV-1. Results show that, in freshly isolated quiescent T cells, Nef superinduces NFAT and IL-2 production bypassing early TCR effector molecules. Conversely, the early phosphorylation of PLC-γ1, the induction of NFAT, and the expression of IL-2 are impaired by Nef in sub-optimally activated/resting T cells. Our data indicate that Nef has a dual role in the modulation of TCR signaling aimed at favoring HIV-1 replication and spread in both quiescent and metabolically active CD4+ T lymphocytes

Elicited production of passive sentences in 6–10 year-old Italian-speaking children

Abstract: In this contribution we investigate the elicited production of passive sentences in Italian children aged 6 to 10. Children were asked to look at a set of drawings and guess what was happening to the patient in each picture (Puppet: “Ora guarda qui, indovina! Cosa succede alla bambina?”, “Now look at this one and guess! What is happening to the girl?”. Target sentence: “La bambina viene/è sgridata”, “The girl is scolded.”). Differently from previous studies on the topic (Volpato, Verin, Cardinaletti, 2012), the agent was partly covered, to prevent the child from using an active sentence containing the agent and an object clitic pronoun referring to the patient. We made use of a specific property of passives, that of allowing the agent to be omitted, when unknown. Results show that the amount of passive sentences slowly increases with age (from 11% to 27%). In all, children produced 21% of passives; they preferred the auxiliary venire over essere, in line with previous findings (Volpato et al., 2012), and chose essere almost exclusively in the present perfect tense (in Italian, the auxiliary venire is impossible in this tense). Despite our task design, children produced active sentences containing a clitic pronoun 65% of times, interpreting the experimenter’s instructions as they had to guess who was the mysterious agent. Moreover, our task induced children to use the indefinite quantifier “someone” as the agent of the active sentence containing the clitic (Qualcuno la sgrida “Someone is scolding her”), (11%), or, more often, a 3rd person plural arbitrary null subject (La sgridano “They are scolding her”), (22%)