Le risorse finanziarie e cognitive del sistema universitario italiano. Uno sguardo d'insieme.

This paper aims to analyze the Italian University’s physical and human cognitive assets. First we focus on the continuous reductions in public funding (CNVSU, 2011; OECD, 2010) that constrained the Italian university to develop “entrepreneurial skillsâ€, in other words due to the lack of financial resources in the public sector significant contractual arrangements between universities and private corporations are now requested (contractual market-model). Secondly we study the humans resources, or rather, the human cognitive assets using the modern definition proposed by Aoki (2010), that represents both the demand and supply of education. This paper ends by offering a consideration on the positive externalities (individuals and social outcomes) due to the investment in human capital (Berger e Leigh, 1989; Grossman, Kaestner, 1997; Buonanno e Leonida, 2009). By pointing out that the results of academic teaching and research activities influence the individual and the society, we expect to have more investment from both the public sector and the private enterprise.higher education; government expenditures in education; human capital; positive externalities of education; Italian university.

Organizing for transformative innovation policies: The role of social enterprises. Theoretical insights and evidence from Italy

Transformative innovation policies can provide systemic solutions to socio-environmental challenges because of their “experimental”, “reflexive” and “inclusive” character. We contend that social enterprises can act as catalysts for transformative innovation for the geographically and socially marginalized. Thus, including social enterprises in transformative innovation policies can mitigate the negative effects of innovation-based growth, making policies more socially and geographically inclusive. Following a syncretic approach to the literatures on transformative innovation policies and social entrepreneurship, this paper identifies the key dimensions of social enterprises' transformative innovation potential: directionality (i.e., social goals as the purpose of innovation); social and geographical inclusiveness (i.e., the inclusion of marginalized areas and individuals in the provision of goods or services); reflexivity (in terms of participatory governance and monitoring the achievement of goals); and experimental character (in terms of establishing partnerships with heterogeneous actors). We then assess this capacity through an exploratory cluster analysis of Italian social enterprises. We identify three distinct groups that suggest a range of entrepreneurial approaches from largely transformative to not at all. The transformative innovation readiness of social enterprises has implications for policymakers seeking to undertake pilot schemes and implement actions that support an appropriately transformative innovation ecosystem

Specific investments, cognitive resources, and specialized nature of research production in academic institutions: why shared governance matters for performance

New institutional economics (NIE) studies institutions and how they emerge, operate, and evolve. They also include organizational arrangements, intended as modes of governing economic transactions. Universities offer an exciting ground for testing the role of different institutional arrangements (governance forms) in coordinating (academic) transactions. In a context of contractual incompleteness where production is characterized by a highly specialized nature and requires the cooperation among co-essential figures, we argue that shared governancemodels (versus models withmore concentrated authority) foster idiosyncratic investments in human capital and promotes performance. From the evolutionary viewpoint, we explain why institutions based on shared governance have developed within universities. The normative question of how universities should be governed is a debated issue in the literature. Since the 1980s, the new publicmanagement paradigm provides a theoretical framework that suggests analyzing university like firms. It is based on the firm’s archetypical conception as top-down hierarchical organizations and as a descending sequence of principal–agent problems.We advance a different interpretation of the university–firm analogy leveraging on the NIE and its developments. To empirically analyze our hypothesis, we collected original data from Italian universities in 2015.We find that more shared decision-making processes are correlated with better research performance

Justice and Corporate Governance: New Insights from Rawlsian Social Contract and Sen’s Capabilities Approach

By considering what we identify as a problem inherent in the ‘nature of the firm’—the risk of abuse of authority—we propound the conception of a social contract theory of the firm which is truly Rawlsian in its inspiration. Hence, we link the social contract theory of the firm (justice at firm’s level) with the general theory of justice (justice at society’s level). Through this path, we enter the debate about whether firms can be part of Rawlsian theory of justice showing that corporate governance principles enter the “basic structure.” Finally, we concur with Sen’s aim to broaden the realm of social justice beyond what he calls the ‘transcendental institutional perfectionism’ of Rawls’ theory. We maintain the contractarian approach to justice but introduce Sen’s capability concept as an element of the constitutional and post-constitutional contract model of institutions with special reference to corporate governance. Accordingly, rights over primary goods and capabilities are (constitutionally) granted by the basic institutions of society, but many capabilities have to be turned into the functionings of many stakeholders through the operation of firms understood as post-constitutional institutional domains. The constitutional contract on the distribution of primary goods and capabilities should then shape the principles of corporate governance so that at post-constitutional level anyone may achieve her/his functionings in the corporate domain by exercising such capabilities. In the absence of such a condition, post-constitutional contracts would distort the process that descends from constitutional rights and capabilities toward social outcomes

Public sector reform in Italian higher education: The governance transformation of the universities. A comparison among perceptions of rectors and department chairs

The NPM has dominated the reforms in the higher education sector and the academic discussion on how universities should be governed since the 1980s. Besides, the introduction of accountability and efficiency measures in the form of performance measurement and pay-for performance scheme, a key debated aspect of NPM is the strengthening of the role of boards and the introduction of a more firm-like governance structure. Much work is still needed to evaluate the implementation of NPM reforms in the university domain, particularly with respect to the internal governance changes. Besides formal rules, perceptions of key actors on their institutional environment play a major role in investigating university governance. This article uses an unique dataset on Italian universities to illustrate the internal governance patterns that emerged after the 2010 reform and critically analyses the differences in the perceptions of rectors and department chairs providing insights for both academic and policymakers

Non-financial PPP for participatory priority-setting in R&I policy: the case of the Italian National Technology Cluster policy

National governments are increasingly being scrutinized for how they develop priorities and specialize decisions regarding public investments in research and innovation (R&I). Pressure stems from the need to ensure that publicly funded science and technology projects have a positive impact and increases in times of fiscal tightening and from specific policies such as the European Smart Specialization Strategy. One of the most important trade-offs governments face in the generation of specialized investments\u2019 trajectories is overcoming information asymmetries by aggregating relevant knowledge while mediating the conflicting interests of various actors. We build on the literature on public-private partnerships (PPPs) developed for R&I by analyzing how a stable and effective priority-setting (PS) process can be implemented. We argue that a particular type of PPP, a "non-financial PPP", when characterized by participatory governance, represents an effective and legitimized structure that can transform broad goals for specific fields into prioritized technological trajectories. We then analyze the case of the Italian National Technological Clusters, which were instituted by a policy launched in 2012 by the Italian government aimed at providing a governance tool for producing legitimate and informed priorities. This analysis increases the current knowledge of the unique role that specific PPPs may have as a governance tool for R&I policy