Arturo Capasso

Standing the test of time. Does firm performance improve with age? An analysis of the wine industry

Currently, few studies have investigated how longevity affects economic and financial performance. These studies have generally approached the issue according to theoretical perspectives; thus, even fewer empirical studies exist. The present work aims to fill this gap by empirically verifying whether longevity is a variable that can determine firm performance. Our main hypotheses are tested on a large sample of Italian wineries by applying a panel model with time fixed effects on firm performance measured from 2008 to 2011. Our main findings highlight that the oldest wineries outperform the youngest wineries and that the longevity factor can significantly explain the difference in performance. We also discuss some practical implications of our study and intriguing directions for future research.

The Evolving Role of Mergers and Acquisitions in Competitive Strategy Research

This chapter intends to investigate the role of strategic mergers and acquisitions (hereinafter MA under this regard, they contribute to gain or renew sustainable competitive advantages. Despite the huge number of empirical researches carried out so far, the evaluation of M&As performance for the acquiring firm is still an open issue. We adopt a process approach to M&A and suggest that acquisition performance is the outcomes of all sub-processes in which can ideally be split the whole acquisition process, each of which is alone necessary, although not sufficient, to grant overall acquisition success. Integration features are discussed in details, with a particular emphasis on acquisition performance metrics.

Stakeholder Theory and Corporate Governance: The Role of Intangible Assets

Since the beginning of the 21st century, a few serious financial scandals and many cases of corporate mismanagement have driven scholars and politicians to devote increasing attention to corporate governance, in a close relation with business ethics issues. In academic literature, as well as in public policy debates, corporate governance is nowadays acknowledged as a critical factor in economic development and financial markets stability. The evolution in the nature of the firm is among the major causes for the crisis of established corporate governance models. The traditional manufacturing companies - vertically integrated and capital intensive - which emerged at the beginning of the last century and had since then prevailed - have been challenged by new organizational structures, based on intangible assets and networks, more appropriate to a dynamically changing environment, where competition is driven by the availability of distinctive competencies, based on firm-specific knowledge. This paper, building on the resource based view of the firm, but also on stakeholder approach to strategic management, explores how the growing importance of intangible assets is reshaping, in many industries, the basic conditions of corporate governance. The aim is twofold: i) to explain logically why intangible assets modifies the allocation of residual claims, as company performance can substantially affect the wealth of other stakeholders ii) to determine which constituencies should be considered as relevant stakeholders and contribute, to some extent, to the corporate governance.