Chiara Leardini

Measuring the efficiency of wastewater services through Data Envelopment Analysis

Efficient water management is a priority in the European Union, since the operational efficiency of many water utilities is very low compared to best practice. Several countries are restructuring the water industry to save costs. Larger-scale operations and vertical integration are promoted to achieve scale and scope economies; however, the literature is not unanimous that such economies exist. There is also little evidence of the effect of customer density on costs. This article offers some insights into this matter, analysing the Danish water industry by a two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis approach to investigate the effects of size, scope and density in the wastewater industry. The results show that the Danish wastewater industry is positively affected by vertical integration and higher population density: firms that serve more than 100 person per km of sewer and combine water and wastewater services achieve better efficiency. Size does not have any significant influence on global efficiency, although technical pure efficiency decreases statistically with firm size.

Mandatory or Not Mandatory Reporting? Insights From Italian Bank Foundations

In the Italian nonprofit field, bank foundations face an increasing demand to account for their grant activity in forms that go beyond traditional financial statements. Consequently, bank foundations have developed specific reports in accordance with a 2001 Italian law that requires a mission report to be included within financial statements. This study investigates the peculiarities of social reporting documents in terms of standards used and formal characteristics, revealing different adoption levels. Contributing to an ongoing debate, the analysis of the reporting practices underlines how the due by law on social accounting could hamper the disclosure in nonprofit organizations.

Accounting and power in religious institutions: Verona’s Santa Maria della Scala monastery in the Middle Ages:

The relation between accounting and power in religious institutions has received little attention from accounting historians. The present article therefore studies the case of the Santa Maria della Scala monastery in Verona (Italy) during the Middle Ages to explore whether and how accounting might support the domination structure and facilitate power relations within the organisation. A documentary analysis of primary and secondary sources confirms that accounting played a key role in reinforcing both hierarchical and horizontal power relations among friars.

When the Law Shapes Nonprofit Boards The Key Role of Local Stakeholders

The study investigates how governance mechanisms can affect community representation within nonprofit organizations, focusing on Italian Bank Foundations where the community is on board by law. To investigate what governance arrangements increase substantive and symbolic representation, the study adjusts Guo and Musso’s framework by considering several formal mechanisms for appointing board members and the residence of board members as a new aspect of descriptive representation. A content analysis of the statutes and an email survey show that formal mechanisms contribute to substantive representation, whereas descriptive and participatory arrangements enhance symbolic representation. In addition, this study explores the moderating influence of local stakeholders in appointing board members, offering a wider point of view on the relationships among the five dimensions of representation.

Public vs. Private in Hospital Efficiency. Exploring determinants in a competitive environment

ABSTRACT This study investigates the determinants of efficiency in an Italian regional health system and estimates the effect exerted by ownership on hospitals’ performance. To achieve this aim, the Veneto region was considered as a case study and a full dataset (2011–2012) containing nonpublicly available technical data and cost and income items was analyzed. Efficiencies are measured applying a three-stage data envelopment analysis (DEA). Our results suggest that private hospitals perform better than public hospitals in productivity and cost saving, not considering the effect of other environmental and operational variables such as length of stay and beds per capita.

Stakeholder Accountability Through the World Wide Web: Insights from Nonprofits

Accountability to stakeholders has always been pivotal in supporting nonprofit organizations in legitimizing their existence within local communities and building public trust. The development of Web-based accountability tools has offered growing possibilities to communicate and engage in dialogue with stakeholders. However, nonprofit organizations are not yet fully exploiting the potential of the Web. By focusing on Italian bank foundations, this study explores the use of the Web as a tool for discharging accounts to stakeholders and involving them in dialogue. The data show that most of the foundations do not use websites to communicate interactively with their stakeholders, and communication is limited to one-way disclosure of information. The results suggest more steps can be taken to ensure increased responsiveness to community needs.

The New Era of Stakeholder Engagement: Gaining, Maintaining, and Repairing Legitimacy in Nonprofit Organizations

ABSTRACT The need for nonprofits to foster legitimacy within their communities has led to growing calls for mechanisms of sound governance based on the engagement of stakeholders in organizational activities. Previous studies have investigated the mix of governance mechanisms used by nonprofits to manage legitimacy, without paying attention to the different challenges of legitimacy these organizations face. Aiming to fill this gap, this article employs a multiple case study methodology to explore how mechanisms for engaging stakeholders in governance can be shaped by the need to gain, maintain, or repair legitimacy. The findings show that formal mechanisms based on the direct designation of board members by local stakeholders play a pivotal role in repairing legitimacy. Gaining legitimacy requires actual participation of stakeholders, while maintaining legitimacy calls for formal mechanisms that balance representativeness and competencies of the leadership.

Accountability for a place in heaven: A stakeholders’ portrait in Verona’s confraternities

This article describes the accountability features of confraternities in Verona during the “Long Seventeenth Century”. These charities, driven by a common and deep Christian spirit, played a pivotal role in a period of great depression, helping the local community. The accounts relating to their activities display precision and are rich in analytical detail, enabling the painting of a portrait of Verona’s confraternities and their economic and charitable actions as strictly bound by a spiritual aim. Using the stakeholder theory lens to analyse the archival documents of the 53 confraternities revealed by the Appraisal Book of 1682, this article highlights a complex network of relationships among these organizations and their stakeholders in light of their power, legitimacy and urgency attributes. We conclude that these confraternities’ accountability was the result of the most powerful stakeholders’ influence, and underlines confraternities’ pivotal role in supporting the poor in the local community and encouraging the salvation of souls, supporting their entrance into heaven.

Social and Environmental Reporting in the Italian Higher Education System: Evidence from Two Best Practices

The increasing need of accountability to key stakeholders, and the demand for new tools that are useful for governance at universities, have led to the development of new forms of reporting, including social and environmental reports (SERs), which are helpful in the implementation of knowledge and building awareness of sustainability issues. SERs are not only a useful tool for reporting but are a way to educate organizations and stakeholders to a greater sensitivity to SD topic, building virtuous circles that involve students, professors, employees, and community. This study presented a picture of the development of SERs in the Italian Higher Education sector, the main frameworks spontaneously developed, and two selected best practices where SER was improved significantly: Universita di Macerata and Universita di Ferrara. To reach this aim, the main informants involved in the reporting process on the governance level, as the sustainability responsible, or the rectors of the universities were interviewed. The findings outlined the peculiarities of this process in two successful cases, such as governance compliance and the sharing of knowledge.

La performance della rete ospedaliera pubblica della regione Veneto. L’impatto delle variabili ambientali e operative sull’efficienza

Il presente lavoro misura l’efficienza delle strutture della rete ospedaliera pubblica del Veneto con il metodo Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) e individua quali variabili operative e ambientali sono in grado di condizionarne l’andamento. Rispetto alla letteratura esistente, questo studio empirico permette di indagare in profondita le determinanti di efficienza di un sistema sanitario regionale in quanto, in collaborazione con la Sezione Programmazione Risorse Finanziarie della Regione Veneto, si basa sull’elaborazione e l’analisi di un dataset longitudinale recente (2011-2012) contenente dati tecnici, di costo e di provento riferiti a uno specifico sistema sanitario regionale. Tra i risultati emersi ricordiamo gli impatti negativi prodotti sull’efficienza da un aumento dell’anzianita della popolazione, dei giorni medi di ospedalizzazione e dalla presenza del pronto soccorso; effetti positivi si riscontrano invece con l’aumento della scala dimensionale.