Enzo Bivona

Commercial and financial policies in family firms: the small business growth management flight simulator

An interactive learning environment (ILE) was built to reproduce the budgeting process of a small family-owned entrepreneurial firm and to capture how current decisions affect business growth in a longer time horizon. The ILE matches the accounting-related perspective through which spreadsheet-based budgets are drawn up, with the system dynamics (SD) view. Such a goal has been pursued through a connection of traditional Excel spreadsheets with POWERSIM SD models. Playing the SMALL BUSINESS GROWTH MANAGEMENT FLIGHT SIMULATOR allows one to learn how (a) to draw up a budget based on an SD perspective, (b) long-term goals may be affected by current decisions, (c) business/family survival and growth are strongly influenced by current policies, and (d) linking short-to medium-and long-term policies and commercial to financial and equity management issues is critical to business growth.

Designing Outcome-Based Performance Management Systems to Assess Policies Impacting on Caesarean Section Rate: An Analysis of the Sicilian Maternity Pathway

The reduction in Caesarean sections (CSs) is widely considered a priority in the public decision makers agenda. Though the World Health Organisation has strongly encouraged countries to implement policies to reduce CSs to 10–15%, after almost thirty years this goal appears still far from its achievement. The literature depicts CS as a multifaceted phenomenon whose causes involve different factors, ranging from the patient sphere to the health care level of services provided, and the societal preference of CS practice. Policy makers aiming to standardise cares and to reduce CSs often implement maternity pathways (MP). By investigating the MP introduced in the Sicilian region, the authors highlight the need to adopt an outcome-based performance management approach to assess the effectiveness of CS reduction policies. The suggested perspective also reveals the necessity to frame and coordinate the interdependencies between the different actors playing a crucial role in the MP.

Framing Caesarean Section Reduction Policies Through a Dynamic Performance Management Approach: A Maternity Pathway Case-Based Analysis

The World Health Organization since the last three decades strongly encourages countries to reduce the caesarean section (CS) rate down to 10–15%. However, this goal nowadays appears still far from its achievement. Public decision-makers are indeed struggling to design and implement effective policies to reduce the CS rate. The literature provides a wide range of factors causing a change in the CS rate, such as the patient clinical profile and the healthcare service quality provided. Maternity pathway (MP) is considered a mean through which to standardize the cares and to reduce CSs. This study investigates the MP recently introduced in Sicilian local health authorities. Based on such an analysis, an outcome-based performance management approach has been used by the authors to build a system dynamics model. Scenario simulation results reveal that such an approach may support decision-makers to learn how to design CS reduction policies. It particularly remarks the necessity to implement policies oriented to coordinate the actions undertaken by the different actors playing a crucial role in the MP.

Building Long-Term Manufacturer-Retailer Relationships through Strategic Human Resource Management Policies: A System Dynamics Approach

This paper is the result of a research project conducted by the authors with a manufacturer operating in the high-tech industry. It is based on the hypotheses that in order to successfully support retail stores, a manufacturer has to design policies based on Human Resources Management (HRM) practices aimed to increase retailers employees’ sales effectiveness, and external-oriented policies to foster potential customers’ acceptance of company product benefits. In order to support decision makers to explore alternative scenarios and to foster managerial learning on how to build strong and long term successfully manufacturer-retail outlets relationships, a System Dynamics model has been built. In today’s economy all manufacturers need to pay attention on how to build strong and long-term relationships with their retail outlets chain. In such a context, empirical analysis emphasised the crucial role of the human resource sub-system. The use of a System Dynamics model allowed the authors to effectively support decision makers in exploring and evaluate alternative strategies and to foster managerial learning processes on how to build strong and long term successfully manufacturer-retailer relationships. It is worth remarking that the suggested human resources practices may represent an innovative vehicle for the development of studies aimed to adopt a systemic HRM approach.