Fabio Cassia

Explaining Citizen Surveys Non-Adoption in Local Government

In order to measure the outcomes of service delivery activities public administrators often relies on citizen surveys. At the same time citizen surveys have been severely criticized and labelled ad useless and unreliable. Drawing on available literature, the aim of this paper is to explore the antecedents of the decision to adopt those tools from the decision maker point of view. Data were collected through questionnaires sent to a sample of Italian town mayors. Results particularly emphasize public officials’ perception that surveys are often useless for their decision process. On the other side findings do not support the hypothesis that surveys are not conducted because they are believed to be as not reliable as objective indicators. Results are discussed and managerial implications are drawn.

TMT international orientation and firm internationalisation: evidence from Italy

Several studies have highlighted a significant relationship between the degree of international orientation of a firms Top Management Team (TMT) and the firms international development. Previous analyses on this issue have been conducted using samples of firms from countries (such as the UK, USA and Switzerland) whose national culture is characterised by a low degree of uncertainty avoidance (UA). The purpose of this paper is to extend the available knowledge to include firms operating in cultures with a high degree of UA, and which may perceive the internationalisation process as a threat. Four hypotheses are suggested and tested using data from the Italian firms listed on the Italian Stock Exchange - FTSE MIB index. Our findings show that the national diversity of TMT members is positively related to firm internationalisation. Moreover, the international working experience and international educational experience of TMT members are important, but only when they are combined.