Francesca Bartolacci

The impact of innovation on companies’ performance: an entropy-based analysis of the STAR market segment of the Italian Stock Exchange

This paper proposes the use of a class of concentration-based entropy measures as a new instrument to quantify business performances through an analysis of growth, profitability and productivity. Such measures are tested against a complex analysis of the link between innovation and performance for firms listed in the STAR market segment of the Italian Stock Exchange. In so doing, two targets are achieved: (1) the identification of parameters that are relevant for explaining the relationship between innovation and performance for the considered sample, with special focus on innovation type, innovation level and business size; (2) the elaboration of a new methodology – based on information theory – for the analysis of the impact of innovation on performance. The study shows that type of innovation and size play a key role in determining company performance.

Exploring how innovation strategies at time of crisis influence performance: a cluster analysis perspective

ABSTRACT This paper analyzes the connection between innovation activities of companies – implemented before crisis – and their performance – measured at time of crisis. The companies listed in the STAR Market Segment of the Italian Stock Exchange are analyzed. Innovation is measured through the level of investments in total tangible and intangible fixed assets in 2006–2007, while performance is captured through growth – expressed by variations of sales, total assets and employees – profitability – through ROI or ROS – and productivity – through asset turnover or sales per employee in the period 2008–2010. The variables of interest are analyzed and compared through statistical techniques and by adopting cluster analysis. In particular, a Voronoi tessellation is also implemented in a varying centroids framework. In accord with a large part of the literature, we find that the behaviour of the performance of the companies is not univocal when they innovate.

Strategic planning for value creation in business networks. Conceptual framework and theoretical proposals

This paper aims at providing some conceptual references to academics and practi-tioners useful for guiding the strategic planning process in alliance formation. Research on strategic networking is a multidisciplinary field drawing from different theoretical perspectives. It emphasizes the strategic value of alliances in its various forms but rarely attempts to model the strategic planning process and to test its validity empirically. Most of the contributions are focused on specific aspects of strategy, rarely providing a holistic view able to address the strategic process and contents by explicitly recognizing the existence of different kinds of alliances. Drawing from three different but interconnected theoretical roots (strategic net-work, strategic analysis, and value chain management) and adopting a deductive approach, this conceptual paper proposes a comprehensive framework for strategic planning in alliance formation and four theoretical propositions. These propositions shed light on the relationships between strategic planning process and three different kinds of business collaboration, and focus on the implications of the integrating process for network value creation. The different goals and complexity of such typologies, although not mutually exclusive, specifically influence the strategic analysis contents, the process of negotiation, and the construction of strategic consensus between partners.