Guido Noto

A Dynamic Simulation Approach to Frame Drivers and Implications of Corruption Practices on Firm Performance

Corruption is a multifaceted socio-economic phenomenon widely spread – although with different intensity – all around the world. Many studies on corruption have been conducted at a country-level, but relatively little effort has been placed in evaluating its implications, in terms of both financial and competitive performance, at a firm-level. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the causal relationships underlying the effect of corruption on firm performance in order to show the different scenarios that may emerge from the combination between external (i.e., contextual conditions) and internal (i.e., organizational characteristics) forces that drive corruption. To this end, we adopt a Dynamic Performance Management approach, that is, a combination between traditional Performance Management schemes and System Dynamics methodology, which allows analysts to frame complex physical and social systems by identifying and modelling those variables and related cause-and-effect relationships that mainly affect firm performance. As a result, the emerging quantitative model identifies different scenarios that highlight how a firm may react – in terms of performance simulation – to corruption practices.

Dealing with Multi-Level Governance and Wicked Problems in Urban Transportation Systems: The Case of Palermo Municipality

Italian New Public Management (NPM) has been mainly characterized by a political orientation toward power decentralization to local governments and privatization of public companies. Nowadays, local utilities in Italy are often run by joint stock companies controlled by public agencies such as Regional and Municipal Administrations. Due to this transformation, these companies must comply with a set of diverse expectations coming from a wide range of stakeholders, related to their financial, competitive and social performance. Such fragmented governance increases the presence of “wicked” problems in the decision-making sphere of these entities. Given this multi-level governance structure, how do these agents influence public services performance? In recent years, coordination and inter-institutional joint action have been identified as possible approaches for dealing with governance fragmentation and wicked problems deriving from it. How can we adapt a performance management perspective in order to help us reform the system and so have a better collaboration between the stakeholders involved? In order to address and discuss these research questions, a case study will be developed. The case concerns AMAT, the local utility providing the public transportation service in the Municipality of Palermo (Italy). The result of this study is a dynamic model including a set of performance indicators that help us in understanding the impact of the governing structure on the system’s performance.

Let’s play the patients music

Purpose Current performance measurement systems (PMSs) are mainly designed to measure performance at the organizational level. They tend not to assess the value created by the collaboration of multiple organizations and by the involvement of users in the value creation process, such as in healthcare. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of PMSs that can assess the population-based value creation process across multiple healthcare organizations while adopting a patient-based perspective. Design/methodology/approach The paper analyzes the development of a new healthcare PMS according to a constructive approach through the development of a longitudinal case study. The focus is on the re-framing process of the PMS put in place by a large group of Italian regional health systems that have adopted a collaborative assessment framework. Findings Framing information according to the population served and the patients’ perspective supports PMSs in assessing the value creation process by evaluating the contribution given by the multiple organizations involved. Therefore, it helps prevent each service provider from working in isolation, and avoids dysfunctional behaviors. Re-framing PMSs contributes to re-focusing stakeholders’ perspective toward value creation; legitimizes organizational units specifically aimed at managing transversal communication, cooperation and coordination; supports the alignment of professionals’ and organizations’ goals and behaviors; and fosters shared accountability among providers. Originality/value The paper contributes to the scientific debate on PMSs by investigating a case that focuses on value creation by adopting a patient-centered perspective. Although this case comes from the healthcare sector, the underlying user-centered approach may be generalized to assess other environments, processes, or contexts in which value creation stems from the collaboration of multiple providers (integrated co-production).