Marco Cucculelli

Family Succession and Firm Performance: Evidence from Italian Family Firms

This article contributes to the growing empirical literature on family firms by studying the impact of the founder-chief executive officer (CEO) succession in a sample of Italian firms. We contrast firms that continue to be managed within the family by the heirs to the founders with firms in which the management is passed on to outsiders. Family successions, that is, successions by the founders heirs, are further analyzed by assessing the impact of the sectoral intensity of competition on the post-succession performance. This analysis also addresses the endogeneity in the timing of the CEO succession by controlling for a pure mean-reversion effect in the firms performance. We find that the maintenance of management within the family has a negative impact on the firms performance, and this effect is largely borne by the good performers, especially in the more competitive sectors. These results indicate that there is no inherent superiority of the family-firm structure and emphasize the importance of conducting an analysis of governance in a variety of institutional settings.

Owner‐Management, Firm Age, and Productivity in Italian Family Firms

Using total factor productivity as a measure of corporate performance, we find that Italian family‐run firms are less productive than firms run by outside managers and the result is robust to potential endogeneity of management regime. This difference tends to vanish when the age of the firms is taken into account. Also, when considering family‐owned firms only, there is no difference in performance between outside managers and family managers.

Family Firms, Entrepreneurship, and Economic Development

Family firms are usually seen as the cradle of entrepreneurship, as they are the best providers of the entrepreneurial business capital. A growing literature shows that family firms are extremely well-placed to assist economic growth in many activities in the private sectors, as they combine a number of unique sociological and economic characteristics that make them extremely important in the early stage of the growth of the firm. However, the way in which economic development produces changes in dominant family patterns has been advanced much more often than the view that family patterns can affect economic development. Therefore, much research is needed to make family firms a central focus in the theoretical and academic research and a crucial issue at the core of the political agenda.

How small-medium enterprises leverage intangibles during recessions: evidence from the Italian clothing industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to focus on how investments in research and development (R&D) and advertising affect the performance of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) during recessions. Design/methodology/approach – Contingency theory is applied to a data set of 376 Italian clothing SMEs during the period 2000-2010 to test whether investment in R&D and advertising impacts financial performance differently when contingent factors (such as market share, financial leverage and business model change) are taken into account. Findings – Empirical results confirm that market share and leverage moderate the effects of investments in R&D and advertising (i.e. intangibles) on performance, and also that changes in business models are an important contingent factor that explains performance. Specifically, the paper ascertains that a novelty-centered business model, together with investments in intangibles, positively affects performance during recessions. Originality/value – This study offers an in...

Product innovation and firm's growth in family firms: a quantile regression approach

This study contributes to the recent empirical literature that deals with a firms innovation-performance relationship by investigating the effect that a product introduction has on a firms growth in a sample of Italian family-run enterprises. Using a quantile regression approach, we observe that innovation is crucial for high-growth firms, but only for those with low family influence on the process of decision making concerning the introduction of a new product.

Proactive and Reactive Attitude to Crisis: Evidence from European Firms

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate the behaviour of European firms in the time of the economic crisis in 2008-2009. We analyse the determinants of proactive strategies in the context of innovation and the range of products offered by every firm on the market. Research Design & Methods: Based on a large and representative sample of 14 750 (EFIGE dataset) firms from Austria, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain and the UK, we estimate the logit model for two measures of proactive strategy: the investment behaviour and the introduction of new products on the market. Findings: We find evidence that the experience of the former crisis by the company is associated with the adoption of proactive behaviour in the case of investments in innovation, and reactive behaviour in the case of the product offer range. Implications & Recommendations: As the public support for innovative investments proved to be rather ineffective, the most promising direction for public policies in the times of crisis are those that facilitate the access to external financing. Contribution & Value Added: Our paper contributes to the development of knowledge on the dynamics of company behaviour in the wake of the economic crisis in 2008, and to the better understanding of the determinants of proactive behaviour of enterprises within the context of rising uncertainty.

Transnational ties in technology-based sectors: the case of Indian software entrepreneurial firms in Italy

The paper aims to empirically analyse the differences present in transnational networking within the same ethnic group. Our study focuses on Indian software firms in Italy, a country where the standard variables defining the structural and agency conditions are weak: these permit to better appreciate the role and impact of ties on the performance of migrant firms. Using a unique, purposely built dataset, we show that firms rely on heterogeneous networks and are involved in different networking activities even when they operate within the same community or insist on the same business environment. This heterogeneity largely influences the role of cross-border ties. Transnational networking and cross-border ties can play very different roles in the competitive behaviour of firms, as they can represent the main asset, a complementary factor or even an accessory element of the business strategy.

Explaining tourism competitiveness in small and medium destinations: the Italian case

The aim of the paper is to provide evidence of causal relationships between attributes of competitiveness and tourism destination competitiveness (TDC) in small and medium destinations (SMDs). A model of destination competitiveness has been developed and integrated with attributes of competitiveness, and then applied to a unique dataset of 370 outstanding Italian SMDs. A principal component analysis and a partial least square regression have been performed to test the model. The use of economic and financial measures as dependent variables, in addition to standard measures of destination performance, allows to investigate the concept of TDC from a wider economic point of view. Empirical evidence reveals that the multidimensionality and relativity of the concept of TDC influence the relationships among predictors and dependent variables. Managerial capabilities, quality of services, and policies aimed at fostering local empowerment are found to be key determinants of the competitiveness of Italian outstanding SMDs.

Components of destination competitiveness. The case of small tourism destinations in Italy.

The paper operationalises the conceptual model of Richie and Crouch (2000) by identifying seven key determinants and a set of indicators of destination competitiveness. The aim of the paper is to test whether and to what extent the set of indicators can help explaining the competitiveness of a tourism destination. The model is tested on a unique dataset of 610 small Italian destinations. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied on the responses to the items measuring destination competitiveness. The output is reasonably similar to the corresponding elements of the model. PCA shows the importance of those elements related to sustainability that affect tourism policy-making and destination management processes. PCA also highlights the role of the core attractors – natural and cultural resources, events and gastronomy – thus suggesting that different marketing strategies may be implemented to reach different target consumer groups. Finally, the findings indicate that the demand factor needs to be considered in the explanation of tourist destination competitiveness.

Exploring transnational entrepreneurship. Immigrant entrepreneurs and foreign-born returnees in the Italian ICT sector

This explorative paper contributes to the expanding literature on immigrant transnationalism by investigating the determinants of transnational entrepreneurial behavior among two groups of foreign-born entrepreneurs from emerging and developing countries who settled in Italy: foreign-born returnees (i.e., foreign-born individuals of Italian origin) and immigrants (i.e., persons without Italian ethnic origin). Using a large data-set on immigrant entrepreneurs in the Italian ICT sector, we have found foreign-born returnees to be less likely to engage in transnational entrepreneurship activity than immigrant entrepreneurs of non-Italian descent. Foreign-born returnees are mostly linked with economic activities focused on the domestic (Italian) market, while other immigrants much often turn their entrepreneurial activities back to home countries, but also their firms tend to be more internationalized. Therefore, we argue that the multicultural experience of foreign-born returnees constitutes an unexploited potential for the ICT sector in Italy, especially within the context of the internationalization prone ICT entrepreneurship.