Marianna Succurro

Finance and R&D Investment: A Panel Study of Italian Manufacturing Firms

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of different sources of finance on R&D investment decisions in Italian manufacturing firms. Accounting data, taken from the Aida database, are collected over the 2006-2013 years. The empirical evidence shows that the availability of external financing primarily affects the decision to engage in R&D activity rather than R&D intensity. Internal cash flow, on the contrary, does affect both the likelihood of whether firms will undertake any R&D and the size of R&D spending. This impact is strongly significant for financially weaker firms, SMEs and high-tech firms. Due to greater asymmetric information problems, small innovative firms mainly rely on cash-flow to finance innovative projects. Since bank loans and other forms of debt are not well suited for R&D-intensive activities, our study would contribute to the debate whether it might be socially desirable to incentivize alternative small business financing options, still limited in Italy.

The Internet and seasonality: a theoretical and empirical analysis of vertically differentiated accommodation structures.

The authors study the impact of online booking on seasonality across various types of accommodation. They first build a theoretical model on vertical differentiation and seasonality, and show that, if the impact of the Internet on search costs is homogenous for hotels with different quality levels, then the increase in seasonality as a result of ICT development is greater for low-quality accommodations. On the other hand, if the Internet is more spread among high-quality firms than among low-quality ones, then the Internet-induced increase in seasonality is larger for high-quality establishments. The papers empirical analysis, which differentiates the impact of the Internet on seasonality between ‘hotels and similar establishments’ and ‘other types of accommodation’, finds that ICT has a positive effect on seasonality in both instances, but that the impact is quantitatively larger for ‘hotels and similar establishments’.

The role of intermediaries in the growth of a lesser-developed region: some empirical evidence from Calabria, Italy

This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the impact of tour operators on the performance of accommodation enterprises in a southern Italian region. The region, in spite of its strategic geographical position and beautiful natural resources, is still characterized by limited tourist flows and production capacity with regard to its accommodation potential. A logistic regression is implemented on data collected through a direct survey. This survey made use of the results from questionnaires given to a sample of 255 accommodation providers. The study concludes by proposing policies that might be adopted by private firms, intermediaries and local government in order to improve competitiveness and enhance economic growth.

Sunny prospects: an analysis of the photovoltaic industry in Italy

The present study provides an analysis of the Italian photovoltaic sector (PV). To this purpose, we first evaluate the main characteristics of the Italian PV incentive scheme by focusing on its costs and benefits. The analysis then turns to the evolution of PV demand over recent years, the key features of the Italian PV supply and its performances by identifying the strengths, limitations and growth prospects of the sector. The investigation relies on accounting data of the Italian producers collected from the Bureau van Dijk’s Amadeus database, over the 2000- 2010 years. Some industrial policy implications conclude the work.