Nicola Giuseppe Castellano

Modelli e misure di performance aziendale: analisi della letteratura e spunti di ricerca

I sistemi di misurazione delle performance (SMP) nascono e si diffondono con l’obiettivo di orientare in maniera dinamica i comportamenti dei responsabili aziendali verso l’attuazione delle strategie. L’esigenza di utilizzo di questi strumenti si rafforza peraltro con la presa d’atto che gli strumenti di controllo tradizionale, a base esclusivamente contabile, impediscono una lettura efficace dei risultati e delle relative cause gestionali ed offuscano la ricerca delle conseguenti azioni volte al miglioramento. Questo articolo si propone di analizzare la piu recente letteratura in campo internazionale sul tema dei SMP, allo scopo di delineare i temi su cui si concentra l’attenzione dei ricercatori, le principali metodologie adottate ed i piu significativi risultati ottenuti. La classificazione dei contributi di ricerca selezionati e stata realizzata in relazione alle principali fasi del ciclo di vita di questi strumenti, cioe progettazione, implementazione ed utilizzo dei SMP. Nella parte finale sono proposti alcuni spunti per lo sviluppo futuro della ricerca.

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.

Trends of Digital Innovation Applied to Accounting Information and Management Control Systems

The period we live is known as the digital era. The way in which companies work and interact with each other has radically changed. The digitalisation of data, information and flows requires an additional effort of research, especially in the field of accounting information and management control systems, which are under-explored, in order to understand the potentiality, the benefits and the disadvantages of that kind of technologies. The research works published in this book are a selection of the best papers submitted at the Accounting Information Systems track of the XII Annual Conference of the Italian chapter of Association for Information Systems (ItAIS 2014), entitled “Reshaping Organizations through Digital and Social Innovation”.

Information Systems design for reporting and strategic purposes: Evidences from a Case Study

This paper analyses the design and implementation of Information Technology Systems and their relationship with reporting processes. We propose an in-depth descriptive case study about a company that carried out a process of Business Process Reengineering (BPR) with the objective to analyse the management information needs and to select effective information systems to satisfy them. Several studies on this topic pay attention to the implementation of standardized software packages, where the possibility to choose application and functionalities seems limited to the management. Drawing on the new institutional sociology theory (Di Maggio and Powell, 1983, 1991), this paper analyses the selection and integration of information systems, on the bases of decision operated by CFO to create an effective reporting process. Starting from existing core software, The CFO decided to re-design the architecture of existing information systems, by selecting the most suitable information tools, rather than implementing a standardized software package. Drawing on the technical and institutional issues that led to information systems design, this research can have significant implications both for the researcher and for practitioners who are interested in information system design and its relationships with reporting processes for operational and strategic purposes.

Strategic mapping: relationships that count

The purpose of this paper is to study how the design of a strategy map can be supported by measures expressing the customers’ perceptions about strategic factors and their related determinants. In particular, managers are provided with a fact-based test useful to revise prior knowledge and beliefs.,A case study is used to describe the adoption of the partial least squares path modelling (PLS-PM) approach to structural equation modelling in order to compare competing strategy maps and select the one that best fits customer perceptions. A focus group was organised to design the strategy maps, which were tested through a survey of 600 randomly selected resellers.,The empirical-based validation of a causal map by using PLS-PM may effectively stimulate a revision of managers’ collective perceptions about a phenomenon characterised by implicit knowledge, as in the case of customer needs.,The case-study company operates in a business-to-business environment, and thus only the needs of direct customers have been included in the analysis. Final users’ needs should also be considered, even if different solutions are required for data collection.,The proposed approach provides a set of indicators which allow managers to identify strategic priorities, thus facilitating decision making and strategic planning.,In the strategic management literature, few attempts have been made to operationalise the complex and multidimensional latent constructs of a strategy map combining managers’ implicit knowledge and empirical validation in a “holistic” manner. The adoption of PLS-PM is relatively new in testing the accuracy of causal maps.

Data-Mining Tools for Business Model Design: The Impact of Organizational Heterogeneity

Business models may be considered as “cognitive” devices since a deep level of knowledge about customers, suppliers, and competitors is needed for their development. Recent studies show that data-mining tools produce a positive interaction with business models, empowering the strategic performance capabilities that drive the achievement of competitive advantage.

Performance Measurement of Advertising Actions: Can Web-Metrics Improve Management Control Processes?

The aim of the paper is to describe, through a preliminary case study, how to measure the outcomes of a traditional advertising campaign through web-metrics, which are usually adopted to evaluate the success of the company communication via the Internet. The results clearly show that web-metrics (compared to traditional thought-recall/listing measures), allow wider and multi-faceted insights about the customer response to advertising. Furthermore, web-metrics overcome the traditional measures in terms of timeliness of information, and for what concern the time and costs needed for data gathering and elaboration.