Stefano Consiglio

Shining a Light on the Dark Side of Business:The Resistible Growth of Criminal Firms in the Public Sector

In this paper, we analyze the mechanisms adopted by criminal firms in order to thrive in the business of public works. We submit that resource dependency theory (RDT) can shed light on this area. We find that criminal firms use a variety of techniques to alter the behavior of actors in procurement processes. We claim that the best way to analyze this phenomenon is by integrating the traditional RDT strategies codified in Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) with an understanding of these criminal techniques. We adopt a qualitative research methodology, relying on official judiciary sources in order to develop and validate the concept’s objects of analysis. Our work has been supported by leading Italian magistrates actively engaged in combating the penetration of criminal firms into legal businesses.

Strong and Weak Events: How to Measure Them?

This paper is related to our previous work (submitted to the 6th New Institutional Workshop, Lyon, 2009) dealing with the analysis of the evolution of the Italian Temporary Work Agencies’ field (TWAs) through the new institutional logics approach. Through this approach, we aimed to analyze the TWAs that constitute a fairly young field which came into being in 1997. The process of rise and evolution of the TWAs’ field has been complex and lengthy. It has been characterized by different phases and several events that shaped and influenced actions and behaviors of individual and collective actors involved in the field.Last year during the workshop the discussion brought out the interest about the analysis of the events according to several variables. Therefore, this contribution represents a step forward focusing on the analysis of the events occurred in TWAs’ field. We focus on the methodological process used to identify and to measure the events relevant to the analysis of this organizational field.In light of these assumptions, the paper aims to identify the events occurred in the Italian TWAs’ field from 1986 to 2010. In addition, we aim to measure the strength of these events in order to find out which are the critical ones that caused the shift from one phase to another and from one institutional logic to another in the process of institutional change.

Temporary Work Agencies in Italy

This chapter describes the different phases that characterize the evolution of temporary work agency (TWA) industry in Italy. We identify four phases. The first one, the incubation phase began in the eighties when a period of intense lobbying and negotiation led to the introduction of agency work within the Italian legal system and therefore to the emergence of the sector in 1997. Then, the chapter describes and analyses the events involved in the phases of development of the sector during the period 2003/2015, including the recent crisis which affected the entire global economy. The regulatory framework of the sector will be presented with an analysis of the impact on the behavior of the key actors involved. In conclusion, temporary agency work will be compared with other forms of contingent work, according to different organizational dimensions.

Myth #6: Health Care Is Rightly Controlled by the Public Sector, for the Sake of Equality

The healthcare sector has all the characteristics to be considered a complex system. Indeed, its extrinsic complexity is related to its openness, since the health system is affected by the political, social, and financial context where it operates.

Dealing with knowledge in a product development setting: an empirical analysis in the automotive industry

Abstract The relationship between the management of knowledge and the Japanese concept of obeya is a neglected topic. Previous studies have classified the different tools and methods adopted in Lean Product Development in the light of the Socialisation–Externalisation–Combination–Internalisation (SECI) theoretical framework for knowledge management. Following these studies, the aim of this paper is to understand empirical context how obeya is used to integrate knowledge and how its adoption fits with the SECI model. We investigated this relationship using two obeya experiences in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, within a project that was part of the development of a new longitudinal-engine for Alfa Romeo Giulia.

Criminal Infiltration of the Public Sector

In this paper, the authors depict strategies and tools adopted by criminal organizations and legal firms in order to control the business of public works. They conclude that criminal firms adopt different models to enter and to control the public procurement business. Through an empirical research, based on official documents and interviews with leading Italian magistrates they identify three main techniques that criminal firms use in governing public procurement.

Evolution of Institutional Logics: The Emergence of the Temporary Work Agencies Field in Italy

This article shows the process of creation and evolution of an organizational field. By an in-depth longitudinal analysis, we investigate the field of Temporary Work Agencies in Italy (TWAs). The article focuses on how a field evolves over time. We delineate three phases of evolution - incubation, emergence and development - and we analyse events and the role of actors that have characterized them. Further, we identify the institutional logics that have strongly influenced the strategic and organizational behaviour of the actors involved in the Italian field of TWAs and their interactions. Therefore, to respond to this institutional complexity the actors have tried to influence with both individual and collective actions the logics themselves. The analysis shows that two competing logics have coexisted within the TWA field: the regulation logic, inspired by the social status and welfare, and the de-regulation logic, connected to the liberal and free-market model. Through the longitudinal analysis repeated in four different field studies, we have reconstructed the process of evolution of the field, describing the links between the different phases. Our research contributes to the institutional logic perspective fitting into the discussion on the coexistence of competing logics in an organizational field.

The Structure and Performance of Temporary Work Agencies

This chapter describes the evolution of the industry, examining the dynamics and the performances of the temporary work agency field in Italy. It describes, the structural features and in particular turnover, employees and branch offices organization and structure of Italian TWAs, and moreover the levels of concentration in the sector. The chapter ends by illustrating several structural indicators of Italian TWAs and the collective performances of the industry. The analysis is based mainly on information and statistics taken from questionnaires filled in by representatives of Italian TWAs and from balance sheets of the last years. Additional information was taken from websites of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and the agencies themselves. The section related to the collective performances of the industry is based on statistics gathered by professional associations.

The New Institutional Approach to Analyze the Italian Temporary Work Agencies’ Field

This article analyses the process of evolution of an “organizational field”: from its emergence to nowadays. By an in-depth longitudinal analysis from 1986 to 2011 we study the emergence and evolution of the Italian Temporary Work Agencies field (TWA), analyzing the interaction between players in the field and the influence of the regulatory framework on the actors’ behavior. In particular, the article analyses the role of actors within the field and the institutional logics that characterize it. Our study contributes to the institutional logic perspective fitting into the discussion on the coexistence of competing logics in an organizational field. The peculiar aspect is that the regulatory frame strongly influences the strategic and organizational behavior of the actors within the Italian TWA’s field. Therefore, the actors face an institutional complexity to which they try to answer with a series of individual and collective actions aimed at influencing the same logics through a mutual conditioning that may be more or less direct.

The Economic and Financial Performance of the Sector

The following chapter analyzes the economic and financial dynamics of the industry through an analysis of the balance sheets. In particular, the chapter presents the methodology we follow to analyze the balance sheets, consisting in financial ratio analysis to assess the performances and our universe of study. Moreover we present the economic and financial analysis of the Italian TWAs from 2001 to 2014, examining the capital structure and the income statement structure, their productivity and financial stability and the agency work margin from 2011 to 2014.