Stefano Mengoli

Earnings Quality in Acquired and Nonacquired Family Firms A Socioemotional Wealth Perspective

We develop a socioemotional wealth explanation for the differences in earnings quality between family firms. We argue that the process by which families obtain ownership of firms is a key contingency affecting earnings quality. Specifically, firms acquired by families through market transactions display lower earnings quality due to lower identification of family owners relative to firms still owned by the families that created them. Acquired family firms benefit with respect to their earnings quality from having a nonfamily CEO while nonacquired family firms benefit from having a family CEO.

Effect of Governance Reforms on Corporate Ownership in Italy: Is it Still Pizza, Spaghetti, and Mandolino?

This paper describes the logic that guides the implementation of corporate governance reforms and investigates the extent to which the logic leads to an increase in investor protection.We use the example of Italy, where major governance reforms were passed in 1998 to protect minority shareholders from the risk of expropriation. Our two-stage mixed-methods longitudinal study (1995–2005) reveals that the reforms were only modestly effective in improving governance practices. On the one hand, we document a greater alignment of cash flow rights and voting rights of ultimate owners after 1998, suggesting that minority shareholders face lower risk of expropriation. Yet, on the other hand, we find that the percentage of firms where control is fully contestable continues to remain low. Our qualitative analysis reveals both facilitators such as institutional investor activism and mandatory provisions, and impediments such as discretionary provisions, weak enforcement, and an ingrained culture of high control. This study elaborates extant theory on the effectiveness of reforms by adopting a longitudinal design that describes both their underlying logic and their actual effects on business practices. It also offers conceptual clarity to this literature by bringing attention to factors that act as facilitators and impediments to reform efforts. This study prompts lawmakers in countries endeavoring reforms to encourage participation of institutional investors, as also urges them to consider mandatory provisions, especially those which enhance disclosure and representation.

Gains and losses of coral skeletal porosity changes with ocean acidification acclimation

Ocean acidification is predicted to impact ecosystems reliant on calcifying organisms, potentially reducing the socioeconomic benefits these habitats provide. Here we investigate the acclimation potential of stony corals living along a pH gradient caused by a Mediterranean CO2 vent that serves as a natural long-term experimental setting. We show that in response to reduced skeletal mineralization at lower pH, corals increase their skeletal macroporosity (features >10 μm) in order to maintain constant linear extension rate, an important criterion for reproductive output. At the nanoscale, the coral skeletons structural features are not altered. However, higher skeletal porosity, and reduced bulk density and stiffness may contribute to reduce population density and increase damage susceptibility under low pH conditions. Based on these observations, the almost universally employed measure of coral biomineralization, the rate of linear extension, might not be a reliable metric for assessing coral health and resilience in a warming and acidifying ocean.

Analysis of inter-fraction setup errors and organ motion by daily kilovoltage cone beam computed tomography in intensity modulated radiotherapy of prostate cancer

BackgroundIntensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) enables a better conformality to the target while sparing the surrounding normal tissues and potentially allows to increase the dose to the target, if this is precisely and accurately determined. The goal of this work is to determine inter-fraction setup errors and prostate motion in IMRT for localized prostate cancer, guided by daily kilovoltage cone beam computed tomography (kVCBCT).MethodsSystematic and random components of the shifts were retrospectively evaluated by comparing two matching modalities (automatic bone and manual soft-tissue) between each of the 641 daily kVCBCTs (18 patients) and the planning kVCT. A simulated Adaptive Radiation Therapy (ART) protocol using the average of the first 5 kVCBCTs was tested by non-parametric bootstrapping procedure.ResultsShifts were < 1 mm in left-right (LR) and in supero-inferior (SI) direction. In antero-posterior (AP) direction systematic prostate motion (2.7 ± 0.7 mm) gave the major contribution to the variability of results; the averages of the absolute total shifts were significantly larger in anterior (6.3 ± 0.2 mm) than in posterior (3.9 mm ± 0.2 mm) direction. The ART protocol would reduce margins in LR, SI and anterior but not in posterior direction.ConclusionsThe online soft-tissue correction based on daily kVCBCT during IMRT of prostate cancer is fast and efficient. The large random movements of prostate respect to bony anatomy, especially in the AP direction, where anisotropic margins are needed, suggest that daily kVCBCT is at the present time preferable for high dose and high gradients IMRT prostate treatments.

A Time-Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Study of Mediterranean Scleractinian Corals Reveals Skeletal-Porosity Sensitivity to Environmental Changes

Mediterranean corals are a natural model for studying global warming, as the Mediterranean basin is expected to be one of the most affected regions and the increase in temperature is one of the greatest threats for coral survival. We have analyzed for the first time with time-domain nuclear magnetic resonance (TD-NMR) the porosity and pore-space structure, important aspects of coral skeletons, of two scleractinian corals, Balanophyllia europaea (zooxanthellate) and Leptopsammia pruvoti (nonzooxanthellate), taken from three different sites on the western Italian coast along a temperature gradient. Comparisons have been made with mercury intrusion porosimetry and scanning electron microscopy images. TD-NMR parameters are sensitive to changes in the pore structure of the two coral species. A parameter, related to the porosity, is larger for L. pruvoti than for B. europaea, confirming previous non-NMR results. Another parameter representing the fraction of the pore volume with pore sizes of less than 10-20 μm is inversely related, with a high degree of statistical significance, to the mass of the specimen and, for B. europaea, to the temperature of the growing site. This effect in the zooxanthellate species, which could reduce its resistance to mechanical stresses, may depend on an inhibition of the photosynthetic process at elevated temperatures and could have particular consequences in determining the effects of global warming on these species.

Ocean warming and acidification synergistically increase coral mortality

Organisms that accumulate calcium carbonate structures are particularly vulnerable to ocean warming (OW) and ocean acidification (OA), potentially reducing the socioeconomic benefits of ecosystems reliant on these taxa. Since rising atmospheric CO2 is responsible for global warming and increasing ocean acidity, to correctly predict how OW and OA will affect marine organisms, their possible interactive effects must be assessed. Here we investigate, in the field, the combined temperature (range: 16–26 °C) and acidification (range: pHTS 8.1–7.4) effects on mortality and growth of Mediterranean coral species transplanted, in different seasonal periods, along a natural pH gradient generated by a CO2 vent. We show a synergistic adverse effect on mortality rates (up to 60%), for solitary and colonial, symbiotic and asymbiotic corals, suggesting that high seawater temperatures may have increased their metabolic rates which, in conjunction with decreasing pH, could have led to rapid deterioration of cellular processes and performance. The net calcification rate of the symbiotic species was not affected by decreasing pH, regardless of temperature, while in the two asymbiotic species it was negatively affected by increasing acidification and temperature, suggesting that symbiotic corals may be more tolerant to increasing warming and acidifying conditions compared to asymbiotic ones.

The Scorpion Who Stings the Dog Who Bites: Women Role and Gender Discrimination in Microfinance

Allowing women to access and participate in the economics of life is no longer a “women’s issue”. Gender equality has become a strategic priority for firms to improve their economic and/or social performance. Thus, questioning whether gender discrimination is an issue even in firms directly engaged with the empowerment of women, also becomes an urgency. Commitment is not enough and gender concerns require a strategic approach. In this paper, we investigate gender discrimination in microfinance lending according to the roles females hold in MFIs. Using a panel of 205 Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) in 54 countries, we find that women in MFIs, differently from men, do not discriminate in loan size against women borrowers by gender. Moreover, women hierarchical positions matter in moderating this relationship. Females in operating roles are more effective in reducing gender discrimination than women in leading positions. Whilst we focus on discrimination outside the MFIs, we find results consistent with the fact that gender equality in microfinance can be enhanced by gender equality advocate inside the organizations. Research on women’s empowerment should not only stress the presence of women in the organizations but also their role in the firm and the gender composition of working units. Practitioners pursuing gender equality need to reassess the role of women in the MFIs. Appointing women to powerful positions could be a straightforward solution but ineffective.

Family Ownership and Earnings Quality: Evidence from Different Institutional Environments

This study combines insights from the socioemotional wealth perspective and institutional and resource-based theories to examine the earning quality of family and nonfamily firms operating in countries characterized by different levels of institutional development. Results based on a cross-sectional sample of firms from 12 European countries show that family status and a country’s level of institutional development are positively related to earnings quality. They also show that institutional development moderates the relationship between family status and earnings quality. Comparing insider-oriented countries that are characterized by lower regulatory and financial development with outsider-oriented countries that are characterized by higher regulatory and financial development, we found that family firms have a higher earnings quality in insider-oriented countries than in outsider-oriented ones. Thus, our study finds support for a substitution effect, whereby family status compensates for the limited capacity of less developed regulations and markets to induce virtuous financial reporting behaviors. Forthcoming in Journal of Management and Governance

Initial Public Offerings and the Firm Location

The firm geographic location matters in IPOs because investors have a strong preference for newly issued local stocks and provide abnormal demand in local offerings. Using equity holdings data for more than 53,000 households, we show the probability to participate to the stock market and the proportion of the equity wealth is abnormally increasing with the volume of the IPOs inside the investor region. Upon nearly the universe of the 167,515 going public and private domestic manufacturing firms, we provide consistent evidence that the isolated private firms have higher probability to go public, larger IPO underpricing cross-sectional average and volatility, and less pronounced long-run under-performance. Similar but opposite evidence holds for the local concentration of the investor wealth. These effects are economically relevant and robust to local delistings, IPO market timing, agglomeration economies, firm location endogeneity, self-selection bias, and information asymmetries, among others. Findings suggest IPO waves have a strong geographic component, highlight that underwriters significantly under-estimate the local demand component thus leaving unexpected money on the table, and support state-contingent but constant investor propensity for risk.