Vincenzo Pisano

International entrepreneurship in emerging economies: the role of social capital, knowledge development and entrepreneurial actions

Increasingly, emerging economies are surfacing value-creating entrepreneurial opportunities for firms committed to entrepreneurship as a path to firm growth. However, these opportunities are recognised and exploited only when the firm entrepreneurially manages its resources. Herein, we adopt a contextual approach and integrate resource-based theory, organisational learning theory, social capital theory and strategic entrepreneurship in order to present a theoretical analysis of the means firms employ to create and exploit competitive advantages in emerging economies. We emphasise strategic alliances as the most suitable entry mode for a foreign firm to use to enter an emerging economy successfully. In addition, we use social capital theory to describe the actions the partners of an alliance (a foreign firm and a local emerging economy firm) take to develop a mutually beneficial cooperative relationship and to establish an effective, continuous learning process.

The Cross‐Border Merger and Acquisition Strategy: A Research Perspective

Cross‐border mergers and acquisitions present significant opportunities for firms wishing to diversify their activities geographically, learn new knowledge, and gain access to valuable resources. Cross‐border mergers and acquisitions present multiple challenges as well. These include the difficulty of evaluating target firms, cultural and institutional differences, and the liabilities of foreignness among others. We compare acquisitions to enter new markets with other market entry mechanisms (strategic alliances and greenfield ventures), and conclude with suggestions for future research to advance our knowledge of this strategy of increasing importance globally.

Unpacking the champion of acquisitions: the key figure in the execution of the post-acquisition integration process

This chapter focuses on the human side of the integration phase between the acquiring and the acquired firms. We contribute to the MA (2) a leaders personality able to guide change in the acquiring firms desired direction; (3) networking capabilities to facilitate or reduce the two firms’ boundaries permeability; (4) communication skills and relational capabilities necessary to facilitate the interface activity between individuals who are critical to the integration phase; and (5) the knowledge of (and the access to) the power centers necessary to obtain the indispensable legitimacy of his/her roles and actions.

Earnings management and goodwill impairment

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand whether managerial behavior in impairing goodwill arising from M & As has changed after the adoption of IAS/IFRS, searching for evidences of earnings management (EM) practices. Thus, our goal is to provide a response to the following research questions. Are goodwill impairments used by listed firms’ managers to manipulate earnings? If so, what kind of EM practice is mostly used? Design/methodology/approach – In this paper the authors tested the following hypothesis: H1. In the year of the deal’s closure and in the following four years, the management detects impairment of goodwill in difformity with the previous Italian regulations and related accounting practices. Moreover, the authors tried to determine, for each considered firms, potential symptoms of typical DEM practices widely debated in the financial accounting literature (income smoothing, income minimization, income minimization, or big bath accounting). Findings – Our analysis does not prove e...

Internationalization of firms: revitalizing the board of directors after a cross-border acquisition

Purpose This paper aims to show the importance of introducing an integration manager (i.e. an executive position used to channel the acquiring firm’s course of action and strengthen the success of a post-acquisition integration process) within the acquiring firm’s board of directors. Design/methodology/approach This is a theoretical paper that introduces the integration manager within the board of privately held firms going internationally via acquisitions and serving as an “out-insider” director able to balance the conflicting demands of the previously separated entities during their integration process. The authors present an explanatory case study that empirically contributes to the board of directors’ design for internationalization. Findings The authors posit that the integration manager serves as an “out-insider” director of the board for privately held firms, possessed by large-block shareholders, going internationally via acquisitions, providing the necessary expertise and knowledge of the target firm’s products and industry. Originality/value The provided study aims to show that international acquisitions, even though apparently less risky than greenfield investments, may require additional neutral information flow – both within the due-diligence process and the post-acquisition integration – that only outsiders possess. Such an outsider has been individuated in the integration manager whose crucial role focuses on smoothing the pre- and post-acquisition integration processes.

The orchestration of business models for territorial development

This paper aims to investigate whether the competitiveness of a certain territory may be developed and maintained in the context of a global economy through the exploitation of its intrinsic value. The paper contributes to managerial literature by embracing a systemic perspective using business models (BMs) and adapting the original Osterwalder and Pigneur’s (2010) framework (canvas) to the specific context of territorial development.,The paper proposes a conceptual framework placing the territory and its actors in a dominant position. This choice allows us to look at BMs as the instruments of success of an entire territory (instead of a single firm as typically assessed in managerial literature) – a cooperating system. To do so, the authors build on previous works on “triple” and “quadruple helix”, which, although primarily focused on technological innovation, may also be used for more general aims such as guiding the specialization of a specific territory and supporting its economic sustainability. The paper contends that a BM might be the instrument to orchestrate actors’ (helices) cooperation by combining the focus on territories with a systemic perspective. Through the implementation of a common BM, each system should be able to orchestrate policies implemented by the different leading forces of the territory to assist processes of economic development.,The paper extends the literature on BMs conceptually linking its roots to the existing managerial literature on territory governance and networks. It offers a dual range of outcomes: first, it provides public policy makers with useful guidelines with regard to political, institutional, educational and entrepreneurial choices to be implemented for the development of a given geographical area; second, it examines the relational network linking the various actors of a territory, which are key to its growth and success.,This paper offers a new way for recovering/sustaining economically depressed areas. To the authors’ knowledge, BMs have never been used at territorial level, but only at firm level. They believe that, through this new view of BMs, policy makers can help each territory to express its intrinsic and peculiar value. By combining BMs with the concepts of triple and quadruple helix, the authors offer a new way to look at how governments, educational institutions and firms can cooperate to help a territory in finding and improving its intrinsic specialization.

Antecedents of interpersonal trust in customer-pharmacist relationships

The paper aims to examine the antecedents of customer trust in salespersons. In particular, it looks at the relationship between customers and pharmacists. The paper empirically tests expertise, customer orientation, selling orientation, and likeability as the main drivers of trust in the pharmacist. To test our conceptual model, we run a multiple linear regression by employing the Ols methodology on a dataset from a sample of 209 pharmacy clients located in a big city of the South of Italy. Results indicate that, in order of importance, likeability, customer orientation, and expertise are positively related to trust in the pharmacist, while selling orientation is negatively related. This study deepens the work of Castaldo and colleagues (2012) regarding the concept of trust in the context of pharmacies through a further examination of trust in the pharmacist, which is one of the components of their model.