RISULTATI RICERCA

Il presente saggio analizza l’evoluzione della contrattazione collettiva transnazionale nel settore tessile-abbigliamento, con particolare attenzione agli strumenti regolativi adottati per garantire il rispetto dei diritti ambientali e dei diritti dei lavoratori lungo le catene globali del valore. La ricerca si concentra su casi studio significativi nei segmenti della fast fashion e della luxury fashion, mediante un’analisi delle differenze tra i due modelli di business e tra le esperienze di contrattazione. Attraverso lo studio delle esperienze di contrattazione e delle normative europee e nazionali, si evidenziano le criticità e le potenzialità degli strumenti giuridici e negoziali nell’affrontare le sfide della globalizzazione. L’obiettivo è proporre soluzioni che possano conciliare la sostenibilità economica, sociale e ambientale in un settore caratterizzato da dinamiche produttive complesse e spesso poco trasparenti.

Il saggio parte da alcuni scritti di Riccardo Del Punta per mostrare come, nella visione della sua autrice, egli fosse un “illuminista radicale”, diviso tra passione e dubbio. La passione che ha nutrito tutta l’opera di Del Punta è stata la sua passione umanistica per un liberalismo radicale classico, che pone al centro valori che incarnano la cittadinanza moderna e l’egualitarismo: libertà individuale, laicità, politica democratica, libertà di pensiero e di stampa. Valori attraversati continuamente dal dubbio, coltivato come scelta di metodo, in funzione antideologica. Ma anche da difendere inflessibilmente quando sono sotto attacco, come buoni ideali in sé, non legati a un’epoca particolare (la modernità) o a un’identità culturale (quella occidentale). In questo risiede la “inflessibile mitezza” di un indimenticabile amico e collega. Nell’ultima parte del saggio si cerca di argomentare perché Del Punta avrebbe tratto giovamento dal confronto con paradigmi che propongono un dualismo di prospettive e che consentono di mettere al centro del diritto del lavoro la persona che lavora, senza trascurare il tema di una distribuzione più equa del potere sociale e della ricchezza.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to explore the factors that influence the acceptance of Bitcoin as investment among individuals and to construct a framework with the help of Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM). Methodology: The methodology is divided into three parts, firstly the determination of factors, consultation with experts, and the subsequent creation of a hierarchical model that is further classified by establishing the interconnectedness between these elements applying Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM). This is then validated by Matriced Impact Croises Multiplication Appliquee a un classement (MICMAC) analysis. Findings: The MICMAC analysis identifies Gender (G), Financial Knowledge (FK), Policy Support(PS), and Facilitating Conditions (FC) as key driving factor with significant influence. Conversely, Performance Expectancy, Personal Innovativeness, Perceived Trust, Perceived Value, and Attitude emerge as the top-level factors expressing the highest dependence power. The MICMAC analysis reveals that Gender, Financial Knowledge, Policy Support and Facilitating Conditions are driving factors, Personal Innovativeness emerged as dependent factor, while User Friendliness, Perceived Trust, Attitude etc. are among linkage factors highlighting their interconnectedness roles and influence within their framework. Originality/Value: This is the first study to find out the factors influencing the adoption of Bitcoin. The model is developed using ISM and MICMAC which contributes to the originality.

Purpose: This study investigates the relationship between conditional conservatism and the market reaction of firms’ stock prices in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) operations. Design/methodology/approach: Leveraging a sample of 224 U.S. listed companies and event study methodology, as well as regression models, this study analyses 735 M&A deals from 2010 to 2018. Findings: We find that conditional conservatism is positively associated with cumulative abnormal returns of acquiring firms post-M&A announcement; moreover, one of the drivers of this result is the information asymmetry channel. Additional analysis also shows that while acquirers with high conditional conservatism experience a positive reaction to M&A announcements, there is no significant reaction for acquirers with low conditional conservatism. Originality/value: Our main results provide evidence that a high conditional conservatism limits the reduction of acquiring firms’ stock prices post-announcement of M&A. Our additional analyses show that low conditional conservatism does not exert a significant negative impact on acquiring firms’ stock prices post-announcement of M&A, as would be expected. Practical implications: This paper may be useful for both investors and practitioners since it offers interesting insights on how to deal with accounting policies and benefit from M&A transactions. Indeed, if they are informed on how conditional conservatism exerts a role on stock prices, they are less likely to engage in value-destroying M&A transactions. In addition, our results may interest standard setters interested in the role of the conservatism principle under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

Purpose: This study investigates whether country-level religiosity influences environmental reporting within the financial sector. In particular, the study examines religiosity’s influence on environmental reporting among banks, credit institutions, and investment firms (BCIs) across 11 European countries during the 2006-2022 period. Design/methodology/approach: The study used a dataset of 1,980 firm-year observations. Data from the World Value Survey was employed to assess religiosity at the country level. Responses to religiosity’s affective, cognitive, and behavioural dimensions were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) to derive a single score for each country. Religiosity’s influence on environmental reporting was examined through an OLS regression model. Findings: The findings suggest a positive influence of country-level religiosity on environmental reporting among European BCIs. The results demonstrate that religious norms and the overall religious context within a country can significantly influence corporate attitudes and practices regarding environmental reporting. Originality/value: This study enhances the understanding of religious norms’ influence on corporate sustainability practices and introduces a new perspective within the financial sector by linking religiosity to environmental reporting practices. The findings align with theoretical frameworks of institutional and social norms theories, opening avenues for further research that could examine religiosity’s influence on corporate sustainability. Moreover, it addresses the topic within the European context, reflecting recent developments’ effects on nonfinancial reporting regulation and a certain degree of religious diversity, which may lead to different interpretations and expectations concerning environmental issues and reporting

Purpose: The paper investigates the circular economy (CE) disclosure released by companies in response to the issuing of CE-related policies since the CE Action Plan 2015, using the institutional view of legitimacy theory. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a multiple case study methodology by content-analyzing the CE disclosure released by all listed Italian agri-food companies in their sustainability reports in the period 2016-2021. Findings: The findings show that Italian agri-food companies released low levels of CE disclosure. This result suggests a lack of strategic relevance attributed to the CE issue or the absence of CE-related standards to rely upon. The results could also reveal companies’ scarce implementation of CE business models. The findings also show an increase in both the quantity and quality of CE disclosure released in response to the issuing of a public CE-related policy or framework, supporting the theoretical arguments of the institutional view of legitimacy theory. Originality/value: In light of the worldwide increasing attention toward environmental issues and the CE paradigm, particularly in the food industry, this study is the first to investigate the CE disclosure released by agri-food companies in response to the issuing of CE-related policies and voluntary frameworks. Practical implications: The findings show that institutional pressure through the issuing of new CE-related policies and voluntary frameworks promotes increased CE disclosure by companies, suggesting that implementing both Directive 2022/2464/EU and the EFRAG standards would further encourage the release of CE disclosure.

Purpose: I examine whether sales manipulation in failed firms that adopted the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) differ from that of failed firms that did not. This inquiry is motivated by a paucity of research on the consequences of IFRS reporting for failed firms given the recent changes in accounting standards affecting revenue recognition and normal levels of cash flows. Design/methodology/approach: Using a sample of United Kingdom (UK) firms that declared bankruptcy between 2006 and 2016, I apply regression analysis and a difference-in-differences approach to assess whether firms that adopted IFRS and failed display a significant difference in abnormal levels of cash flows given the level of revenue. Findings: The results show that IFRS adopters exhibit earnings management as opposed to non-adopters by implementing real operating actions. The results show that failed firms adopting IFRS generally have negative abnormal cash flows given their reported levels of sales while this is not the case for non-adopters. Originality/value: I explore the reason for these observations by analysing the setting of the UK Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and IFRS. The contribution of this study is that it demonstrates that while failed firms have been reported to manage earnings, this appears to persist with IFRS-failed firms when compared to non-IFRS-failed firms. This suggests that IFRS standards may inadvertently facilitate failed firms that adopt IFRS in exploring real earnings management avenues, particularly concerning sales manipulation, in contrast to non-IFRS-failed firms.

Purpose: The paper aims to assess the ability of explainable artifiical intelligence (XAI), specifically Logic Learning Machine (LLM), to predict early signals of distress in private companies. Design/methodology/approach: We examined a sample of Italian private firms that activated early recovery procedures, which are matched to healthy firms. The proprietary algorithm developed by Rulex Innovation Labs is used to discriminate between distressed firms and healthy companies based on a set of publicly available data. Results are then compared with those obtained using other (widely employed) methods. Findings: The analysis shows that the LLM method is able to classify distressed firms with high accuracy, outperforming logit models and other AI-based methods. Originality/value: We contribute to the literature on the use of AI in insolvency prediction by exploring the predictive ability of XAI. We also extend the literature on insolvency in private firms, which represent a fundamental part of the economic system and are subject to less scrutiny than public firms. Practical implications: Our results have practical implications considering the recently enforced EU Insolvency Directive, which imposes the implementation of early warning tools that should be easy to use for all entities across all Member States. By using publicly available data on early distress procedures activated by companies, we build an early warning detection system that can be easily employed by companies of all sizes and types.

In this paper, I analyse the evolution of corporate reporting regulation in Europe in the last two decades and reflect on the possibility that the traditional usefulness approach is insufficient to solve new issues arising from the current regulatory landscape. The evolvement that the concept of “public interest” has undergone within the European Commission implies a change in the objective of corporate reporting from the main aim of targeting investors for decision-making through a change brought about by the financial crisis to the aim of financial stability and economic growth, and finally to the goal of getting of social and environmental objectives. This evolvement implies a revolution, raises non-previous existing conflicts of interest among stakeholders, and brings a motivating challenge for researchers. However, in many cases, the existence of a potential crisis of incentives to publish in journals with a “real” impact on academia and to transfer research output to society requires a profound debate for progress.