SEARCH RESULTS

Introduction: The paper focuses on analyzing the causes of the crisis of an Italian company in the early 1990s. Aim of the work: The aim of this paper is to analyze the causes that led to the crisis of Federconsorzi to identify the decision-making errors and incorrect accounting, management, and regulatory practices that compromised its operations. In addi-tion, special attention will be given to the individuals who operated in that organi-zation, which was unique worldwide, and who, through their actions, enabled the achievement of the corporate collapse. Methodological approach: The work is based on an enriched version of the “fraud triangle” to correctly identify the activities and individuals involved in the Feder-consorzi crisis. Main findings: The case was analyzed to find that the fraud triangle theory, even modified from the most recent literature, does not consider certain elements that, on the other hand, proved to be diriment in the case analyzed. Originality: The paper provides a broadening of knowledge on issues related to business crises and the factors and elements that can play an important role in the process of deterioration of key business economic quantities.

Introduction: The paper analyses the case study of the FIAT automotive company in two global financial crises which broke out exactly 100 years apart: the crisis of 1907 known as the “Banking Panic” and the crisis of 2007, and its burst in 2008, known as the “Great Recession”. Aim of the work: The paper aims to analyze company strategies in financial crises, by adopting a business perspective, in order to capture similarities and differ-ences; contributions to support companies in the transformation of organizational, managerial and operation processes during changing environmental conditions are provided. Methodological approach: The research follows an interpretive and qualitative ap-proach. Starting from the theoretical background of the two financial crises, the study identified the company FIAT as a “single business case study”. FIAT’s financial statements and corporate documents for the periods 1907-1913 and 2007-2013 are critically assessed. Main findings: Case study findings highlight the successfully implemented strate-gies and the paths of growth pursued by the Company to survive and restart. In this sense, the case study analysis supports the identification of some elements and actions able to guide companies through periods of environmental and business crisis. Moreover, the study of the FIAT historical corporate documents permits to observe the evolution – about the structure and the content – of corporate disclo-sure over time. Originality: There is a lack of studies that analyze and compare the two crises. The comparison between the two financial crises by adopting a business perspective is novel. The historical comparison together with the analysis of the evolution of the FIAT’s corporate disclosure over time, provides relevant scientific insights, poten-tially able to favour an advancement of knowledge to help companies in the trans-formation and adaptation processes to changing environmental conditions.

Introduction: This paper focuses on the peculiar model that the Italian central gov-ernment adopted in 1903-1904 to directly manage public services. Aim of the work: The aim of this work is to demonstrate how accounting and ac-countability practices introduced by the Italian central government, functioning as representational and translational technologies of government, shaped the archi-tecture of the so-called “administered decentralization”. Methodological approach: This paper is based on an in-depth analysis of primary and secondary sources, including the texts of the law and the Royal Decree enact-ed by the Italian central government in addition to the related parliamentary acts. Empirical material is analyzed and interpreted in light of the Foucauldian idea of govern(mentality). Main findings: This paper highlights the role that accounting and accountability practices played in establishing and shaping power relations among central and local governments involved in the direct management of public services. Originality: Contrary to the extant literature, this paper demonstrates how ac-counting and accountability practices contributed to the establishment of a decen-tralized form of government rather than centralized models. Moreover, it explores the municipalization process in a historical period that remains hitherto unex-plored in the accounting literature.

The article addresses the topic of the contribution provided by third sector entities in the provision of healthcare services. This is a theme present in scientific literature, yet little attention has been paid to the role these entities play in meeting the healthcare needs of individuals in mar-ginalized, impoverished, and generally socioeconomically and relationally disadvantaged con-ditions. After analyzing the role of the third sector in different healthcare systems, the article focuses on the Italian case, first estimating the contribution of these entities within the National Health Service, and then concentrating on civil society actors specialized in the provision of socio-healthcare and healthcare services with a specific focus on hardship.

The paper analyses the consequences of the reorganisation of oncological care in Emilia-Romagna due to COVID-19 on patients’ illness trajectories. The paper shows how these or-ganisational changes led to an increase in two of the essential aspects of care work identified by Strauss and colleagues (1985) in the management of an illness trajectory: safety work, to control the new risks that emerged in the course of the pandemic, and sentimental work, to compensate for the absence of family members in hospital facilities. Both aspects required an increased commitment in terms of time and resources by healthcare personnel. However, while the increase of safety work was a direct consequence of the anti-infection directives and the need to translate them into everyday hospital practice, the increase in sentimental work emerged spontaneously as a response to the “care vacuum” caused by the emergency situation and the resulting restrictions. The results show an attention to the patient in the entirety of their medical, psychological and relational needs.

This article focuses on the reproductive experiences of women with physical disabilities. Through the analysis of some of the material collected for research on the relationship between psycho-emotional disablism and the embodied experience of motherhood, the authors intend to reflect on the ways in which women with disabilities negotiate their reproductive desires with social and medical expectations. Some stories of mothers with visible and invisible physical disabilities (multiple sclerosis, infantile cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy) collected through semi-structured interviews are explored. The results highlight the ways in which med-ical discourse acts on their reproductive decision as a barrier to being that can guide their re-productive choices, actions and desires.

Within the framework of advancing the competencies of healthcare professionals via educa-tional initiatives that incorporate innovative methodologies, this paper presents an exploration of utilizing comic strips in a professional master’s program as a conduit for introspection on interprofessional dynamics and the enhancement of certain communicative competencies. This study engaged fourteen nurses, whose ages ranged from 35 to 55 years and who were em-ployed in hospital environments in Northern Italy, through their participation in the creation of comic strips and a concluding interview. The research was conducted over the period from November 2022 to May 2023. The examination of the findings, which included graphic repre-sentations and interview data, uncovered a daily professional existence marked by discord and paradoxes, yet unified under a shared professional designation.

The organisational, socio-technical and cultural changes that are affecting the health sector nat-urally also involve the occupational world and the health professions. Among the various changes in the socio-health ecosystem, there are also experiences from a relational point of view, placing the world of the health professions in the so-called affective turn (Leys, 2011). The role of emotions is therefore increasingly decisive, both when they are expressed and when they are latent, to interrogate and analyse the work of health professionals. At the same time, this (positive) emotional turn and the so-called feeling rules could also lead workers (dif-ferentially) to experience a kind of burnout or in other cases forms of cynicism and detach-ment that can be detrimental to both professional identity and patients. The article aims to ana-lyse these aspects through a qualitative investigation conducted within three complex facilities belonging to the Rizzoli Orthopaedic Institute.

Medical care is changing, driven both by necessity as well as innovation. The European healthcare sector’s digital transformation involves the rapid adoption of advanced technologies such as AI, robotics, autonomous systems, and Big Data. The study “Perception and acceptability of social robots in healthcare: ethnographic research based on a qualitative case study” investigates interaction with and acceptability of social robots in a pilot project based in Maribor Hospital, as a part of the European HosmartAI project. These robots functioned largely to assist patients and as “administrative support” for the nurses and doctors. This study focuses on the interactions of healthcare personnel with robots, including any emotions or fears and barriers that arose. The goal was to understand robot acceptance and challenges from a human-centric and individual perspective, focussing on key stakeholders that both use and develop these robots. All stakeholders are part of HosmartAI Living Labs, which works through collaboration to design and deliver advanced technologies.