Successes and crises in the joint-stock rail company Ferrovie Elettriche Abruzzesi (1929-1956)

Journal title CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE
Author/s Antonio D’Andreamatteo, Francesca Neri, Massimo Sargiacomo
Publishing Year 2023 Issue 2023/1
Language English Pages 26 P. 61-86 File size 135 KB
DOI 10.3280/CCA2023-001004
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

Introduction. This study analyses the economic and management trends of the company Ferrovie Elettriche Abruzzesi SA (FEA), the owner of the concession granted to build and use the Tavo railway from Penne to Pescara, and the tramway service in the city of Pescara from 1925 to 1956. Aim of the work. This study highlights how the management of concessionary companies of secondary railway lines is interconnected with the more general Italian problems of passenger and freight railway traffic management. Methodological approach. An analysis of the company’s financial statements, the content of the reports by the technical bodies and the Internal Works Committee, and the company’s correspondence with stakeholders facilitated the reconstruction of all the internal and external causes of the crisis. Main findings. The common denominator of the crisis was the associated and growing competition from road traffic and bus services, which led to increas- ingly poor operating results for FEA. The Penne-Pescara line had a low volume of traffic, which was part of the more general ‘rail problem’ that characterised Italy. Originality. Delving into the interface of accounting and the history of local public transport, this study provides a case study of ‘bad practice’, which is rarely available in the scientific literature on corporate crises.

Keywords: accounting history, local public transport, crises, railway, tramway, Ferrovie ElAttrache’s Abruzzesi

  1. ACAF (2008). La ferrovia elettrica Penne-Pescara 1929-1963. Ragioni, scenari, vitalità, oblìo. Montesilvano: Grafica SIVA.
  2. Amoroso L. (1918). I lavori della Commissione per l’ordinamento ferroviario. Giornale degli Economisti e Rivista di Statistica, 56, 4: 208-217.
  3. Antonelli V., Bigoni M., Cafaro E. M. and D’Alessio R. (2020). Railway systems and the ‘Universal Good of the State’: Technologies of government in the nineteenth-century Papal State. Accounting History, 25, 3: 375-402, DOI: 10.1177/1032373219862615
  4. Antonelli V., D’Alessio R. and Cafaro E. M. (2017). Auditing Practices from a Historical Perspective: The Case Study of an Italian Railroad Company in the Mid-19th Century. Accounting Historians Journal, 44, 1: 17-34,
  5. Antonelli V., D’Alessio R., Cafaro E. M. and Bigoni, M. (2019). The Pope and the Train: Financial Reporting Practices in the Railroad Companies of the Papal States (1846-1870). Contablità e Cultura aziendale, 2, DOI: 10.3280/CCA2019-002002
  6. Archivio di Stato di Pescara (1997). Ferrovie elettriche abruzzesi il trenino Pe- scara-Penne: Guida alla mostra documentaria.
  7. Arnold A. J. and McCartney S. (2002). The beginnings of accounting for capital consumption: Disclosure practices in the British railway industry, 1830-55. Accounting and Business Research, 32, 4: 195-208, DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2002.9728970
  8. Arnold A. J. and McCartney S. (2003). “It may be earlier than you think”: Evi- dence, myths and informed debate in accounting history. Critical Perspec- tives on Accounting, 14, 3: 227-253,
  9. Bedolini G., Del Frate A. and Candeli A. (1932). Le imprese ferroviarie (Nuova edizione interamente riveduta). Torino: Unione Tipografico Editrice Torinese.
  10. Bryer R. A. (1991). Accounting for the “railway mania” of 1845 – A great railway swindle?. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 16, 5-6: 439-486,
  11. Bundy J., Pfarrer M. D., Short C. E. and Coombs W. T. (2017). Crises and Crisis Management: Integration, Interpretation, and Research Develop- ment. Journal of Management, 43, 6: 1661-1692, DOI: 10.1177/0149206316680030
  12. Carver L. (2001). The War in Italy 1943-1945. The RUSI Journal, 146, 5: 62-66, DOI: 10.1080/03071840108446702
  13. Cecini S. (2011). Le premesse della politica ferroviaria fascista: Risanamento finanziario e repressione politica (1922-1924). Dimensioni e problemi della ricerca storica, 1,
  14. Cecini S. (2012). Fascismo ed elettrificazione ferroviaria tra ammodernamento tecnico e politica di prestigio (1922-1940). Dimensioni e problemi della ri- cerca storica, 2, DOI: 10.7376/72644
  15. Chandler A. D. (1965). The Railroads: Pioneers in Modern Corporate Manage- ment. Business History Review, 39, 1: 16-40, DOI: 10.2307/3112463
  16. Churella A. (2006). Company, state, and region: Three approaches to railroad history. Enterprise & Society, 7, 3: 581-591,
  17. Coombs H. M. and Edwards J. R. (Eds) (2014). Local authority accounting methods Volume 2 (RLE Accounting): Problems and solutions, 1909-1934, DOI: 10.4324/9781315883274
  18. Della Porta G. (1950). Il problema ferroviario in Italia. Moneta e Credito, 3, 11: 302-317.
  19. Di Nola C. (1919). Gli odierni aspetti dell’economia dei trasporti. Giornale degli Economisti e Rivista di Statistica, 58, 30, 5: 237-261.
  20. Edwards J. R. (1992). Companies, Corporations and Accounting Change, 1835-1933: A Comparative Study. Accounting and Business Research, 23, 89: 59-73, DOI: 10.1080/00014788.1992.9729861
  21. Feeney K. (2013). Railroad audits: some arrived ahead of schedule. Account- ing Historians Journal, 40, 1: 1-30, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.40.1.1
  22. Flesher D. L. and Previts G. J. (2020). Railroads. In: Edwards J. R., Walker S. (Editors). The Routledge Companion to Accounting History. New York: Routledge.
  23. Glynn J. J. (1984). Development of British railway accounting: 1800-1911. Accounting Historians Journal, 11, 1: 103-118, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.11.1.103
  24. Heier J. R. (2006). America’s railroad depreciation debate, 1907 to 1913: a study of divergence in early 20th century accounting standards. Accounting Historians Journal, 33, 1: 89-124, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.33.1.89
  25. Heier J. R. and Gurley A. L. (2007). End of betterment accounting: A study of the economic, professional, and regulatory factors that fostered standards convergence in the U.S. railroad industry, 1955-1983. Accounting Histori- ans Journal, 34, 1: 25-55, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.34.1.25
  26. Jupe R. and Funnell W. (2015). Neoliberalism, consultants and the privatisation of public policy formulation: The case of Britain’s rail industry. Critical Per- spectives on Accounting, 29: 65-85,
  27. Levant Y. and Zimnovitch H. (2022). Overview of cost accounting practices in France from the early 19th century to the 1880s. Accounting History, 27, 4: 576-606, DOI: 10.1177/10323732221103906
  28. Maggi S. (2009). Storia dei trasporti in Italia. Bologna: il Mulino. Maggi S. (2017). Le ferrovie. Bologna: il Mulino.
  29. McCartney S. and Arnold A. J. (2003). The railway mania of 1845-1847: Market irrationality or collusive swindle based on accounting distortions?. 16, 5: 821-852, DOI: 10.1108/09513570310505970
  30. Mercurio F. (1994). Le ferrovie e il Mezzogiorno: I vincoli «morali» e le gerarchie territoriali (1839-1905). Meridiana, 19: 155-193.
  31. Odlyzko A. (2011). The collapse of the Railway Mania, the development of cap- ital markets, and the forgotten role of Robert Lucas Nash. Accounting His- tory Review, 21, 3: 309-345, DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2011.605556
  32. Pearson C. M. and Clair J. A. (1998). Reframing Crisis Management. Academy of Management Review, 23, 1: 59-76, DOI: 10.2307/259099
  33. Pollins H. (1991). British horse tramway company accounting practices, 1870- 1914. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 1, 3: 279-302, DOI: 10.1080/09585209100000039
  34. Pollins H. (2013). Railway auditing-a report of 1867. In: Edwards J. R. (Editor). Studies of Company Records (RLE Accounting): 1830-1974. London: Routledge.
  35. Quagli A. and Danovi A. (2012). Crisi aziendali e processi di risanamento. Pre- venzione e diagnosi, terapie, casi aziendali. Milano: Ipsoa.
  36. Recubini D. (2008). Le origini e lo sviluppo del sistema ferroviario. In ACAF. La ferrovia elettrica Penne-Pescara 1929-1963. Ragioni, scenari, vitalità, oblìo. Montesilvano: Grafica SIVA.
  37. Richard J. (2012). Victory of the Prussian Railway «Dynamic» accounting over the public finance and patrimonial accounting models (1838-1884): An Early illustration of the appearance of the second stage of capitalist financial ac- counting and a testimony against the agency an. Accounting Historians Journal, 39, 1: 91-126, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.39.1.91.39
  38. Santos-Cabalgante B., Garcia Osma, B. and Romero Fúnez, D. (2019). Ac- counting quality in railway companies during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: The case of Spanish NORTE and MZA. Accounting and Business Research, 49, 3: 271-304, DOI: 10.1080/00014788.2018.1493373
  39. Sawanobori C. (2013). Influence of fundraising infeasibility on accounting changes An investigation into early financial reporting practices using text mining. Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change, 9, 4: 471-489, DOI: 10.1108/JAOC-08-2010-0038
  40. Thompson J. E. (2013). Railroad investing and the importance of financial ac- counting information in 1880s America. Accounting Historians Journal, 40, 2: 55-89, DOI: 10.2308/0148-4184.40.2.55
  41. Trevisani R. (1937). La concorrenza fra la strada e la rotaia nella politica eco- nomica dei trasporti. Milano: Hoepli.
  42. Trevisani R. (1949). Fatti ed esperienze di economia dei trasporti in tempo di guerra. Padova: CEDAM.
  43. Vamplew W. (2020). “A careful and most ingenious fabrication of imaginary accounts”: Scottish railway company accounts before 1868. In: Lee T. A.
  44. (Editor). A Scottish Contribution to Accounting History (Vol. 37). London Routledge.
  45. Yin R. K. (2009). Case study research: Design and methods (4th ed). London: Sage Publications.
  46. Zucchelli R. (1964). Alcune considerazioni sui problemi delle ferrovie italiane.
  47. Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Sociali, 35, 6: 590-611.

Antonio D’Andreamatteo, Francesca Neri, Massimo Sargiacomo, Successes and crises in the joint-stock rail company Ferrovie Elettriche Abruzzesi (1929-1956) in "CONTABILITÀ E CULTURA AZIENDALE" 1/2023, pp 61-86, DOI: 10.3280/CCA2023-001004