Looking at the IPO from the “top floor”: a literature review

This article aims to assess the current situation and the evolution of the literature on the role of top level decision-makers in initial public offerings. The article combines bibliometric and qualitative reviews of 147 articles published in 57 journals until 2015. Findings show that the debate on the role of top-level decision-makers in initial public offerings has followed an irregular pathway. Research attention has moved from studies on the actors and the dynamics of going public to a focus on the strategic implications of initial public offerings. The paper is a good starting point for future policy-making interventions designed to support top-level decision-making. By enhancing awareness of the strategic role of initial public offerings, we hope to improve the governance practices associated with them. The paper also sheds light on the importance of fostering the corporate transparency of top-level decision-making in firms going public, as an additional tool to increase investors’ trust and attract financial resources. Finally, the paper provides a comprehensive overview of the academic field, examining research trends and the evolutionary pattern. It also suggests future research avenues by identifying un(der)explored issues to advance knowledge on the topic.     

THEORIES OF THE STATE: THE CASE OF LAND REFORM IN ITALY, 1944–1961

This article examines the case of land reform in Italy from 1944 to 1961 in relation to the role of the State in capitalism. Through an analysis of recent debate on the capitalist State, it offers an investigation of the generation and outcomes of the process of land reform. It is important to note that the social pressure exerted by landless peasants and farm workers for the redistribution of land and the dissolution of the dominant social bloc generated the conditions for a land reform that only partially satisfied the needs of the agricultural working class. Simultaneously, the mediation of the State enhanced the overall interests of the domestic bourgeoisie. In this context, land reform produced contradictory results that favored the processes of accumulation of capital and legitimation of social dissent.     

Global Agro-Food Corporations and the State: The Ferruzzi Case

The relationship between transnational corporations (TNCs) in the agro-food sector and the nation-state in the context of global post-Fordism is examined through a case study of recent events involving the Ferruzzi transnational corporation. TNCs have a complex and contradictory set of relations with the state that are affected by competition among TNCs, by TNCs' internal disagreements, and by the fragmented nature of the state. The state assists TNCs through formal and informal channels. In this specific case, the informality of the system is underscored by the openly illegal arrangement that was operated for years by Ferruzzi officials and members of the officialdom of the state. However, the state also has the capacity to counter the actions of TNCs and to enforce the interests of subordinate groups.     

The Relationship Between Cognitive Maps,Industry Complexity and Strategies Implemented: The Case of the Carpi Textile-Clothing Industrial System

This paper discusses the relationship between the subjective organisation and the perceived competitive structure of an industry based on an empirical study of the Carpi textile-clothing district, which partially replicates a previous study of the Scottish knitwear industry conducted by other authors (Porac et al., 1995). The initial hypothesis to be tested is that an industry may be broken down into a number of subsets of firms within which competition is perceived as being fiercer as compared with firms in different subsets. These subsets, or groups, correspond to the groups or types of firms into which decision-makers -- managers and entrepreneurial business owners alike -- perceive the industry as being divided.The results of the study are then compared to the empirical evidence from the research conducted by other authors. This comparison provides some interesting elements for investigating the relationships between industry complexity, cognitive maps and strategies implemented by the firms belonging to it. After suggesting a definition of complexity of an industry as the number of strategies implemented in it by competitors, we discuss the hypothesis that key-actors in the firms develop a mental picture of their environment that tends to become less comprehensive and accurate as the degree of complexity of the environment itself increases.     

An R package for the simulation of correlated discrete variables

A package for the stochastic simulation of discrete variables with assigned marginal distributions and correlation matrix is presented and discussed. The simulating mechanism relies upon the Gaussian copula, linking the discrete distributions together, and an iterative scheme recovering the correlation matrix for the copula that ensures the desired correlations among the discrete variables. Examples of its use are provided as well as three possible applications (related to probability, sampling, and inference), which illustrate the utility of the package as an efficient and easy-to-use tool both in statistical research and for didactic purposes.     

Afghan Migratory Strategies and the Three Solutions to the Refugee Problem

The present article proposes three main theses: the normalityof movements and the prior existence of transnational networksin and around Afghanistan; the resilience and inventivenessof the Afghan population, especially illustrated by the remittancesystem; the relevance of migratory movements and of transnationalnetworks for the reconstruction of the country and the stabilityof the region. In contrast to the migratory strategies developedby the refugees, the three solutions to the problem of the refugeespromoted by the UNHCR (voluntary repatriation in the countryof origin; integration in the host country; resettlement ina third country) are based on the idea that solutions are foundwhen movements stop. But mobility may be seen as a key livelihoodstrategy. A more comprehensive solution is needed, which takesinto account the full range of strategies and responses developedby the Afghan population, including the back-and-forth movementsbetween Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and beyond.     

Robustness of Optimal Investment Decisions in Mixed Insurance/Investment Cyber Risk Management

An integrated risk management strategy, combining insurance and security investments, where the latter contribute to reduce the insurance premium, is investigated to assess whether it can lead to reduced overall security expenses. The optimal investment for this mixed strategy is derived under three insurance policies, covering, respectively, all the losses (total coverage), just those below the limit of maximum liability (partial coverage), and those above a threshold but below the maximum liability (partial coverage with deductibles). Under certain conditions (e.g., low potential loss, or either very low or very high vulnerability), the mixed strategy reverts however to insurance alone, because investments do not provide an additional benefit. When the mixed strategy is the best choice, the dominant component in the overall security expenses is the insurance premium in most cases. Optimal investment decisions require an accurate estimate of the vulnerability, whereas larger estimation errors may be tolerated for the investment-effectiveness coefficient.     

Ridge regression versus ols by pitman's closeness under quadratic and fisher's loss

The existence of values of the ridge parameter such that ridge regression is preferable to OLS by the Pitman nearness criterion under both the quadratic and the Fisher's loss is shown. Preference regions of the two estimators under the above loss functions are found. An upper bound for the value of the Pitman's measure of closeness, independent of a deterministic or stochastic choice of the ridge parameter, is given.