External audit and bankruptcy prediction

In this paper, we investigate the relationship between external auditor characteristics and the likelihood of bankruptcy. We use a sample of US public companies to analyse whether auditor attributes are associated with default. We also test whether the inclusion of such attributes in bankruptcy prediction models improves their predictive ability. We find that firms audited by industry-expert auditors, large audit firms and long-tenured auditors are less likely to default. Firms with higher audit fees are more likely to default. Our results also show that the inclusion of auditor attributes significantly increases the predictive ability of bankruptcy prediction models. This paper contributes to the literature about auditing and bankruptcy prediction. Our results suggest that the auditor attributes can provide predictive signals concerning a default risk and that an external audit can play a relevant role in early warnings of financial distress. Our study also suggests that bankruptcy prediction models can become more effective if they are complemented with audit data. Our results are of interest to market participants, auditors, regulating authorities, banks and other financial institutions that are interested in credit risk assessment.     

Temporary Competitive Advantage: A State‐of‐the‐Art Literature Review and Research Directions

In many industries, the traditional sources of competitive advantage tend to evaporate fairly rapidly. Therefore, managers need to continually rethink and reformulate their firm strategies. Likewise, scholars have felt compelled to shift the traditional centre of attention from competitive advantage that is sustainable over time to a focus on how firms compete by achieving a series of temporary advantages. However, the proliferation of research on temporary competitive advantage, far from building a solid body of literature, has produced a series of fragmented studies. This condition calls for detecting the state of knowledge in this realm of strategic inquiry. By leveraging the present status of the literature on temporary competitive advantage, we offer a conceptual map of the current inquiry of the antecedents, management, and consequences of temporary competitive advantage. Then, we identify the key implications for strategy theory and discuss the major challenges for cultivating fertile territories in this intriguing area of research.     

Does Culture Make a Better Citizen? Exploring the Relationship Between Cultural and Civic Participation in Italy

In the last decades, policy discussions have increasingly considered participation in arts and cultural activities as a vehicle to reach broader social policy goals, such as social inclusion or active citizenship. However, convincing empirical evidence on the social impacts of arts and culture is still scarce. In particular, little attention has been given to the impact that cultural participation may have on individuals’ engagement in civil society, especially in Europe. In order to address this lack of evidence, this paper explores the connection between cultural participation and civic participation in Italy using Likert-scale data collected in the ISTAT “Aspetti della Vita Quotidiana” Survey (2014). To do so, two composite indicators—the participation in cultural life indicator and the participation in civic life indicator—have been built using an approach based on partial order theory and the concept of Average Rank. The effect of cultural participation on civic engagement has been estimated using a quantile regression model which controls for potentially cofounding factors such as education, income, age and gender. Results do confirm that participation in arts and cultural activities is highly correlated with participation in civic life. It is particularly worth noticing that at higher levels of civic participation, cultural participation has a positive and strong effect on civic engagement of people having a low educational level.

     

Corporate boards, audit committees and voluntary disclosure: evidence from Italian Listed Companies

This paper investigates the interplay between governance and disclosure in an agency setting, featured by concentrated ownership and high insider shareholders representation in the board. In this context, agency conflicts happen between large controlling shareholders and minority outside investors, with risks of private benefits exploitation. We regressed a voluntary disclosure index on seven governance variables related either to the board structure and functioning. The empirical evidence is provided by the Italian stock market. Our results suggest the presence of a complementary relationship between governance and disclosure. Diligent monitoring activity is associated with greater transparency to the outside. The findings are consistent with the view that internal and external control tend to be present at the same time, since the presence of one of them reduces the incentive for the controlling shareholders to limit the other. The empirical evidence also show that larger boards are not detrimental to outside shareholders, with regard to voluntary disclosure. The study can contribute to the understanding of the relationship between governance and disclosure in a particular agency setting. They might be of interest to practitioners and regulators, insofar as they are consistent with calls for more disclosure requirements in this agency setting.     

The impact of distributions of uncertain lumpy demand on inventories

Most studies on inventory management under demand uncertainty analyse the detrimental effects of demand variability (i.e. its coefficient of variation). In contrast, the consequences of the shape of demand distribution (e.g. its multi-modality and asymmetry) have received only minor attention. The aim of the present paper is to assess the impact of the shape of demand distribution on inventories. In particular, it considers contexts in which demand distributions have more than one 'mode' and are asymmetric, thus making requirements lumpy. The analysis is based on a simulation model which, in order to ensure comparable conditions, keeps all the other factors constant (i.e. ceteris paribus), and compares different demand distributions with the same mean and coefficient of variation. Results show that that demand shape is a key driver of inventory investment. Specifically: (i) the magnitude of the impact of multi-modality and asymmetry is comparable to that of variability; (ii) multi-modality and asymmetry can have either a negative or positive effect depending on the target service level sought. The managerial implications of these findings are addressed in the conclusions.     

Handover process: how to improve quality and safety through an ergonomic solution

Patient safety practices for enhancing the quality and safety of handover are context sensitive interventions. In this article we explore the use of cultural probes as a qualitative technique with a twofold objective: eliciting implicit activity pattern and tools that may constitute resources for the design of effective handover solutions and prompting health care practitioners' participation and involvement.     

Differences in life expectancy by education and occupation in Italy, 1980-94: indirect estimates from maternal and paternal orphanhood

In the present study, we use the modified orphanhood method to analyse mortality differences by socio-economic status in Italy. This technique permits the indirect estimation of adult mortality from survey-based information on parents' survival in developed populations and helps to overcome several limitations of conventional studies on mortality differences by social class. We estimate a time series of life tables by education and occupation and analyse the differences in life expectancy by socio-economic status along with their changes between 1980-84, 1985-89, and 1990-94. Whereas mortality differences between the highest social class and the other socio-economic status groups increased among men, they decreased among women. We speculate about the reasons for these sex-specific trends and evaluate the application of indirect estimation techniques to the populations of developed countries.     

Association between dietary phytoestrogens intakes and prostate cancer risk in Sicily

Objective: In this study we aimed to investigate the association between dietary phytoestrogen consumption and prostate cancer in a sample of southern Italian individuals.

Methods: A population-based case-control study on the association between prostate cancer and dietary factors was conducted from January 2015 to December 2016 in a single institution of the municipality of Catania, southern Italy (Registration number: 41/2015). A total of 118 histopathological-verified prostate cancer (PCa) cases and a total of 222 controls were collected. Dietary data was collected by using two food frequency questionnaires.

Results: Patients with PCa consumed significantly higher levels of phytoestrogens. Multivariate logistic regression showed that lignans (Q[quartile]4 vs. Q1, OR [odds ratio]?=?4.72; p?p?p?p?p?p?p?Conclusion: We found of an inverse association between dietary isoflavone intake and PCa, while a positive association was found with lignans intake.     

Implicit Social Scaling from an Institutional Perspective

The methodological question concerns constructing a cardinal social index, in order to assess performances of social agents, taking into account implicit political judgments. Based on the formal structure of a Choquet’s expected utility, index construction demands quantification of levels of a meaningful ordinal indicator of overall performance. Contrasting common praxis of using equidistant interval scale, level increments are formally interpreted as variations of social utility. The social scaling is implicitly designed over an evaluative-framework, which is depicted using specifications from the policy-maker. In this setting, criteria of policy are assumed, then intentions, requirements and priorities, perhaps of antagonistic stakeholders, represented. Then, linear programming is used to search for admissible solutions which would provide a coherent index. Interactive scaling is also delineated in order to elicit an institutional index, which is acknowledged by different social actors.     

Shame on Who? The Effects of Corporate Irresponsibility and Social Performance on Organizational Reputation

This study examines the relationship between corporate irresponsibility, corporate social performance and changes in organizational reputation. By combining attribution theory with expectancy violations theory, we provide the first systematic analysis of how organizational reputations are influenced by attributions of corporate irresponsibility in the context of social expectations. Drawing on a comprehensive and unique corporate irresponsibility dataset, this study reveals that firms previously believed to be most socially responsible are penalized by evaluators when corporate culpability is verified by a court of law. Conversely, firms perceived as least socially responsible were more likely to suffer reputation penalties when accused of irresponsibility, without their culpability established through litigation. Overall, the results of our study suggest that organizational reputations are mostly stable in light of irresponsibility, in that evaluators only penalize certain firms, in certain circumstances. Specifically, reputation penalties occur when highly responsible firms are perceived as hypocritical and least responsible firms were not found culpable by a court of law. Upon reflection on these findings, our study reveals that the mechanisms of social sanction previously assumed to regulate irresponsibility are weaker than currently understood. The theoretical and policy implications of this study are discussed, along with directions for future research on social evaluations.