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Tourism has been the subject of great attention of policy makers. The centrality of the sector derives from multiple factors, including the high number of subjects employed within the supply chain, the contribution to developing nations' economic growth, and the environmental implications of establishing new productive activities. Under this scenario, family holdings play a central role as the main types of organisations active in the sector. In this sense, an understanding of these companies' financial performance cannot disregard the understanding of the governance mechanisms that characterize the same given the potential divergence between 'family' and 'business' objectives. The research aims to encourage the development of new empirical evidence about this business model, providing specific contributions regarding the role of family members in companies' decision-making mechanisms. For our purposes, an empirical analysis based on the evaluation of 343 Italian hotels was built.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the evolutionary pathways adopted by a digital platform to favor the development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem inspired by circular economy behaviors, becoming an enabler in the development of a coevolutionary relationship between entrepreneurial ecosystems and circular economy.Design/methodology/approachAn in-depth single-case study method has been applied, investigating the case of circularity.com, the first and only circular economy industrial symbiosis platform in Italy.FindingsThe paper shows how digital platforms can transition towards circular business models, particularly for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Moreover, the findings show how sustainable platforms' need to revise their business models to effectively engage with stakeholders. The analysis also shows the central role covered by entrepreneurial ecosystems in the transition towards a more circular and sustainable business models.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to theoretical development by offering new and insightful explanations of firms' behavior and coevolution, moving beyond the classic interpretation of industry dynamics and analyzing a unique case study. This study has implications for both practice and research, as it offers a better and more holistic understanding of the enabling role of digital platforms for a circular economy.

The authors found that Chinese organizations only prioritize a few SDGs within their strategies. [...]their contribution is limited due to the need to adopt a holistic approach based on integrating all the 17 SDGs [11]. Building on a sample of Italian Public Interest Entities (PIEs), the authors found an interesting relationship between non-financial reporting practices and indicators such as the Beta and firms’ size [17]. The study emphasizes the critical role of gender diversity in the CSR approach’s growth and companies’ reputations. [...]governments and policymakers of major countries should promote gender diversity in corporate decision-making bodies, contributing to achieving the SDGs [18]. The authors found that: (1) the main perspectives addressed in the selected articles relate to sustainability accounting and reporting in a broad sense; (2) there was a lack of contributions about the management of climate change-related aspects, with specific reference to strategic and operational planning, accounting, and control of the actions implemented by the management of firms to counter climate change problems.

Since 2016, the European context has been characterised by the introduction of the Directive 95/2014/EU on mandatory non-financial reporting. The Directive has been transposed in the Italian context through the Legislative Decree 254/2016. However, following evidence previously collected from other jurisdictions, a high degree of scepticism by academics still characterises the debate on the effectiveness of this form of regulation. In fact, the literature highlights that the effects of a mandatory approach to non-financial reporting are limited to an increase in the annual quantity of information provided and not by an effective organizational change. Therefore, the contribution of our paper is twofold: a gap analysis between the overall degree of non-financial reporting quality between the years 2015 and 2017 and an empirical analysis, factors of which have impacted on the quality of non-financial reports prepared in 2017.

According to Directive 2014/95/EU on disclosure of non-financial information from 2017 onwards, large companies (exceeding 500 employees) headquartered in Member States will be required to provide a series of social, environmental, and governance statements. The Directive was transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree 254 of 30 December 2016.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the information gap for Italian companies and,consequently,the adjustments required by the new Directive on non-financial information. In order to analyze the level of non-financial and diversity disclosure, we created an assessment model called “Non-financial information score”, which records the required information as a percentage. We apply it to a sample of 223 large companies.The results (with an average NFIscore of about 49%) show that, in spite of what has previously emerged in the European debate about the application of the Directive on the part of large companies, an information gap remains, although the implementation of the directive should help to fill it in the coming years.In this sense, the potential contribution of the EU directive to non-financial disclosure in Italy appears to be greater than we had expected. Thus, in accordance with the literature, this paper appears to confirm the role of regulation in improving the quality of disclosure of non-financial information.

Purpose According to the Directive 2014/95/EU on non-financial information (NFI), from 2017 onwards, large companies of member states will be required to provide a series of social, environmental and governance disclosures. This paper, focusing on the evaluation of the quality of NFI in the UK and Italy before the implementation of the EU Directive, aims to investigate which factors affect the quality of NFI in the comparison between the UK and Italy. Design/methodology/approach To evaluate the “state of the art” of NFI in corporate social disclosure of British and Italian listed companies, a non-financial score is created, based on specific items concerning the requirements of the EU Directive. To this aim, the authors analyzed the corporate disclosures of 343 large listed companies. Findings Findings show that the UK is more compliant than Italy. So, regulation could be important to improve NFI in Italy more than in the UK. The results could represent relevant evidence for European policymakers of the action agenda “emphasizing the importance of national and sub-national CSR policies”. Originality/value This research represents a preliminary analysis on the EU Directive and on its potential effects. Moreover, this study strengthens the previous literature on the quality of non-financial disclosure.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of public institutions in the pursuit of sustainable development in a case study of international relevance: Taranto’s ILVA steel plant, which is one of the biggest steel and iron centres in Europe. The case study was analysed through investigating the different aspects of sustainable development in the four phases of development of the steel plant, from public direct management to private management. The analysis, based on a series of unstructured data, was carried out by applying a triple bottom line approach and the total interpretative structuring model (TISM). Evidence shows how—in the absence of stable, coherent, strong and present public institutions, capable of reading the forces of the local and international context and of intervening with regulatory actions inspired by a planned and interiorized economic strategy—the market, left in the hands of the private entrepreneur only, is destined to fail, and the paths of multidimensional sustainable development stray away from the ambitions of modern states.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to shed light an important limit of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) in pursuit of its substantial purpose, which is to achieve sustainability and contribute to achieving the objectives of United Nation (UN) Agenda 2030; the paper also suggests how to overcome those limits.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a survey of board members of listed and un-listed Italian companies. Data were analysed using an ordered probit model.FindingsThe results show that a greater involvement of a board member in the non-financial reporting process is associated with a stronger commitment towards sustainable development. Specifically, the involvement in materiality assessment is positively associated with more proactive behaviours towards sustainability.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of self-reported assessments on beliefs and behaviours and the application of an online survey are methodology limitations of the study. Regarding theory, the study contributes to the literature on corporate governance and sustainability, integrating upper echelons theory, which focuses on how individual attributes influence a firm's strategies and governance, with research on how leadership practices can have a positive impact on corporate sustainability goals.Practical implicationsThe paper underscores the opportunity for policymakers to increase the effectiveness of the NFRD through deeper involvement of the board members in the process of non-financial reporting. The results could also be of interest to governance bodies in terms of defining a board's tasks and practices to encourage the adoption of behaviours oriented towards a stronger engagement in sustainable issues.Originality/valueThis is the first study to provide evidence of the relationship between individual directors' tasks and behaviours, non-financial reporting and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study highlights some of the limits of the NFRD, even after the public consultation to revise it, and suggests how to overcome these limits.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an analytical overview of the academic output of eminent Italian scholars in the period from the end of the Second World War to the 1970s on the subject of corporate social responsibility (CSR).Design/methodology/approachThrough the use of content analysis, possible logical and conceptual similarities between the theories of the scholars and present-day definition of CSR have been identified.FindingsConcepts as ethical values and stakeholders included in definition of CSR come from the thinking of the Italian Economia Aziendale scholars, so that it is possible to get pioneering aspects in the light of the international debate on CSR today.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper derives from the fact that the theme of CSR has rarely been examined from a historical point of view and that the development of the theme in Italy has rarely been examined through analysis of the ideas of the leading Italian Economia Aziendale Scholars.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between remuneration for the achievement of objectives and sustainability, and – more specifically – the amount of attention that listed companies in Italy devote to defining, and consequently to communicating externally, sustainability as a criterion in establishing the wage levels of managers and directors. Design/methodology/approach – It was decided to ascertain whether the quality of information regarding sustainability provided in connection with the remuneration policies of listed companies tallies with the general quality of information regarding sustainability provided through companies’ main (obligatory and voluntary) reporting procedures. Findings – The results of this research show that the inconsistency between the information provided in voluntary and obligatory reports (between reports on sustainability and remuneration reports) extends to the levels of information provided in the two types of obligatory report (the reports on remuneration and on management); there is also a discrepancy between the levels of information provided in these reports and the evaluation of that information by an external assessor. Research limitations/implications – One of the limitations of this research is that as the data examined were gleaned from public documents, it is not necessarily an accurate reflection of all the information that firms have at their disposal on questions of sustainability and remuneration policies. The existence of internal documents containing other information, and therefore leading to different results, cannot be ruled out. Originality/value – This study is the first in Italy to examine the question of how limited companies report issues relating to management by objectives-corporate social responsibility. It does this through the introduction of a mixed system for ESG information, which counteracts the subjective limitations of the internal evaluation provided by the research group by adding in the authoritative evaluations of an external assessor.