This dissertation explores the development of a human capital concept that is here referred to as “green footprint competence” among workers and members of organizations that position themselves as “green”, “organic”, or “environmental solutions providers”. The research contributes to the studies of social and environmental change by analysing three aspects of this change: a) the institutionalisation of the global green and low-carbon discourses as values, norms, and discursive practices within organizations in Kyrgyzstan and China; b) the emergence of the green organizational identity; c) and the development of the new competences for the climate change adaptation and mitigation along with the “green identity” of workers and members of greening organizations.

Il lavoro, composto da tre articoli, si focalizza sulla relazione tra leadership e performance, indagata e osservata da molteplici punti di vista e attraverso differenti strategie di ricerca, ma sempre in un contesto pubblico o comunque mission-driven. In particolare, il primo articolo indaga la relazione tra leadership e performance organizzativa, con un duplice obiettivo: da un lato validare da un punto di vista metodologico la scala di misurazione più utilizzata, dall’altro verificarne la relazione con la performance organizzativa utilizzando una scala più parsimoniosa. Gli altri due articoli si focalizzano sulla relazione tra leadership e performance individuale: il primo esplora, attraverso un disegno di ricerca qualitativo, il ruolo del feedback fornito dal superiore nel processo di riflessione critica dei collaboratori, volto al cambiamento dei comportamenti e al miglioramento della propria performance; il secondo indaga, attraverso un disegno di ricerca sperimentale, gli effetti della credibilità dei leader sulla performance dei collaboratori, anche mediante la percezione da parte dei dipendenti dell’importanza e dell’utilità del proprio lavoro per gli altri. / The three papers included in the thesis focus on the relationship between leadership and performance, investigated and observed from multiple points of view and through different research strategies. All the papers are conducted in a public or mission-driven setting. The first article focuses on the relationship between leadership and organizational performance, with a twofold objective: on the one hand, to validate the most used measurement scale for leadership from a methodological point of view, and, on the other, to verify the relationship with organizational performance using a more parsimonious scale. The other two articles focus on the relationship between leadership and individual performance. One explores, through a qualitative research design, the role of feedback provided by the supervisor in employees’ critical reflection process, aimed at changing their behaviors and at improving their own performance. The last one investigates, through an experimental research design, the effects of leaders’ trustworthiness on the performance of employees, through the employees' perception of the task significance of their job.

Over the last century, customers have become increasingly uncertain about how to be satisfied because of the growing complexity of their own needs. On the one hand, most standardized needs have been satisfied, whereas on the other hand, worldwide demand for intrinsically complex needs (such as health care and long-term care) has increased, especially because of population ageing. On the supply side, producing on the basis of an estimated foreseen demand has become increasingly difficult and customer uncertainty has become a cause of organizational inefficiency. Nevertheless, in the theories of the firm so far developed, the customer is still a missing player, confined to the position of 'rational agent'. This research discusses how organizational efficiency is impacted by customer uncertainty in taking consumption decisions when the needs are complex. The central issue is to understand when it is efficient for the organization to involve the uncertain customer in the production process and, accordingly, which organizational form is the most effective in managing such involvement. Today the lack of clarity regarding this theoretical issue has permitted, or even supported, an imprudent adoption of mass-customization in important sectors which gives customers the option of choosing exclusively from among standardized options, without suitable consideration for both the complexity of their needs and the organization required. My dissertation is organized into three chapters. The first chapter proposes a theoretical framework on the basis of the Modularity Theory of the Firm (Langlois and Robertson 1995; Langlois 2002, 2006; Baldwin and Clark, 2003; 2006), which allows for the identification of the most effective organizational types to face customer uncertainty. The second chapter studies the most efficient way to design and manage production processes in the presence of uncertain customer needs, implying the necessity to involve the customers themselves in the production process. The focus here is also on the design and management of long term care (LTC) services. And the third chapter, by adopting case study research methods for theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989, Yin 2003), in order to investigate the relationship between organizational and production efficiency, analyses five LTC organizations that belong to different categories of modularity and are characterized by different governance forms. Summarizing the results, the thesis firstly theorizes that cooperative governance (the internal organization of labour based on inclusion, participation, and horizontal relations) is the most effective to minimize dynamic transaction costs and the related unexpected production costs (damages, errors, waste of time, legal actions) thanks to developing capabilities related to how to satisfy customers' complex needs. Particularly, the accountability of workers supports a learning-by-doing process that allows for life-long learning and the necessary flexibility to adequately meet customers' needs. Secondly, the study proposes a blueprinting approach to service design and management, which allows for the separation of front/back office in order to improve management efficiency. This structure is particularly suited for supporting decision-making processes in a flat organizational structure (such as the cooperative one), as it clarifies the workflow processes and responsibilities. Thirdly, it empirically applies the theoretical results to situations of long-term care with customer uncertainty and shows how services should be designed in order to maintain a low level of unexpected production costs.

No description available.

This thesis gives an overview of the history of gold per se, of gold as an investment good and offers some institutional details about gold and other precious metal markets. The goal of this study is to investigate the role of gold as a store of value and hedge against negative market movements in turbulent times. I investigate gold’s ability to act as a safe haven during periods of financial stress by employing instrumental variable techniques that allow for time varying conditional covariance. I find broad evidence supporting the view that gold acts as an anchor of stability during market downturns. During periods of high uncertainty and low stock market returns, gold tends to have higher than average excess returns. The effectiveness of gold as a safe haven is enhanced during periods of extreme crises: the largest peaks are observed during the global financial crises of 2007-2009 and, in particular, during the Lehman default (October 2008). A further goal of this thesis is to investigate whether gold provides protection from tail risk. I address the issue of asymmetric precious metal behavior conditioned to stock market performance and provide empirical evidence about the contribution of gold to a portfolio’s systematic skewness and kurtosis. I find that gold has positive coskewness with the market portfolio when the market is skewed to the left. Moreover, gold shows low cokurtosis with the market returns during volatile periods. I therefore show that gold is a desirable investment good to risk averse investors, since it tends to decrease the probability of experiencing extreme bad outcomes, and the magnitude of losses in case such events occur. Gold thus bears very important and under-researched characteristics as an asset class per se, which this thesis contributed to address and unveil.

Il presente percorso di ricerca si è posto l’obiettivo di contribuire al consolidamento metodologico di una pianificazione strategica e di una programmazione operativa funzionali all’attività della pubblica amministrazione regionale. Si è analizzata l’esperienza di Regione Lombardia all’inizio della IX legislatura attraverso una impostazione metodologica basata su un longitudinal case study, allo scopo di individuare delle regolarità che potessero condurre verso una analitical generalization secondo un’ottica di policy research a garanzia della trasferibilità e della utilizzabilità delle regolarità tracciate. L’approccio sostanziale volto a fare emergere gli elementi, le tecniche, le metodologie e gli strumenti sviluppati ha permesso di riscontrare delle regolarità che sono indipendenti dal contesto particolare. Tra gli altri si citano l’importanza della continuità, l’integrazione e la trasversalità del processo, e la funzione fondamentale di una struttura organizzativa dedicata al processo strategico e di un sistema informativo a supporto. Si auspica che le considerazioni metodologiche di sintesi pongano le basi, in alcune amministrazioni regionali, per un ripensamento dei propri modelli e sistemi di pianificazione strategica e programmazione operativa. / The aim of this research is to contribute to the methodologic improvement of strategic and operation integrated planning in public administration system. Through a methodological approach based on a longitudinal case study, this work analyzes the experience of Lombardy Region at the begining of ninth legislature in order to identify regularities that could lead to a analitical generalization. A policy research approach has been usefull in order to guarantee susteinable future application in different regional contexts. The substantive approach has the aim to bring out the elements, techniques, methodologies and tools that have been developed in Lombardy experience. This allowes us to detect regularities that are independent of the particular context. Among others, for example, the importance of continuity, integration and versatility of the process, and the presence of a department dedicated and a supporting information system that support and implement strategic process. The hope is that the final methodological considerations will be usefull to some regional governments to re-model their strategic and operational processes and systems.

La tesi affronta il tema dell’utilizzo delle informazioni in ambito pubblico sulla scia di quanto avviato dalle teorie di (bounded) rationality, e di diversi filoni di (public) management che si sono occupati nel tempo di indagare i meccanismi attraverso i quali le informazioni vengono identificate, selezionate e utilizzate nei processi decisionali. Attraverso l’analisi delle politiche sociali nei comuni italiani, la tesi si occupa di indagare tre specifiche situazioni: la presentazione delle strategie e politiche pubbliche; la costruzione di piani strategici; la risoluzione di situazioni critiche e di trade-off complessi. La tesi mostra che le informazioni sono usate per presentare le decisioni tramite meccanismi di razionalità ed altri legati alla creazione di consenso per l’innovazione dei contenuti, governance e contesto di riferimento delle politiche sociali. Nella pianificazione strategica le informazioni vengono spesso solamente raccolte oppure utilizzate in modo strumentale. Nel caso di situazioni complesse e caratterizzate da trade-off, le informazioni di accounting hanno sia una valenza manageriale che politica di costruzione del consenso e delle motivazioni ad agire. / The PhD thesis deals with the issue of information use in the public sector. Building on (bounded) rationality theories and (public) management studies focusing on mechanisms through which information is identified, gathered and used in decision making processes, the thesis analysed what happens in Italian Municipalities, in the field of social care policies. Three different situations are analysed: public presentation of social care policies; social care strategic plans; wicked problems resolutions and trade off discussion. The thesis shows that information is used to present public strategies through rationality or by building consensus towards innovation in contents, governance and context of social care policies. In the case of strategic plans, information is often only presented or used instrumentally. In the case of trade-offs and wicked situation information is used both in a managerial perspective and in a political fashion so to build consensus and motivation for action.

Il processo di digitalizzazione sta influenzando il modo in cui l'arte viene veicolata, rendendone la sua fruizione più interattiva e dinamica e portando le istituzioni artistiche e culturali a riconoscere un’enorme importanza alle leve strategiche del mondo del marketing. In particolare, il primo paper mira a comprendere, attraverso il caso studio ‘Artvisor’ come le organizzazioni artistiche e culturali abbiano avviato un processo di disintermediazione attraverso dispositivi digitali riconoscendo un ruolo centrale alle nuove tecnologie nell’ambito della gestione artistica. L'obiettivo del secondo lavoro è esaminare le dimensioni di brand trustworthiness, perceived quality e visitor satisfaction considerate componenti chiave nella prospettiva dello studio del comportamento del visitatore in una logica esperienziale della visita museale. Con il terzo paper viene analizzato nello specifico il ruolo delle nuove tecnologie in relazione alla dimensione dell’engagement nell'era dei selfie, dei social media, dei dispositivi digitali e dei social network. / The digitalization process now occurring in many sectors has influenced the way that art is consumed and has contributed to making arts consumption more interactive and dynamic recognizing a huge importance to the role of marketing. The general purpose of the proposed research is to develop an understanding of how people engage with arts in the digital era through digital devices and social networks and how important it is to recognize a role to proper marketing strategies. In particular, the first paper aims to understand how arts organizations are starting to decouple their structures and to initiate a disintermediation processes through digital devices: the example of ‘Artvisor’ allows the author to examine how a gallery might face the digitalization process with the goal to identify sensitive areas within the online arts experience which arts administrators need to be conscious of as we enter a more dynamic era of art consumption. The object of the second paper is to examine the role of brand trustworthiness, perceived quality and visitor satisfaction as antecedents of consumer behavioural intentions in a museum context and developed a research framework to investigate the relationships among all the construct taken into consideration. The object of the third paper is to deal with the role of the new technologies in the arts management context to understand how people engage with art and culture in the era of selfies, social media, digital devices and social networks.

L’obiettivo di ricerca che si propone questa tesi è l’analisi delle criticità e dei limiti concettuali che sorgono nella fase di progettazione logica all’interno del processo più ampio di implementazione e manutenzione del Balanced Scorecard. La fase di progettazione del Balanced Scorecard è fondamentale per capire l’orientamento della strategia di tutta l’azienda e le priorità che questa si vuole porre ed è proprio lì che sorgono gli aspetti più critici del sistema che poi vengono, dove possibile, migliorati dal suo monitoraggio in maniera dinamica e continua. Molti autori, tra cui Kaplan e Norton (1993, 1996, 2001, 2006), Alberti (2000), Baraldi (2005), Bourne et al. (2000), Falduto e Ruscica (2005), De Marco, Salvo e Lanzani (2004), Marr e Neely (2001), Niven (2002, 2006), Lohman et al. (2004), Simons (2000), si sono focalizzati sulle modalità di implementazione del Balanced Scorecard, però pochi hanno analizzato quali criticità siano nascoste in queste scelte e come vegano gestite per affrontare il dinamismo stesso di un’organizzazione che opera in un contesto spesso fortemente competitivo. L’argomento è considerato rilevante non solo dalla letteratura, ma anche dalla prassi, infatti, di fronte ai fallimenti dei sistemi di misurazione delle performance ci si domanda se ci siano dei punti critici che meritano maggiore attenzione e che siano discriminanti tra un successo e un fallimento e come è meglio gestirli. / The specific purpose of this research is the analysis of critical issues and conceptual limitations that arise in the phase of logical design within the broader process of implementation and maintenance of the Balanced Scorecard. The design phase of the Balanced Scorecard is vital to understand the orientation of the strategy across the enterprise and the priorities that you want to address and it is there that arises the most critical aspects of the system which are, where possible, enhanced by its monitoring in a dynamic and continuous process of improvement. Many authors, including Kaplan and Norton (1993, 1996, 2001, 2006), Alberti (2000), Baraldi (2005), Bourne et al. (2000), Falduto and Ruscica (2005), De Marco, Salvo and Lanzani (2004), Marr and Neely (2001), Niven (2002, 2006), Lohman et al. (2004), Simons (2000), have focused on how to implement the Balanced Scorecard, but few have analyzed which critical issues are hidden in these choices and how are managed to face the dynamism of an organization that often operates in a highly competitive environment. The subject is relevant not only in the literature, but also from the point of view of the enterprise operations; in fact, facing the failures of performance measurement systems, the following questions have arisen: whether there are critical points that need more attention, which are the discriminating factors between a success and a failure and which is the best way to manage them.

Dopo una delle peggiori crisi economica e finanziaria mondiale , gli studi sulla previsione delle insolvenze sono diventato uno degli argomenti più dibattuti tra gli studiosi e ricercatori. Al fine di soddisfare le esigenze sia di valutazione interna sia degli investitori professionali , lo studio riscopre il modello "Z - score" di Altman nella sua forma originale , nota per la sua semplicità. Il modello, ancora largamente utilizzato nei mercati statunitensi, è per sua natura poco utilizzato nell’analisi di società europee. La tesi analizza e descrive le caratteristiche dello Z -score, valutandone i risultati come strumento per la previsione di insolvenza nel mercato europeo. Lo studio è condotto su 568 società , prese dagli indici azionari di 7 mercati europei , tra il 2000 e il 2010 . I risultati del test evidenziano una grande variabilità di risultato tra i diversi settori industriali. Il modello risulta semplice ed efficace, ma sostanzialmente incapace di prevedere il rischio di default in Europa, se utilizzato nella sua forma originale . La seconda parte della ricerca studia pertanto come i risultati del modello possano essere valutati da una nuova prospettiva per i mercati europei, concentrandosi su singoli settori industriali. Lo Z score viene testato su un campione di imprese in buona salute ed un altro di aziende insolventi, per 3 gruppi industriali diversi. La ricerca cerca anche di valutare elementi qualitativi accanto a quelli quantitativi, al fine di analizzare in maniera completa il rischio di insolvenza. / After one of the worst world economic and financial crisis, the insolvency prediction has become one of the most debatable topics among scholars. In order to satisfy both the professional investors’ needs and the internal evaluation process, the Thesis rediscovers the original Altman “Z-score” model, known for its convenience. This model is still largely used in the US equity markets but, also for its origin, has hardly been applied to the European equity index. The Thesis investigates and describes the operating characteristics of Altman’s Z-score, evaluating its performance as a tool for insolvency prediction in today's European market. The base model capability is tested examining 568 companies, listed in the main stock indexes of 7 European markets, between 2000 and 2010. A large variability among different industries arises from the analysis conducted. The Thesis results prove that the model is user-friendly but a substantial inability to predict the risk of default in Europe if used in its original form. The second research question try to analyse how could the model be useful for the European markets, testing the Z score over good heath and insolvent firms from 3 industrial groups. The research studies how the model’s results could be evaluated from a new perspective, focusing on individual industrial sectors results. The research also tries to evaluate qualitative elements alongside the quantitative ones, in order to give a harmonized and comprehensive estimation of the insolvency risk.