Financial constraints are one of the most important obstacles for businesses particularly in less–developed and developing economies. Collateral requirements are frequently addressed as one the most important obstacles to starting and running a business especially for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in these countries. This thesis consists of four empirical papers each corresponding to a chapter on loan markets in less-developed economies. After the introduction chapter, the second chapter investigates both the presence of collateral and the collateral to loan ratios on loans extended to SMEs are examined. The informal credit mostly serves credit-constrained borrowers (mostly SMEs, poor households, informal businesses, borrowers in rural areas that are located far from formal creditors, and people who are not able to meet collateral requirements of formal creditors) in the formal financial markets. The third chapter aims to understand why and to what extend SMEs use informal credit from various sources, moneylenders and family/friends and suppliers/customers as forms of informal credit. The fourth chapter examines the financial constraints faced by female entrepreneurs. The primary data source in these second, third and fourth chapters is the Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys which are mainly based on Eastern European and Central Asian countries. These surveys are joint projects of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the World Bank. Chapter five of this thesis takes a different strand and focuses on the effect of banks’ market power on banks’ risk. The empirical analysis is based on data from Turkish banks and helps to shed light on the relation between market power and financial stability. Finally chapter six highlights the main conclusions and addresses potential future research directions.

Entrepreneurial firms are considered to be vehicles for employment and growth and as such have become targets for public policy measures in all OECD countries. At the same time there is a lack of micro-level data about these firms, their characteristics, innovation activity, relationships with external sources of knowledge, links with universities, and the role of the entrepreneur in these, which renders public policy analysis difficult. Entrepreneurial firms, following the definition applied in this thesis, have as business foundation purpose the implementation of a radical innovation, and are characterised by an initial lack of existing repository of knowledge and capabilities, and a continuity of their innovation activity. From an exploratory study of 86 entrepreneurial firms, located in the metropolitan areas of Munich and Berlin, and elsewhere in Germany, we found evidence of the dominant presence of the entrepreneur in organising the firm’s innovation activity and in setting the search scope and the repertoire of external knowledge sources. Firms were undertaking multiple innovation projects in parallel, and firm characteristics, such as organisation in subunits, and multiple teams R&D teams spread across the firm, were found to positively influence the combination of new and incremental innovation projects. Firms selectively involved external sources of knowledge in their innovation activity, with involvement in new innovation projects being more frequent than in incremental projects. We found evidence that relationships between firms and universities and other public research organisations differ from inter-firm and market relationships in that the former exhibit a much higher degree of creativity, novelty and reconfiguration. Young firms, in overcoming the double-constraint of organisational and environmental factors were active networkers and likely to revert to the entrepreneur’s own networks to circumvent entry and establishment barriers in existing networks. For this, contacts maintained with the entrepreneur’s alma mater were found to be of salient relevance. We argued that science is organised in epistemic communities, which are built upon shared identities, and in which members share the same tacit and experiential knowledge, which is passed on through personal contacts, eliminating and punishing opportunistic behaviour. We found evidence that membership in these epistemic communities has lasting effects in that members will turn to other members as part of their search for related or new knowledge.

Nella quotidianità di un ambiente di cura oggi è difficile pensare ad un’attività che non coinvolga l’uso di una o più tecnologie: si pensi ad esempio quanto nell’accettazione di un paziente, nelle attività di anamnesi, di test, di diagnosi e di refertazione le azioni dipendano dal supporto di strumenti (non solo informatici). In questo senso, il lavoro medico si poggia su un’infrastruttura di tecnologie e sulla complessità delle connessioni esistenti tra di esse in cui medici, infermieri ed operatori lavorano attraverso artefatti che disciplinano la pratica medica. Per questo documenti digitali, tracciati record, tecnologie diagnostiche, linee guida, standard clinici e numerosi altri artefatti si intrecciano nel lavoro quotidiano di medici e infermieri. Si potrebbe pensare che tali strumenti prendano parte alle azioni proprio perché il loro uso risulta adatto ai compiti dei medici e implicitamente si intende che tale utilizzo sia in sintonia con il contesto in cui vengono utilizzati. Ma con una più attenta osservazione emerge invece che l’utilizzo di questi oggetti e tecnologie richiede un lavoro di relazione per essere gestiti tra le diverse necessità presenti nella quotidiana esecuzione delle pratiche mediche. In sintesi si tratta di mettere a fuoco quale lavoro è necessario per usarle in relazione alla pratica a cui sono destinate.

This thesis is comprised of three essays which explore economic and management issues of firms in Vietnam. The issues being addressed here are varied but connected to highlight (partly) how firms are doing business in the transition economy of Vietnam. The first essay examines ownership differential (i.e. state-owned, private-owned, and foreign-owned) and competition effect on firm total factor productivity (TFP) as consequences of mixed economic reforms in Vietnam (Chapter 2). It describes the big picture: the whole transition process/institutional changes in Vietnam and how such changes are reflected in competition effect on firm TFP and comparative performance (in terms of TFP) of firms with different ownership types. The next two essays deal specifically with foreign firms' subsidiaries in Vietnam. One essence of the economic reform of Vietnam is its “open-door policy” to foreign direct investment (FDI) and international trade. While many benefits of FDI have been identified, in the second essay, an unwanted consequence of FDI is dealt with instead. Specifically, it examines whether foreign multinational firms undertake tax-avoidance profit shifting out the country (Chapter 3). Using a newly developed identification approach in the literature, the essay examines how corporate income tax-rate differentials between the home country and Vietnam determine a foreign wholly-owned subsidiary’s under-reporting of the profit obtained from an exogenous income shock in Vietnam. The third essay then investigates post-formation conversion of international joint ventures (JVs) to either wholly-owned subsidiaries (WOSs– 100% foreign ownership) or domestic firms (DOMs– 100% domestic ownership) in Vietnam. In this essay, both the drivers of such ownership transfers and their performance implications are investigated (Chapter 4).

This dissertation aims to test, in a controlled laboratory setting, the role of dierent types of both monetary and non-monetary incentives in coordination. Although complexity and task interdependence have rapidly grown, organizations have often overlooked the importance of integrating specialized activities, hence causing organizations to drift into, or stay locked in, inecient equilibria for a wide range of coordination problems. I adopted an experimentally-grounded approach to organizational design which has long been neglected by both economics and management scholars, and in an attempt to enhance the generalizability of the results to actual organizations, I carried out a series of experiments in which real-eort tasks are implemented. The present dissertation is organized as follows: Chapter 1 and 2 critically review the relevant literature on coordination games and real effort in laboratory experiments, respectively. Chapter 3 compares individual and group-based incentives in a real-eort coordination game. In line with some empirical evidence on actual organizations, group-based payments work as good as, and in some cases outperform, individual-based payments. Chapter 4 tests the impact of group pride on coordination. I found a large and statistically signicant eect of information about ranking and matching procedure on coordination. Chapter 5 test the robustness of group pride across dierent tasks. Quite surprisingly, group pride induced by a task related to the one used in the coordination phase was not eective, while group pride induced by an unrelated task was eective in enhancing coordination among top performers.

The Doctoral Thesis explores Sustainability-oriented transition mechanisms (SUS) at different levels of analysis (Country, inter-organizational, and organizational levels). The focus of the study is Digital Transformation (DT) and the Collaborative (multi-stakeholder) (COL) dimensions. By disentangling between COL and DT, the thesis proves that Digital Transformation and the Collaborative dimension are sufficient conditions to achieve Sustainable outcomes. In particular, the Collaborative dimension mediates the impact that Digital Transformation has on Sustainability transitions, which the existing literature identifies as a direct effect. The motivation behind these results seems to emerge from the explorative longitudinal case study, where a digital platform represents a tool able to increase the efficiency of collaboration dynamics and enable sustainable outcomes. After five years, the platform ecosystem collapsed as the leading ecosystem firm failed to effectively engage with multiple stakeholders toward sustainability outcomes and began transitioning towards lower levels of sustainability.

La tesi ha l’obiettivo di analizzare il cambiamento organizzativo in una prospettiva di social network analysis, sfruttando dati longitudinali raccolti a seguito della modifica della struttura organizzativa in un Policlinico Universitario italiano. Il manoscritto è organizzativo in tre paper. Il primo paper si focalizza sul tema del rapporto tra network formali e network informali, analizzando come la modifica del primo comporti una corrispondente variazione nel secondo. Il paper dimostra come, in assenza di strutture organizzative ben formalizzate, gli individui tendono ad allacciare nuovi legami con colleghi che appartengono alla stessa specializzazione. Il secondo paper, invece, attingendo prettamente alla letteratura di comportamento organizzativo, analizza il tema della dinamicità del network, fornendo evidenze in relazione alla stabilità del network stesso a seguito del cambiamento. Particolare attenzione, è inoltre, dedicata alle dinamiche intra – team e al ruolo di quest’ultime nell’accettazione o meno del cambiamento. Infine, il terzo paper sviluppa il tema della network density e di come quest’ultima possa essere correlato al cambiamento organizzativo, in termini di reazione al cambiamento. Inoltre, si dimostra come la formalizzazione abbia un impatto positivo sulla densità del network, specie in contesti organizzativi caratterizzati da una bassa gerarchia e coordinamento orizzontale. / This thesis aims to analyze organizational change in a social network analysis perspective, exploiting longitudinal data collected after a modification of the organizational structure in an Italian Teaching Hospital The manuscript is organized into three papers. The first paper focuses on the theme of the relationship between formal networks and informal networks, analyzing how the modification of the first involves a corresponding variation in the second. The paper demonstrates how, in the absence of formalized organizational structures, individuals tend to establish new ties with colleagues who belong to the same specialization. The second paper, drawing purely from the organizational behavior literature, analyzes the issue of the network dynamics , providing evidence and antecedents for network stability in response to organizational change. Particular attention is also given to the intra - team dynamics and the impact of individual perception of collective properties in driving employees in accepting or not the organizational change. Finally, the third paper develops the theme of network density and how the latter can be related to organizational change, in terms of reaction to change. Furthermore, it is shown how formalization has a positive impact on network density, especially in organizational contexts characterized by a low hierarchy and horizontal coordination.

Il presente contributo esamina il consiglio d’amministrazione delle società aventi azioni quotate in Borsa Italiana, e le retribuzioni destinate ai suoi membri, alla luce delle numerose innovazioni dell’ordinamento giuridico italiano e seguendo quella linea di analisi recentemente proposta dalla letteratura avente alla propria base l’idea che gli amministratori possono influenzare a proprio vantaggio i termini del pay-package loro corrisposto. A tal fine l’elaborato presenta una struttura articolata in due parti, nella prima delle quali viene fornita una visione organica dell’assetto istituzionale in cui l’analisi empirica, prodotta nella seconda, trova il proprio presupposto. Più specificatamente, la prima parte della tesi fornisce un’analisi giuridico-finanziaria della figura dell’amministratore (Capitolo 1) e del consiglio d’amministrazione (Capitolo 2), che risulta, oltre che assente in letteratura, quantomai attuale alla luce delle numerose e recenti riforme normative introdotte in materia. La normativa primaria, costituita dagli articoli del codice civile riguardanti gli amministratori ed i sistemi d’amministrazione e controllo (libro V, sezione VI bis, del Codice Civile) e dalle disposizioni contenute nel T.U.F., va oggi infatti completata con le nuove disposizioni contabili derivanti dall’applicazione degli IAS, ed in particolare dell’IFRS2, con le novità introdotte dalla cosiddetta Nuova Legge sul Risparmio (D. L. n. 262/2006), con le linee di comportamento descritte nella terza versione del Codice di Autodisciplina (Best Practice Code, 2006), con le prescrizioni di tipo previdenziale e fiscale contenute nelle Leggi "Finanziaria" del 2006 e del 2007, nonché con le novità in materia di governance bancaria volute da Mario Draghi (emanate a Marzo di quest’anno ma da recepire entro il 30 Giugno 2009). La seconda parte dell’elaborato, prendendo spunto dai diversi approcci utilizzati in letteratura (Capitolo 3), e con riferimento al contesto italiano, fornisce invece un’analisi empirica del sistema di compenso applicato agli amministratori. Dapprima è tracciata, relativamente al periodo indagato (1999-2006), la dinamica temporale della ricchezza distribuita ai propri amministratori dalle società italiane. Successivamente viene fornita una stima dell’intensità degli incentivi impliciti nei directors’ pay-packages (i.e. pay-performance sensitivity), unitamente ad una analisi delle determinanti che ne sono alla base. L’ipotesi che guida tale parte del lavoro è che in un contesto caratterizzato da proprietà concentrata, a causa della capacità dell’azionista di maggioranza di estrarre risorse dalla società, è ragionevole presumere che gli amministratori risultino destinatari di una remunerazione meno sensibile alle performances dell’impresa e tendenzialmente più elevata. Più semplicemente la questione che viene posta è se gli amministratori scontano la possibilità d’espropriazione, componendo convenientemente il proprio pacchetto di compenso. I risultati ottenuti confermano la validità dell’impianto d’ipotesi proposto ed evidenziano che la qualità della corporate governance è la variabile chiave. Le imprese dotate di un efficace ed efficiente governo societario riescono a controllare il processo di formazione delle remuneration policies impedendone manipolazioni opportunistiche. Le imprese caratterizzate da weak corporate governance risultano invece non solo incapaci di attuare politiche retributive volte alla massimizzazione del valore d’impresa, ma anche esposte all’estrazione di risorse da parte dei propri amministratori. / What the largest corporation pay their top managers is one of the most analyzed topics in corporate finance since Jensen and Murphy, 1990. As they noted (Jensen and Murphy 2004), a well-designed remuneration package for executives attracts the right executives at the lowest cost; retains them at the lowest cost (i.e. encourage the right executives to leave the firm at the appropriate time); and motivates executives to take actions that create long-run shareholder value and avoid actions that destroy value. However, several recent studies have shown that the characteristics of real world compensation contracts rarely meet their counterparts in compensation contracting theory because of the executives’ capability to influence the terms of their compensation package to their personal advantage. For example, Yermack (1997) provides evidence that executives influence timing of their stock option awards, receiving at-the money options just prior to releasing news that increases company stock prices. Bebchuk, Fried, and Walker (2002) and Bebchuk and Fried (2003, 2004) argue that the practice of granting options at-the-money (rather than out-of-the-money or with exercise prices indexed to market movements) reflects the influence of rent-seeking managers trying to maximize their compensation in ways that are largely camouflaged to investors and the public. Going ahead, others empirical research give proofs that the executives’ power to influence their pay package is stronger when shareholders are diffuse and more passive (Bertrand and Mullainathan, 2001), and when the corporate governance is weaker (Garvey and Milbourn, 2006; Harford and Li, 2007). At the same time, the expropriation literature shown that dominant shareholders, especially in firms with poor corporate governance (Klapper and Love, 2004; Durnev and Kim, 2005; Dahya, Dimitrov and McConnell, 2008) and in countries with weak legal protection (La Porta, Lopez-de-Silanes, Shleifer and Vishny, 2002; Claessens, Djankov, Fan and Lang, 2002; Durnev and Kim, 2005), are able to divert resources from others shareholders to himself for personal consumption. Since expropriation implies fewer resources assignable to marginal shareholder, the firms which are ex ante more likely to be expropriated, trade at discounted valuations. Despite the considerable empirical evidence on the costs bore both by the dominant shareholder and by the minorities in case of expropriation, the literature doesn’t provide evidence of the cost supported by directors. Expropriation, in fact, represents, ex ante, a cost also for directors. First, it’s a direct cost which negatively affects the expected overall compensation rewarded, when directors have part of their remuneration which is tied to company’s performances. Since expropriation is a net loss for the company, which leads to a correspondent fall in the company market valuation, the closer is the alignment of directors’ interests with those of shareholders, the bigger is this cost. Second, since directors have to perceive the maximization of shareholders’ wealth (i.e. avoid loss of it), expropriation should affect negatively the director’s reputation capital. This work examines the director’s compensation in firms which are more likely to be expropriated by their dominant shareholders. In essence, the question I address is whether directors discount the expropriation’s possibility, setting up conveniently their compensation’s contract. I explore this issue using a sample of directors’ compensation data of Italian Listed firms made up over the period 1999-2006. The case of Italian Listed companies is of particular interest for several concomitant reasons. First, Italian firms have been historically more prone to choosing a closely-held ownership structure characterized by a wide separation between ownership and control (Johnson, La Porta, Lopez de Silanes and Shleifer, 2000; Faccio and Lang, 2002; Volpin, 2002; and Barontini and Caprio, 2006; Mengoli, Pazzaglia, and Sapienza, 2006). Second, Italy is a country where the low protection of minority shareholders allows controlling shareholder to extract a considerable amount of private benefits (Bigelli and Mengoli, 2004; McCahery and Vermeulen, 2004; and Bigelli, Merhotra and Rau, 2006). Finally, Italy is a country where the high dominant shareholder’s capability to replace directors and where the low efficiency of the job-market of directors, provide narrowed incentives to directors in order to effective monitoring dominant shareholder’s actions (Barontini and Caprio, 2002; Volpin, 2002). Overall, results confirm the testable hypotheses, and provide evidence of the key-role exerted by corporate governance. Firms with strong corporate governance are able to monitor the compensation policies creation process avoiding opportunistic manipulation. On the opposite, firms with weak system of corporate governance seem unable to implement compensation policies directed at the firm value maximization, and, going ahead, seem to be expropriated also by theirs directors.

Il presente elaborato esplora il potenziale contributo del concetto di capitale sociale al settore della microfinanza nei paesi industrializzati. Per capitale sociale si intende “la somma delle risorse attuali e potenziali rese accessibili da reti individuali o organizzative di relazioni personali”. La tesi è composta da tre articoli. Il primo, di natura teorica, analizza il settore della microfinanza nei paesi industrializzati mettendone in luce peculiarità e sfide, secondo lo schema teorico proposto da Prior e Argandona. Il capitale sociale dei clienti e è proposto come uno degli elementi chiave per la crescita del settore. Il secondo, quantitativo, tratta il tema dell’imprenditoria etnica, target privilegiato della microfinanza, analizzando su un campione di 60 imprenditori di diverse etnie la relazione tra capitale sociale, cultura del paese d’origine e attitudine dell’imprenditore a intraprendere pratiche di responsabilità sociale d’impresa. Il terzo infine, presenta il caso della Fondazione Welfare Ambrosiano, istituzione di microfinanza operante nel territorio di Milano. L’articolo sottolinea il ruolo fondamentale giocato dal capitale sociale dei membri della Fondazione per la nascita di partneship strategiche, mettendone in evidenza la migliore configurazione di capitale sociale per la nascita e il successo di un’organizzazione non profit. / The dissertation focuses on the concept of social capital, i.e. “the sum of the actual and potential resources embedded within, available through, and derived from the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social unit” (Nahapiet and Ghoshal, 1998). My dissertation is composed by three articles which explore the concept of social capital, seeking to provide answer to what its contribute within the microfinance sector.

Questo lavoro di ricerca poggia sulla solida convinzione che sia necessario un salto di qualità sia negli investimenti in capitale intellettuale che nelle pratiche di gestione manageriale, al fine di attivare un processo di crescita di lungo corso che duri nel tempo. Dal momento che l'economia della conoscenza riveste una sempre maggiore importanza, questo studio ha verificato gli effetti che le pratiche HR e le capacità di rinnovamento possono esercitare sul capitale intellettuale al fine di creare un vantaggio competitivo sostenibile. Il modello adottato ha considerato il capitale intellettuale come la somma di tre componenti: capitale umano, capitale relazionale e capitale strutturale. In un ambiente dinamico, come l'attuale, il capitale intellettuale può essere il fattore chiave per ottenere un vantaggio competitivo sostenibile, dal momento che è raro, di valore e difficile da imitare o sostituire. Per questa ragione, il presente studio ha esaminato gli elementi decisivi per la gestione del capitale intellettuale in un ambiente competitivo turbolento valutando l'impatto delle componenti del capitale intellettuale sulla soddisfazione dei dipendenti e la qualità del servizio. I dati analizzati nell'ambito di questa ricerca sono stati raccolti attraverso questionari a cui hanno risposto varie realtà operanti nel settore finanziario in Italia e alcuni dei loro partner, operanti nel settore ICT, specializzati in attività ad alta intensità di capitale umano come lo sviluppo di applicazioni informatiche. Sono state individuati alcuni importanti risultati. In primo luogo, le capacità di rinnovamento mediano la relazione tra le pratiche HR e le componenti del capitale intellettuale. In secondo luogo, il capitale umano ha un impatto positivo diretto sulla qualità del servizio. In terzo luogo, il capitale strutturale influenza positivamente la soddisfazione dei collaboratori. Quindi, la soddisfazione dei collaboratori e la qualità del servizio sono alimentati e sostenuti da differenti fattori chiave: il capitale strutturale e il capitale umano rispettivamente. Da una prospettiva pratica e manageriale questi risultati sono molto interessanti al fine di deliberare l'allocazione delle risorse aziendali per ottenere delle configurazioni di capitale intellettuale efficaci. Le ricerche future potrebbero indagare i contribuiti dei differenti portatori d'interesse sugli antecedenti e conseguenti del capitale intellettuale valutando la capacità di produrre valore e, come conseguenza, la soddisfazione dei portatori d'interesse adottando un approccio di tipo managing-for-stakeholders. I fornitori e i clienti rivestono un ruolo centrale nelle dinamiche aziendali e per questo meritano particolare attenzione negli studi che saranno svolti nel prossimo futuro. / This work is rooted in the conviction that our economies need both better investments in intellectual capital and better management practices in order to achieve higher long-term growth. Starting acknowledging the increasing importance of the knowledge economy phenomenon, this study assessed the effects that HR practices and renewal capability can exert on firm’s intellectual capital in order to create a sustainable competitive advantage. The adopted model has considered intellectual capital as the sum of three components: human capital, relational capital and structural capital. In a dynamic environment, such as today’s competitive arena, intellectual capital can be the key factor to obtain a sustainable competitive advantage, because it is rare, valuable and difficult to imitate or substitute. For this reason, the present study has examined the key drivers to manage intellectual capital in a turbulent environment evaluating the impact of firm’s intellectual capital components on employees’ satisfaction and service quality. This research has gathered data through surveys of various Italian business units operating in the financial sector and some of their ICT partners specialised in human capital-intensive activities such as software development. A set of findings has been generated. First, renewal capability mediates the relationships between HR practices and all intellectual capital components. Second, human capital has a direct positive relationship with service quality. Third, structural capital has a direct positive relationship with employees’ satisfaction. Hence, employees’ satisfaction and service quality are nurtured and fostered by different crucial drivers: structural capital and human capital respectively. From a managerial and practical perspective these findings are very interesting in order to deliberating the allocation of firms’ resources to obtain effective intellectual capital configurations. Future researches may investigate the contributions of different stakeholders to the antecedents of intellectual capital as well as the contributions to its consequences in order to produce value and, in turn, stakeholders’ satisfaction adopting a managing-for-stakeholders approach. Suppliers and customers play a central role and for this reason they deserve particular attention in future studies.