Università commerciale Luigi Bocconi

This study assesses the initial effects of the 2016 Brexit referendum on the mobility of academic scholars to and from the United Kingdom (UK). We leverage bibliometric data from millions of Scopus publications to infer changes in the countries of residence of published researchers by the changes in their institutional affiliations over time. We focus on a selected sample of active and internationally mobile researchers whose movements are traceable for every year between 2013 and 2019 and measure the changes in their migration patterns. Although we do not observe a brain drain following Brexit, we find evidence that scholars’ mobility patterns changed after Brexit. Among the active researchers in our sample, their probability of leaving the UK increased by approximately 86% if their academic origin (country of first publication) was an EU country. For scholars with a UK academic origin, their post-Brexit probability of leaving the UK decreased by approximately 14%, and their probability of moving (back) to the UK increased by roughly 65%. Our analysis points to a compositional change in the academic origins of the researchers entering and leaving the UK as one of the first impacts of Brexit on the UK and EU academic workforce.

Influencers can effectively promote products and brands but are also leading personalities who might inspire others to support polarizing and/or prosocial issues (e.g., against gender‐based violence, social inequality, and racism). This research analyses the impact of influencer activism on perceived authenticity and prosocial behaviors, focusing on collaborations with brands and nonprofit organizations. Drawing on social influence theory and signaling theory, two key factors are examined: the influencer‐partner congruity, and the influencer‐sociopolitical issue alignment. The research consists of a preliminary study, four experimental studies on behavioral intentions, two experimental studies on proxies of actual behavior, and a content analysis on Instagram comments. The results suggest that congruity and alignment significantly enhance perceived authenticity, which positively impacts attitudes toward the influencer and increases the intention to engage in prosocial behaviors. The article offers further insight into individual engagement in actual prosocial behavior, such as seeking information on an issue, subscribing to newsletters, and signing petitions. The research underscores the importance of selecting congruent influencers, whose values and advocacy efforts are consistent with the brand's or organization's characteristics, and aligned with relevant issues, to enhance perceived authenticity, foster genuine engagement and effectively drive prosocial behaviors through effective partnerships.

Objective Patients with multiple myeloma (MM) typically require multiple regimens and become harder to treat with each line of treatment. Furthermore, there is a lack of direct comparative clinical trial data to guide effective treatment sequencing. A novel model is described comparing alternative MM treatment sequences to optimize patient outcomes. Methods The model compares treatment sequences and outcomes for adults with newly diagnosed transplant-eligible (TE) or transplant-ineligible (TIE) MM across four treatment lines (first-line [FL] to fourth-line [4L]). Inputs are derived from patient-level data from clinical trials and indirect treatment comparisons. We report a base case prediction using data representing clinical practice in Italy. Results For FL TE, overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) were greatest for FL regimens containing daratumumab; OS ranged from 11.80–18.10 years. PFS ranged from 4.82–13.42 years (FL) to 0.66–6.03 years (second-line [2L]), 0.81–1.76 years (third-line [3L]), and 0.69–0.72 years (4L). For FL TIE, OS rates were greater for treatment sequences with FL daratumumab vs. sequences with either 2L or no daratumumab (OS ranging from 5.95–10.61 years). PFS was greatest for FL daratumumab regimens in the TIE group, with PFS ranging from 2.12–7.48 years (FL), 0.53–4.73 years (2L), 0.63–1.17 years (3L), and 0.42 years (4L). Discussion This novel model demonstrates that using the most effective treatment in FL optimizes treatment sequencing and clinical outcomes for patients. Conclusion The optimal MM treatment sequences begin with daratumumab-containing regimens in FL and improve outcomes compared with alternative sequences.

An edge-weighted, vertex-capacitated graph G is called stable if the value of a maximum-weight capacity-matching equals the value of a maximum-weight fractional capacity-matching. Stable graphs play a key role in characterizing the existence of stable solutions for popular combinatorial games that involve the structure of matchings in graphs, such as network bargaining games and cooperative matching games. The vertex-stabilizer problem asks to compute a minimum number of players to block (i.e., vertices of G to remove) in order to ensure stability for such games. The problem has been shown to be solvable in polynomial-time, for unit-capacity graphs. This stays true also if we impose the restriction that the set of players to block must not intersect with a given specified maximum matching of G. In this work, we investigate these algorithmic problems in the more general setting of arbitrary capacities. We show that the vertex-stabilizer problem with the additional restriction of avoiding a given maximum matching remains polynomial-time solvable. Differently, without this restriction, the vertex-stabilizer problem becomes NP-hard and even hard to approximate, in contrast to the unit-capacity case.

A growing body of research shows that demographic attitudes and behaviors across the life course are socially stratified. Building on this and focusing on the transition to parenthood, we hypothesize that (i) parental socioeconomic status is associated with multiple dimensions of the transition to parenthood, including fertility norms (perceived lower age limit at first birth), ideals (ideal age at first birth), and behaviors (age at first birth), and that (ii) this association varies across national contexts, as national contexts determine the opportunities and constraints that guide young adults’ life course attitudes and behaviors. Drawing on the European Social Survey 2006 and 2018 data, we analyze early fertility norms and ideals and later fertility behaviors of a pseudo-panel of individuals born between 1976 and 1988. We show that (i) parental socioeconomic status is positively associated with later fertility norms, later fertility ideals, and later childbearing, even when controlling for respondents’ own socioeconomic status, and that (ii) national contexts partially moderate these associations. We conclude by discussing implications for theories of fertility and highlighting avenues for future research. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10680-024-09718-2.

We examine whether political forces in Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) influence audit reporting, specifically the disclosure of Key Audit Matters (KAMs). We test two competing predictions that offer alternative explanations for the relation between SOEs and KAMs disclosure. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms and controlling for related determinants of KAMs reporting, we document that, compared to non-SOEs, SOEs have fewer abnormal KAMs (relative to their industry peers). SOEs are also more likely to avoid the disclosure of expected KAMs, especially in the subject areas of inventory, revenue and related party transactions (RPTs). Taken together, results suggest that SOEs have strong political motives and power to obscure transparency and withhold potentially costly news. In line with this conjecture, we show that the aforementioned effects are more pronounced when SOEs have more concentrated state ownership, operate in industries of strategic importance to the state, or are involved in tunneling RPTs. Supplementary analysis indicates that SOEs have less extensive KAMs disclosures and auditor responses, which moreover are less risk-oriented. Overall, our study provides new evidence on how state control and related institutional factors affect audit practices.

This work starts from an analogy between financial systems and ecosystems so that the SIR mathematical approach can be revisited in modeling a kind of risk contagion among financial players. We are interested on a specific type of financial risk contagion which identifies firms as the key participants responsible for propagating this contagion. In this respect, the proposed mechanism facilitating this transmission is the Supply Chain framework. In this direction, we focus on a new SIR dynamic with time delay which represents the “financial immunity” after recovery. A complete and robust analysis about asymptotic stability is performed for both risk-free and not-free-risk steady states at the long run, by applying Lyapunov functional method. The model is applied to perform some simulations with application in different Italian economic sectors.

Supported by crowdsourcing platforms, companies are able to tap into a global pool of talented contributors, co-creating thereby truly geocentric brand strategies. Still, the question remains whether there are differences across countries in contributors’ willingness to participate in brand co-creation and their ability to create value for the brand. This is the gap our study intends to address. Considering the multidimensional nature of national culture, we employ fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on a sample of 789 contributors from 66 countries, who participated in brand co-creation on eYeka crowdsourcing platform. Our findings reveal that contributors’ performance is significantly influenced by their cultural background, distinguishing between countries where valuable contributors are likely to emerge. Additionally, by adopting a neo-configurational perspective, we embrace the complexity of contributors’ culture profiles and determine joint—rather than independent—influence of different cultural dimensions on their quantity- and quality-based performance in brand co-creation. In this way, our study contributes to brand management studies interested in the role of national culture in brand co-creation, while offering practical implications for brand managers by indicating which national cultures may yield high-performing contributors.

The main theories explaining electoral backlash against immigration focus on citizens’ cultural, economic, and security concerns. We test these predictions in Switzerland, which opened its labor market to neighboring countries in the 2000s. Employing a difference-in-differences design, we document a substantial rise in immigrant workers in Swiss border municipalities after the border opened. This was accompanied by a 6-percentage-point (95% confidence interval 2–10) increase in support for anti-immigrant parties, equivalent to a 32% rise at the mean. However, we find no adverse effects on citizens’ employment, wages, or subjective perceptions of economic, cultural, or security threats. Instead, we describe how far-right parties introduced novel narratives related to overcrowding to advance hostility toward immigrants. We provide evidence that this rhetoric targeted border municipalities, where it had the greatest impact on voters susceptible to political persuasion. Together, these findings suggest that elites can play a role in driving anti-immigrant votes.

Governments use a variety of tools to discourage, impede, or limit the ability of foreign adversaries to purse their ambitions. Some of these measures seek to constrain an opponent's capacity, while others seek to deter an opponent to take (or not) a particular action. We develop a theory to study how constraining and coercive threats interact strategically. Building on canonical models of deterrence, we first identify how coercive measures, in isolation, curb an aggressor's transgressions. We then identify when constraining measures and the threat of coercion (deterrence) are substitutes and when they are complements. In some cases, constraining measures make deterrence effective when it would otherwise fail (constraining to deter). Our results offer insights about measuring the effectiveness of various diplomatic tools. We highlight a series of novel empirical challenges stemming from the interaction of selection effects and ecological features of a sample of country dyads, and discuss potential solutions.

This study explores artification in nonprofit organizations, specifically focusing on the use of the arts to enhance the well‐being of users. By examining how nonprofit institutions integrate artistic practices into their programs, the research highlights the potential for art to serve as a tool for promoting emotional, mental, and social well‐being among diverse populations. Moreover, the impact of art therapy on various stakeholders (e.g., artists and/or art dealers) within nonprofit health and social service organizations and the art market in general remains understudied. Therefore, this study examines the case of the Dynamo Camp Art Factory and the complex system of relationships between the various stakeholders to understand the benefits of art therapy and the related artification process. Our findings show that through the involvement of artists in art therapy, value co‐creation activities have a cultural and economic impact far beyond the therapeutic effect.

This research delves into the connection between companies' adoption of sustainability strategies and the consequent effects this has on their overall performance. Based on a global panel of companies listed between 2015 and 2021, utilizing panel data analysis with fixed effects regression, the findings indicate that a genuinely implemented sustainable strategy significantly contributes to the enhancement of firm performance. Moreover, the efficacy of the sustainable strategy is shaped by its incorporation into ownership structures characterized by dispersed ownership, highlighting the pivotal role of board independence in fostering value creation. The study reveals variations specific to each sector, challenging the applicability of a universal approach across all industries. The findings highlight the importance of these approaches in cultivating favorable environmental results, emphasizing the vital links between environmentally sustainable business practices, strategic decision-making, and their impact on the environment. K E Y W O R D S corporate governance, environment, ESG, firm performance, sustainability strategy

In this paper we explore the optimal issuance and liquidation of redeemable shares. Redeemable shares are those that the issuer can repurchase, or redeem, at a predetermined price, known as the call price, as soon as a given barrier event is triggered. We first determine the optimal call price for the issuer by stating and solving a stylized earning per share maximization problem from the point of view of a company. Once the call price is determined, we focus on the valuation of both perpetual and finite-maturity redeemable shares and we examine the problem of their optimal liquidation from the point of view of a shareholder holding them. Along with the few closed-form results that can be obtained in a lognormal continuous-time framework, we propose an intuitive and flexible method to retrieve the optimal liquidation policy in the form of a liquidation boundary, thanks to a parsimonious Markovianization of the evaluation problem in a binomial framework. Numerical tests using alternative market models and different dividend formulations confirm the robustness of our results.

We exploit a dataset of criminal trials in 19th century London to evaluate the impact of an accused's right to counsel on convictions. While lower‐level crimes had an established history of professional representation prior to 1836, individuals accused of committing a felony did not, despite the prosecution being conducted by professional attorneys. The Prisoners' Counsel Act 1836 remedied this and first introduced the right to counsel in common law systems. Using a difference‐in‐differences estimation strategy, we identify the effect of the universal right to defence counsel. We find the surprising result that the professionalization of the courtroom led to an increase in the conviction rate. We argue that this effect was a consequence of the Act inducing a shift in the beliefs of jurors, who grew more likely to believe the evidence put before them once it could be challenged in an adversarial courtroom. We go further, and employ a topic modelling approach to the text of the transcripts to provide suggestive evidence on how the trials changed when the right to defence counsel was fully introduced, documenting a movement towards increased usage of precise and detailed language when discussing details of alleged offences.

We study generative diffusion models in the regime where both the data dimension and the sample size are large, and the score function is trained optimally. Using statistical physics methods, we identify three distinct dynamical regimes during the generative diffusion process. The generative dynamics, starting from pure noise, first encounters a speciation transition, where the broad structure of the data emerges, akin to symmetry breaking in phase transitions. This is followed by a collapse phase, where the dynamics is attracted to a specific training point through a mechanism similar to condensation in a glass phase. The speciation time can be obtained from a spectral analysis of the data’s correlation matrix, while the collapse time relates to an excess entropy measure, and reveals the existence of a curse of dimensionality for diffusion models. These theoretical findings are supported by analytical solutions for Gaussian mixtures and confirmed by numerical experiments on real datasets.

This paper proposes a contribution to the century-old debate between npv and irr: we argue that the irr(s) of a project are the interest rate(s) where an agent may switch from finding the proje ct profitable to finding it detrimental (or the other way around). We propose a path to deal with the case when the agent’s reference rate is not unique, and we show how our interpretation accommodates most of the so-called flaws of the irr, even when it is not unique. We show that it is possible to measure the sensitivity of every irr of a project w.r.t. the exchanged amounts.

Purpose Exergames, which combine digital games and physical exercise, have become increasingly popular for rehabilitation in the health domain. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of exergame rehabilitation on the quality of life of cancer patients undergoing abdominal surgery. Methods This randomized controlled trial evaluated the effectiveness of exergame rehabilitation on the quality of life of cancer patients who had undergone abdominal surgery. Seventy postoperative patients were included, and data collection took place between January 2023 and May 2023. The patients were randomly assigned to either an exergame rehabilitation program (n = 35) or a traditional rehabilitation program (n = 35). The assessed outcome was the quality of life, and data collection occurred at three different time points: upon admission, 48 h postoperatively, and on the 7th day after surgery. Results Quality of life was evaluated using the WHOQOL-BREF Scale. At the third assessment, a statistically significant difference was observed between the two groups (p = 0.016), indicating that the intervention group had a higher quality of life than the control group. Conclusions The study showed a positive effect of exergames on the population under investigation. By the 7th day after surgery, the intervention group demonstrated an improvement in their quality of life compared to the control group. Clinical trial registration Center of Open Science OSF https://osf.io/286zb/, registered in July, 2023.

There exists a significant difference between the life satisfaction of people with and without disabilities, to the disadvantage of the former. The present work investigates the association between environmental accessibility and life satisfaction by disability status. The environmental accessibility index is built based on the results of the 2012 Eurobarometer survey on accessibility, while empirical analyses are conducted using data from the EU-SILC 2013, which includes an ad hoc module on wellbeing. We test the following hypotheses using Blinder–Oaxaca decompositions: 1. Coeteris paribus, environmental accessibility is associated with a reduction of the difference between the life satisfaction of people without disabilities and people with disabilities; 2. The negative association of environmental accessibility with the difference in life satisfaction by disability status is greater in absolute value among women and people in the lowest income quartile. Both hypotheses are fully supported.

Artification refers to the process by which objects, practices, or entities not traditionally considered art are transformed into socially accepted art forms. A common example is graffiti, which was once regarded as vandalism but has since evolved into a recognized and celebrated form of art, but organizations and brands can also engage in artification strategies. This special issue of the Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing explores the concept of artification, with a particular focus on its application within the third sector. The six papers in this issue examine how artification fosters creativity, innovation, and social impact in non‐profits. Through case studies and empirical research, the issue demonstrates how third‐sector organizations, such as arts and culture institutions, charities, and foundations, can leverage artification not only to support the arts but also to enhance their legitimacy, build stronger community relationships, and increase credibility with stakeholders. The special issue examines studies on artification in both non‐profit organizations and corporate initiatives, emphasizing how art fosters social sustainability through creative partnerships. Collectively, these papers underscore the transformative potential of artification in the third sector, offering valuable insights for non‐profits seeking to integrate art into their strategic initiatives and enhance their social impact.

This article investigates the diverse artification strategies used by luxury fashion brands to strengthen their connection with the art world and emphasises how these strategies infuse objects, practices, and brands with artistic value. Using a theoretical framework, the research classifies the Altagamma and Comité Colbert brands into distinct clusters representing various stages of the artification process, from early exploration to full integration of artistic practices. The study analyses the ways in which these stages reflect the brands’ historical evolution and strategic investments in artification, particularly in response to market threats. Between 2019 and 2024, 81.25% of the 39 brands examined in this study engaged in at least one artistic activity, such as artist collaborations, art installations or incorporating artistic elements into collections. This study offers new insights by expanding the understanding of artification and classifying underexplored connections between luxury brands, artists and non‐profit cultural institutions. It reveals how brands, despite differing approaches, recognise artification as a key strategy in enhancing identity and positioning in the luxury market.