Francesca Maria Cesaroni

• Professor
• Professor (Full) at Università degli Studi di Urbino Carlo Bo

The growing attention to gender issues has recently led to the introduction of new accounting tools aimed at measuring, reporting, and evaluating gender data to promote a conscious and proactive behavior toward gender equality in organizations. In Italy, the UNI/PdR 125:2022 practice defines guidelines for creating inclusive and gender-equal workpl...

This paper explores how a company can embrace sustainability and integrate ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) issues to develop a sustainable business model, with a specific focus on the role of networks. According to the actor-resource-activity (ARA) framework, we investigated the three critical network elements actors, activities and reso...

In 2022, the Italian government introduced a national gender equality (GE) certification system called UNI/PdR 125:2022 Practice. Its objective is to promote the adoption of gender equality policies in enterprises and provide guidelines for setting up a management system for an inclusive and gender-equal workplace. Due to the recent introduction of...

Family firms are a vital element of our economy and society and their continuity through intrafamily succession has been the focus of academic debate for several decades, recently with particular emphasis on the role of daughters. Research has deeply investigated how entrepreneurial families can nurture entrepreneurial attitudes across generations...

We encourage the submission of contributions that explore the relationship between corporate governance dynamics and MCS innovations in different organizational contexts and their underlying peculiarities.

Through her eyes: How daughter successors perceive their fathers in shaping their entrepreneurial identity by Annalisa Sentuti, Francesca Maria Cesaroni, Paola Demartini A B S T R A C T This study investigates how daughter successors perceive that their entrepreneurial identities have been influ- enced by their fathers. Drawing on narrative iden...

This study seeks to analyse whether and how Italian men and women entrepreneurs have accessed public grants to deal with the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. Namely, it aims to investigate whether there are significant differences among men and women entrepreneurs in terms of: (a) whether they applied for a grant; (b) the amount requested; (c...

After introducing the multiform phenomenon of financial inclusion/exclusion and offering a brief overview on migrants living and working in Italy, this paper presents and discusses an experience of migrants' financial education-FIN-Financial inclusion project-financed by the AMIF National Italian fund 2014-2020 and recently carried out in Italy. A...

Several empirical investigations indicate that family firms are more innovative under the founding generation’s leadership and become less innovative in later stages, while others state the opposite. Within this debate, limited attention has been devoted to understanding how intra-family succession might be an opportunity to maintain or improve fam...

Purpose This paper aims to further the understanding of women entrepreneurs' multiple identities by exploring how they interact throughout women's life cycles. Design/methodology/approach This article combines a case study and a narrative analysis to investigate the experience of a woman who founded a business and retired after passing it on to he...

The chapter analyzes female involvement in medium-sized family businesses in Central Italy. The empirical analysis focuses on 233 firms over the period 2007-2014, to understand how female representation in corporate governance has evolved in recent years, and to pinpoint the factors tending to encourage/discourage female involvement in the board of...

Il volume presenta una serie di "buone pratiche" di inclusione finanziaria dei migranti, realizzate in Italia e in Europa, selezionate e analizzate in quanto contraddistinte da capacità di coinvolgimento, approccio innovativo, capacità di generare valore aggiunto, replicabilità e sostenibilità. Tale analisi è preceduta da una riflessione sul signi...

The original version of the book was inadvertently published without adding attribution to a couple of quotes in the chapter “Ethics, Social Responsibility and Tax Aggressiveness. Can a Code of Ethics Absolve a Company?”. The chapter and book have now been updated with the changes.

This chapter analyzes the experience of two family businesses that carried out a succession process and undertook a process of professionalization with opposite results. In one case, the founder gave great impetus to the professionalization process, to favor business development and growth. The successor replicated the same approach and emphasized...

Family business succession is a key challenge for family firms. On the one hand, it involves several different dynamics and perspectives, and its outcome may compromise the firm’s survival if these factors are not adequately considered. On the other hand, succession can be a source of relevant opportunities for the relaunch and renewal of the busin...

The chapter analyzes the case of a family business that is experiencing a fifth generational transition and that started some time ago some parallel paths of professionalization and managerialization. These processes are managed by external consultants and non-family professionals, above all the Managing Director. The interpretation of empirics is...

Previous research shows the birth family’s role in encouraging their children’s entrepreneurial career, pointing out that early exposure to parental role models could favour children’s entrepreneurial spirit, especially in family firms. However, being a daughter in an entrepreneurial family means being forced to face important role models concernin...

Why does a process of management accounting change (MAC) that started with the best premises for a successful conclusion stop? What could be the causes of failure? In the last few decades, several authors have tried to answer these questions in the field of MAC by adopting different theoretical frameworks and offering various responses. However, fe...

The aim of the paper is to nurture the debate on the relationship between ethics and tax aggressiveness. This issue is particularly relevant to Italy where in the last years several companies have been involved in tax avoidance and other aggressive tax practices. The case analysis presented in this paper concerns a famous Italian fashion house, whi...

The chapter analyzes female involvement in medium-sized family businesses in Central Italy. The empirical analysis focuses on 233 firms over the period 2007-2014, to understand how female representation in corporate governance has evolved in recent years, and to pinpoint the factors tending to encourage/discourage female involvement in the board of...

In this chapter, the socio-emotional wealth perspective is used to understand how, during phases of economic recession, a company’s family nature can influence its decision-making processes and the implementation of an ambidextrous strategy, as well as its effectiveness. A qualitative analysis based on a case study is presented in this chapter. The...

The role of women in entrepreneurship, management and corporate governance is regarded as central to the development and welfare of economies. Since the early 1980s, there has been increased interest in women managers and entrepreneurs, from an interdisciplinary approach, combining, for example, sociology, psychology, management and organisational...

This article aims to shed light on the involvement of women who play governance roles in family businesses. For this purpose, we present the results of empirical research carried out on a sample of 233 Italian medium-sized family businesses, analysed from 2007 to 2014. Our analysis has a twofold objective: (1) understand how the presence of women o...

Gender inequality in the division of family work is vastly corroborated and work–family balance is an important topic in the female entrepreneurship field of research. Even if work–family balance should be a necessity indiscriminately perceived by all women and men who have a paid job, it is a particularly pertinent issue for women, called to find...

Purpose The importance of relational capital for the university has grown enormously in recent years. In fact, relational capital allows universities to promote and emphasize the effectiveness of the third mission. The purpose of this paper is to propose a case study involving an Italian university that recently set up a new research observatory, a...

This chapter focuses on daughters’ involvement in family business in contemporary times (from 2000 to present). Its aim is to identify which are possible profiles that daughters may currently assume in the succession process and outline “lights and shadows” that characterize daughters’ involvement in the family business with particular regard to th...

In this chapter, we analyse daughters’ positions in family businesses and reasons beyond those, including daughters’ personal preferences and motivations. The purpose of the chapter, in particular, is to understand how daughters’ desires and expectations contribute to determining the role they actually play in the family business and if this role i...

Questo paper presenta l’analisi longitudinale di un caso aziendale, relativo a un'impresa familiare coinvolta in un processo di successione. Quest'ultimo processo è stato affiancato da un percorso di graduale introduzione di strumenti di gestione e controllo e dall’inserimento di figure manageriali nell’organico aziendale. Lo scopo dell’analisi è e...

This study aims to understand how women entrepreneurs involved in a succession process as incumbent manage their double identities of entrepreneur and mother, and how these two identities interplay. In particular, we are interested in understanding if these identities are in conflict or if they can positively interact. Recently several studies have...

This paper presents the initial results of a structured literature review with the aim to answer the following RQs: 1) What is the evolutionary trend of the field? 2) What's new in the (very) recent debate on women in family firms? Over the last three decades, a few but significant investigations have examined women's involvement in family business...

􏰁This study analyses a financial database for a sample of medium-sized family (FB) and non-family (NFB) businesses located in the Central District of Italy, observed in 2007, 2009 and 2014, as to say: before, during and after the spreading of the global crisis wave. Data have been analysed in a quantitative way with a Machine Learning tool (namely:...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the relational capital of universities, within the new context that requires combining research, education, third mission and internal relations. Our investigation, following a dynamic approach, aims to answer the following RQ: "How is relational capital generated in universities?” Design/meth...

Theaimofthisstudyistocarryoutaliteraturereviewonwomeninbusinessandsocialmediainordertoknowthestateoftheart,andtounderstandwhetherandtowhatextentthestudiesconductedsofarhaveaddressedtheseissues:howandwhyarewomenentrepreneursandmanagersusingsocialmedia?Dotheyusesocialmediaformarketing,networkingorpersonalreasons?Thearticlereliesonaliteraturereviewabo...

http://shop.wki.it/documenti/00078840_dem.pdf La Lean Accounting (LA) è un approccio innovativo e alternativo ai tradizionali sistemi di controllo di gestione, specifi- camente pensato per gestire, valutare e controllare i processi nelle imprese che adottano sistemi di produzione snella. Scopo principale della LA è favorire la strategia della lean...

This paper focuses on family businesses’ opinions and perspectives concerning soft issues raised by the succession process and their willingness to involve an external advisor. An empirical research study based on multiple case studies was carried out. Through 25 direct interviews with the incumbent and/or successor, 15 Italian family businesses we...

This study investigates the performance of medium-sized family businesses – hereafter MSFBs – during the economic recession by comparing family and non-family firms, and correlating the organisational performance to the family ownership and firms’ solvency. An empirical research study was carried out on a sample of 128 Italian medium-sized business...

In most studies IC (Intellectual Capital) has been seen to consist of three elements: human capital, structural capital and relational capital. However, emerging studies suggest that that three other elements could also be included in IC visualizing and mapping: renewal capital (RC), trust capital (TC), and entrepreneurial capital (EC). The purpose...

Traditionally, intellectual capital (IC) is seen as consisting of three components: human, structural and relational capital. Nevertheless, an emerging body of literature has started to suggest that three other components also form part of IC. These are renewal capital (RC), trust capital (TC) and entrepreneurial capital (EC). This paper shows prel...

Traditionally, intellectual capital (IC) is seen as consisting of three components: human, structural and relational capital. Nevertheless, an emerging body of literature has started to suggest that three other components also form part of IC. These are renewal capital (RC), trust capital (TC) and entrepreneurial capital (EC). This paper shows prel...

Micro-enterprises are important drivers of economic growth and women entrepreneurs are key developers of these businesses. It is therefore important to understand factors that affect their existence and their success or failure. In this study, our aim is to describe some typical women — family relationship profiles, characterized by families playin...

This paper presents a longitudinal case study based on a succession process in an Italian family business. Our purpose is to understand if it's possible to identify early signals of conflicts and problems concerning soft/psychological issues before they become evident, in order to prevent their negative impact on the succession process. It is wide...

Uno degli aspetti che più contribuisce a caratterizzare l’esperienza delle donne imprenditrici riguarda l’importanza che i rapporti familiari assu- mono nello spiegare la scelta delle donne verso l’imprenditorialità, nel rendere possibile il loro percorso imprenditoriale, nel determinare le op- portunità di successo e di sviluppo delle loro imprese...

Conciliare il proprio percorso professionale (lavoro, carriera, aspettative, aspirazioni, ecc.) con le esigenze personali (tempo libero, formazione, interessi, riposo, ecc.) e familiari (cura dei figli, dei genitori anziani, della casa) dovrebbe essere un’esigenza indistintamente percepita da tutti gli uomini e le donne che hanno un lavoro retribui...

Purpose The aim of the paper is to understand what is the approach adopted by accountants when they provide advisory services to family businesses involved in a succession process. Design/methodology/approach Data for this study was collected through a questionnaire survey involving 175 Italian certified accountants. They answered questions about t...

In FB research some studies have investigated the position of women involved as successors in the succession process, but very few studies have analysed women as incumbents. Until a few years ago, this issue would have been considered of little importance, given the very small number of women-owned businesses involved in a succession process. Howev...

In FB research some studies have investigated the position of women involved as successors in the succession process, but very few studies have analysed women as incumbents. Until a few years ago, this issue would have been considered of little importance, given the very small number of women-owned businesses involved in a succession process. Howev...

Purpose – Web-based technologies and digital culture have become an important part of our daily activities and this topic is at the top in the agenda of many researchers and policy makers. In particular social media can make possible new ways of working and doing business, based on innovative concepts such as sharing, collaboration and co-creation....

The paper aims to examine how ambidextrous strategies can be effectively adopted by small businesses to face the economic crisis. Ambidextrous strategies combine defensive and offensive approach, retrenchment and investment/innovation, short- and long-term perspective. According to the main literature, ambidextrous strategies are more likely to be...

Many of us discuss about past. Some of us are rethinking the present. Only the brave among us dare to devise the future. Discussing the past is easy. Rethinking the present is demanding. But the real challenge comes when dealing with future perspectives. And that is what the authors of following papers dared to do. The idea of this scientific monog...

This paper presents the main findings from an empirical research, whose aim was to answer the following research questions: (1) Did men and women entrepreneurs ask for new bank loans during the crisis? (2) Did they obtain required bank loans at the same conditions? (3) Which variables, other than gender, influence access to bank credit? Data show t...

Objectives – This paper analyses daughters’ position in family businesses and reasons beyond those, including daughters’ personal preferences and motivations. The purpose of the paper, in particular, is to understand how daughters’ desires and expectations contribute to determining the role they actually play in the family and if this role is consi...

In Europe there is a very high concentration of small enterprises operating not only in local but also in international markets. In the past, these firms have shown a lower propensity to invest in information and communication technologies (ICT), when compared with larger companies. The main reasons were technologies’ high prices and small firms’ i...

Entrepreneurial Capital (EC) refers to competence and commitment related to entrepreneurial activities in an organization (Erikson, 2002) and it is related with entrepreneurial orientation of organizational actors (managers and employees). Entrepreneurial orientation has been described by a set of three to five behaviors, including autonomy, innova...

The ability to use ICT to handle, process and use business data, as well as to develop new tools to support process management and control functions, is an essential condition for small businesses’ competitiveness. Important differences in ICT adoption rates between large and small firms have been identified, but it is important to properly assess...

The aim of the work is to analyse the relationship between entrepreneurial capital (EC), renewal capital (RC) and trust capital (TC), considered as stand-alone components of intellectual capital (IC), and firms’ performances. To this end an empirical research was carried out based on a sample of Italian companies. Survey’s results show that EC, RC...

Objectives – This paper aims to examine how ambidextrous strategies can be effectively adopted by small businesses to face the economic crisis. Prior work – Ambidextrous strategies combine a defensive and offensive approach, retrenchment and investment/innovation, and short- and long-term perspective. According to the main literature, ambidextrous...

It is generally accepted that companies can adopt two types of strategies when confronted with an economic downturn: defensive and offensive approach. While the existence of significant differences between men and women is proven (e.g., in terms of risk-taking, propensity towards investments, innovation, development and growth), business strategy s...

Inserito nell’ambito degli studi dedicati all’imprenditorialità, questo volume presenta i risultati di un’indagine promossa dalla Confederazione Nazionale dell’Artigianato e della Piccola e Media Impresa di Pesaro-Urbino (CNA), realizzata in collaborazione con il Dipartimento di Economia, Società, Politi- che (DESP) dell’Università degli Studi di U...

Which strategies to face the economic crisis? A comparison between Italian men and women micro-entrepreneurs Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how Italian micro-entrepreneurs have responded to the economic crisis and strategies they have adopted to deal with it. A comparison between male and female entrepreneurs is prese...

In the last thirty years, many companies in many sectors have transformed their manufacturing system and have introduced a lean strategy. More recently, companies and practitioners are realizing that not only production processes but also cost management and accounting system need to be consistent with lean manufacturing strategy. In this perspecti...

In this paper we present a three-dimensional framework (named Cube of Corporate Technological Level—CCTL) to evaluate the technological position of small enterprises from different points of view. This framework has been developed from existing tools with similar goals, already proposed by other authors. Compared to existing ones, this framework di...

The number of women involved in the ownership, management and direction of family businesses has been growing in the last few years. However, women’s presence has been sometimes described as “invisible”, without influence in decision-making and women’s efforts are not always properly recognized and rewarded in terms of job titles and salaries. Wome...

Family firms are the most common business model in advanced economies and in developing countries. Succession is the main reason of failure for FFs. University business and management studies are not always effective in preparing new generations to deal with succession, to make them understand pitfalls and risks associated with an inadequate manage...

https://www.giuffre.it/4659241/R010681402_indice.pdf This paper focuses on the role played by accountants in the management of succession process. Accountants are the main reference point for a lot of entrepreneurs and family businesses and they turn to him for a wide range of problems, including those related to succession. At the same time, lite...

The current economic and financial crisis has had a profound impact on the Italian economy, and has put Italian companies into great difficulty; however statistical data shows that businesses owned by women seem to have resisted the economic crisis more effectively than those owned by men. This paper seeks to describe the ways in which Italian busi...

This paper investigates the role of business associations (BAs) in promoting inter-firm collaboration, in particular through the use of the network contract (NC) – a particular type of formal collaboration recently introduced in Italy. The analysis reveals that BAs can favor and promote inter-firm collaboration in two ways: directly, being formally...

During the financial crisis banks faced liquidity shocks, and lending slowed down. The reduction in credit availability was due to demand- and supply-side factors. The decrease in turnover and investment led to a contraction of financial needs; on the other hand, the tightening of credit supply was the result of banks’ greater risk-aversion, diffic...

During the financial crisis banks faced liquidity shocks, and lending slowed down. The reduction in credit availability was due to demand- and supply-side factors. The decrease in turnover and investment led to a contraction of financial needs; on the other hand, the tightening of credit supply was the result of banks’ greater risk-aversion, diffic...

The aim of this paper is to understand if the involvement of younger generation in small and medium-sized family firms can encourage a process of technological innovation, realized through the introduction and use of Information and Communication Technology. Younger entrepreneurs, that we call digital successors, compared to their predecessors, has...

The globalization involves not only the exchange of physical goods but also and especially of information and relationships between people. The globalization is the intensification of worldwide social relations. In the globalization era there are cultural mechanisms of integration, a growing consciousness of the whole world, an holistic vision that...