Silvia Cantele

• PhD, Associate Professor
• Professor (Associate) at University of Verona

Benefit corporations are businesses characterised by a dual purpose: profit and the common good. While these businesses are expected to pursue a high level of transparency, some studies have noted ambiguous and inconsistent behaviour in the quality of their reports and communication with stakeholders. The literature proposed reporting quality index...

Purpose This study aims to investigate the process of integrating sustainability into strategic planning and analyse inherent complexities. Design/methodology/approach Through a qualitative approach, an in-depth case study is proposed, highlighting the development process of the sustainability plan and integration with the strategic plan through t...

This study aims to analyze sustainability governance mechanisms and understand which roles and responsibilities fall under a governance system, as well as the pro-cesses of integrating sustainability into management control systems. Qualitative research focused on the case study analysis of SIT. Interviews were conducted with key figures within the...

Restaurants have been becoming increasingly aware of their responsibilities and impact; however, literature on corporate social responsibility has mainly applied quantitative methods to analyze the environmental dimension of sustainability. By drawing on the stakeholder theory approach (normative vs. instrumental) and through a qualitative narrativ...

Corporate sustainability is a multifaceted concept with different definitions and measures proposed by the literature and the standards. This study aims to develop and validate a scale of corporate sustainability implementation that can face the complexity and multidimensionality of the concept. Specifically, the scale was designed around four dime...

Purpose This study aims to analyse the components of sustainable business models (SBMs) in the dairy industry, in relation to firm-relevant organisational features (size, ownership structure and production process) and through the lenses of the business model framework and the sustainable value exchange matrix (SVEM). This contribution proposes a t...

A benefit corporation (BC) is the legal status of an enterprise that embraces a dual‐purpose business model (BM) of maximising shareholder value while satisfying stakeholders' interests. The literature so far has focussed on the motivations beyond the birth or transformation of BC, the factors that can favour the emergence of BCs, and the results c...

Building on the relevance that sustainable digital platforms and sustainable business models are assuming in both academia and business practice, this paper explores the theme of sustainable business model of digital platforms and, through a literature review, supplies a first classification of digital platforms based on their value proposition.

Certified B Corps (B Corps) are firms characterized by a hybrid purpose and a sustainable business model that combines profit with social impact. Prior quantitative studies on B Corps have mainly analyzed the impact of certification on firm performance, while only a few have tried to analyze the antecedents of certification or high sustainability p...

The Law 208/2015 have introduced in the Italian Law system a new and innovative form of the firm, the benefit corporation. This new approach for doing business favor the implementation of models for profit that at the same time consider the common benefit enhanced in doing business. The number of Benefit Corporation in constantly increasing and rep...

This study examines sustainability implementation in restaurants by theorizing and testing a comprehensive model of antecedents and effects. It represents positive and negative pressures toward sustainability respectively by entrepreneurs’ attitude and barriers to sustainability, while hypothesizing that customer satisfaction and competitiveness me...

Literature on sustainable business models (SBM) has recently emerged and is rapidly expanding. This promising research field is aimed at intersecting traditional business model approaches with corporate sustainability. Most of the research to date has focused on existing case studies or examples of sustainability innovations in business models or o...

Sustainability innovation is often not achievable by a single organisation; even if changes in business operations can lead to great advances towards a more sustainable business model (SBM), the effectiveness of these implementations largely depends on the combined actions of the organisation’s network of partners. The aim of this research is to an...

The sustainable development challenge is increasingly being included in entrepreneurs’ agendas. Firms are considered responsible for social and environmental effects but are also considered as social actors that can effectively incorporate sustainability solutions into market transactions. The literature on corporate social responsibility (CSR) in...

The literature on the subject of corporate social responsibility and environmental management in small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) has theorized about the different factors influencing the propensity of business owners/managers towards sustainability. However, the varying results and some gaps in these previous studies have highlighted the...

Several studies have underlined the importance of including sustainability issues in business models, yet little is known on ways in which to embed stakeholders’ influence in defining and executing firm strategies. In light of this gap, this study inductively develops a framework for stakeholder relationship assessment, which suggests methods to ev...

Objectives: New values are emerging within corporate identities dynamics. New meanings are revealing latest tendencies in strategies and business models, and this phenomenon shows multiple dimensions and new trends in what companies want as part of their identity, such as sustainability, network collaboration and experiential marketing. This paper...

The aim of this study was to analyse the nutritional value of dairy products obtained by two dairy chains of North-East Italy and evaluate their market communication. One farm is located in the lowland and the dairy cows are mainly fed by permanent grass and alfalfa hay; the other is located in highland and the dairy cows have a diet based on hay (...

Sustainability reporting is becoming more and more widespread among companies aiming at disclosing their contribution to sustainable development and gaining legitimacy from stakeholders. This is more significant for firms operating in a public services’ context and mainly when supplying a fundamental public resource, like water utilities. While the...

The contribution of a single firm to sustainable development is largely dependent on the firm's perceptions of the advantages of sustainability strategies and consequent practices. The relationship between corporate social performance and corporate financial performance has been heavily debated, with mixed results. Our research is aimed at defining...

Call for Papers: Education Research International: Special Issue on Performance and Quality Management Challenges in Higher Education

Corporate social responsibility pushes firms to be accountable for their effects on society and the environment, and to be responsive to all groups of stakeholders. The literature has pointed out the unique approach of small firms to social responsibility and human resources, which are considered the most important stakeholder group in this kind of...

Sustainability reporting has been analysed and commented upon from various standpoints. Many studies, starting at the turn of the millennium, have evidenced growing diffusion of social, environmental and sustainability reporting (Kolk, 2003). The percentage of Fortune Global 250 companies presenting corporate responsibility reports in 2015 was 92%...

Corporate social responsibility pushes firms to be accountable for their effects on society and the environment, and to be responsive to all groups of stakeholders. The literature has pointed out the unique approach of small firms to social responsibility and human resources, which are considered the most important stakeholder group in this kind of...

1. Introduction and purpose When sustainability has to be implemented in business practice and management, new opportunities can stem from business model (BM) innovation. The literature has recently highlighted the synergies created by this two fields of research (Boons & Lüdeke-Freund 2013), where real innovation is usually radical and thus could...

In competitive context, every firm needs a strategy, no firm excluded. In competitive context the achievement of goals is not depending just on the way a firm carries out its activities but also, and above all, on the way it carries out its activities compared to what others do. Strategy is about “looking outside” and trying to understand how to co...

This paper sought to explore how the definition of business model (BM) suggested by the Integrated Reporting Framework (IRF) applies to firms that explicitly refer to the framework. This study adopted a content analysis methodology that focused on the most recent integrated reports available on the website of the International Integrated Reporting...

The article presents the results of an empirical analysis on the relationship between exporting and profitability in a sample of 1,231 manufacturing SMEs. A sigmoid relationship between the degree of internationalization, measured by Export Sales Ratio (ESR), and the profitability of the firms (measured by Return on Sales, ROS) is hypothesized. The...

This study explores the exporting-performance (EP) relationship by analysing a sample of 546 Italian manufacturing SMEs for the period 2009–2011. We hypothesise a positive relationship between export intensity and profitability: the data support this hypothesis, verified by an OLS regression in which we control for past performance, size, age, leve...

The contribution of a single firm to the overall sustainability context is largely dependent on its perceptions about the advantages related to its sustainability strategies and consequent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices. The relationship between Corporate Social Performance (CSP) and Corporate Financial Performance (CFP) has been l...

The literature on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has usually depicted Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as organizations with peculiar features differentiating them from large and multinational corporations, so that theories and tools studied for the latter are not always applicable to the former; some authors even challenge the use of the...

Le università italiane hanno vissuto profondi cambiamenti nell’ultimo decennio, essendo state oggetto di riforme legislative che ne hanno rinnovato la governance, gli ordinamenti didattici, la valutazione della didattica e della ricerca, il reclutamento, i sistemi contabili e di misurazione delle performance e le correlate forme di finanziamento. T...

In recent years, Italian universities have undergone deep reform processes that have innovated organisational structures, teachers’ careers and courses. Based on data collected for 75 Italian universities, this study presents a comparative analysis of the efficiency of Italian universities using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique, and at...

In recent years, Italian universities have undergone deep reform processes that have innovated organisational structures, teachers' careers and courses. Based on data collected for 75 Italian universities, this study presents a comparative analysis of the efficiency of Italian universities using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique, and at...

This article presents a matched-pairs analysis of the evolution of performance in firms that have joined a network compared to that of firms not participating in a network. The literature on networks and performance highlights a positive effect of networks on firm survival, growth, and general success. We tested this hypothesis with reference to a...

The literature has mainly concentrated on several and often seemingly contradictory social antecedents of effective innovation in business networks so far. This theoretical diversity stems from views such as the resource dependence theory, the agency theory, the collaborative networks literature, the knowledge network view, the institutional theori...

Le reti di imprese, quale forma di governo delle relazioni alternativa al mercato e alla gerarchia, rappresentano la risposta organizzativa ai rapidi cambiamenti del mercato. Tale forma di aggregazione flessibile consente alle imprese, che nella rete conservano la propria autonomia, di superare i limiti insiti nelle proprie dimensioni, mediante for...

In this paper, we present a novel manner of inter-firm networking that is emerging in Italy, based on the contratto di rete (business-network contract). This is a recently established form of business-network agreement, which allows flexible but institutionally founded inter-firm collaboration. Through a comparative study, we investigate three succ...

This study is aimed at deepening the relationship between networking and firms’ performance, seeking to understand if and to what extent networks’ specific features play a role in the value co-creation process and can affect the performance of firms. By combining qualitative and quantitative methodologies this study focuses its attention on the ‘bu...

This study explores the exporting-performance (EP) relationship by analysing a sample of 1,231 Italian manufacturing SMEs for the period 2009-2011. Following recent developments in internationalization-performance (IP) relationship, based on the three-stage theory (Contractor, Kundu & Hsu 2003; Lu & Beamish 2004), we hypothesized a S-curve EP relat...

The literature on strategic alliances shows what are the antecedents of their performance, considering some behavioural and firm attributes. This paper intends to contribute to the existing literature by investigating how the antecedents blend and contribute effectively to the success of networks in realising those strategic aims not achievable by...

This study analyses the evolution of sustainability reporting in Italian listed companies taking into account some differences between 2002 and 2011 reporting practices. The analysis is aimed at showing the presence of normative and mimetic isomorphic pressures towards sustainability reporting and the use of GRI guidelines, and also at highlighting...

Purpose: The research described in the article has two main objectives. On the one hand, it presents an analysis of Italian universities’ performance in the years 2004-2010, based on the indicators used in the planning law, with the aim of verifying if the new law produced an improvement in the universities’ performance. On the other hand, it criti...

Purpose – This study aims to evaluate the evolution of social and environmental reporting in Italian listed company taking into account the main differences between 2002 and 2011 reports. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a narrative approach to describe the peculiarities found in the two different periods of analysis using a common fr...

The article investigates the diffusion of management control systems in Italian Universities, as a possible appli-cations of New Public Management principles, stressing the differences among universities and trying to discover the existence of a relation between the universities features and the development of the control structure and tools. The...

L’introduzione di sistemi di misurazione delle performance in aziende pubbliche quali le università statali è uno degli effetti della diffusione delle teorie di New Public Management (Hood, 1991), che propongono, tra le altre cose, l’estensione alle aziende pubbliche di pratiche di controllo direzionale tipiche del mondo delle imprese. Negli ultimi...

This paper investigates changes in the performance of Italian universities following the introduction of new three-year planning regulations,based on indicators defined by law. The empirical data show a widespread improvement in performance; this may stem from a general realization of ‘what really counts’ within university management, not only from...

Universities all over the world are experiencing a great push towards managerialism; this process is the result of the application of New Public Management principles and practices, but also the request of national law and regulation: modern universities are expected to manage institutional activities in the light of effectiveness, quality and effi...

Gli atenei italiani stanno vivendo un processo di profondo cambiamento, che tocca, tra le altre tematiche, anche i sistemi contabili e di pianificazione e controllo. Diversi fattori stanno contribuendo, già da alcuni anni, al cambiamento: l’accentuarsi della competizione, il diffondersi di nuove teorie e prassi manageriali e, non da ultimo, l’inevi...

Nell’ambito degli studi internazionali sulla relazione tra accounting and religion, emerge un filone dedicato ad indagare come le rilevazioni contabili degli enti religiosi potessero supportarne la gestione. Il presente contributo, collocandosi in questa matrice teorica di riferimento, propone un’analisi delle caratteristiche della rilevazione nel...

The introduction of planning and control systems in the university management is one of the possible applications of New Public Management studies, which are aimed at extending some management tools, that are typical of business world, to the public sector. The extension depends on the widespread belief that these instruments can ensure, even in pu...

The objective of this project was to investigate the impact of the adoption of international accounting standards (IAS/IFRS) on a company’s performance measurement system (PMS). This study was conducted through a questionnaire sent to Italian companies that drafted a financial statement adopting the new accounting standards. Our analysis showed tha...

This article deals with strategic planning in universities, considering both the legislative requirements and the emerging practices of Italian universities. The first section introduces some general observations in terms of regulatory prescriptions and management implications. Section 2 describes the practices of Italian universities with respect...

The general objective of the research has been the investigation of the impacts of the adoption of IAS/IFRS on the management control systems, that is, the definition of the mutual information relationship that establish between public financial statement and internal control reports. More specifically, this article describes the interaction betwee...

This paper concerns the topic of strategic planning in universities, considering both the normative requirements recently issued by the Italian Minister of Education and the emerging practices in the strategic plans published by the universities. The first section of this paper introduces some general observations in terms of regulatory prescriptio...