Alessandro Manello, Greta Falavigna, Eleonora Isaia and Maria Cristina Rossi
The recent literature on corporate governance and gender diversity underlines that those differences may go beyond a pure or direct effect on firms’ performance and in this vein…
Abstract
Purpose
The recent literature on corporate governance and gender diversity underlines that those differences may go beyond a pure or direct effect on firms’ performance and in this vein, this study aims to investigate whether the presence of women in leading positions can affect the credit rating indicators.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors focus on Italian manufacturing firms, as well as small and medium firms (SMEs), that are often under-represented in previous studies, despite their importance in many economies. The authors extract data on directors and top managers as well as rating classes and credit score indicators, and using a fixed-effects model, the authors analyze the relationship between credit risk mitigation and the inclusion of women among top managers, consistently with the rising empirical literature focused on risk perceptions.
Findings
The authors find a significant negative relationship between female participation in top management and credit risk, with a greater impact associated with smaller firms, where the presence of a female top manager might make the difference. The results are robust to different model specifications and estimation strategies, and the authors find different magnitudes of the effects also according to the geographical location of the firm.
Research limitations/implications
Because of the chosen sample of manufacturing firms, the research results may lack generalizability. Therefore, researchers are encouraged to expand the study and test the approach elsewhere.
Originality/value
The authors add new and more robust empirical evidence of a negative relationship between female participation in the top management and credit risk by focusing on the entire population of Italian nonlisted manufacturing firms.
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Giuseppe Giulio Calabrese and Alessandro Manello
This study aims to contribute to the debate on the relationship between board diversity and performance, a hot topic for scholars and shareholders. A number of studies have found…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to contribute to the debate on the relationship between board diversity and performance, a hot topic for scholars and shareholders. A number of studies have found contrasting impacts of board diversity on firm performance and this paper adds new and original evidence in the context of the automotive supply chain focusing on gender, age and nationality diversity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a triple stage empirical analysis. First, the authors use linear models according to different performance indexes for investigating diversity (gender, age and nationality) within the board of directors and executives. Second, the authors investigate the issue of diversity in different contexts such as position in the supply chain, nationality of the owner and family/corporate ownership. Finally, the authors use non-linear models to find a better combination of diversity in terms of gender and nationality for retrieving some managerial implications.
Findings
First, the authors demonstrate a robust positive effect of women in board representation on firm performance in terms of profitability and firm risk. In the case of, age and nationality the results are more equivocal in particular for the former. Second, the authors depict board diversity in different contexts as follows: positioning in the supply chain, type and nationality of the final owner. Again, gender heterogeneity is more adequate in the complex firm as Tier 1 suppliers, corporate and foreign company.
Originality/value
The authors focused the analysis on a specific industry, shedding light on the main specificities linked to operating in certain phases of the supply chain, a substantial novelty in this field. The empirical evidence is based on a very large data set containing quantitative and qualitative information on a representative sample of 1,538 firms operating in the Italian automotive supply chain, one of the most relevant in Europe.
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Alessandro Manello and Giuseppe Giulio Calabrese
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of firms’ survival during crisis in the Italian automotive value chain.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the determinants of firms’ survival during crisis in the Italian automotive value chain.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors propose a survival analysis, based on a dichotomic model, in which supply chain features, technical efficiency (TE) and ratings are included as explanatory variables with other controls.
Findings
TE and financial health positively influence survival. Some supply chain variables are significant such as direct supply, geographical location and outsourcing level, whereas the proximity to the national carmaker is insignificant.
Research limitations/implications
The main limitation of the study is the lack of qualitative data related to supply management practice in the automotive industry.
Originality/value
The study combine supply chain aspects with firms’ survival, TE and financial ratings.
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Stefano Cosma, Alessandro Giovanni Grasso, Francesco Pattarin and Alessia Pedrazzoli
A network of partners helps and assists a crowdfunding platform (CFP) in scouting, assessing and selecting projects. This cooperation increases the number of successful projects…
Abstract
Purpose
A network of partners helps and assists a crowdfunding platform (CFP) in scouting, assessing and selecting projects. This cooperation increases the number of successful projects by attracting a sizable number of investors, proponents and attracting marginal investors when a campaign falls short of the threshold for success. This study examines the role of partner networks in a platform ecosystem, specifically in terms of number of different partners and their diversity in the performance of the crowdfunding campaign.
Design/methodology/approach
Using logistic and linear regressions, we analyze a sample of 233 projects, both funded and not funded, launched by 10 Italian equity CFPs between 2014 and 2018.
Findings
Our findings indicate that the variety of partners in a platform's network influence the probability of campaign success and how much capital the proponent company raises. CFPs are resource-constrained new ventures, and a network with a wider variety of partners ensures the strategic resources and competencies that are required in an early stage market, thus facilitating campaign funding.
Practical implications
The variety of partner networks could help CFPs to offer unique and strategic value propositions and define the competitive positioning of platforms.
Originality/value
This study provides a deeper understanding of the determinants of equity crowdfunding campaign performance by emphasizing the role of CFP's network of partners on the entire crowdfunding ecosystem and its underlying organizational elements.