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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to assess the degree of disclosure about compliance with corporate governance code and the explanations provided by Italian firms and second, to analyze the relationships between this disclosure and different variables of ownership structure.

The sample was composed of 75 non-financial companies listed in Italy in 2016. Content analysis of the corporate governance statement and ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression models were used to test the hypotheses.

Companies tended to comply with the corporate governance code and to disclose this information, but when they decided to not comply, they did not provide adequate explanations. Findings revealed a negative relation between ownership concentration and the disclosure analyzed. Results also highlight that a more equal distribution of shares among larger shareholders is beneficial for disclosure. Moreover, the presence of a dominant financial shareholder at a high level of ownership concentration creates inefficiency of the degree of adherence to the comply-or-explain principle.

This study examines in depth the underexplored issue of “explanation” and exceeds the issue of ownership concentration, which has already been examined extensively, raising the issues of counterweight power and shareholders’ identities, which remain underexplored. In this way, results presented contribute to explaining some causes of the diverse findings that research has found about the relationship between ownership concentration and voluntary disclosure, demonstrating the importance of counterweight power and largest shareholder’s identity. Consequently, when self-regulating initiatives are designed and implemented, legislators, regulators and managers should not ignore the characteristics of the firms’ ownership structure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between ownership concentration and human capital (HC) disclosure released via LinkedIn.

This study uses a quantitative methodology. The sample is composed of 150 European companies. Content analysis was used to examine HC disclosure via LinkedIn. Regression analysis was used to test the hypothesis.

The results indicate that ownership concentration negatively influences HC disclosure via LinkedIn, confirming that closely held firms have little motivation to voluntarily release information.

The main limitation of this study relates to the sample size. Furthermore, this study investigates only the quantity of HC disclosure; it does not consider the quality of this information.

The typical ownership structure of European firms generates a force that opposes the growing pressure for internationalization and global transparency. This important issue needs to be considered in investor decisions, HC management and reporting and in setting accounting standards. Moreover, the study points out that, despite the potential opportunities provided by LinkedIn to build and enforce relationships with their stakeholders, companies mainly use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes.

This study contributes to the literature on HC disclosure because it is, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the first study that exclusively examines HC disclosure by European companies via LinkedIn and because it develops a disclosure index that includes items concerning the stock of knowledge and capabilities of employees in addition to the practices in human resource management.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between ownership structure and firm performance, including judicial system efficiency as a moderator to investigate the joint effects of both explanatory variables. Although prior studies have considered judicial system efficiency by examining de jure investor protection, this study identifies another useful proxy and explores de facto legal protection.

Ordinary least square multiple regression models were used to examine the influence of judicial efficiency, which was measured using the disposition time (DT) and legal origin, as a moderator of the relationship between ownership concentration and firm performance for a sample of 565 non-financial companies listed in Italy, France, Germany and Spain in 2013.

This paper shows that de facto investor protection ensured by an efficient judicial system is relevant to the relationship between firm performance and ownership structure. As a moderator variable, DT strengthens the intensity of this relationship in countries with low judicial efficiency, showing that ownership concentration leads to a better enhancement of firm performance and is, therefore, a more efficient governance mechanism in countries in which investor protection is weak.

The evidence presented expands the understanding of the link between firm performance and ownership structure. The institutional deficiencies suggest that internal governance mechanisms may substitute for external mechanisms in facilitating efficient governance. This study corroborates policymakers’ concerns regarding the efficiency of judicial systems and their role in protecting the rights of minority shareholders. The results suggest a need for more efficient external mechanisms of investor protection to facilitate investment in equity capital. Moreover, this study shows that DT is a more accurate measure of investor protection than the traditional measure of de jure legal protection.

This paper aims to provide a better understanding of self-organised cruiser’s expenditures, analysing the effect of city interface satisfaction (CIS) on total monetary impact on land (TMIoL) for cruisers travelling without touristic guide and investigating the size of cruise ships, such as those labelled super-sized ships (SSSh), as a moderator variable.

The study was conducted through an interview-based semi-structured questionnaire administered to 812 self-organised cruisers visiting one of main ports of call in the Mediterranean region.

The findings highlight that CIS positively influences TMIoL; the relationship is moderated by SSSh; age, cruise experience and time on land are confirmed to be critical predictors of cruiser’s expenditures in the tourism destination.

The increase in cruiser flows and vessel sizes has a significant economic and non-economic impact on cruise destinations. More players are involved in the value creation process and its sharing, such as port destinations, local governments and cruise liners. Value measurement and knowledge of its determinants (e.g. port facilities, destination attractiveness, cruiser satisfaction and experiences) are essential, in terms of competitiveness, for practitioner’s decision-making processes and scholars interested in analysing the cruise phenomenon. This paper contributes to the existing literature as it provides results concerning value creation that is not managed by any one single player, such as cruise companies, port destination or local government. Such knowledge can be useful above all for local governments because self-organised cruisers visit the city destination not as cruise tourists but as land tourists.

Fundamental management innovations have been ideated and developed in the automotive industry. Over the years, carmakers have radically modified their innovation strategies. Currently, carmakers are increasingly adopting open innovation approaches, moving from a closed to open innovation paradigm. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the evolution of the innovation activities performed by carmakers and to propose an original periodisation of innovation strategies in the automotive industry since its origins.

This paper analyses the relevant literature and proposes a theoretical framework that defines how innovation strategies have changed from the birth of the automotive industry to current times. A detailed in-depth case study of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA), one of the top ten global carmakers, is used to corroborate the theoretical framework. The case study reconstructs the entire evolution of the innovation strategies of the company from its origins to the present day.

The paper proposes an original periodisation by identifying three evolutionary phases of innovation strategies pursued by carmakers: “internal innovation”, “collaborative innovation” and “towards open innovation”. Each phase embraces a historical period, and for each period, the most relevant managerial aspects, as well as the types and direction of knowledge flows for fostering innovation, are analysed. The case study provides clear evidence that FCA has undergone the three above-cited phases in fostering its innovation strategies.

The study reconstructs the evolution of the innovation strategies performed by global carmakers, proposing an original periodisation of the transitions that occurred in practice in the automotive industry. This paper is among the first to explore the evolution of innovation strategies in the automotive industry since its origins to date and to highlight the salient differences that have occurred over time.

Sustainable development involves companies on an individual, organizational and social level requiring the adoption of business models or innovations capable of privileging the co-creation of mutual value with a view to sustainability. From an organizational perspective, this paper aims to show that knowledge brokers, by making explicit their roles as mediators of interactions and acting on dynamic capabilities (DCs), can generate a proactive approach to the three dimensions of sustainability and specifically allows capabilities to positively impact the propensity toward sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices.

This study offers an empirical analysis of 200 companies in the agro-food sector participating in a knowledge brokerage system activated by protection consortia. It uses a multiple regression technique that allows for observing relationships between DCs and SSCM.

Absorptive, adaptive and innovative capabilities, when understood and brokered, have a positive and direct impact on the SSCM.

As there have rarely been frameworks developed that correlate knowledge brokerage, DCs and sustainability, this paper suggests that DCs, when adequately valued by the knowledge broker, allow for identifying the requirements of the various stakeholders regarding sustainability and changes in market scenarios to generate sustainability practices along the supply chain.