Economia Aziendale Research Articles

Ethical Thinking in Traditional Italian Economia Aziendale and the Stakeholder Management Theory: The Search for Possible Interactions

Over the last few years, there has been an exaggeratedly widespread and frequently confused use of the concepts of ‘stakeholder’ and ‘corporate social responsibility’. However, some interesting insights of both these notions can be found in traditional European business administration studies. In this article, the Italian view will be examined. In particular, this paper investigates the teachings of some of the historical masters of the Italian Economia Aziendale (EA), with particular attention to the concept of the azienda, its finalism and its essential characteristics, in order to verify some consistencies with the more recent Stakeholder Management Theory (SMT). Principles and considerations seem to emerge from EA scholars’ seminal works that unequivocally connect ethics with business decisions. EA fits in with SMT in many ways, and the former (EA) seems, moreover, to suggest a specific normative point of view from which the role of ethics in business activities can be approached.

JMG first symposium on emerging issues in management and governance

As announced in the previous Editorial, in this second issue of 2008 we are particularly proud to publish the papers and the respective discussions presented during the First Symposium organised by the Journal of Management and Governance and held at the Catholic University of Milan on 17th October 2007. This First Symposium was entitled ‘‘Emerging Issues in Management and Governance’’. The Symposium was organised as an additional event at the Annual Conference of the Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA). Many authoritative colleagues from prestigious schools and research institutions took part in the Symposium, including invited speakers Prof. Alnoor Bhimani (London School of Economics), Prof. Henry Tosi (University of Florida) and Prof. Randal Morck (University of Alberta). For each paper, the discussants were respectively Prof. Thomas Ahrens (Warwick University), Prof. Igor Filatotchev (City University of London), and Prof. Lorenzo Caprio (Catholic University, Milan). The first JMG Symposium was aimed at offering the participants the time and place to discuss emerging opportunities and the current challenges in the field of management and governance studies. We used the multi-disciplinary approach, which typically characterises our Journal, to develop the discussion. The invited speakers and discussants proposed their own considerations according to their own specific disciplinary perspective. This edition of the Journal is dedicated to the papers, the presentations of the discussants, the debate which emerged during the Symposium, and the reflections which followed during the 6 months of preparations for this issue of the Journal, in which we are pleased to publish the articles of these well reputed scholars and the respective commentaries. We are also proud to offer a greater arena of scientific debate, or rather that of our readers, including the following articles:

Lorenzo de Minico's Thought in the Development of Accounting Theory in Italy: An Understated Contribution

The first decades of the twentieth century were years of innovation for Italian accounting theory: a new scientific approach, the Economia aziendale, was developed and affirmed as the dominant paradigm. Among its main ideas were new concepts of capital and income, strongly influenced by Irving Fisher. The analysis of Lorenzo de Minico's entire scientific output demonstrates that he played a significant role in the ‘revolution’ which history credits almost exclusively to Gino Zappa. A critical methodological issue is confirmed: the lack of completeness in doing accounting history might lead to imprecise or incomplete knowledge of the evolution of accounting. Furthermore, this article tries to demonstrate that the structure of the real economy has played an important role in the assimilation of international theories in Italy, leading accounting theory in that country to be quite far removed from the Anglo-American approach.

Accounting research in Italy: second half of the 20th century

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to offer a concise survey and comparison of Italian accounting research and academic publications during the second half of the 20th century.Design/methodology/approachThe paper discusses the special relation between economia aziendale (business and public economics) and ragioneria (accounting) in Italy. The subsequent discussion on “financial accounting” includes a sub‐section on income‐orientation (vs capital‐orientation), especially important in Italy during this period, and the present crisis of economia aziendale as affecting ragioneria, contributions by major Italian accountants of the period (above all, Onida and Amaduzzi) are discussed. After a section on “cost and managerial accounting” (of less significance in Italy than financial accounting), and a look at “novel accounting trends”, the paper closes with a discussion of some representative historical studies of the period.FindingsThe paper reveals the changing international position of Italian accounting research.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper is limited by selecting the most prominent and relevant contributions among a host of pertinent publications.Originality/valueIn contrast to previous research, the paper offers an integrated survey of major Italian accounting publications of the entire second half of the 20th century.

The Italian economia aziendale and chambers’ CoCoA

At first glance the Italian accounting tradition of Economia Aziendale and Chambers’ system of Continuously Contemporary Accounting (CoCoA) appear extreme opposites. The ex ante financial calculation of distributable income drawing on the net present values of the aggregative net assets in the former, and in the latter a system of accounting for an all‐inclusive income with the separable assets measured in terms of their current cash equivalents, appear irreconcilable, unlikely bedfellows. But the International Financial Reporting Standards present a system using separable and aggregative assets’ fair values and calculations of their net present values in assessing asset impairment. Whether Economia Aziendale and CoCoA are indeed so opposed deserves renewed examination.Anglo‐American accounting, of which expositions of CoCoA are part, is said to lack a business economics tradition of the kind said to justify Economia Aziendale. This stands in stark contrast with European traditions manifested in the Dutch Bedrijfseconomie, the German Betriebswirtschaft, and the Italian Economia Aziendale.This article seeks to understand that absence by contrasting—the Economia Aziendale framework and accounting theory developed in the Anglo‐American tradition. The primary elements of space and time coordination—the lynchpins of the pure theory of the azienda (the core of Economia Aziendale)—are generally regarded as missing in the Anglo‐American tradition. But the original construction of Economia Aziendale leads to the generalization that any attempt to determine a firm's value or to measure and analyse its performance during its lifetime would result in an unacceptable interruption of the space and time coordination, and yield unreliable results.Curiously, the analysis here exposes an unexpected complementarity of Chambers’ CoCoA and some postulates of the pure theory of Economia Aziendale. The theory that has been only partially acceptable to the Anglo‐American profession (namely its use of market [fair] values) emerges as highly compatible with the most theoretically extreme in the Italian tradition.

Comparing institutionalisms

PurposeThe aim of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it discusses first the notion of istituto as it has been developed by Gino Zappa within the Italian research tradition known as economia aziendale. It then proposes a critical comparison between the historical institutional approaches developed by Gino Zappa and John R. Commons. On the other hand, it speculates on the possibility of updating the notion of institution.Design/methodology/approachThe study is first solidly rooted on historical institutional inquiry. Second, it draws on the constructivist epistemology put forth by Edgar Morin, Mauro Ceruti, and Hans von Foerster.FindingsThis paper allows more informed theorizing about the notion of institution since it deepens our understanding of the epistemological, theoretical, and practical “genetic variations” between the institutional perspectives of Zappa and Commons. This body of work is capable to extend its range in time and space to inform a number of present day relevant issues (i.e. the rising debates on corporate social responsibility and the firms' environmental and social reports) and to pave the way to additional research in the direction of a renewed holistic view of the concept of institution.Originality/valueFirst, it is argued that, during the first half of the twentieth century, a somewhat unusual and unexpected convergence occurred, according to which the study of institutions coupled Italy and (part of) the US. Second, in the renewed perspective, the concept of institution becomes the active locus of mediation of multiple viewpoints; the institution turns out to be the catalizing and organizing center of knowledge developed in different disciplinary contexts.

Social accounting in Italy: Origins and developments

Interest in social accounting in Italy initially developed in the mid 1970s but until the early 1990s it remained a principally academic interest. Since about the mid-1990s though, interest in social accounting amongst those in academe, business and the profession has grown significantly and towards the turn of the century some large Italian companies – especially in the energy and telecommunications industries were producing stand-alone social and/or environmental reports (Vicini, 1998). These reporting innovations remained, however, voluntary despite some limited activity in the area of regulation. One important initiative in this more recent period was the formation in 1998 of GBS (Gruppo di Studio per il Bilancio Sociale, a group composed of academics, practitioners, and consultants from different fields), with the aim of formulating a series of standards for the construction and diffusion of social accounts. This article represents an overview of how social accounting has developed in Italy and, in particular, the nature, role and influence of the theoretical framework developed within, what we will define later as, Economia Aziendale. The paper will not be particularly concerned with nomenclature and the term “social accounting” will be used to include the process of collation, preparation and publication of social and environmental information in the form of different social and environmental accounts. For noting only at this stage, generally, in Italy, bilancio sociale, bilancio ambientale, environmental reporting, bilancio di sostenibilita are the more commonly used terms. Some authors, (for example, Bartolomeo 1997 and Cavilli et al 2003) tend to distinguish between bilancio ambientale (considered as an internal management controlling tool) and environmental reporting (considered as an external instrument of communication).

Accounting relativism: the unstable relationship between income measurement and theories of the firm

The knowledge structures underlying accounting representations are rarely investigated and usually tend to be taken for granted. As a case of the problematic knowledge foundations of accounting, we concentrate on one of the most relevant conceptual underpinnings informing the construction of the accounts—the relationship between theories of the firm, accounting theories, and income measurement. In particular we analyse and compare the ways in which this relationship has been conceived and developed in two theoretical contexts, the Italian tradition of Economia Aziendale and the US entity vs proprietary debate. Various and contradictory approaches to the concept of the firm and income calculation in these two theoretical traditions emerge. Such a conceptual variety is what we refer to as ‘accounting relativism’. This is defined here as the co-existence of different accounting representations and measurements, both of which are not objectively rankable in any conceptual hierarchy, because of the incommensurability of their basic assumptions, i.e. of their knowledge bases. This intrinsically ‘unstable’ character of accounting at a conceptual level is likely to have relevant implications, representing a major source of theoretical variety, as well as a premise for making sense of power uses of accounting within organisational settings. ©

Insegnare l'italiano per fini specifici: motivazione e apprendimento cooperativo

L'objectiu de la present comunicació és proposar l'aprenentatge cooperatiu (AC) com a enfocament pedagògic de l'italià per als estudiants d'Economia de l'Empresa, és a dir, per a l'italià com microidioma del comerç i l'economia. En primer lloc, l'adopció d'aquesta metodologia es justificarà des d'un punt de vista teòric, a través d'una breu reflexió sobre les actualitzacions de la metodologia d'ensenyament, en la qual es pot inserir l'AC com a element integrador. En una segona ocasió intentarem aclarir termes i conceptes, indicant algunes referències pràctiques per a organitzar l'entorn didàctic a l'aula. Mitjançant la integració d'enfocaments comunicatius i cognitius, l'AC aborda la necessitat i la responsabilitat d'oferir nous continguts educatius, amb la proposta d'una àmplia gamma d'estructures d'aprenentatge. El professor, per tant, ha d'organitzar plans d'estudi orientats a la formació de sistemes de domini de manera que l'alumne pugui reutilitzar-los no sols en el context escolar, sinó especialment en el professional.

Accounting and Business Economics in Spain

Economía de la Empresa (Business Economics) emerged in Spain as a distinct academic discipline in the second half of the twentieth century. In its early years, Business Economics shared common influences with Accounting, particularly ideas and theories acquired from the translation of Italian and German works on Economia Aziendale and Betriebswirtschaftslehre. However, partly because of the institutional structure of Spanish universities, the two disciplines moved apart. During the Franco regime, Spanish accounting research was quite isolated, and with the return of democracy and the move towards greater European involvement much research was devoted to issues of financial accounting harmonization and standardization. This normative research was of little interest to Business Economics researchers, who were developing analytical approaches grounded in economic theory. More recently, academics working in the two disciplines have drawn on a wider range of theoretical approaches, from empirical studies to behavioural and organizational theory and institutional economics based on agency theory and transaction cost analysis. At present, the disciplines ‘walk separately down the same road’, but the new generation of researchers has the opportunity to bring Accounting and Business Economics closer together from an intellectual and scientific point of view.