Public value (PV) measurement in public, private, and hybrid organisations can quantify the balanced increased level of multidimensional well-being of a specific community in a certain period, making it visible and manageable. Although different views on the possibility of measuring PV remain, a specific methodology to measure and account the PV created has not been enough investigated in the literature. This research aims to contribute to the debate regarding methodological drawbacks when we embed impact indicators in management accounting systems for PV measurement and accounting. The framework of the PV pyramid can help to systematise dimensions of tangible and intangible assets, performances, and impacts towards the horizon of PV through the definition of appropriate key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are aggregated in composite indices (CIs) which aim to synthesise a complex phenomenon through a single measure. This chapter relies on a single case study methodology for PV calculation represented by an important Italian Zooprophylactic Institute.3 The contribution of this chapter lies in the conceptualisation of a managerial tool that enables policymakers and managers to visualise and quantify the different dimensions of performance or impacts through composite indicators that account for the created PV. In this sense, the PV pyramid can serve as the starting point of performance planning, which is aimed at the PV creation, and the ending point for its measurement. Finally, the PV pyramid may be also relevant for citizens, and other stakeholders, helping to improve the level of accountability of organisations.

The relationship between Public Value (PV) and organizational effectiveness as a driver is anecdotal at best. In this article, the authors present evidence of this relationship to support managers and policy-makers to focus on achieving the PV that will improve citizens' wellbeing. The academic literature on Public Value (PV) is growing rapidly: examining what PV really is, and how it can be conceptualized, measured, and visualized. However, we are still largely in the dark about what drives PV and its determinants. This article looks at the relationship between organizational effectiveness and the creation of PV in terms of citizens' wellbeing. The empirical results show a positive statistical relationship. This research contributes to the academic debate regarding the possibility of combining the concepts of PV, sustainability, and wellbeing at the local level to improve the effectiveness of public services.

Il lavoro propone una sistematica valutazione economica di due importanti e recenti interventi di politica economica (i cosiddetti “bonus facciate” e “superbonus 110%”) con i quali sono state introdotte generose agevolazioni fiscali per ristrutturare e riqualificare il patrimonio edilizio privato italiano. I risultati della nostra analisi considerano le due misure meritevoli negli obiettivi, ma criticabili nella progettazione e nelle modalità di attuazione per gli effetti negativi in termini di spesa, efficienza ed equità. Il lavoro si conclude discutendo alcuni suggerimenti correttivi delle due misure adottate.

Considering the remarkable historical, artistic, monumental, demoethno-anthropological, archaeological, archival and national library heritage, in order to improve the management and safety of places of culture, it becomes essential to focus attention on the new 6G technology which will allow the fusion of digital world with the physical world capable of transmitting huge amounts of data and information in seconds. The places of culture (archaeological areas, archaeological parks, museums, monuments, archives, libraries), like other built places, thanks to 6G technology and its flexibility, versatility, sustainability, reliability, will be able to become completely interconnected.

Purpose This paper investigates the role of boundary objects and boundary work in the integration of risk management (RM) and performance management (PM) systems. In particular, the paper combines theoretical insights with an empirical focus to examine how shared contexts are created through the boundary work performed by key actors across knowledge boundaries. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops an exploratory qualitative case study from a local government context. The methodology is based on document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Findings Boundary objects can act as knowledge integration mechanisms, allowing key actors to understand the meanings and uses of RM and PM practices. The paper shows how collaborative versus competitive boundary work exerted by key actors can explain the creation of shared contexts leading to integration between RM and PM. Originality/value The results contribute to the debate about the integration of RM with other managerial systems. Differently from previous research, the integration theme is addressed in the present work by looking specifically to the integration between RM and PM. In doing so, the role of both boundary objects and the boundary work performed by relevant actors to demarcate their legitimacy and autonomy over preferred practices is portrayed.

This paper investigates the effects of a retreat from global economic integration on the European regional production network for the period 2000-2010. We find that production has become increasingly fragmented, although the degree of heterogeneity across regions is substantial. This heterogeneity is also present in the direct and indirect effects of three different deglobalisation scenarios that we simulate. Our results show that deglobalisation generates winners and losers. Specifically, two groups of regions emerge; regions that would benefit from a return to a less integrated world, and regions that would instead gain from a strengthening of the European production network.

This paper studies an age-based lockdown that keeps over-60 workers at home as policy response to COVID-19 pandemic in a sample of thirty countries of the European single market. Three main policy issues are addressed, and the results can be summarized as follows. First, age-based lockdown policies are associated with limited output losses and, therefore, are an efficient strategy to limit the spread of the virus in a pandemic, especially in presence of strong age-dependent fatality rates. Second, lockdown policies generate substantial spillover effects; hence, international policy coordination avoiding that too many countries are in lockdown contemporaneously or that such coordination takes place across the countries with the highest integration of over-60 workers along GVCs may be helpful in reducing disruptions. Third, non-targeted lockdowns are much more costly than age-based ones; therefore, other things equal, age-based policies should always be preferred to non-targeted ones. Our analysis also suggests that, in our sample, the over-60 workers are relatively more numerous in sectors where the value added and the integration in GVCs is lower; this feature should be kept in mind in the design of other policies as it might play an important role.

We examine how banking supervisors affect credit at the local level by charging fines to individual banks. Using a macro approach to capture the direct effect on the fined bank and the indirect effect on the other banks operating in the local credit market, we estimate reputational, reallocation and balance sheet effects on Italian provinces over the period 2005–2016 by a fixed effects model and instrumental variables. Provincial gross bank loans expand after a fine independently of its size. The impact of fine frequency depends on the size of the provincial banking sector, but neither on bank governance/ownership nor crises. No statistically significant evidence supports reputational or balance sheet effects. Instead, our results suggest that it would behoove bank supervisors to favor frequency over size of bank fines. Bank fines seem to work more like a good housekeeping seal of approval, enhancing transparency and effective banking practices.

La finalizzazione del ciclo della performance delle aziende sanitarie verso il Valore Pubblico (VP) puo rappresentare una via per superare il trade-off tra efficientamento e miglioramento degli impatti socio-sanitari. Il paper intende esplorare l'adeguatezza degli strumenti di sistematizzazione, programmazione e rendicontazione della performance delle aziende sanitarie, documentabile tramite la presenza di informazioni di performance utili a supportare la governance delle stesse verso la generazione di VP. I risultati dell'analisi documentale fotografano una presenza non ancora adeguata degli elementi di performance governance nei documenti di sistematizzazione, programmazione e rendicontazione delle performance di 13 aziende sanitarie della Regione Emilia- Romagna indagate e la necessita di approfondire il dibattito scientifico sul concetto di VP nella letteratura.

Purpose Risk management (RM) is receiving increasing academic and practitioner attention in the public sector. Despite this, there is a lack of systematization of this body of knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the state of art by examining the knowledge gaps and defining the emerging themes of RM in the public sector to guide future research agendas. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted a structured literature review (SLR). They analyzed 63 papers, by using Scopus database, published from 1990 to 2018. All papers were categorized and analyzed according to 11 criteria defined by the literature. Findings Results show that there is an increasing attention to RM with a need for more effort to consolidate research knowledge. Findings also established a lack of theorization, with a limited explanatory capacity of most studies. The paper defined four main areas for future developments to increase the body of knowledge. Namely, RM and managerial systems (i.e. MCSs and performance management), integrating RM systems and the building blocks of RM that the authors identify will also play a role in helping the authors to understand the diffusion of RM within public sector organizations. Originality/value Despite the increasing attention to RM in the public sector, more research is required. Considering RM in public sector risks to be a “black box”, this paper revealed some new insights that could help to analyze better RM in the public sector, to open the black box and to avoid a symbolic use of the RM. In fact, integration with the managerial systems and the strengthening of the building block could help to exploit the potential of RM in the public sector.

Introduction: The paper considers the case of the University of Ferrara during the Fascist regime (1922-1943) and investigates the use of accounting practices in the government's attempt to achieve control of the organisation. Aim of the work: The study seeks to document how accounting practices can be enlisted to subjugate institutions that had traditionally enjoyed significant inde-pendence from governments and pursue the ideological programmes of dominant elites. Methodological approach: The paper is based upon primary sources gathered from the historical archive of the University of Ferrara. Their interpretation has been guided by the literature that has explored the connections between ac-counting and the State. Main findings: Accounting ensured that key information on the University could be gathered by the government. It also helped to make visible the need of the University to rely on government funding when Fascist policies had the effect of "starving" the organisation of funds, which caused the University to accept pene-trating controls by the State. Originality: The paper has broadened the compass of research into the interrela-tion between accounting and State power by considering an under-research context and documenting the role of accounting in controlling institutions that were essential to the achievement of political goals.

This paper investigates the role of the domestic value chain in transmitting the economic impact of Covid-19 lockdown measures. By employing techniques of complex networks analysis and input–output traditional tools, the study identifies those sectors that are key in the complex structure of the Italian supply chain and provides different rankings of the most 'systemically important' industries involved in the Covid-19 lockdown. The results suggest that by stopping the production process of many key sectors, the lockdown has led to a drop in input and output that, in turn, has generated a lock of about 52% of total circulating value added, 30% of which has been locked within indirect value chains. Further, by adding sectoral physical proximity indexes to the scenarios analysis, the method developed here provides a tool to guide governments in designing safe and efficient reopening policies.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role and impact of accounting within the fragmented field of public value theory literature. Design/methodology/approach The work develops a structured literature review (SLR) and seeks to shed light on the state of public value research, with particular emphasis on the role of accounting scholarship. Findings The lack of empirical research and the limited number of accounting papers reveal how accounting scholars need to achieve a deeper understanding of the public value conceptualization, creation and measurement process. Originality/value The paper develops the first wide-ranging SLR on public value accounting. It is a starting point to develop new research avenues, both in the fields of accountability/external reporting, and management accounting and performance management.

This paper addresses the wage returns to interregional mobility among Italian Ph.D workers. We control for selection bias in both migration and occupation choice by estimating a double sample selection model. While OLS estimates indicate a positive wage premium of mobility across all types of occupations examined, wage equations estimated by correcting for double sample selection evidence a wage penalty for movers within academia, no effects for movers carrying out R&D activities but positive returns if they work within the industry sector. The selection process appears to be stronger when mobility choice is considered in comparison to the choice of occupation.

The Madia’s Reform about performance evaluation started a new season for the Italian Ministries in this topic, boosted by the Guidelines prepared by the Com-missione Tecnica per la Performance and issued by the Dipartimento della Funzione Pubblica. The has two main goals: 1) the former is to measure the quality of the performance plans for the years 2018-2020 in 6 experimental Ministries, enabling a comparison with the ones adopted in the years 2017-2019; the latter 2) is to investigate the enabling conditions for their useful adoption in the decision-making processes from the public management perspective. Briefly, the paper investigates whether a change from a performance bureaucratic approach to a useful performance management approach happened in the 6 Experimental Ministries regarding 2017-2019 and 2018-2020 performance plans. The work aims to answer the two questions by adopting an action research approach in a multiple case study research.

Recognising the dynamic character of the exercise of power, this study analyses the complex interplay between power and resistance, as conceived by Foucault, after the Italian Fascists sought to subjugate all Italian universities. When the University of Ferrara, a ‘Free University’, resisted the government’s intentions, which would also have meant restricting access to higher education to working class youth, accounting practices became essential in providing justification for the government’s actions. In response, the University was forced to use accounting practices as its main form of defence. This resulted in the government having to use different tactics to achieve its final goals. If resistance is met by governments in the implementation of their programmes this may require a shift in the tactics originally employed to achieve the planned outcomes. Greater demands were placed on the funders of the University and changes were made to how the University’s performance was represented, interpreted and evaluated by the means of accounting practices. In the power struggle, accounting played different roles in the service of conflicting objectives, ranging from concealing the interested nature of political action, demonstrating the achievement of financial stability and self-sufficiency, providing legitimacy or ensuring the use of resources consistent with the aims of those who exercised power. So persuasive was the action enabled by accounting information that the State was finally able to gain control of the University without making it a ‘Kingdom University’, and hence seeming to preserve the appearance of independence almost until the end of the Fascist regime.