Vincenzo Scafarto

This study empirically examines the impact of digital transformation (DT) on firm environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance using data from Italian listed companies for the year 2023. It also investigates whether board gender diversity has a moderating role in this association. To date, only a handful of empirical studies have examined the moderating role of board gender diversity between DT and corporate ESG performance, and their findings are mixed. This paper is an attempt to bridge this gap. The empirical findings indicate that: 1) DT has a significant positive impact on corporate ESG performance, and 2) board gender diversity strengthens the positive impact of DT on ESG performance. This result diverges from previous research, which suggests that board gender diversity has a negative moderating effect between DT and ESG performance. This study challenges these previous findings and suggests instead that board gender diversity may enhance a firm’s ability to reap ESG benefits from DT.

The digitalization of processes in healthcare sector firms is expected to reduce costs, improve the quality of healthcare service, customer care experience, and patient safety, and attain efficiency and efficacy in project implementation. This research investigates the impact of digitalization on the financial performance of healthcare-sector firms in the European Union. The study also examines whether a firm’s intellectual capital efficiency mediates the process of digitalization’s impact on a firm’s financial performance. Using a sample of 965 firm observations from 2017 to 2021, we find that digitalization positively affects financial performance. Further analysis suggests that capital-employed efficiency fully mediates the relationship between digitalization and firm performance. Partial mediation is also reported for intellectual capital efficiency, human capital efficiency, and structural capital efficiency in the process of digitalization impacting firm performance. These findings provide fresh insight into how digitalization impacts a firm’s financial performance, establishing intellectual capital efficiency as a mediating mechanism that may explain this impact.

Environmental sustainability as a pillar of corporate sustainability has gained increasing prominence in policy and academic discourses (Birindelli, Iannuzzi, & Savioli, 2019). The rise of regulatory frameworks, combined with stakeholder pressures to discourage actions that are harmful to the community and the environment, are driving companies to respond to the increased demand for environmental sustainability as a means to enhance their reputation and sustain their business over time. The results of this study may contribute to a better understanding of the role of board gender diversity in corporate environmental sustainability, outlining the current state of research and providing an agenda for future research.

Research question: In this study we empirically test the following hypotheses regarding the impact of financial fair play (FFP) on Italian first-division clubs: 1) FFP works as a governance mechanism moderating the relation between internal governance mechanisms and wage expenditures, 2) FFP is altering the relative importance of player expenditures as drivers of sporting performance, and 3) FFP is shifting the business model of Italian clubs leading to a more efficient decision-making on player transfers. Research methods: Using 165 club-year observations from 2007 to 2017, we jointly model the determinants of wage expenditures, sporting results and financial performance via a simultaneous equation approach. The impact of FFP is estimated by interacting a dummy variable for FFP with the key explanatory variables of each model. Results and findings: Empirical results show that FFP has 1) a negative effect on the relation between wages and sporting results, 2) a positive effect on the relation between net transfer fees and sporting results, and 3) a positive effect on the relation between gains on player trading and financial performance. Implications: Overall results suggest that FFP is altering the business model of Italian clubs from an investment-focused (wage spending) to a more efficiency-driven one that is geared to make gains from player trading. Accordingly, club managers should commit to creating sustainable cycles of player transfers in order to thrive under the new regulatory environment. As for regulators, this study supports the notion that FFP restores efficient managerial incentives in football businesses, reinforcing the case for a full implementation of the regulation.