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We provide a predictive model specifically designed for the Italian economy that classifies solvent and insolvent firms one year in advance using the AIDA Bureau van Dijk data set for the period 2007–15. We apply a full battery of bankruptcy forecasting models, including both traditional and more sophisticated machine-learning techniques, and add to the financial ratios used in the literature a set of industrial/regional variables. We find that XGBoost is the best performer, and that industrial/regional variables are important. Moreover, belonging to a district, having a high mark-up and a greater market share diminish bankruptcy probability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse empirically the relationship between financial imperfections and firms' innovative activities over the business cycle, using an Italian firm-level dataset based on survey data on innovation and balance sheet information over the period 2004–10. We explore how innovative investment decisions changed prior to and after the credit crunch of 2008, also focusing on the effect of firm' financial vulnerability measured by the Whited and Wu (2006) index (WW index). Results show that the link between innovative expenditure patterns and the business cycle is very weak in the absence of credit restrictions and financial vulnerability. The crisis, per se , and the financial vulnerability, per se , do not change this weak relation. The latter becomes highly pro-cyclical only in one case: when firms are financially vulnerable and have to face tight credit conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using a dataset which combines Community Innovation Survey (CIS) and accounting information on Italian manufacturing firms, we adopt a two step econometric procedure to investigate whether the receipt of public funding determines firms' innovation strategy selection. In the first step an innovation selection equation is estimated, in the second we adopt a bivariate probit model. The main finding is that public funding influences whether firms select the make, the buy or the make&buy strategy, favoring the latter. The composite strategy is the one linked to the build up of absorptive capacity which, according to the empirical evidence, turns out to be associated to a better innovative performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of the article is to provide some evidence on the interconnection between capital structure, R&D investment and ownership concentration using a unique panel data-set of Italian firms. We study the effect of R&D intensity on leverage for two groups of firms which are different in terms of their degree of ownership concentration. Our results suggest for Public Limited Companies, a nonlinear relationship between R&D intensity and leverage, with the latter first increasing and then decreasing. Interestingly, the same result is not found to hold true for Private Limited Companies, which are characterized by a more concentrated ownership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, rapid technological change, shorter product life cycles and globalization have deeply transformed the current competitive environment. These changes are inducing firms to face stronger competitive pressures which push them to develop new products, improve production processes or implement new technologies. Thus, firms need to continually acquire new knowledge and innovate. At the same time, entrepreneurs have become aware that technological innovation is less and less dependent on an isolated effort of an individual firm. For small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), R&D cooperation with sources of external knowledge is becoming increasingly essential for fostering innovation activities. Using firm-level data from the Community Innovation Survey for the years 2006–2008 (CIS 2008) and applying a Heckman probit model with sample selection, we analyze the determinants of cooperative innovation for the different types of partners (competitors, customers, suppliers, universities and government laboratories). Results show that internal and external R&D acquisitions, public financial support, as well as belonging to a scientific sector or to a business group are significant determinants of choice in collaborations, although with different magnitude across various types of collaborations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The paper analyses the interaction between investment and financing decisions in a real option framework. In our model, the owner of an undeveloped real estate property (the asset in place) has the option to decide whether and when to develop/abandon his property. We show that debt financing induces the firm to invest earlier than in the pure equity financing case. Moreover, the incentive to anticipate the investment decisions increases with the amount of debt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]