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Information technology (IT) has become an integral part of an enterprise’s organizational life recently and represents an increasingly important factor for all kinds of organizations, since the services it provides have become almost essential by now for all types of enterprises in the European Union. However, company size and differences at country level might still play an important role in hindering IT adoption. The main reason for writing this article was to analyse IT penetration and usage in Italy and Hungary and find a well-grounded answer to the question of whether IT – in the form of business information systems – is regarded as a source of competitive edge or an essential condition for survival by different enterprises in different countries. To explore this topic, a survey was conducted by submitting an online questionnaire to a sample of Italian and Hungarian enterprises. The results indicate a noticeable difference in the IT development level of the two countries. In Italy information systems in general and systems for managers decision-making are more widespread, thus IT has already reached the level of an essential condition for survival there, whereas it is still seen as a source of competitive edge in Hungary. However, contrary to our initial assumption, the question of competitive edge versus condition for survival depends more on size categories rather than on individual countries.

Questo lavoro esamina i sistemi informativi automatizzati funzionali al supporto delle attività di pianificazione e controllo, allo scopo di verificare se aziende di dimensione diversa registrano tassi di adozione differenti. Inoltre, particolare attenzione viene dedicata alla percezione dei potenziali benefici derivanti dall'adozione di tali sistemi. I risultati confermano la tendenza delle piccole imprese ad utilizzare i sistemi informativi automatizzati soprattutto a livello operativo e poco a sostegno della formulazione delle strategie. This paper aims to understand which types of automated information systems are currently in use among small, medium and large organizations to support planning and control functions. Differences in adoption rates are related to company size. Moreover, different beliefs regarding information systems' benefits are examined. Results confirm small firms' scarce use of information systems in supporting strategic decision making.

Information and its management are critical variables for any type of organization. Since their characteristics change according to the decisional level they are designed to support, this paper aims to understand which type of Information Systems (IS) are currently in use among small and medium enterprises when passing from operational to strategic level. In details, this paper confronts IS adoption between micro, small, medium and large organizations, as well as companies’ beliefs regarding IS functions and benefits. Data have been collected using a web based questionnaire sent to about 500 Italian companies. Results reveal that a smaller size is related to a lower rate of IS adoption in general and to a lower presence of managerial and strategic information systems in particular. The study also contributes to highlight the different role assigned to IS in supporting activities of strategic relevance. Thus it confirms small firms’ scarce use of IS in key decision making processes although the decreasing cost of ICTs.

Considering the strategic relevance of inter-organizational aggregation, this paper aims to analyse how Italian small and medium-sized firms have used the ‘network contract’, a legislative tool recently introduced by the Italian government to sustain company competitiveness. Following aspects are analysed: strategic motives that underlie network formation, type of activities undertaken, characteristics of participant firms, modes of network organization and governance rules. These aspects all contribute to understand network efficacy in promoting small firms development in the long term. The empirical analysis is mainly qualitative in nature: it focuses on three case studies belonging to the mechanical sector. Results indicate that the network contract is a flexible instrument, used to achieve different strategies of growth and long-term objectives, while financial incentives and tax reliefs planned by the Italian government do not represent a sufficient driver for firms’ collaboration.

Considering the strategic relevance of inter-organizational aggregation, this paper aims to analyse how small and medium-sized Italian firms have used the ‘network contract’, a legislative tool recently introduced by the Italian government to sustain corporate competitiveness. The following aspects are analyzed: strategic motives that underlie network formation, type of activities undertaken, characteristics of participant firms, modes of network organization and governance rules. These aspects all contribute to understanding network efficacy in promoting small firms’ development in the long term. The empirical analysis is mainly qualitative in nature: it focuses on three case studies belonging to the mechanical engineering sector. Results indicate that the network contract is a flexible instrument, used to achieve different strategies of growth and long-term objectives, while financial incentives and tax reliefs planned by the Italian government do not represent a key driver to collaboration.

Il saggio è frutto del lavoro da un gruppo di docenti costituito in seno alla SIDREA (Società Italiana Docenti di Ragioneria e di Economia Aziendale) con lo scopo di analizzare e valutare le eventuali nuove prospettive di studio della disciplina economico-aziendale.

In Italy, there is a growing demand for social responsibility in mergers and acquisitions (M&As). Academic and newspaper articles are full of stories about M&As analyzed from the buyer's point of view. But this article looks at the other side of the story-the view of the stakeholders of the selling firm. What are the risks that the buyer transforms, downsizes, or transfers the company to another location? How worried are current company stakeholders about this? And how does this affect a potential buyer's decisions? Should buyers consider local regulations, social norms, culture, and concerns? © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Academic studies on planning and strategic decision-making have traditionally contrasted the technocratic decision-making style with the intuitive-based style (Khandwalla, 1977; Covin et al, 2001; Elbanna, 2010), sustaining that the former leads to better decisions compared to the latter. A technocratic style consists in a highly rational and structured (systematic) process that requires managers to break down a problem into smaller pieces necessary to solve it, search and evaluate relevant objective information, and prefer the use of quantitative tools when assessing and choosing among alternatives (Grünig et al, 2005) . On the contrary, an intuitive style consists in the use “of the mass of facts, patterns, concepts, techniques, abstractions, and generally what we call formal knowledge or beliefs, which are impressed on our minds” (Barnard, cited in Simon, 1987). However, nowadays both styles are necessary. Firms have to rely on both managers' rationality and intuition to make effective decisions because of today's very complex and uncertain environment. Since information and knowledge are at the basis of both decision-making processes, we aim to understand the linkage between knowledge management practices, rationality and intuition, in order to analyse the impact they have on planning effectiveness. To test our hypotheses we developed a conceptual model in which knowledge management practices directly affect rationality, intuition and planning effectiveness. At the same time, we focused on the impact that rationality and intuition have on planning effectiveness. The model was empirically tested on a sample of 169 Italian medium high-tech firms using structural equation modelling (SEM) based on consistent partial least square (PLSc). Results clearly show that knowledge management practices have a positive direct impact on rationality and planning effectiveness. In addition, knowledge management practices provide a strong contribution to intuition, but intuition has no impact on planning effectiveness. This paper enriches existing literature by highlighting the linkage between knowledge management practices and intuition, which has remained under researched in academia. The main limitation of this study concerns the fact that it focuses only on Italian technology-based firms and thus, results cannot be generalized.

This research has two main objectives. It aims to investigate the relation between ICT development and enterprise capacity to generate added value and explore the IT infrastructure of enterprises with reference to Hungary, Slovakia, Italy and Portugal. Data have been obtained from international datasets and an online survey including about 300 enterprises classified into microenterprises, small and medium-sized enterprises, and corporations. With reference to company IT infrastructure, findings indicate that enterprises of the two Southern European countries are more developed in relation to the number of workstations, the use of server-based networks and business information systems regardless of their size. Hungarian and Slovakian businesses hardly seem to use any of these systems. In addition, results suggest that business size does play a role in IT adoption in all examined countries. This implies that policy-makers should pay attention to business size and country-specific conditions as these two factors might affect ICT policy implementation.

Il presente articolo intende fornire una panoramica generale dei primi contratti di rete stipulati in Italia, analizzando le dimensioni delle reti create ed i settori coinvolti, per poi verificare se questo nuovo strumento giuridico č idoneo a favorire lo sviluppo e la competitivitŕ internazionale delle PMI cosě come auspicato dal legislatore. Attraverso l'esame dei contratti riferibili all'industria manifatturiera, gli Autori verificano se gli elementi considerati necessari per il buon funzionamento dei rapporti interaziendali (obiettivi strategici perseguiti, operazioni programmate, organi di funzionamento della rete e risorse finanziarie) sono chiaramente indicati e coerenti con le finalitŕ perseguite, gettando le basi per una riflessione sulla reale efficacia del contratto di rete rispetto allo sviluppo delle aziende di minore dimensione.