No abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to unpack the underlying mechanisms of entrepreneurs' passion, orientation and behavior by investigating the role of rational and nonrational cognitive elements. Building on dual process theory and sociointuitionism, a conceptual model is proposed in order to explore the relationship between entrepreneurial passion, entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and strategic entrepreneurship behavior (SEB). Specifically, entrepreneurs' linear thinking styles (System 2) and nonlinear thinking styles (System 1) are hypothesized as being significant moderators of such a relationship.Design/methodology/approachCovariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) is used to empirically validate the proposed conceptual model and test the moderating hypotheses on a sample of 300 entrepreneurs actively involved in European small and medium enterprises (SMEs).FindingsEntrepreneurial passion is shown to be a significant antecedent of EO, which, in turn, strongly influences SEB. Moreover, entrepreneurs' linear thinking style positively moderates the EO-SEB relationship, but not the link between passion and EO. Instead, a nonlinear thinking style positively moderates the relationship between passion and EO, but not the links between EO and SEB.Practical implicationsEntrepreneurs should trust their nonlinear thinking style – related to affective/emotive and intuitive information processing systems – to foster the effect of their entrepreneurial passion on EO. Furthermore, entrepreneurs should rely on a linear thinking style, namely the rational and deliberative cognitive processes, to enhance the impact of their EO on SEB.Originality/valueDual process theory and sociointuitionism are integrated to simultaneously investigate the effect of nonrational and rational cognitive mechanisms on entrepreneurs' orientation and behavior. Moreover, the proposed model is empirically tested on a sample of entrepreneurs working in SMEs located in Europe, which have received little attention from entrepreneurship scholars in comparison to their US counterparts. The authors’ findings suggest important implications for entrepreneurs, policymakers and entrepreneurial universities educators.

This paper presents a thorough investigation of how corporate crises are managed in the Italian context. It offers an investigation of the legal, accounting, finance and managerial aspects that are involved in the formal resolution of the crisis. The paper adopts a qualitative methodology consisting in a critical review of both the academic and the practical literature to present a systematic overview of how recovery plans are executed, monitored and their performance analysed. The paper presents important insights for researchers, practitioners, entrepreneurs and managers interested in crisis management.

The manifold recent reform acts of bankruptcy law in Italy are more clearly oriented towards preserving the going concern of firms, besides granting the par condicio among creditors. Companies have broader opportunities to plan the restructuring, with the constraint of making it advantageous for creditors. In this context, the role of the independent attester is of prime and increasing importance to assure that the restructuring plan pursues creditors' and stakeholders' interests.This paper presents insights from both the authors' practical experiences and the review of the literature. It is addressed to managers, practitioners and scholars, interested in understanding turnarounds in the Italian context. The specificities of the attester's activity in analysing the data truthfulness and the feasibility of the recovery plan are deeply analysed. The article has a qualitative value and is based on a normative methodological approach, which links bankruptcy law with crisis management and auditing. The result is a systematic model of the attestation process.

Using a and a unique set of Italian non-listed Unlikely to Pay (UTP) positions, that consist in the phase that precedes the insolvency but where it is still possible for the company to succeed in restructuring, this paper aims to analyze the relationships between corporate governance characteristics and financial distress status. We compare the performance of corporate governance variables in predicting corporate defaults, using both the Logit and Random Forest models, which previous researchers have deemed to be the most efficient machine learning techniques. Our results show that the use of corporate governance variables – especially with regards to CEO renewal and stability in the composition of the board of directors – increases the accuracy of the Random Forest technique and influences the success of the turnaround process. This paper also confirms the Random Forest technique’s ability to significantly outperform the Logit model in terms of accuracy.