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Purpose\ud The chapter builds on the literature of Agency and Signalling Theories to analyse the corporate governance factors associated with the voluntary decision to prepare an Integrated Report according to the International Framework promoted by the IIRC.\ud \ud Methodology/approach\ud The chapter is based on the results of a probit regression run with regard to a sample of 35 companies that joined the Pilot Programme in 2011 and 137 similar companies that did not.\ud \ud Findings\ud The analysis of two samples of European companies reveals that adhesion to the IR Pilot Programme is positively related to the gender diversity and size of the board.\ud \ud Research limitations\ud Further research is required in order to study the differences between listed and non-listed companies in terms of variables affecting the adoption of the Framework and to increase the time range of our study. In addition, it would be interesting to include other variables capturing different aspects other than corporate governance, since the decision to join the Programme, as the results of our analysis have shown, may also be influenced by other factors, such as strategy decisions and communication policies.\ud \ud Originality/value\ud The chapter adds to the existing literature by showing the main governance characteristics that impact the decision to adhere to the IR Pilot Programme. It is also important to the existing literature regarding the role played by gender diversity in corporate governance mechanisms and CSR policies

Fish and other seafood products have a limited shelf life due to favorable conditions for microbial growth and enzymatic alterations. Various preservation and/or processing methods have been developed for shelf-life extension and for maintaining the quality of such highly perishable products. Freezing and frozen storage are among the most commonly applied techniques for this purpose. However, frozen–thawed fish or meat are less preferred by consumers; thus, labeling thawed products as fresh is considered a fraudulent practice. To detect this kind of fraud, several techniques and approaches (e.g., enzymatic, histological) have been commonly employed. While these methods have proven successful, they are not without limitations. In recent years, different emerging methods have been investigated to be used in place of other traditional detection methods of thawed products. In this context, spectroscopic techniques have received considerable attention due to their potential as being rapid and non-destructive analytical tools. This review paper aims to summarize studies that investigated the potential of emerging techniques, particularly those based on spectroscopy in combination with chemometric tools, to detect frozen–thawed muscle foods.

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Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography (UHPLC) coupled with diode array detection (DAD) was applied to improve separation and detection of mono- and bis-glucosyl esters of crocetin (crocins), the main red-colored constituents of saffron (Crocus sativus L.), and other polar components. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimise the chromatographic resolution on the Kinetex C18 (Phenomenex) column taking into account of the combined effect of the column temperature, the eluent flow rate and the slope of a linear eluent concentration gradient. A three-level full-factorial design of experiments was adopted to identify suitable combinations of the above factors. The influence of the separation conditions on the resolutions of 22 adjacent peaks was simultaneously modelled by a multi-layer artificial neural network (ANN) in which a bit string representation was used to identify the target analytes. The chromatogram collected under the optimal separation conditions revealed a higher number of crocetin esters than those already characterised by means of mass-spectrometry data and usually detected by HPLC. Ultra-high performance liquid chromatography analyses carried out on the novel Luna Omega Polar C18 (Phenomenex) column confirmed the large number of crocetin derivatives. Further work is in progress to acquire mass-spectrometry data and to clarify the chemical structure to the newly found saffron components.

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This study investigates the impact of Corporate Social Performance on stock prices of Italian listed companies. The main stream of literature focuses on the relation between CSR and financial performance, showing contradictory results that still feed a debate, which has not yet reached a unanimous and widely shared position. Concerning the selection of the measure of performance, we chose stock prices as a proxy for financial performance, in order to measure the perception and reaction of financial markets to the companies’ socially responsible behaviors. Using different social performance indicators concerning environment, community and employment activities, we found evidence that a good social performance has a negative influence on stock prices in the Italian Stock Exchange Market. This phenomenon is particularly evident if the environmental strategies of the Italian listed companies are considered. Hence, the Italian investors perceive these practices as avoidable expenses reducing shareholders’ income and companies’ value and recognize a negative market premium, in terms of lower stock prices, to socially responsible enterprises. This evidence is consistent with the peculiarities of the Italian capitalism structure, which, because of its backwardness in CSR topics and related issues, seems to be not yet mature enough to evaluate appropriately the value of these policies

Cross-ownership and interlocking directorates are two typical features of Italian capitalism involving both banks and non-financial companies. It is possible to refer to this phenomenon as “bank-firm connection”. The paper investigates the effects of “bank-firm connection” on the conditions of credit relationship. In particular, we find that the “bank-firm connection” lowers the leverage ratio of non financial companies, while it increases their cost of debt.