E&MFLASH

2025-12-15 Donato Masciandaro

Cash and digital money: beware the Stockholm syndrome

The digital euro is a public investment that needs to be made as soon as possible. Europe must maintain both physical and digital euros. The rationale is straightforward: the less public money is used, the greater the risk of becoming hostage to private and foreign monies – often without realizing it, and even inadvertently encouraging them. This is a kind of Stockholm syndrome, and it is precisely what is happening in Sweden. The only institution sounding the alarm is the central bank, while politicians have so far ignored the issue. Is this a case of regulatory capture? The starting point ...

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2025-12-09 Yingying Zhang-Zhang

The power of shared ideas: IFSAM’s journey in a book

A living archive of global academic collaboration, a tribute to intellectual kinship, and a call to action for the future of management scholarship. The IFSAM 35th Anniversary Memory Book is far more than a commemorative publication. Edited by Yingying Zhang-Zhang and Nic Beech, the volume gathers approximately 40 reflections from nearly 50 scholars across five continents, each offering a distinctive lens on the evolution, impact, and aspirations of the International Federation of Scholarly Associations of Management (IFSAM). A Federation Rooted in Diversity and Dialogue Founded in 1990 with the ...

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2025-12-05 Massimo Aielli

Understanding costs to make better decisions

To measure costs effectively, it is essential to understand their possible alternative classifications and determine which items to consider and how to include them in measurement processes. Although each company may organize its costs differently, it is still possible to identify several typical categories observable across all firms, and these can therefore be regarded as the most common classifications. First, cost elements can be distinguished as either variable or fixed. Variable costs change in proportion to production and sales volumes, while fixed costs do not vary in their total amount ...

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2025-11-24 Partha Dasgupta

Managing nature’s portfolio: why natural capital really matters

Whether as farmers or fishers, foresters or miners, households or companies, governments or communities, we manage the assets to which we have access, in line with our motivations as best as we can. But the best each of us can achieve with our individual portfolios may nevertheless result in a massive collective failure to manage the global portfolio of all our assets. We are like a crowd of people, each of us trying to keep balance on a hanging bridge, only to bring it crashing down. How would you know whether you are managing your portfolio of assets well? What rule would you follow? For simplicity, ...

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2025-11-17 Andrea Beltratti, Alessia Bezzecchi

Financial education: what national project?

Italy does not rank among the top countries for financial literacy according to OECD statistics. But is there enough awareness in our country that financial education is important for individuals and for the economy as a whole? We have been talking about financial education since at least the mid-1990s, so this is not a new emergency that we haven’t had time to address. How is it possible that after thirty years, Italy is still behind on a topic that concerns our vast financial wealth? What are the essential elements for launching a truly impactful national project? What kind of financial education? – ...

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2025-11-10 Francesco Perrini, Stefano Pogutz

Sustainability under attack: the green challenge between data and disinformation

For years, science has shown that climate change is real and driven by human activity. Recent news confirms that we have already crossed seven out of nine planetary boundaries that keep our planet in balance. Johan Rockström, Director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, warns that we are jeopardizing the stability of Earth’s entire life-support system – vital for our prosperity and well-being. Against this backdrop, global warming remains a pressing emergency. Several recent studies have shown new plant species appearing even at higher latitudes, where rising temperatures ...

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2025-10-30 E&M Plus

Navigating Uncertainty: the Impact of Geopolitics on Business

How can businesses not only survive but thrive in an increasingly fragmented and unpredictable global landscape? How can systemic risks be turned into competitive advantages and opportunities for strategic innovation? And how can leaders anticipate – rather than merely react to – the major transitions of our time? On Monday, December 1, 2025, at 5:00 PM CET, these questions will take center stage in the second TalkSpace webinar by Economics & Management, titled “Navigating uncertainty: how geopolitics is reshaping business strategy.” The discussion will feature: • Bill Browder, entrepreneur ...

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2025-10-29 Marianna Bartiromo, Lauretta Filangieri, Antonella Pirro Ruggiero

Social Return On Investment: Measuring the Impact of ESG Initiatives

The last five years have seen a tenfold upsurge in the efforts of companies to undertake sustainability pathways, in keeping with the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as part of the 2030 Agenda. These initiatives range from interventions to encourage greater respect for the environment and/or discourage polluting behaviors, to paying more attention to people, with a particular focus on DEIA issues (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility). But to achieve stable effects over time, sustainability must become systemic ‒ truly pervasive in strategic ...

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2025-10-24 Gianmarco Ottaviano

Geoeconomics and protectionism: the harsh law of the hammer

The trajectory of globalization shows that international trade does not follow a linear or irreversible path, but reflects a fragile balance among economic interests, political power, and conflicting ideological visions. After decades of market liberalization and faith in the multilateral institutions born after World War II, today’s global economic order is undergoing profound transformation. The idea of universal cooperation is giving way to bilateral and regional logics, while borders, mistrust, and geopolitical rivalries re-emerge. The multilateral framework that had ensured stability and ...

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2025-10-16 Franco Gabrielli, Elisabetta Trinchero

Public leadership and the culture of safety: beyond emergency management

The world around us is, by definition, more complex than any model we use to make sense of it. […] In this systemic context, public leadership is called to radical transformation. It is no longer enough to be skilled administrators or efficient decision-makers. What is needed is the ability to interpret and steer change, to be architects of meaning, weavers of trust and relationships. This is a form of leadership that not only reacts to events but anticipates them, turning them into opportunities for learning and institutional innovation. Sensemaking and meaning making succinctly capture this ...

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