Archive

2025-01-20 Gianmarco Ottaviano

Italy's Economic Future: What Exports Reveal

Financially speaking, whether exports exceed imports or vice versa is generally insignificant. Exports represent surplus goods and services that cannot be absorbed domestically and that our trade partners kindly accept in exchange for goods and services we lack. When exports surpass imports, we effectively extend credit to foreign customers; when the reverse happens, we take on debt with them. Sometimes it is better to lend, other times to borrow. As long as debts are eventually settled, exports and imports hold equal importance. So, why is discussing exports in Italy so important? There are several ...

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2025-01-14 Lorenzo Diaferia, Leonardo Maria De Rossi, Gianluca Salviotti

Exploring the Market and Understanding AI Applications

This phase marks the initial step toward embracing AI. Ideally, the analysis of how to integrate technology into a company should stem solely from business needs, opportunities, and objectives. The ultimate goal should be solving a problem, which will dictate the choice of technology. However, from a pragmatic perspective, technology cannot be utilized without understanding its potential. Therefore, it is crucial to begin with mapping and analyzing the external market environment. One effective method for external market monitoring is conducting exploratory scouting. A technology scouting process ...

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2025-01-07 Severino Meregalli

Creating Value with AI: Post-Digital Business Strategies

Since 2022, artificial intelligence (AI) has firmly established itself as a central topic on the innovation agendas of companies across a wide range of industries. From the first months of the launch of generative AI tools with easy-to-use interfaces targeting the consumer market, the scale of this phenomenon has been clear. OpenAI's ChatGPT, for instance, counted 100 million users within two months of its debut, becoming the fastest growing digital service ever. Fast forward to 2024, and the market’s overall focus on generative AI is unmistakable, as evidenced by the upsurge in investments ...

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2024-12-23 Sandro Castaldo

In Search of Impact

How can we improve the impact of scientific research on management practice and create real value for business and society, while avoiding the “ivory tower” isolation effect of academia? This question is one of the overarching challenges facing many of today’s management disciplines. Indeed, the most innovative and rapidly developing economies are the ones that are able to produce high-impact research. For this reason, the need for a closer dialogue between academic research and management practice is now widely recognized, not only by academics and research centers, but also by European ...

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2024-12-20 Andrea Beltratti e Alessia Bezzecchi

Real Estate Securitizations 7.2: Benefits for Corporate Finance

Europe is undergoing a gradual transition that is reshaping the relationship between financial resources provided by intermediaries and those raised from the markets. As noted by President Draghi a decade ago, the financing landscape in Europe was significantly different from that in the United States, with intermediaries dominating the European continent and markets prevailing in the US. The bank-centric model proved to be less resilient during the crisis of peripheral countries, where the need to recapitalize banks led to credit tightening, which disproportionately affected small and medium-sized ...

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2024-12-16 Fanny Nardi

Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Networking: The Growth Engine of a Startup

The story of AWMS is that of a startup that, within just a few years, transformed an innovative idea into a thriving business, culminating in its strategic acquisition by the Zucchetti Group, a leader in software solutions in Italy. What might seem to be “just” a case of technological growth is, in fact, a lesson in entrepreneurship, strategic vision, and networking - one that can inspire anyone striving to turn a startup into a leading player in a competitive market. From idea to realizationFounded in 2019, AWMS emerged from a collaboration with Electrolux, a Swedish multinational, to address ...

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2024-12-13 Giuliana Bensa, Giovanni Fattore

Artificial Intelligence and the Administrative Side of Public Healthcare

There is no doubt that technological innovation in the digital domain is accelerating, and that applications of artificial intelligence (AI) could have a profound impact on society. The future holds the prospect of a different way of life from the one we know today, with potential changes in the way we are citizens (e.g., how we engage in political life or use public services), consumers (digital marketing, already a reality, will continue to evolve), and workers (we can expect further automation and a major redefinition of job skills). While technological innovation advances rapidly, its practical ...

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2024-12-10 Sylvie Goulard

Biodiversity Credits: a New Market to Protect the Planet

Our economies are dependent on Nature, as are our health and our wellbeing. However, as services from nature are rarely priced, its vital contribution remains largely invisible, as its deterioration. According to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which plays the same role for nature as IPCC for climate, biodiversity loss is ongoing at an unprecedented scale and pace, because of climate change and overuse of natural resources. Since 1970, the average size of monitored wildlife populations has shrunk by 73%, as measured by the WWF Living ...

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2024-12-03 Donato Masciandaro

Viral Macroeconomics: Trump, the Fed, and Sentiments

Every time Wall Street takes a rollercoaster ride, someone inevitably evokes the specter of a viral recession. But should we truly fear such recessions? And what role can the Fed play in mitigating this risk? First, what are we talking about? Italian Poet Giovanni Pascoli might describe it as something new–yet ancient. The phenomenon of a viral recession can indeed be characterized as a blend of tradition and innovation. The traditional factor lies in the role of sentiments – or beliefs, or perception – introduced into macroeconomic analysis by John Maynard Keynes as early as 1936. Keynes’s ...

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2024-11-26 Guia Pirotti

When a Company is Driven by an Idea

Purpose-driven organizations direct their economic activities toward a higher goal. In other words, these are organizations whose explicit objective is not only to generate economic value but also to create a positive economic, social, and environmental impact over the medium to long term across the value chain, benefiting all stakeholders. This is particularly crucial in the food & beverage sector, where sustainability and conscious food choices have emerged as primary concerns for the health of individuals and the planet. In this interview with Fabio Brescacin, co-founder and President of EcorNaturaSì ...

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