This paper contributes to the current debate about Benefit Corporations, presenting the development of this organisational model in Italy, the first country to introduce this hybrid form after the US. Grounded on an institutional logic perspective, it provides a picture of the institutional dynamics that have characterised the rise of this new entrepreneurial form outside the US. The analysis provides an in-depth foundational study of the Italian case and highlights the relevant influence of different institutional pressures in explaining the rise of and constraints in the diffusion of Benefit Corporations. Empirically, it combines secondary data, available from different public sources, and primary data collected through interviews with a series of knowledgeable informants. Based upon the analysis, two aspects appear peculiar for the development of Benefit Corporations in Italy: the interplay between the Benefit Corporation legal form and the certified B Corp model, and the rise of...

The studies of the Belle Époque on matters of company law reached, in Italy, a very high technical and cultural level, despite the tardiness in the capitalistic and industrial development and undoubtedly deserve in-depth investigation. In fact, they benefitted from a time, so to speak, both from the general climate of renewal of legal studies in a liberal State grappling with the many social and financial problems of economic development, and from the special circumstances of those years, marked by the widest circulation of people, ideas and capital beyond the national state borders. In particular, based on the careful studies already completed by the historiography on the evolution of the discipline of limited companies in Italy, the contribution would like to highlight the approach to the theme of the Italian legal doctrine in the first decade of the 20th Century, to capture its particular method of analysing and evaluating its participation in the vast phenomenon of innovation and imitation in the field of company law, already in course in Europe since the second half of the 19th Century.

Purpose This study aims to investigate the role assumed by corporate governance mechanisms in guiding a corporate organization to take on benefit company (BC) model using the theoretical models of agency theory and stakeholder theory applied to the corporate social responsibility activities of the firm. In detail, it has been hypothesized that the phenomenon of chief executive officer (CEO) duality, independent directors and female directors has a positive effect on the likelihood of a firm taking the model of a BC. Design/methodology/approach A panel sample of 354 Italian firms taking the institutional model of BC and a control group of 600 firms extracted from the Aida BvD database were analysed. Data covers a period from 2009 to 2018. To empirically validate the advanced research hypotheses, four non-linear probit regression models were estimated. Findings The results show that CEO duality seems to have a positive influence on the company’s likelihood of taking the model of a BC....

Alison Vacca’s book is a seminal and very useful work for scholars of various fields interested in Caucasian studies, Iranian history as well as early Islamic intellectual history. It is also important to stress that this book can contribute significantly to early Hungarian history as well. The well-known Hungarian ties to the Caucasus, the presence of early Hungarian groups in certain parts of the Caucasus requires a more thorough knowledge of Islamic sources relating to the Caucasus in early Hungarian historical studies in the light of Vacca’s new results. Last but not least, Vacca’s textual criticism, the comparison drawn between Armenian and Arabic sources, the contextualisation of these written materials, the assessment of doctrinal aspects operating behind these sources are also of great help for those involved and interested in Hungarian aspects of the Caucasian history.