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Are financially illiterate individuals all the same? This study aims to answer this question. Specifically, the authors investigate whether people answering incorrectly and “do not know” to the big five questions about financial knowledge (FK), all identified by previous literature as financially illiterate, are two sides of the same coin, or rather individuals with different socio-economic and demographic characteristics, and whether this leads to different levels of risk of falling victim to financial fraud.

Using a large and representative sample of Italian adults, the authors run both ordered probit and probit regressions to test the determinants of financially illiterate individuals, distinguishing between those answering FK questions incorrectly and those answering “do not know”. The authors also measure the probability of falling victim to financial fraud for the two groups. To check the robustness of our results, the authors run a multinomial regression, a structural equation model and an instrumental variable regression model.

The authors demonstrate that the socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of individuals selecting incorrect responses to FK questions are different from those of individuals selecting the “do not know” option. Moreover, the results show that the former are more likely to be victims of financial frauds.

The “one-size-fits-all” approach is not suitable for financial education. It is important to consider socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of individuals in order to identify specific targets of education programmes aiming to reduce insecurity and excessive self-confidence as well as to increase objective FK. The study’s findings also identify vulnerable groups to which financial fraud prevention schemes should be targeted.

To date, financial illiteracy has been measured as the sum of incorrect and “do not know” responses given to FK questions. This approach does not allow to observe the socio-demographic and socio-economic differences between people choosing the “do not know” option and those answering incorrectly. The paper aims to overcome this limit by investigating the socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of individuals selecting “do not know” and incorrect responses, respectively. The authors also investigate whether the two groups have different probabilities of being victims of financial fraud.

The purpose of this study is to provide the conditions for governance effectiveness and explain why the same rules often result in not the same norms.

The author proposes a “corporate governance culture” concept explaining the differences within corporate governance institutions and making it possible to measure their effectiveness. Based on a literature review that included 186 research studies published in the corporate governance field, the author found that most (160) concern structural numerical variables. Only 26 refer to behavioural and cultural issues, and they support the idea of an interdisciplinary approach to governance problems.

A significant contribution of this paper is that it proposes an integrative framework that operationalises psychological, sociological and philosophical issues that influence corporate governance mechanisms. The proposed concept can reanimate the debate about the need for tight governance regulations or leaving room for a loose governance regime.

The idea of “corporate governance culture” explains the divergences identified in studies on corporate governance mechanisms, pointing out behavioural and cultural issues as crucial aspects of governance bodies.

This paper investigates how to embrace an “either/and” logic, borrowed from the Yin-Yang epistemological system, to provide a different perspective to the entrepreneurial orientation (EO) research and reframe its paradoxes and dilemmas.

The study adopts the duality map for paradox management, a tool designed to recognize and measure the threshold as a range within which opposite elements can be properly balanced for a healthy tension, to show that the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct can co-exist within the same organization depending on specific situations, contexts and time.

By using duality maps as working models, the study shows that, in real life, the apparently contradictory poles of the EO construct co-exist in a healthy tension within the same organization and are managed in a constant process of dynamic balancing over time.

The present paper contributes to the EO research by providing a different perspective to the EO concept, thus filling the gap on how to go beyond the traditional polarized (“either/or”) paradigm that has dominated the EO literature since its origins.

EO is dominated by a polarized view that sees opposites as sharp dichotomies. However, the complexity and variability of today’s interconnected world are pushing scholars to move from this hegemonic Western perspective by adopting different cultural and philosophical approaches able to balance the inherent duality of the EO concept.