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European justice systems are facing a dramatic performance crisis due to the frequent inability to resolve cases without incurring unreasonable delays and backlogs. In this framework, the Italian Judicial system places itself well below the European countries average, in terms of speed of resolution of administrative, civil and criminal trials. The purpose of the paper was to (1) identify factors affecting Italian judicial system efficiency and (2) identify potential actions to manage them, improving judicial system efficiency.

In order to achieve the aims of this paper, a systematic review to map all critical factors discussed in previous studies was performed. Studies were extracted from Google Scholar, Web of Science and SSRN databases. In total, 22 studies were included.

The identified factors of inefficiency of the Italian judicial system have been divided into three macro-classes depending on whether they concern human resource management, the judicial process or whether they pertain to internal or external outside the judicial organization. For each of these, possible strategies have been developed in a new conceptual framework.

The framework seeks to assist policymakers in forming policy measures that can significantly increase court effectiveness. This is the first attempt to review and map all factors affecting judicial system efficiency systematically, providing a new conceptual framework to manage them.

The study aims to examine the relationship between telework conditions and employees' job satisfaction (JS) within knowledge-intensive public organizations (KIPOs). Additionally, it aims to unfold the mediating role played by both organizational and job characteristics, namely supervisory support (SS) and job autonomy (JA).

The analysis adopts a simultaneous qualitative-quantitative design, starting with a preliminary inductive analysis of qualitative data, followed by a deductive quantitative analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM). The data were retrieved from a survey completed by some 700 employees of a regional environmental protection agency in Italy.

Findings show that the positive association between conditions for telework (CT) and JS is partially mediated by both SS and JA. Moreover, the results of the study suggest a sequential nature of such mediational patterns.

This research provides an empirical contribution to a relatively under-investigated area: the role of job characteristics in explaining the nexus between telework and JS. Furthermore, the study takes place within the context of a KIPO, adding particular significance to the emerging insights due to the distinct nature of the work conducted in such settings.

During the 1990s, Italian healthcare organisations (HOs) underwent a process of corporatisation, and the most innovative HOs introduced the balanced scorecard (BSC) to address the need for broader accountability. Currently, there is a limited understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of such a process. Therefore, this study aims to explore whether the BSC is still considered an effective performance management tool and analyse the factors driving and hindering its evolution and endurance in public and non-profit HOs.

We conducted a retrospective longitudinal analysis of two pioneering cases in the adoption of the BSC: one in a public hospital and the other in a non-profit hospital. Data collection relied on accessing institutional documents and reports from the early 2000s to the present, as well as conducting semi-structured interviews with the internal sponsors of the BSC.

We found evidence of three main categories of factors that trigger or hinder the adoption and development of the BSC: (1) the role of the internal sponsor and professionals’ commitment; (2) information technology and the controller’s technological skills; and (3) the relationship between the management and professionalism logics during the implementation process. At the same time, there is no evidence to suggest that specific technical features of the BSC influence its endurance.

The paper contributes to the debate on the key factors for implementing and sustaining multidimensional control systems in professional organisations. It emphasises the importance of knowledge-based assets and distinctive internal capabilities for the success of the business. The implications of the BSC legacy are discussed, along with future developments of multidimensional control tools aimed at supporting strategy execution.

Since the 1980s, governments worldwide have been implementing the move from cash to accrual accounting. Scholars initially considered the appropriateness of this accounting reform to be self-evident, but later they have expressed critical views. This paper systematises the existing literature intending to reflect on the adverse effects of adopting accrual accounting in the public sector and identify implications for future research.

The present study builds on a systematic literature review of 106 academic articles published between 1980 and 2021. It is based on the “preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses” (PRISMA) method. Synthesising research through a transparent, rigorous and replicable process makes it possible to identify and discuss the adverse effects of adopting public sector accrual accounting.

Significant issues are linked to organisational impacts and accountability. Resistance to change is the main negative consequence and is more likely in countries that have chosen to adopt accrual accounting without maintaining cash accounting. The new accounting rules make accounting information more complex and arbitrary for citizens and politicians. How these criticalities should be addressed deserves further investigation.

This paper offers a comprehensive literature review on the drawbacks of adopting accrual accounting in the public sector. It could provide a general lesson to be applied to policymakers of other jurisdictions currently considering this transition to prevent the adverse effects and act proactively.

The paper aims to analyse the meaning and extension of discretionary power of social service professionals within network-based interventions.

Empirically, the paper is based on a case study of a network-based policy involving private and public organisations in the Northeast of Italy (Province of Trento).

The paper identifies netocracy as a social policy logic distinct from bureaucracy and professionalism. What legitimises netocracy is neither authority nor expertise but cooperation, the activation of connections and involvement, considered “good” per se. In this framework, professionalism and discretion acquire new and problematic meanings compared to street-level bureaucracy processes.

Based on a case study, the research results cannot be generalised but pave the way to further comparative investigations.

The paper reveals that the position of professionals in netocracy is to some extent trickier than that in a bureaucracy because netocracy seems to have the power to encapsulate them and make it less likely for them to deviate from expected courses of action.

Combining different literature streams – street level bureaucracy, professionalism, network organisations and welfare governance – and building on an original case study, the paper contribute to understanding professionalism in welfare contexts increasingly characterised by the combination of bureaucratic, professional and network logics.

This study aims to investigate the link between audit quality and in-court debt restructuring. The aim is to understand whether the confirmation of debt restructuring plans is affected by audit quality, which, in the light of agency theory, reduces information asymmetries between outsiders (creditors and the court) and insiders (shareholders and managers) of the debtor company.

A logistic regression is performed to test whether higher audit quality is associated with an increased probability of successfully completing a debt restructuring proceeding (RP). Consistent with the literature, audit quality is assessed ex ante based on auditor size, which is used as a proxy for independence. The analysis considers private Italian companies.

Audit quality positively affects debt restructuring. Among financially distressed companies, those audited by an audit company are more likely to succeed in RPs than those audited by a single practitioner. There is no evidence of a Big N effect.

This study fills a gap in literature as, in contrast to other financial and governance characteristics, audit quality has never been studied before as a determinant of efficient restructuring. It contributes to the literature on auditing and governance by highlighting the importance of audit quality in complex situations such as RPs, and it expands on debt restructuring literature by considering the importance of the information exchanged during RPs.

This study examines the direct impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices (procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice) on job satisfaction, intention to stay and job engagement. Further, it investigates the effect of job engagement on job satisfaction and intention to stay. Moreover, the study tests the mediating role of job engagement on the impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay.

A total of 650 self-report structured questionnaires were distributed among the employees of 50 information technology companies, and 503 samples were received. Partial least square-structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized model.

This study revealed that justice perception of performance appraisal practices positively affects job satisfaction, intention to stay and job engagement. In addition, job engagement positively affects job satisfaction and intention to stay. Further, job engagement significantly transfers the impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay, thus confirming the mediating role of job engagement. However, the significant direct impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay in the presence of a mediator, i.e. job engagement, revealed partial mediation.

The findings of this study augment the social exchange theory by explicating that an individual who perceives justice in performance appraisal practices is likely to have greater job engagement, which ultimately leads to higher job satisfaction and intention to stay. This study filled the research gap by examining the role of four justice components of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay and the mediating role of job engagement in transferring the impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay.

This study showed the importance of four justice components of performance appraisal practices in enhancing employee job engagement. Hence, this study would motivate information technology companies to maintain fairness in performance appraisal practices to enhance employee job engagement and ultimately increase job satisfaction and intention to stay.

This study is one of its kind that tested the direct impact of comprehensive justice components (procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational justice) of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay. In addition, this is a unique study that examined the mediating effect of job engagement on the impact of justice perceptions of performance appraisal practices on job satisfaction and intention to stay.

The study examined the influence of small and medium enterprise (SME) owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance, the mediation role of information quality on the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship, the mediating role of information quality on the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship and the mediating role of both information sharing and information quality on SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance relationship.

Data were collected from SME agro-processing firms. The determined sample size for the agro-processing firms was 200, while an effective sample size of 177 was obtained. The Covariance Structural Equation Modelling software was used to obtain results on the influence of SME owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance, the mediation role of information quality on the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship, the mediating role of information quality on the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship and the mediating role of both information sharing and information quality on SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance relationship.

Findings indicated that a positive significant influence of SME owner-managers' managerial competencies on supply chain performance and the presence of partial mediation effects when the mediating role of information quality in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship and the information sharing and supply chain performance relationship is tested. Also, a partial mediating role of information sharing and information quality is obtained in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance relationship.

The study mainly focused on SME agro-processing firms eliminating other SME manufacturing firms. Also, the research employed a wholistic approach when studying the SME agro-processing firms without focusing on how SME owner-managers' managerial competencies would affect information sharing, information quality and supply chain performance based on the market type (local or foreign) and the source of raw materials (local or foreign) and the impact of information sharing on information quality hasn't been given significant attention in the existing literature.

The research focused on the mediation role of quality of information shared by SME owner-managers in the relationship between information sharing and supply chain performance, the mediating role of information quality in the SME owner-managers' managerial competencies and supply chain performance and the mediating role of both SME owner-manager's information sharing and quality of information shared in the relationship between SME owner-managers' managerial competences and supply chain performance. These mediation effects haven't been given significant attention in previous research. Further, while information sharing and information quality have been studied, they have been studied at a supply chain level, not at a managerial level.

The purpose of this paper is to show how data mining techniques can improve the performance management of the judiciary, helping judges in steering position with specific and timely measures. It explores different approaches to analyse the length of trials, based on the case of an Italian judicial office.

The paper presents a temporal analysis to compare the timeliness of trials, using data and process mining approaches with the support of a specific software to represent graphically the results. Data were gathered directly from the office data base, improving precision and the opportunity to monitor specific phases of the trials.

The results highlight the progress that can be reached using data mining approaches to develop performance analyses helping courts to correct inefficiencies and to manage the personnel distribution, overcoming the critical comments arisen against traditional KPI (Raine, 2000). The work proposes a methodology to analyse cases deriving from different juridical matters useful to set up a performance monitoring system that could be diffused to different courts.

The limitations of the research regard the analysis of a selected, limited number of cases in terms of judicial matters.

Data mining techniques can improve the performance management processes in providing more accurate feedback to the judicial offices leaders and increasing the organisational learning.

The performance of the judiciary is one of the relevant issues that emerged in the recent decade in the field of public sector reforms. Several reasons explain this interest, which has gone beyond the specific legal disciplines to involve public policy, management, economics and ICT studies.

Considering the literature on the judiciary (Visser et al., 2019; Di Martino et al., 2021; Troisi and Alfano, 2023) the contribution differs as both the methodological approach and the predictive analysis considers the intrinsic differences that define cases belonging to different juridical matters performing a cross-sectional analysis, with a specific focus of process variants.