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The purpose of this paper is to investigate budgetary solvency (BS) as a part of the financial condition of local governments (LGs), considering that the growing demand for public services is primarily affecting this variable.

The study investigates a sample of 132 Italian LGs with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the period 2005–2014. The authors obtain a set of indicators as proxies of BS, which serve as the dependent variable of a regression model aimed at testing several independent variables which the authors are interested in, namely, financial autonomy, current equilibrium, level of indebtedness and investments.

BS, as well as its three indicators—sustainability, flexibility and vulnerability—are positively related to financial autonomy and current equilibrium and negatively related to the level of indebtedness and investments.

To cover citizens’ demands for public services guaranteeing sound financial management, policymakers are advised to control both the balance between current revenue and expenses and the level of indebtedness while preserving financial autonomy from external sources.

This study adds fresh insight to the literature on financial health, emphasising the relevance of public financial management.

This study aims to explore the process of identifying and defining multiple capitals in the integrated report (IR) of a government-owned tourism company.

Interventionist research was conducted using a case study design. The researcher was directly involved in developing the first IR of Zètema, a heritage and tourism company owned by the Municipality of Rome. The research team analyzed internal reports, business model (BM), strategic plan and marketing plan, and collected data through semistructured interviews and participation in company meetings.

A template based on a step-by-step deductive process to select and define relevant capitals was derived. Following this process, an appropriate form of capital emerged: “cultural capital”. Furthermore, this study emphasizes a novel awareness of the different meanings that capitals can assume as inputs and outcomes of a BM.

This study meets the demand for empirical research that investigates real information in integrated reports intended for those for whom value is created. Thus, the paper contributes to the existing knowledge on integrated reporting by examining the partially explored concept of capital, particularly its identification process. Furthermore, this study provides support to preparers of integrated reports by defining a conceptual reference model for the disclosure of significant capitals and underlining the importance of distinguishing capitals as input or outcome.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possible influence of financial health of local governments (LGs) on the re-election of politicians.

The study investigates a sample of 129 Italian LGs with more than 50,000 inhabitants for the period 2008–2014, resulting in 903 observations. A regression model has been implemented, where the dependent variable refers to the probability of re-election, and different dimensions of financial health are the independent variables.

Budgetary and service-level solvency influence positively the probability of re-election of the major, while the ability of the government to generate liquidity to pay its short-term debts is not statistically relevant. Moreover, the sustainability dimension of budgetary solvency is more relevant than the flexibility and vulnerability dimensions.

To be re-elected, local politicians are advised to pay attention to and preserve the social welfare of citizens with the available resources.

This study adds fresh insight to the literature on financial health, emphasising the relevance of public financial management in the re-election of local politicians.

The purpose of this paper is to review and analyze the literature on consolidated financial statements (CFS) in the public sector published from 1980 to 2015 in public sector accounting and management journals, and propose a future research agenda.

Adopting a structured literature review methodology, the authors investigate how the CFS literature is developing and what its focus is.

The authors identify five major topics: the definition of the consolidation area; the identification of the reporting entity; the private vs public sector accounting standard dichotomy; the relationship with the statistical rules; and the usefulness of CFS.

The authors analyze these topics, highlighting the growing implementation of CFS in different contexts (mainly focusing on governments outside the USA) and provide suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to give a description of the clinical conditions and patient demographics of inpatient admissions of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected inmates in three hospital wards that provide hospital care for inmates in Italy.

This is a retrospective review of hospital medical admissions of patients living with HIV from January 1 to December 31, 2014, in three Italian referral centers for hospitalization of inmates.

A total of 85 admissions for 85 different HIV-infected inmates occurred in 2014 in the three centers participating to the study. Most patients (54.1 percent) were co-infected with hepatitis C. Discharge diagnosis largely varied ranging from common HIV-related co-morbidities to completely independent diagnosis. The most commonly observed discharge diagnoses were chronic hepatitis C, liver cirrhosis, opiate dependence and thrombocytopenia.

Discharge diagnosis between HIV-infected inmates and HIV-infected patients in freedom are strikingly and significantly different. A large number of hospitalized HIV-infected inmates were affected by chronic viral hepatitis and liver cirrhosis; this is probably a direct consequence of the high prevalence of HCV and/or HBV co-infections in the inmate population in Italy. In addition, a significantly lower proportion of cancer diagnosis was observed among inmates; this is possibly justified by the fact that in our Italian settings when HIV infection is at advanced stages or if cancer treatment is started those affected are released from prison and can continue their diagnostic and treatment follow-up in freedom.

Increased fraudulent practices have heightened the need for innovation in anti-fraud programs, necessitating the development of analytics techniques for detecting and preventing fraud. The subject of fraud analytics will continue to expand in the future for public-sector organizations; therefore, this research examined the progress of fraud analytics in public-sector transactions and offers suggestions for its future development.

This study systematically reviewed research on fraud analytics development in public-sector transactions. The review was conducted from June 2021 to June 2023 by identifying research objectives and questions, performing literature quality assessment and extraction, data synthesis and research reporting. The research mainly identified 43 relevant articles that were used as references.

This research examined fraud analytics development related to public-sector financial transactions. The results revealed that fraud analytics expansion has not spread equally, as most programs have been implemented by governments and healthcare organizations in developed countries. This research also exposed that the analytics optimization in fraud prevention is higher than for fraud detection. Such analytics help organizations detect fraud, improve business effectiveness and efficiency, and refine administrative systems and work standards.

This research offers comprehensive insights for researchers and public-sector professionals regarding current fraud analytics development in public-sector financial transactions and future trends.

This study presents the first systematic literature review to investigate the development of fraud analytics in public-sector transactions. The findings can aid scholars' and practitioners' future fraud analytics development.

This paper has the ambition to enrich the extant research about the interplay between measuring intellectual capital (IC) and managing IC or, more precisely, about the production and consumption of IC measurements in practice. Stemming from these considerations, the purpose of this paper is to disentangle the production and consumption processes of IC measurements in practice.

This study is based on a longitudinal case study is analysed adopting an interventionist approach.

This study shows the peculiarities regarding the production and consumption of IC measurements, from several perspectives. In particular, it emerges that the reporting of IC can, in some specific contexts, lead to the non-use of IC measurements and to the disappearance of the measured object, IC. What is questionable is whether it is the loss of interest in the IC object that has led to the non-use of the IC measurements or if it is the non-consumption of the measurements and their qualities that has implied the disappearance of the measurement object. In addition, this study sheds a light on the fact that in an IC project the consumption of the measurements can occur not only at the end of the production process, but also (and may be especially) during the production process itself. This consumption can generate different effects such as the identification of new managerial objects, the establishment of new initiatives, the development of a deeper knowledge about how IC works or a change of the sense of some of the existing measurements. In all, the paper underlines the fact that how IC measurements are produced (the process followed and the “actors” involved) affects their actual consumption (or non-consumption).

This paper contributes to the extant literature regarding the production and consumption of IC measurements. Moreover, it contributes to the field of IC “in practice” as it highlights what happens when an IC measurement system is implemented. Finally, the research work can contribute both to the studies regarding IC as an accounting change and to the ones regarding IC as a tool that facilitates organizational change. From the first perspective, the paper highlights how the introduction of IC has fostered long-lasting changes in the management accounting system, albeit circumscribed to the local (departmental) level. From the second perspective, the paper shows how IC may allow the creation of new managerial objects, thus promoting possible new actions. The main limitations of this study are related to the methodology adopted and to its specific pros and cons.

In comparison to previous studies, this one does not focus only on the managerial and organizational aspects related to the design and implementation of IC measurements or on their actual use, but attempts to approach them simultaneously adopting a longitudinal view. Moreover, this study does not adopt a theoretical perspective on how the indicators are designed and consumed but is aimed at investigating how these indicators are produced and consumed “in practice”. Finally, this study focus on the interplay between production and consumption of indicators, i.e. on the use of IC measurements in relation to the peculiarities of their production process.