• Energy Research

According to Directive 2014/95/EU on disclosure of non-financial information from 2017 onwards, large companies (exceeding 500 employees) headquartered in Member States will be required to provide a series of social, environmental, and governance statements. The Directive was transposed into Italian law by Legislative Decree 254 of 30 December 2016.The aim of this paper is to evaluate the information gap for Italian companies and,consequently,the adjustments required by the new Directive on non-financial information. In order to analyze the level of non-financial and diversity disclosure, we created an assessment model called “Non-financial information score”, which records the required information as a percentage. We apply it to a sample of 223 large companies.The results (with an average NFIscore of about 49%) show that, in spite of what has previously emerged in the European debate about the application of the Directive on the part of large companies, an information gap remains, although the implementation of the directive should help to fill it in the coming years.In this sense, the potential contribution of the EU directive to non-financial disclosure in Italy appears to be greater than we had expected. Thus, in accordance with the literature, this paper appears to confirm the role of regulation in improving the quality of disclosure of non-financial information.

The aim of this paper was to investigate the role of public institutions in the pursuit of sustainable development in a case study of international relevance: Taranto’s ILVA steel plant, which is one of the biggest steel and iron centres in Europe. The case study was analysed through investigating the different aspects of sustainable development in the four phases of development of the steel plant, from public direct management to private management. The analysis, based on a series of unstructured data, was carried out by applying a triple bottom line approach and the total interpretative structuring model (TISM). Evidence shows how—in the absence of stable, coherent, strong and present public institutions, capable of reading the forces of the local and international context and of intervening with regulatory actions inspired by a planned and interiorized economic strategy—the market, left in the hands of the private entrepreneur only, is destined to fail, and the paths of multidimensional sustainable development stray away from the ambitions of modern states.

The last years have seen an increasing consciousness about the need to rethink the global economy [...]

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AbstractOnly in the last years, Sustainable Open Innovation has become a unique issue from the convergence between the concept of Open Innovation and sustainability as well as a challenge for the future business models of companies. Given that the aim to build a more sustainable world is one of the most relevant targets to reach over the world, the present work has focused on how Open Innovation is a catalyst for sustainability, by proposing a model for the case study in an underdeveloped sector, such as the energy one. Specifically, through the analysis of the ENEL case study, the relationship between Open Innovation (OI) and a strategic approach to CSR has emerged. The strategic approach to CSR, guided by open leadership aimed at involving stakeholders and creating shared value, creates an organizational culture and an environment favorable to the development of Open Innovation strategies; furthermore, the Open Innovation processes support the integration of the social, environmental, and economic objectives of companies. The findings show how Open Innovation can address sustainability practices and objectives. Through the application of the framework called SKiN, which provides a qualitative and replicable tool, the study allows to evaluate the organizational permeability as a critical success factor for both sustainability strategies and innovation.