Strategie competitive e modelli organizzativi dei Confidi alla luce del nuovo quadro normativo

In Italia, il contesto legislativo e l’ambiente competitivo dei Confidi è profondamente mutato negli ultimi anni a seguito dell’emanazione di due nuove normative: la “Legge Quadro” sui Confidi e la nuova regolamentazione del capitale di vigilanza nelle banche (c.d. "Basilea 2"). la Legge Quadro impone ai Confidi di adottare uno dei seguenti status societari: i) ente iscritto all’albo di cui all’art. 106 del Testo Unico Bancario (TUB); ii) ente iscritto all’albo di cui all’art. 107 del Testo Unico Bancario; iii) banca cooperativa di garanzia collettiva dei fidi. Fermi restando i requisiti soggettivi sui garanti ammessi da Basilea 2, la modalità tecnica finora utilizzata dai Confidi non risponde ai requisiti oggettivi. Il pensiero strategico si enuclea nelle seguenti domande: A) qual è la missione del Confidi (perché esistono i Confidi)? B) Quali prodotti e servizi dovrebbero offrire per raggiungere la loro missione? C) Quale modello organizzativo e di governance si conforma meglio per l'offerta dei prodotti e servizi individuati come necessari per il raggiungimento della missione? Le riflessioni condotte nell’ambito di un quadro di riferimento delineato dal ruolo delle garanzie nel mercato del credito bancario, dalle “Nuove disposizioni di vigilanza prudenziale per le banche”, dalla “Legge Quadro” sui e, infine, dall’assetto istituzionale ed operativo dei Confidi si riassumono nelle seguenti deduzioni: Proposizione I: segmentare la domanda prima di adeguare l’offerta; Proposizione II: le operazioni tranched cover sono un'alternativa relativamente efficiente per l'operatività dei Confidi, anche per quelli non vigilati; Proposizione III: solo i Confidi‐banca hanno la necessità di dotarsi di un rating esterno; Proposizione IV: le banche sono nuovi Clienti dei Confidi: offrire servizi di outsourcing (remunerati), ma non impieghi di capitale; Proposizione V: le aggregazioni inter settoriali nel medesimo territorio sono da preferirsi alle aggregazioni inter territoriali fra Confidi del medesimo settore. Alle future ricerche è affidato il compito di verificare: quali opzioni strategiche nel concreato siano state applicate; quali siano state le determinati di tali scelte; il grado di soddisfacimento dei bisogni degli stakeholder dei Confidi; misurare i benefici conseguiti nell'efficienza allocativa del credito.

Technology acquisition through licensing. Implications for firm strategy

Nowadays licensing practices have increased in importance and relevance driving the widespread diffusion of markets for technologies. Firms are shifting from a tactical to a strategic attitude towards licensing, addressing both business and corporate level objectives. The Open Innovation Paradigm has been embraced. Firms rely more and more on collaboration and external sourcing of knowledge. This new model of innovation requires firms to leverage on external technologies to unlock the potential of firms’ internal innovative efforts. In this context, firms’ competitive advantage depends both on their ability to recognize available opportunities inside and outside their boundaries and on their readiness to exploit them in order to fuel their innovation process dynamically. Licensing is one of the ways available to firm to ripe the advantages associated to an open attitude in technology strategy. From the licensee’s point view this implies challenging the so-called not-invented-here syndrome, affecting the more traditional firms that emphasize the myth of internal research and development supremacy. This also entails understanding the so-called cognitive constraints affecting the perfect functioning of markets for technologies that are associated to the costs for the assimilation, integration and exploitation of external knowledge by recipient firms. My thesis aimed at shedding light on new interesting issues associated to in-licensing activities that have been neglected by the literature on licensing and markets for technologies. The reason for this gap is associated to the “perspective bias” affecting the works within this stream of research. With very few notable exceptions, they have been generally concerned with the investigation of the so-called licensing dilemma of the licensor – whether to license out or to internally exploit the in-house developed technologies, while neglecting the licensee’s perspective. In my opinion, this has left rooms for improving the understanding of the determinants and conditions affecting licensing-in practices. From the licensee’s viewpoint, the licensing strategy deals with the search, integration, assimilation, exploitation of external technologies. As such it lies at the very hearth of firm’s technology strategy. Improving our understanding of this strategy is thus required to assess the full implications of in-licensing decisions as they shape firms’ innovation patterns and technological capabilities evolution. It also allow for understanding the so-called cognitive constraints associated to the not-invented-here syndrome. In recognition of that, the aim of my work is to contribute to the theoretical and empirical literature explaining the determinants of the licensee’s behavior, by providing a comprehensive theoretical framework as well as ad-hoc conceptual tools to understand and overcome frictions and to ease the achievement of satisfactory technology transfer agreements in the marketplace. Aiming at this, I investigate licensing-in in three different fashions developed in three research papers. In the first work, I investigate the links between licensing and the patterns of firms’ technological search diversification according to the framework of references of the Search literature, Resource-based Theory and the theory of general purpose technologies. In the second paper - that continues where the first one left off – I analyze the new concept of learning-bylicensing, in terms of development of new knowledge inside the licensee firms (e.g. new patents) some years after the acquisition of the license, according to the Dynamic Capabilities perspective. Finally, in the third study, Ideal with the determinants of the remuneration structure of patent licenses (form and amount), and in particular on the role of the upfront fee from the licensee’s perspective. Aiming at this, I combine the insights of two theoretical approaches: agency and real options theory.

Non-Linear Pricing in Imperfectly Competitive Markets

This thesis is dedicated to the analysis of non-linear pricing in oligopoly. Non-linear pricing is a fairly predominant practice in most real markets, mostly characterized by some amount of competition. The sophistication of pricing practices has increased in the latest decades due to the technological advances that have allowed companies to gather more and more data on consumers preferences. The first essay of the thesis highlights the main characteristics of oligopolistic non-linear pricing. Non-linear pricing is a special case of price discrimination. The theory of price discrimination has to be modified in presence of oligopoly: in particular, a crucial role is played by the competitive externality that implies that product differentiation is closely related to the possibility of discriminating. The essay reviews the theory of competitive non-linear pricing by starting from its foundations, mechanism design under common agency. The different approaches to model non-linear pricing are then reviewed. In particular, the difference between price and quantity competition is highlighted. Finally, the close link between non-linear pricing and the recent developments in the theory of vertical differentiation is explored. The second essay shows how the effects of non-linear pricing are determined by the relationship between the demand and the technological structure of the market. The chapter focuses on a model in which firms supply a homogeneous product in two different sizes. Information about consumers' reservation prices is incomplete and the production technology is characterized by size economies. The model provides insights on the size of the products that one finds in the market. Four equilibrium regions are identified depending on the relative intensity of size economies with respect to consumers' evaluation of the good. Regions for which the product is supplied in a single unit or in several different sizes or in only a very large one. Both the private and social desirability of non-linear pricing varies across different equilibrium regions. The third essay considers the broadband internet market. Non discriminatory issues seem the core of the recent debate on the opportunity or not of regulating the internet. One of the main questions posed is whether the telecom companies, owning the networks constituting the internet, should be allowed to offer quality-contingent contracts to content providers. The aim of this essay is to analyze the issue through a stylized two-sided market model of the web that highlights the effects of such a discrimination over quality, prices and participation to the internet of providers and final users. An overall welfare comparison is proposed, concluding that the final effects of regulation crucially depend on both the technology and preferences of agents.

Cell Host-Microbe Interactions: Turning Pathogen Mechanisms Into Cell's Advantages

Host-Pathogen Interaction is a very vast field of biological sciences, indeed every year many un- known pathogens are uncovered leading to an exponential growth of this field. The present work lyes between its boundaries, touching different aspects of host-pathogen interaction: We have evaluate the permissiveness of Mesenchimal Stem cell (FM-MSC from now on) to all known human affecting herpesvirus. Our study demonstrate that FM-MSC are full permissive to HSV1, HSV2, HCMV and VZV. On the other hand HHV6, HHV7, EBV and HHV8 are susceptible, but failed to activate a lytic infection program. FM-MSC are pluripotent stem cell and have been studied intensely in last decade. FM-MSC are employed in some clinical applications. For this reason it is important to known the degree of susceptibility to transmittable pathogens. Our atten- tion has then moved to bacterial pathogens: we have performed a proteome-wide in silico analy- sis of Chlamydiaceae family, searching for putative Nuclear localization Signal (NLS). Chlamy- diaceae are a family of obligate intracellular parasites. It’s reasonably to think that its members could delivered to nucleus effector proteins via NLS sequences: if that were the case the identifi- cation of NLS carrying proteins could open the way to therapeutic approaches. Our results strengthen this hypothesis: we have identified 72 protein bearing NLS, and verified their func- tionality with in vivo assays. Finally we have conceived a molecular scissor, creating a fusion protein between HIV-1 IN protein and FokI catalytic domain (a deoxyexonuclease domain). Our aim is to obtain chimeric enzyme (trojIN) which selectively identify IN naturally occurring target (HIV LTR sites) and cleaves subsequently LTR carrying DNA (for example integrated HIV1 DNA). Our preliminary results are promising since we have identified trojIN mutated version capable to selectively recognize LTR carrying DNA in an in vitro experiments.

Strategie competitive nel settore dei videogiochi: Il caso di take-two interactive

Partendo da un’analisi di mercato che si sviluppa meglio con una segmentazione, andremo ad analizzare il settore degli editori di videogiochi, le loro quote di mercato e come si stanno evolvendo per rimanere al passo con la tecnologia in un settore con forte competizione. Lo scopo di questa tesi è spiegare il successo della Take Two Interactive descrivendo la sua storia, le strategia che ha adottato negli anni per arrivare a competere con altri grandi editori e come si sta approcciando alle nuove tecnologie, all’evoluzione dei comportamenti d’acquisto dei consumatori e ai nuovi mercati emergenti.

Strategie competitive e innovazioni tecnologiche nel settore dei videogiochi: la Next-Generation

Il mercato video ludico è stato, ed è tuttora uno dei settori più redditizi e innovativi del mercato globale. L’evoluzione tecnologica ha permesso lo sviluppo di device e piattaforme da gioco sempre più performanti e in grado di soddisfare le esigenze dei consumatori. Con le nuove prospettive di gioco ci si sofferma a riflettere su quale sarà l’evoluzione del business dell’intrattenimento interattivo. In questo elaborato andremo a vedere come si sta evolvendo il mercato dei videogiochi, quali sono i nuovi scenari competitivi che si sono affiancati a questo settore, quali sono i segmenti che stanno avendo una crescita considerevole negli ultimi 10 anni, e cercheremo di capire come cambierà il “gameplay” da salotto, quindi quali saranno le prospettive future delle console da gioco.

L'internazionalizzazione e le specializzazioni commerciali delle regioni italiane nel settore agroalimentare

Il presente lavoro si compone di tre capitoli, tra loro autonomi e allo stesso tempo intrinsecamente collegati. Nel primo capitolo si è voluto offrire una panoramica dello scenario agroalimentare italiano e della sua rilevanza nel sistema economico nazionale. Per fare ciò si è partiti da una disamina del contesto economico mondiale per poi centrare il discorso sull’andamento congiunturale dell’agroalimentare nazionale, analizzato secondo i principali indicatori macroeconomici. Successivamente vengono presentati gli attori del sistema agroalimentare, rilevando per ciascuno di essi le proprie specificità e tendenze. L’ultima parte del primo capitolo è un focus specifico sul ruolo giocato dall’agroalimentare italiano nel commercio e nei mercati internazionali. Nel secondo capitolo si è approntata una mappatura territoriale e per comparti delle principali specializzazioni commerciali del settore agroalimentare delle regioni italiane. Tramite l'utilizzo di appositi indici di specializzazione si è analizzata la realtà agroalimentare delle regioni italiane, mettendone in evidenza la struttura competitiva e approssimandola tramite l’analisi dei vantaggi comparati di cui gode. Infine, nel terzo capitolo, si è ampliato il campo d'analisi tentando di misurare il livello di internazionalizzazione delle regioni italiane, non solo in ambito agroalimentare, ma considerando l'intero sistema territoriale regionale. Si è tentato di fare ciò tramite tre strumenti: l’analisi delle componenti principali (PCA o ACP), il Mazziotta-Pareto Index e il Wroclaw taxonomic method. I risultati ottenuti tramite le tre modalità di elaborazione hanno permesso di approfondire la conoscenza del livello di internazionalizzazione registrato dalle regioni italiane, mettendo in luce ulteriori filoni di ricerca della tematica osservata.

Note-taking in consecutive interpretation; advantages and disadvantages of various techniques

The objective of this thesis is to investigate which contexts should be used for different kinds of note-taking and to study the evolution of the various types of note-taking. Moreover, the final aim of this thesis is to understand which method is used most commonly during the interpreting process, with a special focus on consecutive and community interpreting in the sector of public service and healthcare. The belief that stands behind this thesis is that the most complete method is Rozan’s, which is also the most theorized and used by interpreters. Through the analysis of the different rules of this practice, the importance of this method is shown. Moreover, the analysis demonstrates how these techniques can assist the interpreters in their jobs. This thesis starts from an overview of what note-taking means in the different settings of interpreting and a short history of note-taking is presented. The section that follows analyzes three different well-known types of note-taking methods outside the interpreting environment, that is: linear, non-linear and shorthand. Subsequent to the comparison, Rozan’s 7 principles are analyzed. To authenticate this thesis and the hypotheses herein, data was collected through a survey that was conducted on a sample of a group of graduated students in Linguistic and Intercultural Mediation at the University of Bologna “Scuola Superiore di Lingue Moderne per Interpreti e Traduttori”.

Multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) of mountaineering casualties in the Swiss Alps - Advantages and limitations

As an Alpine country, Switzerland has not only a thriving mountaineering tourist industry, but also many mountaineering casualties. At the request of the state attorney, most of the victims undergo only an external inspection without autopsy. One of the main tasks of the forensic pathologist under these circumstances is the correct identification of the deceased for a fast release to their kin. Nevertheless, detailed knowledge of the injuries sustained may lead to improved safety measures, such as better protective equipment. In this study, we examined the feasibility of using cross-sectional imaging with postmortem multi-slice computed tomography (MSCT) to detect lesions of the skeletal structures and internal organs. For this purpose, we used whole-body MSCT to examine 10 corpses that suffered fatal falls from great height while climbing in the Swiss part of the European Alps from the years 2007 to 2009. We conclude that postmortem CT imaging is a valuable tool for dental identification and is superior to plain X-rays as a viable compromise between a solely external legal inspection and an autopsy because it delivers otherwise irretrievable additional internal findings non-invasively. This fact is of great importance in cases where an autopsy is refused.