The scholars of FABULA have published two new papers on the topic of family business reporting in highly cited journals.

The first study was conducted by Rafaela Gjergji (PwC Assistant Professor of Family Business), Luigi Vena (Associate Professor of Finance), Salvatore Sciascia (Full Professor of Business Administration and co-director of FABULA), and Alessandro Cortesi (Full Professor of Accounting), in collaboration with Giovanna Campopiano (Associate Professor of Management Engineering at the Center for Young and Family Entrepreneurship at the University of Bergamo).

The study focuses on the Italian SMEs listed on the Euronext Growth Milan (EGM) market and reveals that voluntary strategy disclosure can reduce the cost of capital in family SMEs only when there is a significant presence of women in the board of directors. The research is titled “Strategy disclosure and cost of capital: The key role of women directors for family firms” and has been published in the Journal of Family Business Strategy.

The second study was carried out by Sofia Brunelli (Ph.D. candidate in Family Business), Salvatore Sciascia (her supervisor), and Massimo Baù (director of the Center for Family Entrepreneurship & Ownership at the Jonkoping International Business School in Sweden). The research started in Italy and continued in Sweden during Sofia Brunelli’s international visiting period at the afore mentioned research center.

Such a study provides a systematic literature review on nonfinancial reporting in family business. The paper is titled “Nonfinancial Reporting in family firms: a systematic review and agenda for future research” and it has been published in Business Strategy & the Environment.

The research summarizes the studies conducted so far in this field and provides directions for future research. It also received an honorable mention at the last IFERA (International Family Enterprise Research Academy) Conference.