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Alessandro Giovanni GRASSO
Professore Associato Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi"
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Pubblicazioni
2024
- Minibond and earnings management: leveraging the signaling effect of minibond listing
[Articolo su rivista]
Bertacchini, Federico; Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; Lugli, Ennio; Russo, Ivan
abstract
Minibonds are a hybrid between bank debt and bond issuance introduced in Italy to expand the range of possible financing resources available to unlisted enterprises. This peculiar debt security was introduced as part of a regulatory reform in 2012 to diversify funding sources and facilitate access to capital markets for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In this study, we investigate whether firms that decide to issue and list a minibond engage in earnings management (EM) to leverage the growth-signaling effect generated by the listing of this security. Listing bonds on a financial market is not mandatory, but a strategic choice. Collecting a sample of 136 minibond listings during 2013–2020, we use panel analysis to show that issuers tend to manage their earnings in the year of listing. We argue that this behavior is undertaken in order to provide a better representation of their economic and financial situation and consequently to better impress current or future stakeholders. Moreover, we also find that larger minibond size partially discourages EM, thus confirming the role of debt as a means of control over management. Overall, we argue that stakeholders should be aware that, even though minibond issuers are sound firms on average, they tend to inflate their earnings in the year of listing in order to reinforce the signaling effect of the quotation.
2021
- Platforms' partner networks: the missing link in crowdfunding performance
[Articolo su rivista]
Cosma, S.; Grasso, A. G.; Pattarin, F.; Pedrazzoli, A.
abstract
Purpose: A network of partners helps and assists a crowdfunding platform (CFP) in scouting, assessing and selecting projects. This cooperation increases the number of successful projects by attracting a sizable number of investors, proponents and attracting marginal investors when a campaign falls short of the threshold for success. This study examines the role of partner networks in a platform ecosystem, specifically in terms of number of different partners and their diversity in the performance of the crowdfunding campaign. Design/methodology/approach: Using logistic and linear regressions, we analyze a sample of 233 projects, both funded and not funded, launched by 10 Italian equity CFPs between 2014 and 2018. Findings: Our findings indicate that the variety of partners in a platform's network influence the probability of campaign success and how much capital the proponent company raises. CFPs are resource-constrained new ventures, and a network with a wider variety of partners ensures the strategic resources and competencies that are required in an early stage market, thus facilitating campaign funding. Practical implications: The variety of partner networks could help CFPs to offer unique and strategic value propositions and define the competitive positioning of platforms. Originality/value: This study provides a deeper understanding of the determinants of equity crowdfunding campaign performance by emphasizing the role of CFP's network of partners on the entire crowdfunding ecosystem and its underlying organizational elements.
2019
- Exploring Factors Influencing the Success of Equity Crowdfunding Campaigns: Findings from Italy
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Cosma, Stefano; Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; Pagliacci, Francesco; Pedrazzoli, Alessia
abstract
Since small and medium size enterprises and innovative start-ups always face greater difficulties in obtaining capital from traditional sources of finance, the development of alternative funding tools such as equity crowdfunding has helped them to bridge their financing gap. The purpose of this paper is to examine which factors influence the performance of equity crowdfunding campaigns in the Italian equity crowdfunding market. The study is based on proprietary data that considers the entire Italian equity crowdfunding market, and analyses 175 projects from all Italian equity crowdfunding platforms between 2013 and 2018.
Campaigns’ success is driven by ex-ante characteristics of the company itself, such as a large number of shareholders and the presence of an industrial partner among them. Since Italian equity crowdfunding is still in its infancy, the paper is the first to explore success drivers right across the market. The results have practical implications relevant both for seekers of funding and crowdfunding platforms.
2019
- Is Equity Crowdfunding a Good Tool for Social Enterprises?
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Cosma, Stefano; Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; Pagliacci, Francesco; Pedrazzoli, Alessia
abstract
Equity crowdfunding is an emerging financing tool that can help social start-ups and firms to collect people and resources around a project. This paper focuses on equity crowdfunding. We look at this as a complementary financing channel useful for promoting innovation and social change by cutting down the traditional features of financial investment.
Our unique dataset regards 104 equity crowdfunding campaigns, launched by different platforms on the Italian equity crowdfunding market from 2013 to 2017. Our aim is twofold: a) to describe the characteristics of the social firms which have had resource to equity crowdfunding and b) with a logit model, to investigate which factors influence the success of the campaign, in particular by the social orientation of the issuers. The results suggest that social firms’ investment offerings are not different from those of non-social ones, but so far, the Italian equity crowdfunding market does not seem suitable for supporting the financial needs of this type of firms, on the side of either investors or firms.
2019
- Risk and Pricing on the Italian Minibond Market
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; Pattarin, Francesco
abstract
The Italian Minibond market was born in 2013 and was expected to ease debt financing of SMEs as a complementary channel to bank credit. In this chapter, we investigate what were the determinants of the issuing prices of Minibonds in the ExtraMotPro market from 2013 to 2016, with a special focus on small listings by nonfinancial issuers and on default risk. We find evidence that the rating of Minibond issuers by credit rating agencies did not help investors reduce information asymmetries about their creditworthiness. Investment grade.
Minibonds had credit-risk premia similar to speculative grades’ and higher than those of non-rated issues. We evaluate the credit standing of issuers through a statistical and a financial approach. In both cases, we find that issuers rated as investment grade by agencies are generally riskier than those rated speculative grade.
Furthermore, the premia related to our credit-risk assessment are higher for riskier firms than for safer firms. However, we also find evidence that safer borrowers might have signaled their quality to investors through underpricing. Our evidence calls for interventions aimed at improving the information efficiency of the Italian Minibond market.
2018
- Il finanziamento di investimenti di lungo termine attraverso la cartolarizzazione di strumenti di indebitamento.
Il caso dei servizi idrici
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni
abstract
L’obiettivo del seguente contributo è di presentare l’effetto moltiplicativo
che può avere l’emissione di strumenti di indebitamento nella
forma di un’operazione di cartolarizzazione. Viene presentata
l’esperienza maturata attraverso il progetto chiamato Hydrobond 1 & 2
che ha permesso ad un gruppo di imprese di raccogliere sul mercato dei
capitali un ammontare di risorse finanziarie superiore ed a costi più competitivi
rispetto a quanto avrebbero potuto ottenere se avessero agito singolarmente
e nell’ambito della tradizionale intermediazione creditizia. La
possibilità di ricorrere a forme complementari di finanziamento rispetto
al tradizionale canale bancario appare importante anche nell’ambito dei
servizi di pubblica utilità. Il corretto funzionamento di questi ultimi richiede
il costante sostenimento di investimenti ed è un elemento importante
su cui basare lo sviluppo dell’economia circolare.
2018
- Is Equity Crowdfunding a Good Tool for Social Enterprises?
[Working paper]
Cosma, S.; Grasso, A. G.; Pagliacci, F.; Pedrazzoli, A.
abstract
Equity crowdfunding is an emerging financing tool that can help social start-ups and firms to bring people and resources together around a project. This paper focuses on equity crowdfunding. We look at this as a complementary financing channel useful for promoting innovation and social change by paring down the traditional features of financial investment. Our unique dataset regards all the Italian Equity Crowdfunding campaigns launched by different platforms on the Italian equity crowdfunding market from 2013 to 2018. Our aim is twofold: a) to describe some characteristics of the Italian Equity crowdfunding market; b) to describe the characteristics of the social firms which have had recourse to equity crowdfunding, in order to investigate which factors influence the campaign’s success. The results suggest that social firms’ investment offerings are not different from those of non-social ones, but so far, the Italian equity crowdfunding market does not seem suitable for supporting the financial needs of this type of firm, on the side of either investors or firms.
2015
- Il finanziamento dell’innovazione attraverso l’equity crowdfunding
[Capitolo/Saggio]
Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni
abstract
L’innovazione per un Paese rappresenta un elemento fondamentale in
grado di produrre effetti positivi sia a livello macroeconomico sia a livello
microeconomico. Il processo di innovazione richiede risorse monetarie da
dedicare. Spesso queste risorse mancano a chi innova e quindi si deve ricorrere
a finanziatori; si tratta di un processo di norma non semplice e che,
nel caso di chi fa innovazione, assume ulteriori elementi di complicazione.
Il paragrafo introduttivo riprende il concetto di innovazione, associandolo
al ruolo delle imprese che affrontano le prime fasi del proprio ciclo di
vita, start up. Il paragrafo due indica alcune risultanze degli studi sull’intermediazione
finanziaria e sulle scelte di finanziamento delle imprese relativamente
alle problematiche che affrontano le imprese soprattutto innovative
nel processo di finanziamento. Il paragrafo tre presenta il canale di raccolta
di capitale di rischio attraverso portali online, conosciuto anche come
equity crowdfunding, che, recentemente, è comparso nel sistema finanziario
italiano. Vengono in particolare indicati gli attori di questo canale: gli
emittenti, gli investitori, gli intermediari. Si tratta di un canale recente per
il quale i dati a disposizione non permettono di trarre giudizi definitivi, ma
che consentono di evidenziare alcuni aspetti interessanti, paragrafo quattro.
È importante affermare come questo canale non si possa vedere come
alternativo, bensì come complementare rispetto agli altri canali di finanziamento
e non può essere visto che favorevolmente rispetto al tema dell’innovazione.
Un ruolo importante avranno la Scuola e l’Università nel creare un
nuovo tipo di imprenditore che sia idoneo a cogliere le potenzialità offerte
dalle nuove tecnologie che stanno influenzando anche il panorama dell’intermediazione.
2010
- Rischio di insolvenza e congiuntura economica nell'industria della provincia di Modena
[Capitolo/Saggio]
R., Giardino; Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; Pattarin, Francesco
abstract
Si presenta un modello di rating per valutare il rischio di insolvenza delle imprese industriali italiane, sviluppato su un ampia casistica relativa al periodo 2003-07. Il modello è applicato a un campione di imprese della manifattura modenese, in cui sono presenti molte PMI. Si produce una valutazione storica del rischio e una previsione per il 2009. I risultati sono interpretati alla luce della struttura dell'industria locale e della congiuntura recente.
2009
- Solvibilità dell'industria: quali prospettive per il 2009?
[Articolo su rivista]
Pattarin, Francesco; Grasso, Alessandro Giovanni; R., Giardino
abstract
Fluttuazioni cicliche e repentini sbalzi di produzione hanno caratterizzato gli ultimi anni: una dettagliata analisi delle motivazioni porta alla formulazione di uno scenario prospettico in cui sono evidenziati rischio di insolvenza e punti di forza e debolezza delle industrie modenesi