Title: Investment policy and economic performance of Italian listed companies: a multivariate analysis

Authors: Chiara Crovini; Giovanni Ossola; Guido Giovando

Addresses: Department of Management, School of Management and Economics, University of Turin, C.so Unione Sovietica 218/bis, 10134, Turin, Italy ' Department of Management, School of Management and Economics, University of Turin, C.so Unione Sovietica 218/bis, 10134, Turin, Italy ' Department of Management, School of Management and Economics, University of Turin, C.so Unione Sovietica 218/bis, 10134, Turin, Italy

Abstract: This study focuses on the investment policy of companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in the period between 2007 and 2014. In particular, this research concentrates on the industrial and technological sectors, which have deep differences in terms of internal structure and business strategy. As a consequence, there emerged the curiosity to investigate whether the specific type of investments have an impact on the economic performance, in terms of operating margin (EBIT). This study starts with the analysis of trends and relationships between tangibles, intangibles and operating income. Using the Pearson correlation ratio, the authors aimed at finding evidence of a hypothetical correlation in 2014 between tangible and intangible investments and EBIT. In addition, in order to verify if the trend of the economic performance is affected, a MANOVA multivariate analysis is used, by starting from the production function and its development.

Keywords: investments; tangible; intangible; assets; earnings before interests and taxes; EBIT; listed companies; multivariate regression; MANOVA.

DOI: 10.1504/GBER.2018.088458

Global Business and Economics Review, 2018 Vol.20 No.1, pp.36 - 53

Received: 07 Jan 2016
Accepted: 13 Mar 2016

Published online: 11 Dec 2017 *

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