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    Local elections and the quality of financial statements in municipally owned entities: A Benford analysis

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    Benford's Law has been widely used in the literature to assess data quality and reliability. This paper examines the impact of local elections on financial reporting quality in entities controlled by local governments using a data science approach. By applying Benford’s Law on financial statements published by Italian municipally owned entities operating in utility industries, we find diffuse data anomalies around election seasons. This does not automatically means that illegal manipulation or fraud are widespread in those periods, but it implies that (i) auditors need to pay particular attention to the quality of accounting data in those crucial periods and specific environments; and that (ii) voters and media have to be critical in assuming municipally owned entities' indicators of financial performance as proxies of the administrative efficiency of incumbent politicians

    Intellectual capital for recovering patient centrality and ensuring patient satisfaction in healthcare sector

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    Purpose: With the aim to enrich the ongoing debate about healthcare management, the paper has a twofold intent: [1] to emphasise the interpretative contribution that intellectual capital can provide to a better understanding of the relevant role of patients in the healthcare sector and [2] to investigate the relationships between the three main dimensions of intellectual capital – human capital, relational capital and structural capital – and patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector. Design/methodology/approach: The intellectual capital framework is contextualised in the healthcare sector, and the relationships among patient evaluations of human capital, relational capital and structural capital and patient satisfaction are tested via structural equation modelling (SEM) using primary data collected with reference to a sample of 561 Italian patients involved in post survey treatments in three Italian hospitals. Findings: The role of intellectual capital in supporting a better understanding of processes and dynamics of patient satisfaction in the healthcare sector is underlined. The empirical research provides possible guidelines for recovery patients centrality in healthcare management. Originality/value: The paper shows how an intellectual capital framework can support a better understanding and management of dynamics and processes through which patient centrality and satisfaction in healthcare management can be enforced
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