-
Journal menu
- General information
- Editorial Board and External Reviewers
- Journal Policies
- Publication Ethics and Malpractice Statement
- Instructions for authors
- Paper reviewing
- Article processing charge
- Feedback from stakeholders
- Journal’s Open Access statement
- Order hard copies of the journal
- 50 most cited papers in the journal
Characteristics of Italian firms in the judicial administration: Can financial ratios be red flags of criminal infiltrations?
Download This Article
Angela Maria Greco 
, Mariastella Messina
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Abstract
In recent years, the importance of studying criminal infiltration in firms, especially in the context of accounting practice, cannot be underestimated. The paper aims to analyse firms under judicial administration (JA) to better understand where firms operate by investigating whether certain financial ratios can serve as red flags indicating criminal infiltration. The study examines a sample of 108 firms operating in the Italian context undergoing JA. Findings show that most of the firms were small, located in the south of Italy, structured as limited liability companies, active but undergoing insolvency procedures, and operating in the construction, wholesale and retail trade, car and motorcycle repair, rental, travel agencies, business support services, and real estate sectors. The analysis shows that firm size, performance, and debt can be used as red flags to indicate criminal infiltration. The results provide useful insights for understanding how accounting practices can help to identify criminal infiltration in firms.
Keywords: Accounting, Infiltrated Firms, Financial Ratios, Judicial Administration
Authors’ individual contribution: Conceptualization — A.M.G. and M.M.; Methodology — A.M.G. and M.M.; Software — A.M.G. and M.M.; Validation — A.M.G. and M.M.; Formal Analysis — A.M.G. and M.M.; Investigation — A.M.G. and M.M.; Resources — A.M.G. and M.M.; Data Curation — A.M.G. and M.M.; Writing — A.M.G. and M.M.; Visualization — A.M.G. and M.M.; Supervision — A.M.G. and M.M.; Project Administration — A.M.G. and M.M.
Declaration of conflicting interests: The Authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.
JEL Classification: K42, L14, M1, M4, M41
Received: 24.05.2024
Accepted: 15.10.2024
Published online: 17.10.2024
How to cite this paper: Greco, A. M., & Messina, M. (2024). Characteristics of Italian firms in the judicial administration: Can financial ratios be red flags of criminal infiltrations? [Special issue]. Corporate Ownership & Control, 21(3), 116–132. https://doi.org/10.22495/cocv21i3siart10
