Assetti proprietari e implicazioni sulla comunicazione della strategia nelle medie imprese quotate italiane

Empirical studies investigating the quality of the voluntary disclosure are basically focused on major firms. Conversely, the theme of the quality of communication in medium-sized companies appears rather unexplored, despite their growing economic relevance. This paper, applying content analysis techniques, addresses the nature of voluntary disclosure in Italian listed medium-sized firms, and raises the issue of its quality and strategic content after listing. In this delicate phase of their growth, in fact, firms are called to reinforce stakeholders trusts and to attract new financial resources, by improving voluntary disclosure. The study, performing two linear regression models, examines, in particular, the explanatory power of different ownership structures as potential determinants of firms’ communication quality and strategic content. The results show that a diffuse ownership is associated with increasing quality of voluntary disclosure, while an higher institutional investors’ ownership is related to an increase of the strategic content of communication.