GLI ADEGUATI ASSETTI ORGANIZZATIVI, AMMINISTRATIVI E CONTABILI PER FAVORIRE LA PREVENZIONE DELLA CRISI E LA SOSTENIBILITÀ AZIENDALE: IL RUOLO DEL SISTEMA DI CONTROLLO INTERNO. Analisi e ricerca di un framework esplicativo nelle PMI

1. Research Context and Objectives In a context marked by increasing competitive volatility and a profound revision of the European and national regulatory framework, SMEs are called upon to redesign their organisational and information architectures. Directive (EU) 2019/1023 and the Italian Business Crisis and Insolvency Code (Legislative Decree No. 14/2019), together with the amendment of Article 2086 of the Italian Civil Code in conjunction with Articles 2381 and 2475 of the same Code, have shifted attention from the ex post management of insolvency to prevention and early diagnosis. Within this framework, the thesis reinterprets the concept of the “adequacy” of corporate organisational arrangements as a systemic and dynamic property that integrates structure, processes, and information flows into a continuous cycle of planning, control, and learning, thereby enhancing legal compliance as the starting point for a proactive governance of business continuity. 2. Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework combines Management Control Systems, Corporate Governance, Stakeholder Theory, the Resource-Based View (RBV), and Dynamic Capabilities. This hybridisation makes it possible to interpret corporate organisational arrangements as an enabling architecture that combines operational discipline with strategic orientation. A central reference is Simons, whose work allows for a distinction between the diagnostic use of control systems—aimed at monitoring results and deviations—and their interactive use, oriented towards learning and guiding change. In parallel, the stakeholder perspective and the RBV qualify data quality and information transparency as organisational resources and capabilities capable of generating reputational capital and legitimacy vis-à-vis banks, investors, customers, and public authorities. Dynamic capabilities provide the analytical grammar through which adequacy can be understood as the capacity to perceive signals of discontinuity, reconfigure processes, and rapidly translate information into decisions and corrective action. 3. Research Questions The thesis investigates two interrelated research questions: (RQ1) how the adequacy of organisational, administrative, and accounting arrangements affects SMEs’ ability to prevent business crisis and ensure corporate sustainability/continuity; and (RQ2) what role the internal control system plays in strengthening the effectiveness of managerial arrangements and supporting business continuity. Two hypotheses follow: (H1) SMEs with formalised and adequate organisational arrangements display a greater capacity to prevent business crisis; and (H2) the adoption of a structured internal control system strengthens the effectiveness of such arrangements in managing business continuity. The principle of proportionality guides the overall approach, ensuring consistency with the nature and size of SMEs. 4. Research Methodology Adequacy is measured through a composite index integrating: (i) organisational formalisation, including organisational charts, delegations of authority, and segregation of duties; (ii) administrative-governance safeguards, including procedures, authorisation processes, risk management, and compliance; and (iii) the accounting and information infrastructure, including ERP systems, data quality, reporting, and KPI dashboards. The internal control system is conceived as a socio-technical system encompassing management control, the monitoring of financial and non-financial indicators, risk and compliance functions, timeliness, and documentary traceability; where relevant, the connection with the Italian Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 organisational model further strengthens the control framework. Prevention/continuity is proxied by the presence and quality of forecasting tools, including business plans, budgets, sensitivity analyses, treasury planning, and prospective cash flow statements, as well as by measures of timeliness in detecting imbalances and assessing going concern. The integration of ESG factors—in light of the CSRD, SFDR, and EU Taxonomy—is treated as an information dimension affecting reputation, creditworthiness, and access to capital. The empirical design is based on a triangulation of three surveys administered to firms, professionals, and experts in negotiated settlement procedures. This approach enables a comparison between self-assessments and external assessments along the entire control chain, thereby increasing the external validity of the findings. The datasets are analysed through correlations and regressions in order to test the relationships among the adequacy index, the quality of information flows, the regularity of control processes, early-warning capacity, and orderly crisis management. A comparison with practice benchmarks is used to verify alignment with regulatory requirements and managerial recommendations. 5. Empirical Evidence and Discussion The evidence converges in outlining a positive and statistically significant relationship between the substantive formalisation of corporate organisational arrangements and information quality. SMEs equipped with operational organisational charts, clear delegations of authority, and traceable procedures produce more timely and coherent information; this supports regular control routines, the adoption of dashboards that are essential yet genuinely decision-useful, and the institutionalisation of planning-measurement-action cycles on a predictable basis. In this context, prospective treasury management assumes a discriminating value: when integrated with budgeting and scenario analysis, it enables firms to identify liquidity tensions at an early stage and activate corrective measures before imbalances become entrenched. The internal control system emerges as the functional hinge that makes corporate organisational arrangements operational. Where management control is integrated with risk and compliance safeguards and embedded in clear authorisation processes, a dual effect is observed: at the operational level, greater process discipline and data reliability; at the strategic level, a strengthening of organisational learning capacity through interfunctional dialogue and the interactive use of control tools. By contrast, corporate arrangements that are formally defined but not internalised, or controls confined to documentary exercises, reduce sensitivity to weak signals and delay corrective action. Leadership and a data-driven culture prove decisive in transforming formalisation into effective and shared routines. The triangulation among firms, professionals, and experts confirms perceptual consistency: firms that define themselves as structured are also recognised as such by other actors and display superior performance in terms of continuity, information quality, and speed of response. It follows that adequacy does not depend on the breadth of documentation, but rather on the relational and informational quality of the system. 6. The Proposed Explanatory Framework The theoretical and empirical synthesis gives rise to an evidence-based framework articulating a three-stage maturity path: (1) securing the foundations—roles, procedures, data quality, and data integrity; (2) integrating management cycles—budgeting, forecasting, interim reporting, and rolling treasury planning—with institutionalised timelines and responsibilities; and (3) ensuring the interoperability of information systems, including ERP and specialised modules, and hybridising them with ESG logics. The core of the model lies in balancing the diagnostic use of control systems—discipline, comparability, and monitoring of deviations—with their interactive use—learning, adaptation, and strategic dialogue. Measurement is not an end result, but rather a conversational infrastructure that enables alignment and timely decision-making. Within this architecture, room is also made for predictive models aimed at the early emergence of crisis, as well as for the connection with the Legislative Decree No. 231/2001 model in relation to traceability and risk oversight. 7. Managerial and Policy Implications For firms, the priority is to institutionalise a calendar of key processes with clearly defined responsibilities and alert thresholds anchored to a set of KPIs; to invest in data quality and integration; and to connect financial planning, prospective treasury management, and reporting within a continuous decision-action cycle. For professionals, the challenge is to evolve towards the role of internal control partner, translating accounting data into managerial information and executable plans, overseeing prospective treasury management, and facilitating dialogue with the credit system. For policymakers, the most promising lever lies in promoting proportionate and scalable interventions, disseminating a managerial data culture, and fostering the digitalisation of administrative-accounting and control processes. 8. Contributions The thesis makes three main contributions: (i) it provides a substantive redefinition of adequacy in the SME context, shifting the focus from the mere breadth of documentation to the system’s capacity to generate learning and timely responses; (ii) it develops a composite index for measuring the adequacy of corporate organisational arrangements, linked to observable outcomes of prevention and continuity and validated through source triangulation; and (iii) it proposes an operational framework that integrates organisational, informational, and cultural dimensions, translating regulatory requirements into implementable practices proportionate to firm scale. 9. Conclusions The thesis shows that the substantive formalisation of corporate organisational arrangements, supported by a coherent, effective, and balanced internal control system, constitutes the backbone of organisational resilience in SMEs. The legal obligation to establish adequate corporate organisational arrangements assumes the value of a principle of managerial sustainability: a duty to build infrastructures capable of preventing imbalances, sustaining continuity, and fostering legitimacy among stakeholders. Where financial planning, interim reporting, prospective treasury management, risk safeguards, and ESG integration converge into a genuinely usable information system, the firm is able to convert data into knowledge, knowledge into decisions, and decisions into corrective action. It is in this capacity for continuous learning—institutionalised by the internal control system—that the most concrete measure of adequacy lies, as well as the basis for combining crisis prevention, operational continuity, and long-term value creation.