Annalisa Prencipe, from the Family Firm to the Helm of the Undergraduate School
PROFESSOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF ACCOUNTING, SHE IS AN EXPERT ON EARNINGS QUALITY AND REPORTING IN FAMILY BUSINESSES. FROM NOVEMBER 1 SHE WILL BE PART OF THE RECTOR'S TEAMAnnalisa Prencipe developed her interest in Earnings Quality and Earnings Management in 2001, when she was a visiting PhD student at Harvard Business School. “I soon became interested in these topics, still relatively unknown in Italy. They have become the core of my research activities, which were later on extended to Corporate Governance”.
Professor of Financial Reporting and Analysis at graduate and postgraduate levels, Prencipe researched these topics also in the Italian context, with a specific focus on family firms, where non-economic factors play a significant role. “It was Sasson Bar-Yosef, a colleague of mine, who pushed me to study Family Firms. It’s a fascinating and multidisciplinary subject that attracts researchers who wish to analyze phenomena from different perspectives: Economics, Management, Finance, Accounting”.
Prencipe was an undergraduate student at Bocconi. She decided to enroll after she participated to an orientation initiative organized by Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa and reserved to the best Italian secondary-school students. She was fascinated by a lecture in economics taught by a Bocconi professor. Once graduated, Alfredo Viganò and Angelo Provasoli invited her to join the Institute of Business Administration, part of which, later on, became the Department of Accounting, where Prencipe is now full professor.
Starting November 1, she will lead the Undergraduate School, as Dean in the team of new Rector Gianmario Verona. “Working with students is a source of inspiration and energy. At the same time, doing research is very stimulating. Empirical accounting research, in particular, is relatively young and it is growing at a fast pace. You cannot get bored in this profession. You need passion and energy to keep up with research and teaching innovation”.
For Prencipe it is important to ensure that research has an actual impact on firms and institutions. “An even more demanding and rewarding challenge for me is putting teaching and research at the service of the common good. I consider this to be an authentic mission”.
by Claudio Todesco
