Investment policy and economic performance of Italian listed companies: a multivariate analysis

This study focuses on the investment policy of companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange in the period between 2007 and 2014. In particular, this research concentrates on the industrial and technological sectors, which have deep differences in terms of internal structure and business strategy. As a consequence, there emerged the curiosity to investigate whether the specific type of investments have an impact on the economic performance, in terms of operating margin (EBIT). This study starts with the analysis of trends and relationships between tangibles, intangibles and operating income. Using the Pearson correlation ratio, the authors aimed at finding evidence of a hypothetical correlation in 2014 between tangible and intangible investments and EBIT. In addition, in order to verify if the trend of the economic performance is affected, a MANOVA multivariate analysis is used, by starting from the production function and its development.