Financial management of publicly funded research activities: an explorative study

This research deals with the analysis of financial management, with a specific focus on cash flows, within in-house publicly controlled companies operating in high-technology sectors and characterised by the relevant participation in research projects financed by the European Structural Funds. To this end, three research questions are formulated relating to the liquidity cycle of such organisations. They focus respectively on the risk and return trade-off, on the variability of their cash flows and on the relation between the liquidity and the yields of the financial tools owned. A public–private consortium was the subject of analysis to answer the research questions. Specifically, the Miller–Orr model is applied to the consortium’s cash flows to provide managerial recommendations for the future and a course of action.