The Performance Assessment of Energy Companies

In the last two decades, in Europe and in Italy, the energy sector undergone a process of liberalization and opening up to competition that involved markets, institutions, companies and consumers. Liberalization has increased the environmental complexity of energy companies, shifting the priority of the management towards the formulation of strategies to gain market share and, at the same time, keep the old customers. The implemented strategies have been different depending on some company characteristics. In Italy, the geographical position has always influenced the company performances. Our paper aims to assess the economic and financial performances of companies, following the beginning of the liberalization process, focusing in particular on how geographical position have influenced the results. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.