The alternative investment market Italia listing process: A sustainable alternative investment market for small medium enterprises (SMEs)?

The present work aims to investigate the world of Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), exploring in depth the implications related to the sustainability of the listing process in the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) Italia market in order to assess, adopting a critical approach, whether the path of listing could be the ideal choice to support a significant growth of these realities. An empirical survey is therefore presented in order to evaluate the sustainability of the listing process from both an economic-financial and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) point of view. The conclusions reached highlight how the listing process hides pitfalls in terms of economic and financial performance; while the commitment to ESG factors seems rewarding both in terms of share price trends and debt cost.