Healthcare investments represent a central infrastructure with growing sustainability issues, due to the aging population, public budgetary pressures, and higher quality standards. Public providers of healthcare services increasingly interact with experienced private suppliers. They share Value for Money (VfM), to achieve efficiency gains through an optimal combination of benefits and costs. Innovative solutions are so needed, as they combine the target of increasing healthcare quality with economic savings.

Digital platforms are a technology-enabled transactional tool that facilitates connec-tions between stakeholders. Their features are consistent with network theory appli-cations where stakeholders are the nodes rotating around the platform. Platforms may be considered a new virtual stakeholder that, consistently with network theory, connects conventional partners (shareholders, managers, employees, lenders, cli-ents, suppliers, etc.), representing a bridging node and edge in multilayer networks. Stakeholders are nodes that interact around the bridging (hub) node, sharing infor-mation, and co-creating value within a sustainable digital ecosystem. Shared infor-mation is fueled in real-time by big data and reduces asymmetries and risk, rede-signing information systems. Corporate governance and managerial implications emerge as a critical, still under-explored issue.

I social network consistono in reti sociali su Internet sviluppatesi comemass media gratuiti e interattivi, dove gli utenti possono presentarsi ad un pubblico vasto, creando comunità virtuali nelle quali è possibile condividere contenuti di vario genere. La loro crescente diffusione comporta problematiche di tutela del diritto d’autore e di protezione di dati sensibili (privacy). Fornendo a terzi le preferenze di utenti (spesso ignari), i social network divengono uno strumento avanzato di marketing personalizzato e digital branding. La digitalizzazione delle relazioni ne aumenta fruibilità e valore. L’attribuzione di un valore economico per i social network risulta peraltro complessa, dal momento che la maggior parte del valore risiede negli utenti, nel numero e nella qualità di connessioni tra gli stessi e nell’effetto network (rete) che ne scaturisce.

Le società Fintech operano nel settore della fornitura di prodotti e servizi finanziari attraverso tecnologie informatiche avanzate. I servizi spaziano dalle transazioni e pagamenti all’intermediazione finanziaria, fino alla gestione del rischio finanziario e alle valute elettroniche, ai prodotti assicurativi (InsurTech) o regolamentari (RegTech), talora utilizzando blockchain per la validazione dei dati. Le metriche di valutazione seguono criteri standard, basati sui flussi di cassa scontati o i comparabili di mercato, da adattare agli specifici modelli di business e alle milestones della società (start-up early stage; società già consolidata, ecc.).

Financial Technology (FinTech) is an industry composed of diversified firms that combine financial services with innovative technologies. The research question and main goal are attempting to answer whether they are more similar to traditional banks or trendy technological firms deploying their innovativeness to favor financial inclusion and sustainability.

This book offers a primer on the valuation of digital intangibles, a trending class of immaterial assets. Startups like successful unicorns, as well as consolidated firms desperately working to re-engineer their business models, are now trying to go digital and to reap higher returns by exploiting new intangibles. This book is innovative in its design and concept since it tackles a frontier topic with an original methodology, combining academic rigor with practical insights. Digital intangibles range from digitized versions of traditional immaterial assets (brands, patents, know-how, etc.) to more trendy applications like big data, Internet of Things, interoperable databases, artificial intelligence, digital newspapers, social networks, blockchains, FinTech applications, etc. This book comprehensively addresses related valuation issues, and demonstrates how best practices can be applied to specific asset appraisals, making it of interest to researchers, students, and practitioners alike.