Impianto metodologico e programma di ricerca dell’Economia aziendale. Il pensiero di Teodoro D’Ippolito e la sua attualità.

This paper aims to analyze and summarizing the theoretical aspects of the research methodology proposed by Teodoro D'Ippolito with reference to Economia aziendale. Indeed, D'Ippolito was the first scholar to make a contribution to this topic after Gino Zappa and before Pietro Onida's more famous contribution “Le discipline economico-aziendali. Oggetto e metodo” (1947). Bibliographic research has been carried out to identify the scientific contributions of Teodoro D'Ippolito which concerned the subject of research methodology in Economia aziendale. Through a historiographical constructivist approach, contributions on the subject have been analyzed, interpreted and systematized. In particular, the paper is based on the main monographic works of this scholar published from the forties to the eighties, taking into account the evolution of the methodological approach that can be derived from a bibliographic analysis. A specific approach has been adopted with the aim of obtaining a synthetic schematization of the main aspects of the proposed methodological approach. The results highlight the features of the methodology and research program proposed by D'Ippolito for the theoretical and doctrinal development of Economia aziendale. They show schematically and descriptively the main aspects related to research methodology and research objectives of the Economia aziendale in Teodoro D'Ippolito's thought. According to D'Ippolito, research in Economia aziendale has the purpose of interpreting business phenomena in order to understand past events and to make predictions of future ones less uncertain. To this end, researchers and scholars need to seek knowledge of a different nature to study the significance of business phenomena in their complexity. The article is relevant as it provides a contribution to the historical analysis of the methodological developments of Economia aziendale after the historical epoch of Gino Zappa, as a founder of the new scientific discipline in the Italian academic context. It is possible to identify at least three reasons that justify the relevance of this paper. First, there is the belief that many scholars have ignored the important scientific contribution of D'Ippolito. In addition, D'Ippolito can be considered the first among Zappa's collaborators to have contributed to the so-called “methodological question”, at the beginning of the 1940s. Finally, the paper allows some reflections on the current situation regarding research methods in business sciences, in the context of progressive international comparison and globalization of knowledge.