Intellectual capital in the italian Public Service sector: analysis on management and governance

Today measurement of companies economic, financial and social performance must take into account the role played by intangible assets. It is widely accepted in the literature that the latter, in the sense of resources without physical substance, are key factors in ensuring competitiveness. For this reason, more and more companies are anxious to develop effective and efficient tools to define, manage, monitor, evaluate and communicate the importance of their intangible assets. The definition and classification of intangible assets is still an open question (Zambon 2004; Marr and Neely 2004). We sometimes speak of intangible assets, and at other times intellectual capital. Recognition of the importance of intangible assets (namely the body of knowledge, know-how, organizational and interpersonal skills and so on) has led public service organisations to assess their role in the process of value creation. It is very important for such organisations (public or non profit) to communicate and demonstrate the quality of services provided; it is also crucial for them to generate social value. They need to give an account of their work in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and overall performance. This requires, therefore, reporting on the economic relationship between the achievement of results and use of resources and an assessment of the quality of their work, and this is not achieved simply by considering the economic value of resources used by the organization, but also by taking into account other variables not immediately tangible and visible. The purpose of this study is to investigate how intellectual capital influences the management and governance of public utility companies listed on the Italian Stock Exchange. The research focuses on the importance and role played by such variables as knowledge, sharing ideas, and the exchange of experiences, personal skills, i.e. on a set of fundamental drivers, for better value creation. It is essential that resources be used to improve services and meet the needs of the public. In particular, we investigate, through an analysis of existing data, how intellectual capital interacts with the management and governance of public service sector listed companies. To this end, an analysis is carried out on public utilities listed on the Italian Stock Exchange (A2A, Acea, Aceagas-Aps, Drinking Water, ACSM-Agam, Alerion, Ascopiave, Edison, Enel, Enel Green Power, Erg Renew, Ergycapital, Falk Renewables, Hera, Iren, KR Energy, Snam Rete Gas, Terna, TerniEnergia).