The contribution of investments in intellectual capital to the firm performance improvement in the non profit sector

It is universally accepted that the main purpose of a company is to create value. Among asset dynamics for value creation one of the main source are intangibles. In doctrine many authors focus their attention on intangibles definition or on models able to measure intellectual capital, but there are still few researchers about the link between the investment and the performance of intellectual capital and about the intellectual performance and the overall performance for a firm. The paper wants to focus on the first aspect, analysing the contribution of cost analysis to the management of intellectual capital and wants to decline the argument within a sector for which the theme of intellectual capital is relatively new, the sector of non profit organizations. Even being no profitable companies the intellectual value is becoming an important key factor to reach successfully efficacy and efficiency in the company’s lifetime. The paper develops a theoretical approach, through a comparative, national and international doctrine analysis and a practical one, as well as, by studying a real case of a non profit organization, which already drafts an IC report, in order to understand how, in this kind of organizations, cost analysis can help the intangibles’ management