Intangibles and financial performances: an empirical analysis on a sample of High-Tech Italian firms

The paper deals with the study of the relationship between Intangibles and financial Performances. An empirical analysis with the aim to quantitatively express this relationship is presented. The research has been carried out on a sample of 78 Italian SMEs (Small and Medium Enterprises) belonging to the High-Tech industry (Information technology, Telephone and Telecommunications). The main contributions of the work involve the use of some indicators that have not yet been used in similar studies, such as for example the GE (Growth in EBITDA%) and the GCF (Growth in Cash Flow). Other contribution may be considered the fact to have used indicators of Intellectual Capital which are calculated for the previous year to the one of the measurement of Performance, in order to investigate the impact of intangible assets even in time distance. The results showed that there is a relation between Structural Capital and firm Performance. The research also revealed that the intangibles have a greater impact on the performance than the physical assets, as it was reasonable to expect, considering the analysed sector, typically knowledge-intensive.