Value creation for sustainable strategies: a case study

Purpose – The overall aim of this work is to frame the value creation process within the sustainable growth strategies. The paper proposes an accounting-based framework that is able to detect whether a firm is pursuing a sustainable strategy or not.The framework is applied to a case study: the Loccioni Group. This work continues a research already started from a theoretical point of view by the same authors (Iazzolino and Laise, 2014).Design/methodology/approach - Building on two previous works by the same authors (Iazzolino and Laise, 2013; 2014), the proposed framework starts from the analysis of the Value Added (VA) created by the firm and of its components: (i) HC - Human Capital and (ii) SC – Structural Capital , the last measuring the value created for all capital investors (within which there are also the shareholders). In order to evaluate the sustainability of a strategy, the time trend of the VA and its composition is analyzed.Findings – From results of application of the methodology on the case study it emerges that the Loccioni Group is pursuing a sustainable strategy. The firm is following a “win-win” strategy.Originality/value - The originality and the value of our methodological proposal can be appreciated by taking into account that in the literature there is no accounting-based methodology that is able to evaluate the sustainability of a strategy.The VA and its composition, together with other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), allows the sustainability of a strategy to be defined.Practical implications – Managers underestimate the importance of a performance measurement that takes into account advantages in terms of intangibles (human capital, structural capital, relational capital). Our approach makes it possible to highlight the effects of sustainable strategies based on knowledge investments oriented towards the Stakeholder Value Theory and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).