Mariolina Longo

Corporate social responsibility and corporate performance: the case of Italian SMEs

Purpose – The research has the following objectives: to contribute to a clear understanding of the present social commitment of small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs), analyzing the characteristics of CSR in them; making it easier to identify, develop and spread the instruments suitable to the SME specific demands in the creation of social value.Design/methodology/approach – Surveys a set of SMEs, belonging to different industrial fields and operating on the Italian territory in the region Emilia Romagna.Findings – On the basis of the analysis carried out in the paper, it has been possible to identify the principal managerial instruments used by the companies for the creation of social value and to identify those companies (approximately 63 percent of the reference sample) that adopt an integrated social responsibility approach. The majority of SMEs analysed have therefore perceived the social responsibility concept and welcome it, not only because they have moral or ethical reasons for doing so, but a...

Organisation of operating theatres: an Italian benchmarking study

The paper presents the main results of a benchmarking project involving eight Italian hospitals. The project sought to examine and compare the organisational processes adopted in different operating blocks, i.e. complex organisational units comprising many different actors whose performance often has a significant influence on the level of work of the overall structure. The organisational survey was carried out by means of interviews with head nurses, surgeons and anaesthetists. In order to identify the managerial significance of activities and processes, a theoretical model of the operating block was developed, together with an appropriate performance measurement system. On the basis of this model and using analytic hierarchy process, we together with experts from the sector were able both “to measure” the strategic importance of the activities and to identify the best practices.

A multidimensional measure of employees’ intangibles

Purpose – The aims of this research are: to develop and test an evaluation model of the intangible resources related to the employees; to value the impact that these intangible resources have on individual work attitudes such as job satisfaction and turnover propensity.Design/methodology/approach – Two surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006 for employees of a leading Italian company in the agricultural food sector. A structural equation modelling methodology was used to define the quantitative measures of the system of resources and to determine the relations among the different constructs.Findings – It was found that the items adopted in the study capture the constructs of human capital and structural capital and, moreover, these two dimensions positively affect individual work attitudes such as job satisfaction and turnover.Originality/value – The measurement system developed in this research can be used in any firm that seeks to measure the intangible resources related to employees. The system represe...

Stakeholder management and human resources: development and implementation of a performance measurement system

Purpose – The premise on which the stakeholder approach toward employees is based is that stakeholder management actions bring a strengthening of internal legitimacy and therefore the possibility of creating better working conditions that will lead to improved company competitiveness in terms of intangible resources developed by company employees. The aims of the paper are: to determine and to measure the system of resources of value developed by employees of a company that has developed a stakeholder management policy; to create a model that permits the company to evaluate the factors which have a major effect on the development of such a system; and to define the applications of the tool as a companys performance measurement and control system.Design/methodology/approach – In order to pursue these aims two surveys were conducted in 2005 and 2006 on the employees of a leading Italian company in the agricultural food sector. Structural equation model methodology and multivariate analysis were used to def...

The effect of intellectual capital attributes on organizational performance. The case of the Bologna Opera House

In this study, we propose to model how intellectual capital (IC) attributes affect the performance of organizations operating in the performing arts sector, more specifically opera companies. In particular, the aim of this paper is twofold in that it seeks: (1) to analyze the role IC plays in performing arts organizations; and (2) to propose research hypotheses that suggest how IC affects the performance of these organizations. An in-depth qualitative approach was adopted. The research methodology deployed consists of a longitudinal case study of a major Italian opera house. The main findings of this study are two: (1) the identification of six attributes of IC that are deeply grounded in management theories and that make the definition of the IC construct more theoretically robust with respect to other studies that are less evidence-based; (2) the development of a model that shows how IC attributes affect the three different performance dimensions of performing arts organizations.

The effect of social capital on exploration and exploitation: Modelling the moderating effect of environmental dynamism

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to enter the debate on the antecedents of knowledge exploration and exploitation by investigating the role of social capital and environmental dynamisms. The contribution is grounded on existing insights that no empirical evidence exists on the link between social capital and exploration/exploitation behaviors. Design/methodology/approach – The model considers three social capital dimensions – structural, relational and cognitive. It also considers the moderation effect of environmental dynamism on the link between social capital and knowledge exploration and exploitation. Head physicians from Italian hospitals were surveyed using a structured questionnaire. The data set consists of 174 observations, analyzed using seemingly unrelated regression techniques. Findings – This research provides evidence of the positive effect of structural, relational and cognitive social capital on knowledge exploration and exploitation – thus adding to a literature which has thus far c...

Developing a tool for intellectual capital assessment: an individual-level perspective

This paper aims to develop a model for assessing and valuing the intellectual capital of an organization by gathering data from individual employees. Also, the paper empirically investigates the relationship between intellectual capital and a specific dimension of employees’ performance. Two surveys were conducted on employees of a leading company in the Italian food product market. The sample analysed comprises 1117 observations. A structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology was used to define the measurement model and to determine the relations between intellectual capital and employees’ performance. The model for intellectual capital assessment developed in this paper may integrate already existing intellectual capital frameworks. The three dimensions of intellectual capital identified mutually affect and have a positive effect on employees’ performance. Our findings contribute to the discussion in the promising research stream of intellectual capital management. As limitations, this study focuses on a single company, and it exclusively adopts individual-level perceptual indicators. These elements make it difficult for any inter-company comparison.

A Methodology for Measuring Intellectual Capital. A Structural Equations Modelling Approach

The past decade has been characterized by a process of growing dematerialization of the strategic resources possessed by firms. The relational capabilities of the firm, technology connected with the planning and management of firm processes, know-how, as well as the decisional autonomy and technical competencies of the employees all represent intangible assets that are determining in the value creation process of a firm (Longo & Mura, 2007; Roos et al., 2005). The relevance of this topic is supported by the attention that financial markets attribute to the accounting of these assets. In January 2007 the International Accounting Standard Board issued a technical document in support of the ‘Intangible Assets’ project, which is examining the possibility of adding to the balance sheet the intangible assets that are generated internally to the firm and that are not subject to any negotiation on active markets (IASB, 2007). This ‘opening up’ in the accounting system has important effects on the economic evaluation of a company and on its ability to gain access to credit, in that it provides the market, the institutional investors and the financial analysts very precious information regarding the development of fundamental resources for the value creation process of a firm. Furthermore, performance management literature has highlighted the need for specific tools for the measurement of internally-generated intangible assets, defined in managerial literature as intellectual capital (IC) (Tayles et al., 2002). These tools have been shown to greatly support management activity (Roos et al., 2005; Carlucci et al., 2004). As a matter of fact, the integration of information related to company’s intellectual capital together with quantitative information relative to the firm’s strategic policies, offers management a display of important indicators for the definition and the control of corporate objectives. Numerous intellectual capital frameworks have been proposed in the literature (e.g. Edvinsson & Malone, 1997; Roos et al, 2005; Sveiby, 1997), however, further research is still needed to investigate the challenges and opportunities of designing intellectual capital measurement tools that are grounded in relevant measurement theory (Bollen, 1989; M’Pherson & Pike, 2001). 20

Assessing Sustainability Within Organizations: The Sustainability Measurement and Management Lab (SuMM)

Sustainability measurement represents a key element if companies aim to translate sustainability from compliance with standards to core organizational asset. This paper presents the development of a structured dataset of European companies – named as Sustainability Measurement and Management (SuMM) Lab– that aims to assess company’s performance accordingly to sustainability metrics. Data have been collected on a pilot sample of 400 Italian companies and the results provide insights on how SuMM Lab could be exploited to assess the diffusion of sustainability practices in organizations.