F. Sgrò, “Intellectual Capital and Organizational Performance. An Empirical Focus on Social Cooperative Enterprises", Sidrea Series in Accounting and Business Administration, Springer, Cham: Switzerland, 2021.

Abstract

What is the relationship between intellectual capital and organisational performance in social cooperative enterprises? Francesca Sgrò's book answers this question by providing a comprehensive analysis of the principal components of intellectual capital sub-dimensions (human, relational and structural capital) and their effect on the social and financial performance of social cooperative enterprises. After a thorough literature review on social enterprises, intellectual capital within non-profit organisations and the relationship between intellectual capital and firm performance, the author presents the main results from an empirical analysis of 151 Italian social cooperative enterprises. By adopting quantitative methods and combining data gathered from a survey and the AIDA database, six principal components of intellectual capital involved in the value creation processes were identified: education, employee productivity, employee satisfaction, relationship quality, collaborative and communicative capacity, satisfaction of social needs and service innovation. Moreover, human capital emerged as one of the most important assets in driving both financial and social performance. Managerial and theoretical implications, as well as limitations and further research, are discussed.