Intellectual Capital performance measurement in the higher education system: evidence from Italian Universities

The aim of the paper is to analyze the contribute of Intellectual Capital Framework (IC) in the evaluation and performance measurement of the Italian higher education system. In an economy driven by information and knowledge,... [ view full abstract ]

The aim of the paper is to analyze the contribute of Intellectual Capital Framework (IC) in the evaluation and performance measurement of the Italian higher education system. In an economy driven by information and knowledge, the intangible assets management and measurement assume a predominant role both in practice and research (Ross, Ross, 1997; Lev, 2000; Bontis, 2001), It’s particularly important in education sector which can be defined as the “place of learning and critical processing of knowledge” (law 240/2010) in which the most important resources are intangible ones and the major output is knowledge (Leitner, Warden, 2004). Among the specificities Universities are often non-for profit organizations producing public services using the combinations of intangible resources as the sources for the creation of new knowledge-based products (Grant, 1996). Nowadays central is the problem of identifying good frameworks for analyzing performance and strategic impact (Petty, Guthrie 2000; Sanchez, Elena, 2006) in a context in which the traditional accounting system does not produce clear information to support the strategic management of knowledge-based resources. IC in its three main components (human, structural and relational) seems to be a particularly suitable framework in the process of universities evaluation basically focused in terms of intangible and knowledge assets generated (Leitner, 2004; ). In such a direction the Italian National Agency for the Evaluation of Universities and Research Institutes (ANVUR) has defined criteria and parameters for the accreditation of universities and other research organizations, identifying two main dimensions to be evaluated: Research and Third Mission. Starting from this premise the purpose of the paper is to underline the relations between quantitative and qualitative research evaluation methods performing a quantitative research strategy. The primary data sources are data collected from the ministerial database, from web sites and annual reports.