Although nonprofit organisations (NPOs) are private entities, they share with public sector organizations (PSOs) some of their main characteristics. As PSOs, NPOs provide public services to their constituents, serve the territory in which they are rooted, and are usually considered democratic organisations representing their local communities (Rossi et al., 2015). Consequently, NPOs face similar pressures to manage knowledge and intellectual capital (IC) for being more responsive to citizens’ needs (Lettieri et al., 2004; Kong, 2010).
By considering that IC consists of different elements (Edvinsson and Malone, 1997), the paper focuses on relational capital (RC), which derives form a bundle of relationships connecting organisations with their stakeholders, and enabling the acquisition of knowledge for decision-making purposes. Specifically, the study aims to explore the role of stakeholder engagement (SE) in building RC within NPOs, by investigating the stakeholders engaged, the tools used for acquiring their knowledge and the use of this knowledge in decision-making processes.
A qualitative case study is developed by considering a large Italian Bank Foundation, a particular kind of NPO that is legally constrained to use its assets and the resulting incomes to pursue the socio-economic development of the local community (Leardini et al., 2014). The data are collected through semi-structured interviews with four key informants from the organisation, who have a deep knowledge of SE practices. The interviews are combined with other information derived from different sources, to improve the reliability of the findings.
The results confirm that SE is a means for building knowledge through relationships with heterogeneous groups of stakeholders. Specifically, SE provides useful information for identifying community needs and developing philanthropic activities, although some difficulties characterise the acquisition of this information.
By focusing on NPOs, the study contributes to IC research offering insights into the role of SE in providing knowledge for supporting decisional processes.
References
Edvinsson, L. and Malone, M.S. (1997). Intellectual Capital: Realizing Your Company’s True Value by Finding Its Hidden Brainpower, HarperBusiness, New York.
Kong, E. (2010). “Intellectual capital and non-profit organizations in the knowledge economy: Editorial and introduction to the special issue”, Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 97-106.
Leardini, C., Rossi, G, and Moggi, S. (2014). Board Governance in Bank Foundations, Springer Verlag, Berlin.
Lettieri, E., Borga, F. and Savoldelli, A. (2004). “Knowledge management in non-profit organizations”, Journal of Knowledge management, Vol 8, No. 6, pp. 16-30.
Rossi, G., Leardini, C., Moggi, S., and Campedelli, B. (2015). “Toward community engagement in non-profit organizations governance”, Voluntary Sector Review, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 21-39.
IRSPM_2016_Paper_Rossi_et_al_def.pdf 