The effect of intellectual capital on the performance of social cooperative enterprises

Purpose - This paper aims to provide empirical evidence of the interrelationship between the Intellectual Capital (IC) within social cooperatives that work in non-profit sectors (NPOs) and business performance, trying to identify which IC components are more valuable for firm performance and more effective for the implementation of business strategies. Design/Methodology/Approach - This paper tries to identify the components of Intellectual Capital that affect the corporate performance of social cooperative enterprises, in which intangible resources are particularly relevant. Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression is used for the purpose of analysis. Four different OLS models will be employed in order to verify the effect of IC on both mission-based performance and economic-financial performance of social cooperatives. Findings - IC is an important resource that social cooperatives need to develop in order to gain a long-lasting competitive advantage and sustainable performance. The findings show a significant and positive impact of human and structural capital on mission-based performance and a significant and positive effect of human and relational capital on economic-financial performance. Research limitations/implications - The awareness of intangible assets importance should represent an incentive for managers to measure, monitor and manage these resources. The main limitation of this study is represented by the restricted size of sample used for the empirical research because of a low reply rate to the survey. Moreover there are no shared models to estimate the impact of IC components on the economic-financial and mission-based performance of NPOs.