سرمایه فکری و عملکرد مالی در شرکت های تعاونی اجتماعی Intellectual capital and financial performance in social cooperative enterprises

1. Introduction A great variety of organizations, classified under the not-for-profit sector, exist in Italy (Airoldi, 1995; Capaldo, 1995). These organizations operate for social usefulness and solidarity purposes and include: political parties, trade unions, churches, foundations, hospitals managed by religious orders, community care firms, museums, volunteer groups, professional centers and social cooperatives. The number of non-profit organizations (NPOs) has significantly increased in recent years with a growth rate of 28 percent in Italy from 2001 to 2011 (International Co-operative Alliance, 2016). The increase can be primarily attributed to the growth in the number of paid workers (approximately 681,000), volunteers (approximately 4.7 million) and an expansion in the services provided in several sectors (i.e. healthcare, education and social development). Social enterprises are defined as hybrid organizations, since they are characterized by an entrepreneurial, social and participatory governance dimension (Defourny and Nyssens, 2012). This means that they must face the challenge to create social and economic value (Dart et al., 2010; Borzaga and Galera, 2012). The entrepreneurial dimension consists of running a commercial activity by producing goods or providing services in order to satisfy social needs. Being financially responsible and economically sustainable are necessary conditions in order to accomplish the institutional mission (Costa et al., 2011). Thus, the commercial activities are carried out by combining a mix of intangible and tangible resources, internal and external (Ebrahim et al., 2014; Epstein and McFarlan, 2011; Mook, 2014), in order to satisfy the social dimension, while preserving the financial and economic sustainability. Therefore, it is necessary to introduce accounting practices to measure not only economic and financial performance, but also social performance (Bagnoli and Megali, 2011; Ebrahim et al., 2014). Currently, there are over 300,000 NPOs that produce 3.3 percent of Italy’s GDP. Social cooperative enterprises (SCEs) represent the most entrepreneurial and advanced example of social enterprises (Costa et al., 2014; Borzaga and Galera, 2012; Defourny and Nyssens, 2010). In Italy, there exist 11,264 social cooperatives which have grown almost 100 percent in the last decade. Law 381/1991 adopted by the Italian Parliament distinguishes between two types of social cooperatives: those providing social, health and educational services (identifiable in Typology A), and those providing work integration for disadvantaged people and supplying other services, such as agricultural and commerce services, as well as general services (identifiable in Typology B). Ultimately, the aim of these organizations is to create social and economic well-being (Madill et al., 2010; Meadows and Pike, 2010) and to promote the integration and development of people. At the same time, the development of people becomes both the necessary condition for their existence and the final outcome. Intellectual capital (IC) is an important resource that SCEs need to develop in order to effectively implement corporate strategy, acquire and maintain a long-lasting competitive advantage and improve corporate performance (Martinsons and Hosley, 1993; Lettieri et al., 2004; Murray and Carter, 2005; Hume and Hume, 2008). In the knowledge-based economy, IC is considered an essential intangible resource for business success and it is seen as the primary source of sustainable competitive advantage (Teece et al., 1997; Choo and Bontis, 2002; Subramaniam and Youndt, 2005). IC produces multiple effects throughout the organization and guarantees real benefits, because knowledge-based resources tend to be valuable, rare and neither imitable nor substitutable (Nelson and Winter, 1982; Barney, 1991; Bolino et al., 2002; Kong and Ramia, 2010).