• capitale intellettuale
• innovazione
• valore

ABSTRACT
Purpose – This thesis seeks to examine the link between intellectual capital, innovation and value creation by presenting a case study of intellectual capital (IC) practice over ten years at an Italian SME, Welcome Italia spa
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a longitudinal case study method to examine critically over ten years of research based on direct observation, semi-structured interviews and internal and external documents
Findings – This study shows that IC can, in some specific context, be useful to align strategic objectives with operational objective and allow value creation through innovation. From the evidence presented that it is possible to effectively implement IC practices without necessarily disclose IC measures. This is not because IC measures are not useful, but because IC reporting needs evolve based on the external stakeholders needs so a lot of measurement remains undisclosed because useful for employees and managerial purpose.
Research limitations/implications – The observations and conclusions reached here are limited to the case of Welcome Italia spa and are based on the author’s objective analysis. Therefore, care should be taken in generalizing any findings and this highlights the need to understand the IC context before applying the findings. This study contributes to the field of IC “in practice”; In Welcome Italia spa IC has fostered long-lasting changes in the management accounting system and how IC may allow the creation of new managerial objects to achieve value creation
The link between IC, innovation and performance has many implication: for researchers to test correlation considering innovation settorial patterns, for manager to manage IC for innovation and for policy makers to enhance innovation in organizations
Originality/value – The conclusion highlights that companies that don’t disclose IC not necessarily don’t manage it. This study focuses on practices rather than accounting adopting a longitudinal view and shows that financial performances allow to develop IC which is expressed in innovation that modifies the composition of IC and allow to create value.