The rise of intellectual capital disclosure from private to public sector. The case of Italian Public Universities

This book aims to contribute to the scientific debate on Intellectual Capital reporting. It provides the readers with a clear picture of the evolution of the main features of IC in both the private and public sectors and a discussion of its main issues from an accounting and reporting standpoint. The book focuses the attention to the university context where the intangible resources play a pivotal role, permeating all dimensions of value creation. The final purpose of the book is to provide an innovative and empirical contribution to the fourth stage of IC research, investigating an alternative way to convey information about IC and to hold Italian university stakeholders accountable: the performance report. The results of the empirical analysis allow the author to contribute to the scientific debate about Intellectual Capital disclosure relevance, by drawing critical conclusions and depicting possible paths which can stimulate university governors, policy makers, regulators and standard setters to craft suitable strategies to develop IC resources and to implement a common project that fosters IC reporting practices in universities in the absence of mandatory requirements.