Reporting of Intellectual Capital: evidence from the Italian Banking Sector

The transition from an economy based on production towards a knowledge-based economy has highlighted the crucial role of Intellectual Capital (IC) in the firm’s financial performance. Intellectual Capital is a business resource that includes know-how, patents, internal and external relationships. IC is widely acknowledged as one of the most critical resources which organizations rely on to improve their efficacy and efficiency, and hence help to improve the value creation and competitive advantage (de Pablos, 2003). There are several empirical studies that examined the quantity and the nature of IC information disclosure in annual reports in different industries and countries (Guthrie and Petty, 2000; Olsson, 2001; Brennan, 2001; Bontis, 2003; Bozzolan et al., 2003, 2006; Abeysekera and Guthrie, 2005), but few studies have analyzed the ICD in the financial sector. The choice to focus on the banking sector is linked primarily to the fact that it represents an interesting stream as these companies fall under high-intensive IC, just thinking of the use of highly specialized human resources in the economic and financial field. This study aims to analyze the nature and extent of information on intellectual capital in the sustainability reports of companies belonging to the banking industry with two main purposes: to observe a sector often set aside despite its important role in the economy and to reply to the growing demand for longitudinal analysis in the field of intellectual capital (Mention, 2011). The first objective is achieved by identifying the presence or absence of information on intellectual capital in the sustainability reports; while the extension (number of times of calling an item) of disclosure has measured with the frequency of reporting an item within the report with reference to a single banking institute. The second purpose of the paper is achieved by taking into account two years, 2006 and 2012. The industry in which the analysis is conducted is peculiar in that it is a knowledge-intensive industry that has undergone deep changes over the last decade, who have given more importance to intellectual capital as a resource source of value and competitive advantage. The empirical analysis is carried out by analyzing the social reporting of the listed banks on the Milan Stock Exchange through the content analysis for the years 2006 and 2012, in order to capture the effect of Basel II on the level of corporate information.