Management control systems, organization and impact on performances: Evidences from Italy

Abstract

The value creation is the primary goal of each organization and intellectual capital is certainly a key factor for long-term success. The intellectual capital variables have to be managed and measured within advanced management systems, in order to facilitate the communication and translation of strategy’s tangible and intangible elements into operational terms. This study focuses on a sample of medium-sized Italian firms and is based on multiple sources of evidence: the in-depth study of internal documents and interviews with corporate managers holding key positions within the organization. The research aims at investigating if managers identified, measured and monitored intellectual capital variables within advanced management accounting systems, over a period of 5 years. Because the strategy and the organizational structure are highly interdependent, this study also focuses on evaluation and incentive systems implemented within selected companies. Then, it was decided to analyze whether the use of managerial and organizational tools influence firms’ performances. This research contributes to extend existing literature on intellectual capital and management systems: the results revealed that companies able to manage and monitor intellectual capital within advanced management tools, as well as implement evaluation and incentive systems, achieved higher and more stable performances. The main limit of this study is strictly related to the choice of these variables: in fact, company’s performances are influenced by a significant number of factors, endogenous and exogenous to the organization. Future researches can involve a greater number of companies and organizational variables, in order to validate or confute the actual findings.