Purpose Universities are proper knowledge institutions, since knowledge represents both the input and the output of their activities. Several guidelines have been issued by the European Union and national governments for the promotion of intellectual capital (IC) disclosure by universities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the amount and nature of voluntary IC disclosure in Italian universities and to gauge the opinion of university managers on IC managing and reporting. Design/methodology/approach The study applies content analysis and a survey. The content analysis was applied to a group of voluntary social reports (SRs) issued by Italian universities, while the survey was submitted to all top managers of Italian universities. Findings The research found a significant amount of IC disclosure in SRs. Also, university top managers demonstrated an awareness of benefits deriving from IC managing and reporting practices, both for decision-making processes and to respond to stakeholder’s needs. Originality/value The current paper contributes to IC literature by providing an assessment of IC voluntary disclosure practices in Italian universities, analysing reports other than the annual report (which is the only document media analysed by research so far). Furthermore, while previous research has focussed on IC disclosure, the current study investigates the motivations for IC managing and provides insights into the benefits deriving from IC reporting in universities.

Paper type: research paper Purpose: Although there is no mandatory requirement for Italian universities to report beyond a financial report, several universities have produced a social report, despite the context of increasing pressure to cut financial resources. This study aims to investigate if Italian state universities produce voluntary social reports and, if so, what they disclose, and also to explore their motivations to do so and the main difficulties encountered.Design/methodology/approach: Content analysis is applied to the total pool of Italian universities' social reports observed up to 2010. Also, a subsequent online survey was undertaken with preparers of those social reports.Findings: The findings indicate that a social report is not a common practice in all Italian universities. Subsequent online interviews and thematic analysis found that a key individual within the university played a pivotal role in developing a social report. In the pool of reports examined, there were few social and environmental aspects disclosed. Also the respondents to our survey highlighted that the main difficulty in the development of social reports was the lack of systematic collection of non-financial information within the university context.

PurposeThe current research aims to investigate what Italian state universities consider as intellectual capital (IC) in their performance plans. Universities assume a specific responsibility in the production and dissemination of knowledge and in the investment in research and human resources; consequently, a central role has been given to IC approaches in managing universities. Drawing from this, in 2009 Italy required state universities to issue a performance plan with a section devoted to IC.Design/methodology/approachA content analysis was conducted to discover the type and extent of IC strategies in a group of 44 contemporary Italian state university performance plans issued in 2011.FindingsThe findings show a variable focus on IC items, with a particular emphasis on aspects related to the development of relationships with external partners, supporting the idea that nowadays the university sector is strongly investing in the development of relational capital to achieve its third mission.Practical implicationsIn assessing practices of IC planning in Italian state universities, the current study highlights the path of development that will be undertaken by the Italian university system in the near future. This path allows us to evaluate the strategic position that the Italian university system will cover in the European higher education arena.Originality/valueThe paper makes an original contribution to research on IC strategies in universities, given the lack of empirical studies on such issues. It represents one of the first attempts to analyse IC in Italian state universities’ planning processes.

Purpose The study aims to raise awareness of the issues to foster further debate in the area of gender (in) accounting. In the process, opportunities for future research are identified and outlined. Design/methodology/approach Literature review and a discussion of the implications lead to the identification of opportunities for future research. Findings Women are under-represented at senior levels in all walks of life. Where women reach senior positions, they are often paid less than men in similar positions. Countries and organisations with more gender equality do better. Social implications Organisations and countries will be better off if they have a good representation of women at all organisational levels in all walks of life. Originality/value The authors’ perspectives of the prior literature and the identification of future research opportunities around gender (in) accounting are presented.

PurposeThis paper seeks to analyse social report guidelines and practices within Italian local governments (ILGs). First, it compares the contents of the two Italian governmental guidelines for developing social reports in public sector organisations with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guideline, to determine similarities and differences in disclosures. Second, it examines a group of social reports issued by ILGs, to explore the incidence, frequency, and quality of disclosure, as against the GRI guideline.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses content analysis to test the nature/content of the governmental guidelines, and to determine what was disclosed in a group of ILGs' social reports. The paper analyses the social reports by applying the Guthrie and Farneti coding instrument, extended by including the Italian governmental guidelines.FindingsSeveral observations emerge from the present study. First, from the comparison of the GRI and the Italian governmental guidelines, it emerges that only a few categories of the latter are similar to the GRI and these concern mainly general aspects. Second, the disclosure of categories and elements in the social reports, as against the coding instrument, was found to be fragmentary. The paper concludes that the Italian governmental guidelines are of a managerial nature, and they have little to do with sustainability, except for aspects related to labour.Originality/valueLittle research has been published on social reporting practices within the public sector, unlike the private sector. In Italy social reports are an emerging practice, with a growing interest paid by the government and academia. Nevertheless, published research is mainly of a normative nature, and there is a gap on what actually is in social reports.