Human capital convergences in intellectual capital and sustainability reports

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the points of convergence between intellectual capital and corporate responsibility reports with a focus on human capital issues.Design/methodology/approachTo investigate this degree of integration the paper analyzes the common elements between human capital accounting and the Global Reporting Initiative Guidelines 2002. The assessment methodology consists of a study of which indicators for employees proposed in GRI guidelines are frequently used in 20 international best practices for intellectual capital reports.FindingsResults show a large overlapping of indicators around three issues: the description of human capital, the reporting on diversity and opportunity, and the measurement of the quality and intensity of training.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is focused on human capital that is one of the three dimensions of intellectual capital. It could also be interesting to study the points of convergence between corporate responsibility and the remaining two dimensions of intellectual capital: network capital and organizational capital.Practical implicationsThe results demonstrate that the opportunity exists to integrate intellectual capital and corporate responsibility report in a global report, that will be useful to orient the sustainability practices in developing human capital.Originality/valueThis paper sustains the possibility that a correct management of corporate responsibility practices will be an opportunity to develop intellectual capital and a source of value creation.

The Global Reporting Initiative: What Value is Added?

“…Content analysis is particularly appropriate for sustainability disclosures. Pedrini (2007) uses content analysis to investigate the points of convergence between intellectual capital and corporate responsibility reports prepared under the 2002 Guidelines. Clarkson et al (2008) develop a content analysis index to test the environmental disclosure under the 2002 Guidelines.…”

The Mediating Effect of Financial Performance on the Relationship between Shariah Supervisory Board Effectiveness, Intellectual Capital and Corporate Social Responsibility, of Islamic Banks in Gulf Cooperation Council Countries

“…Moreover, Pedrini (2007) focused on intellectual capital searching which are the same factors among intellectual capital and global reporting guidelines considering a sample of twenty international (IC) report. Large overlapping indicators were shown which were used by the two reports about intellectual or human capital.…”

Verso la rappresentazione e valutazione dello sviluppo delle aziende : i limiti dell'informativa economico-finanziaria e il contributo di alcuni approcci informativi complementari

“…La Baldarelli (2005), parla di un sistema informativo che sia costituito oltre che dai documenti obbligatori, anche da una serie di documenti che esaltino i vari circuiti di creazione del valore 26 ; Vermiglio (2007), propone l'elaborazione di un documento unitario che comprenda tutte le informazioni, di natura quantitativa e 26 Si citano: i circuiti virtuosi relazionali che danno luogo al rendiconto relazionale; i circuiti dell'intangibile da cui trarre il bilancio dell'intangibile; i circuiti etici da cui deriva il rendiconto etico; i circuiti virtuosi sociali che portano alla realizzazione del bilancio sociale (Baldarelli 2005: 110). qualitativa, utili per tutti gli stakeholder aziendali; altri autori parlano di Global Report o Holistic Report (Pedrini 2007), piuttosto che di Enterprise Value Report (Burgman and Roos 2007) Tale via è percorribile soltanto nel momento in cui si crei un sistema informativo che generi un output finale realmente integrato e non la mera somma di elementi fra loro scarsamente correlati, frammentati e dispersivi. In caso contrario, si aumenterebbe soltanto la confusione e il numero di pagine da leggere (o da non leggere!…”