Intellectual capital management in SMEs. An Italian case study

Purpose – The paper analyses IC in SMEs. In particular two research questions are posed: 1) how SMEs develop or acquire knowledge and intangible resources; 2) and how they manage and exploit IC. Design/methodology/approach – An in-depth case study of an Italian SME operating in the automobile industry is carried out in order to answer the two research questions. Findings – The characteristic of SMEs strongly impact on the way they generate, develop and manage IC. Due to constraints on resources the case study SME is very active in acquiring new knowledge through the fostering of intense relationships with external stakeholders, such as supplier (especially business consultants), clients and competitors. Management systems are often informal and the fundamental knowledge is tacit in essence, even if a combination of codified and tacit knowledge is at the core of its competitive ability. Our findings show the important role that dialogue and closeness have in the knowledge management within the analysed SME. Research limitations/implications – The paper offers a single case analysis, therefore generalisation cannot be made. However a comparison with other similar cases offers some insights into the general pattern of IC management in SMEs. Practical implications –The paper explores the characteristics of IC management in SME in order to contribute to differentiate the approach to IC depending on the “size” of the firm. Approaches originally developed for larger firms fail to consider SMEs characteristics. SMEs indeed are not smaller large firms; therefore it is in general impossible to think of SME management systems are simpler or smaller than those adopted by large firms. The key point is in fact that SMEs (at least the one here analysed) have management systems which are ontologically different. Originality/value – Besides the relevant role of SMEs in economy, very few papers have been published on the way IC is developed and managed in SMEs. A gap therefore exists between the economic importance of SME and the attention IC research gives to them, which calls for more research on SMEs. The paper is a step on the way of reducing that gap, since offers the case-study of knowledge and intellectual capital management within an Italian SME. Finally the analysis reinforces similar findings of other studies that found IC management in SMEs more based on informal systems. Keywords – Intellectual Capital, SME, Case study, Italy Article Classification – Research paper