Investigating factors of intellectual capital to enhance achievement of strategic goals in the university hospital setting

Purpose: This paper reports on an action report project carried out in an Italian university hospital that was facing a strategic challenge. The role of Intellectual Capital (IC) report for university hospital strategic management is discussed after developing and applying an IC framework to enhance the visualization of strategic IC elements. Design/Methodology/Approach: An action research process has been applied in the studied setting considering Susman and Evered’s (1978) definition of the engaged research cycle. Findings: The action research process has allowed at bridging the gap between theory and practice; the strategic control process resulted enriched of new measures; a different approach to the strategy management had launched, and other organizations perceived the relevance of the IC representation, and resulted in the idea to import it. Research limitations/implications: Research limitations are related to those recognized for the interventionist research approach. Practical implications: The paper represents a contribute for practitioners to improve the managerial and accounting technologies when managing university hospitals and discussing the university hospital’s strategic goals. Originality/value: The paper represent a methodological contribution related to the interventionist research stream of literature, and enriched the limited studies focused on IC in healthcare organizations. Furthermore, the paper allows at appreciating the role of academics to converge theory and practice.