Intellectual capital: a lever to achieve sustainability? Some evidences from Italian Healthcare Organizations

The present paper aims at investigating the role that Intellectual Capital plays in promoting healthcare organizations’ (HCOs) sustainability. Based on the conceptualization of “green intellectual capital” defined by Chen (2008) and on the literature of sustainability in the healthcare context, the author defined a model of “sustainable intellectual capital” for HCOs and conducted a survey on a sample of Italian healthcare organizations to assess the relevance IC had on the choice to adopt a sustainable strategy. A stochastic dominance test was thus conducted using the Non-Parametric approach, based on the comparison among HCOs adopting sustainable strategies, HCOs waiting for their approval or implementation, and HCOs not adopting sustainable strategies. The results showed ICT and advanced technologies as the only factor that may have helped the shift towards a stable commitment on sustainability. Despite technologies are actually depicted from Italian Healthcare Authorities to have a major role for the sustainability of the Italian healthcare system, issues connected to their correct implementation and use by patients and professionals should be deeply analyzed. Perhaps, further qualitative research can fill this important gap. The paper represents the first attempt to frame the relation on Intellectual capital and Sustainable Development in the Healthcare context, and hopes to incentivize the debate on IC in the under-investigated public sector.