Implementing integrated reporting to disclose intellectual capital in health organisations: a case study
| Published date | 30 July 2020 |
| Pages | 311-336 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-01-2020-0019 |
| Date | 30 July 2020 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
| Author | Renata Paola Dameri,Pier Maria Ferrando |
Implementing integrated reporting
to disclose intellectual capital in
health organisations: a case study
Renata Paola Dameri and Pier Maria Ferrando
Department of Economics and Business Studies, University of Genova, Genova, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –The aim of our research is to give empirical and theoretical solutions to some criticalities of the
original International Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRF). Indeed, it takes as value creation only the
increase of the capitals triggered by business activities, overlooking the fulfilment of the institutional mission
that is the actual value creation lever.
Design/methodology/approach –The present paper introduces a case study aimed at implementing the
IIRF in an Italian non-profit healthcare organisation. The research is based on theory building from cases,
action research and interventionist approach. IIRF was adopted because of its claimed ability to support the
communication process to stakeholders and the control of value creation. However, IIRF shows several
weaknesses.
Findings –An adjusted version of IIRF is suggested, highlighting the role played by IC in the organisational
business model and in the value creation process. The adjusted seems able to foster awareness of the role IC in
value creation in healthcare organisations.
Research limitations/implications –In this paper no oneof the singles pieces of the adjusted framework is
innovative by itself, but jointly they give raise to an innovative solution, able to address the disclosing and
managerial needs of the examined organisation. The single case study permits to us to test the weaknesses of
the IIRF claimed in the literature, to suggest some adjustments to the original framework and to validate their
effectiveness. Thanks to the single case study we then built theoretical constructs developing theory
inductively; now the suggested framework can be further tested and validated in other organisations.
Originality/value –The paper introduces an innovative approach to IC reporting and disclosure in
healthcare organisations. This is relevant not only for external communication but also for internal aims
supporting managers in decision and actions.
Keywords Health care, Nonprofit organisations, Intellectual capital, Stakeholder analysis, Integrated
reporting
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
A new trend in intellectual capital (IC) reporting and disclosure arises from the International
Integrated Reporting Framework (IIRF) (Abhayawansa et al., 2019), a recently issued model
(2011, www.integratedreporting.org) supporting organisations in preparing and disclosing
integrated documents about performance, strategy and value creation (International
Integrated Reporting Council, 2016). Thanks to the framework, companies and
organisations can follow a well-defined schema that is flexible enough to be adapted to
different situations (Reuter and Messner, 2015).
IIRF puts at its core a business model based on the role that six different capitals—
financial, manufactured, intellectual, human, social and relational, natural—both tangible
and intangible, play in value creation. It therefore considers IC and its components like
Integrated
reporting in
health
organisations
311
© Renata Paola Dameri and Pier Maria Ferrando. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article
is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce,
distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial
purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence
may be seen at http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 31 January 2020
Revised 11 May 2020
29 June 2020
Accepted 14 July 2020
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 22 No. 2, 2021
pp. 311-336
Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-01-2020-0019
strategic sources of value generation and aims to define how business processes can create
value thanks to these capitals (Cheng et al., 2014).
The case study presented in this paper originates from an action research study aimed at
implementing IIRF in the Italian non-profit healthcare organisation Associazione Gigi
Ghirotti. IIRF was adopted because of its claimed ability to support not only the
communication process to stakeholders but also the control of value creation over time,
supporting management policies and decisions (Adams, 2015;Dumay et al., 2019). Moreover,
IIRF was supposed to be a reporting tool useful in disclosing organisations’business models,
particularly IC and its role as a value creation lever (Badia et al., 2019;Camodeca et al., 2019).
Nevertheless, in its implementation there were some challenges due to the non-profit
features of Associazione Gigi Ghirotti, with particular regard to its value creation processes.
Actually, IIRF takes as value creation only the increase of the capitals triggered by business
activities, overlooking the fulfilment of the institutional mission that is the actual value
created by a non-profit organisation (Adams and Simnett, 2011;Dameri and Girella, 2019).
On the other hand, previous IIRF experiences in Italian assistance and healthcare
organisations have highlighted that the framework can have a slavish implementation, thus
preventing an integrated thinking process and effective organisational change. Three
experiences are known and have been studied: Cara Mineo, an organisation providing
refugees with shelter and assistance; Istituto Giannina Gaslini, a scientific paediatric institute
providing hospitalisation and treatments for children’s diseases; and the Ancona University
Hospital. Each of these shows some of the weaknesses of IIRF in disclosing how
organisations produce value and the role of IC in value creation.
Motivation and objective of the present work is to face IIRF’s weaknesses in explaining the
value creation process and how IC contributes to it (Dumay et al., 2017). An adjusted version
of IIRF is suggested, highlighting the role played by IC in the organisational business model
and in the value creation process.
The original contribution of this case studyto the extant literature about IC in healthcare
organisationsdoes not lies on reportinganother experience,nor the case study entails a newIC
framework;it novelty rather lies in the adjustedreporting that enables to highlightwhat value
or valuesa healthcare organisationdelivers (its outcomes),for whom (its stakeholders)and how
(its specific business processes) withina business model effectively connecting them.
In other words the adjusted IIRF enhances theoretical contributions not previously
considered,making possible a better understanding of the organisationbusiness model and its
value creation; moreover it providesa sound basis for effectively linkingtheory and practice.
From this point of view, the adjusted IIFR on the one hand mirrors organisations as
systems of resources, tangible and intangibles, creating value in terms not only of increased
capitals but also of satisfying stakeholders’needs and expectations according to their
mission and business models. On the other hand, fostering awareness of the organisation
business model and value creation processes, it actually enables integrated thinking and
management (Guthrie et al., 2017) as well as a better disclosure to stakeholders, communities
and public institutions.
The adjusted IIRF is theoretically consistent and promising for the practice; moreover,
given IIRF’s flexibility, it appears to be widely applicable in both non-profit and for-profit
organisations (Sukhari and De Villiers, 2019). Nevertheless, it is the outcome of only a case
study, and it needs to be further tested to consolidate the results.
This paper is organised as follows: the next section analyses the state of the art and the
theoretical background of IC and IC disclosure in healthcare organisations and the use of IIRF
to disclose IC. Section 3 describes the research methodology, and Section 4 introduces the case
study and discusses the findings. Section 5 closes the paper with some remarks about
limitations and implications of the present work for both research and practice.
JIC
22,2
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