Intellectual Capital and business performance. Evidence from Italian banking industry

Abstract

This study intends to investigate empirically the relation between the value creation efficiency and firms’ market valuation and financial performance, by using data drawn from 21 banks enlisted in the Milan Stock Exchange, Italy. More specifically, by using Pulic’s (1998, 2000, 2001, 2002) Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC) as the efficiency measure of capital employed and intellectual capital, the study examines the relationship between intellectual capital and firms’ financial performance, and explores the relation between corporate value creation efficiency and firms’market-to-book value ratios. Multiple regression analysis have been conducted on the collected data. Surprisingly, the results do not show any strong association between the studied variable, except for the relation between a component of VAIC, the CEE, and the different measures of the firm’s performance. E-mail: pina.puntillo@unical.it