6th INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOP ON INTANGIBLES, INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND EXTRA-FINANCIAL INFORMATION1STEDEN SCHOOLON VISUALISING, MEASURING MANAGING INTANGIBLES AND INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
On September 30-October 1, 2010EIASM, in collaboration with the University of Catania and the University of Ferrara,organized the 6thInterdisciplinary Workshop on Intangibles, Intellectual Capital & Extra-Financial Information in Catania (Italy).(
This international event brought together European universities, institutions and individuals to share their latest research and experiences in the field of intangibles and intellectual capital.The two novelties this year are the enlargement of the scholarly perspective both in the sense of stressing the interdisciplinary dimension of the event, and in the sense of including extra- (or non-)financial information within the scientific scope of the papers considered for the Workshop.
The EIASM Workshop on Intangibles, which is held on an annual basis, is widely recognized by the international community of management studies. This year nearly 100 participants from 23 countries attended the workshop.
The keynote plenary speakers were Prof. Baruch Lev from Stern School of Business, NYU, Mr. Takayuki Sumita, METI Japan and Chairman for World Intellectual Capital Initiative (WICI), and Dr. Sara Giordani, International Technology Transfer and IPR Valuation Expert - TTP Lab co-founder (see Photo 1).
Photo 1, L-R: Baruch Lev, Stefano Zambon, and Takayuki Sumita.
Prof. Lev encouraged the scientific community to devote more attention to service businesses, which are predominant in today’s economic world, andare inherently made up of intangibles, but which are also under-researched at the moment.
Mr. Sumita-san presented his speech on “Business Reporting for Sustainable Growth”, where he provided strong arguments in favor of a change in business reporting in the direction of a focused enrichment of the information available. WICI ( is working in this direction, aiming to standardize the key-performance indicators per industry for company external communication.
Dr. Sara Giordani’s plenary speech dealt with “IPR Valuation: Aligning Non-Financial Information to the Financial Dimension. An Italian Institutional Approach”, where she presented a new non-financial approach to visualize and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of patents and IPRs that have been elaborated in an institutional context within the Italian Ministry of Economic Development.
There were 55 papers accepted to be presented at the Workshop in Catania. In order to run the presentations smoothly, papers had been grouped by area and area-specific sessions were held in parallel. Unique sessions covered, inter alia, the following topics: state and evolution of theoretical framework, intangible resources management, andrelevance of intangibles in SMEs. The current global economic phase was addressed attwo sessions titled “Intangibles, crises & development. The regulatory approach.”
In keeping with tradition, the “Best Junior Contribution to the Development of Intangibles and IC Theory and Practice Award”waspresented.This year, twoco-winners and two co-runners-upwere appointed (Photo 2 was taken after the announcement of the winners). The co-winners are: Anne-Laure Mention(CRP Henri Tudor, Luxembourg) for the paper “Intellectual capital reporting: an exploratory study on the practices in the banking industry”and Cristiana Parisi(University of Southern Denmark) for the paper “Intangible Assets and Value Creation Processes in Supply Chains: a structural model.” The co-runners-up are: Giuseppe Marzo(University of Ferrara) for the paper“Intangibles in the Theories of the Firm”and Christian Ott & Ulrike Henke(Technische Universität Dresden) for the paper “Information Dissemination in Mergers and Acquisitions: Purchase Price Allocations, Press Releases, and Business Press.”
Photo 2, L-R: Sara Giordani, Stefano Zambon, Giuseppe Marzo, PierLuigi Catalfo, Anne-Laure Mention, Cristiana Parisi, Ulrike Henke, Christian Ott and Thomas Günther
Building on the foundations of previous EIASM Workshops on Intangibles, this year’s event in Catania has helped forge aneven strongercommunity of scholars that share interests in intangibles and intellectual capital issues. According to Prof. Giovanni Liberatore from University of Florence, the success factor of the EIASM Workshops on Intangibles is in fact their specific topic and focus.
Notwithstanding this thematic specificity, it is also interesting to see how many different fields were represented by the researchers present at the Workshop. Indeed, a distinctive add-on ofthis Workshop series is the contamination between disciplines and the combination of different views from accounting, finance, management, marketing, technology, industrial economics, banking, and others.
For many participants, an opportunity to present their findings and discuss them with colleagues of the same or other disciplines is the most important aspect of the EIASM Workshops. Anne-Laure Mention, one of the 2010 best junior contributors, admits that exchanging ideas with one another in smaller groups is particularly appealing. She contrasts these kinds of rather informal debates with overwhelmingly large sessions amongst many anonymous participants.
The importance of discussions seems to be observed not only by early stage researchers but also experienced researchers. ”I never publish a paper in a journal before I discuss it with people at a conference,” said Prof. John Holland from University of Glasgowwhen being interviewed after his presentation of the paper “Knowledge, learning, and accountability failure in the ‘Market for information’” on the second day of the Catania Workshop.
Some papers from the Workshop in Cataniawill be published in a special issue of "The Journal of Planning and Control" to be guest-edited by Professors Thomas Günther and Stefano Zambon (submission deadline: 31 December 2010).In 2010, Prof.Zambon has been the Chair of the Workshop for the sixth time. His Co-Chair this year was Prof. PierLuigi Catalfo from the University of Catania, who acted also as Local Organiser of the event.
Next, the “7th Interdisciplinary Workshop on Intangibles, Intellectual Capital and Extra-Financial Information” will be held on September 29-30, 2011in Warsaw, Poland.
A final word for another innovation of this year. From September 27 to October 1st 2010, still in Cataniathe 1st edition of the EDENDoctoral & YoungScholarSchool on “Visualising, Measuring and Managing Intangibles and Intellectual Capital”was held. (
For one week 16 doctoral students and young researchers from all over Europe gathered to participate in lectures presented by top professors in the various disciplines impinging on the intangibles field. The Faculty was composed of: Prof. Baruch Lev (Stern NYU), Prof. Manfred Schwaiger (LMU Munich), Prof. Marco Di Tommaso (University of Ferrara), Prof. Giovanni Schiuma (University of Basilicata), and Prof. Stefano Zambon (University of Ferrara, coordinator). The School is a well received and promising addition to this scholarly area.
The great success of the initiative, certified by the top valuations given by its participants, suggested the EIASM to organize a second edition of the School in Warsaw from 26th September to 1st October 2011 with the same Faculty with the welcome addition of Prof. JC Spender (ESADE and LundUniversity).
Kalina Ostalska
University of Ferrara
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