People First: The Relationship Between Performance And Intellectual Capital In Non-Profit Organizations

The recent (2011, 2015) ISTAT census (Italian institute of statistics) showed a significant increase in the number of paid workers in the third sector, showing a figure that contrasts with the performance of the labour market in the public and for-profit sectors since 2007. This paper analyses the intellectual capital of non-profit organizations (henceforth, NPOs) and verifies the existence of a relationship between the three components of intellectual capital (human capital, organizational capital and relational capital) and two key areas of performance (perceived competitiveness and the ability to generate employment). In order to increase the significance of findings of the non-profit sector, a questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of Italian NPOs that had more than five paid employees working in the seven key sectors of non-profit activities. The results show the existence of significant relationships between the propensity to create networks and the two areas of performance highlighted. Other results also emerge, such as a large number of NPOs investing in training, in part due to a recognition of the strategic value of intellectual capital, and a greater level of perceived competitiveness that is capable of generating more employment.