ABSTRACT
DOCUMENT DOWNLOADThe “Intangibles” study group, whose works have been developed between June 2007 and May 2008, has approached the aforementioned issue by three progressive steps:
- a preliminary phase, focused on the inspection of the disciplinary approaches and on literature;
- construction of a model to synthetize, the basic interpreting criteria and to expose the main assumptions and the general rules of social reporting, in accordance with the specific G.B.S. view;
- formulation of guidelines aimed to establish formal reporting principles and rules.
This research document follows and reflects the previous structure, moving from a comprehensive description of the subject, to the final proposal on the intangibles management within social reporting. The summary is the following: Part one – From general concepts to interpreting model
- General context and relevance of the issue: first it seemed necessary to inquire why is it so important to socially report the intangibles (being this an apparently pleonastic question);
- Literature research and inspection of practices: the focus was on the main disciplinary approaches to intangibles, to identify the most recurrent aspects;
- Main conceptual issues: differing from the most traditional economic-business categories, the intangibles pose specific logic and procedural issues (particularly about their social “reportability”) deserving at least a comprehensive identification process;
- Interpreting model governing the reporting: the previous steps led first to the identification of some interpreting conventions, then to a basic model capable of both representing and leading the social reporting process.
Part two – From model to guidelines
- Foundations and guidelines for social reporting of intangibles: the activity moved from general model to the determination of process foundations, formal structure and practice to follow when reporting on intangibles.
Part three – Appendixes
- As already mentioned, the Group has often faced conceptual issues of a certain complexity. To report the latter, without loading the paper too much, it’s been decided to record as appendixes some of these topics, hinting at the discussion they produced and underlining the points on which the need of elaboration and critical contribution still exists.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Objectives Methodological approach and structure of the document
PART ONE – FROM GENERAL IDEAS TO THE INTERPRETATIVE MODEL
1.1. GENERAL CONTEXT
1.1.1. The Knowledge Economy
1.1.2. The New Issues for “Classic” Reporting Systems
1.1.3. The Company Social Dimension
1.2. THE INVESTIGATION
1.2.1. The Organizational Approach
1.2.2. The Business Approach
1.2.3. The Intangibles and Social Reporting Practices
1.2.4. Investigation Synthesis
1.3. MAIN CONCEPTUAL ISSUES
1.3.1. Why is it convenient to investigate further on?
1.3.2. Intangibles, ordinary accounting, social reporting
1.3.2.1. Any kind of business?
1.3.2.2. Production, consumption (and amortization?) of intangible assets
1.3.2.3. Are the intangibles social assets?
1.3.3. The “Social Capital” Issue
1.3.4. How to identify the intangibles
1.3.4.1. The management role in the intangibles identification and development
1.3.4.2. The Intangibles Conception as a continuum
1.3.5. The Topics Synthesis and Aggregation
1.3.5.1. Describing and Establishing Parameters
1.3.5.2. The Intangibles and the Socio-strategic Business View
1.3.5.3. Two Meta-categories
1.3.6. Essential Glossary and Summary
1.4. A Model
1.4.1. Definitions and Assumptions
1.4.1.1. Definitions
1.4.1.2. Main Assumptions
1.4.1.3. Secondary Assumptions – the reporting request
1.4.1.4. Third Assumption – the intangibles as “awareness”
1.4.2. The Model
1.4.2.1. The Components
1.4.2.2. The Scheme
PART TWO – FROM MODEL TO GUIDELINES
2.1. Premise: why the “Guidelines”
2.2. An “Integrated” Section
2.3. The “Intangibles” Section Objective – Making the Management Principles and Systems Intelligible
2.4. What must be included in the intangibles social report
2.5. The Classifying Criterion – a general scheme
2.6. The Parametric System and The Metrics Issue
2.7. The Intangibles and the Ecologic Orientation
2.8. Business and Environmental Interactions – The Social Capital
2.9. The “Intangibles” Section Table of Contents
2.10. The G.B.S. Standard and The Intangibles
PART THREE – APPENDIXES Appendix
1 – The “Social Capital” – some of the main definitions Appendix
2 – Stock Features or flux of the different categories of intangibles Appendix
3 – The intangibles relativity Appendix
4 – An elaboration on the relation between the stakeholders and the intangibles Appendix
5 – The performance metrics and the intangibles social report
5.1. Premise
5.2. The Metrics: their definition and possible meanings
5.3. Metrics and Intangibles Appendix
6 – The Metrics for Intangible Resources
6.1. Some examples of metrics for relational capital
6.2. Some examples of metrics for human capital
6.3. Some examples of metrics for structural capital
