Measuring and reporting IC: lessons learned from an interventionist research project

In the last two decades, a plethora of frameworks for measuring and reporting IC have been established. Despite the great interest shown by academics and practitioners, there is little reported evidence of organizations that have been measuring their IC, especially for long periods of time. Therefore, research conducted up to now has not given a univocal answer to the question of whether and how IC measurement can produce the expected organizational changes and if it allows IC to be mobilized by users. By proposing a multiple case study, the paper contributes to research by highlighting the factors that in the analysed cases have facilitated or hindered the introduction and the evolution of the IC measurement and the consequent taking up of IC practices by managers. These factors can be traced back essentially to the way the IC measurement system has been designed and implemented, to its procedural and technical features and to the organization culture. The contribution brought by the interventionist research to introducing and developing the IC measurement systems and to help the company to mobilize IC will be analysed. The lessons learned from the cases could be of help to those companies that would like to measure and report IC, to try to get the most from it, to prevent or attenuate the detrimental aspects of introducing IC from an accounting perspective as well as to take advantage of the beneficial ones. By providing examples referred to interventionist case studies, the pros and cons that have emerged will be highlighted so they can be of help in similar future projects.