Intangibles and social responsibility in performance measurement systems: a comparison among local utilities companies in Italy, United Kingdom and Spain

Aim of this paper is to analyze the relevance of intangible assets, in particular linked to social responsibility, with reference to performance measurement systems in local utilities companies. Today, these organizations have to know, coordinate and report a set of intangibles, like innovation, competencies and capabilities. In recent years, they have been influenced by the international process of public sector reform; moreover, the evolution of the social, economic and legislative context has been important for these companies. Management of intangibles is necessary for them, to provide services according to profiles of efficiency, economy and quantitative, qualitative and social effectiveness. Other two aspects can be connected to the emerging role of the intangibles for the performance measurement: the first one is the development of multidimensional systems, in order to overcome the limits of traditional information systems and consider not only the financial dimension of the performance, but also other dimensions, e.g., qualitative, environmental, social, all dimensions strongly linked to intangibles. The second aspect can be included in the first one and derives from the affirmation of the concept of corporate social responsibility: in fact, the social responsibility influences the whole performance, both for the monetary-quantitative, not-monetary-quantitative and qualitative aspects. Whereas the first part of this paper is dedicated to a deep analysis of these theoretical subjects, the second part tries to evaluate if and how, in practice, these aspects are considered in order to visualize, measure and manage intangibles, in performance measurement systems of some local utilities companies, which constitute the case studies of this work. More specifically, the first part considers the ways, by which social responsibility can be integrated in the performance measurement system, under a multidimensional point of view, in local utilities companies. In this sense, the social dimension have to: - be coherent with the strategic priorities of the company; - care about the external relationship with the citizens and other public and private local organizations; - control the impact of the strategic choices on the territory. The second part of the paper comprises an empirical analysis, based on an international comparison among some local utilities companies (in the sectors of waste management and gas delivery), located in territorial areas of Ferrara, Italy (Hera Ferrara for both services), Nottingham, United Kingdom (Local Authorities, which provide waste management in-house and BG for gas) and Granada, Spain (Inagra and Resur for waste management and Gas Natural for gas). The empirical evidence shows, with regard to the above-mentioned topics, that: - the management of all these organizations recognizes the relevance of intangible assets for the company outcome; in particular, the most relevant resources are identified as the relationships with customers and social environment; - a lot of companies adopt, with regard to reporting of the social responsibility dimension, some forms of “social report” or “sustainability report”, as a way for the accountability towards the community; - there are some common difficulties, in order to measure systematically this kind of intangibles and therefore the presence of a “social dimension” in the performance measurement system.