Intellectual capital and resilience: evidence from two cases of SMEs

ABSTRACT

Disruptive changes, such as the ones caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, oblige firms to develop the ability to be resilient in this unstable environment if they want to stay competitive. In this context, the aim of this article is to unveil how intellectual capital (IC) may foster resilience in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). To serve this purpose, this article presents the results of a qualitative analysis of two SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The most significant evidence is that a combination of the components of IC, namely human capital, organisational capital, and relational capital, is useful for SMEs to respond to changing conditions and take advantage of emergent opportunities, which means going through the prepare-respond-transform resilience process. This article is among the first attempting to elucidate the relationship between IC and SME resilience. It reveals a tight connection between these two concepts, which still deserves further investigation.

KEYWORDS:

• Resilience
• intellectual capital
• human capital
• organisational capital
• relational capital
• COVID-19

Acknowledgement

We acknowledge Dr. Greta Immobile Molaro and her staff and Mr. Gian Luca Falleti and his staff for dedicating their time to carry out our study in Polo GGB and Nanoprom respectively.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2022.2103047

Notes

1. www.notiziariochimicofarmaceutico.it/2017/05/04/ricerca-multidisciplinare-integrata-al-polo-ggb/ (accessed in November 2020)

https://www.oksiena.it/brevi2/toscana-life-sciences-presenta-alla-ricerca-del-tempo-guadagnato-53401.html (accessed in November 2020)

http://www.system24.ilsole24ore.com/static/minisiti/2013/bside/080713_CN_chimica_farmaceutica_biotech/Pagine/16.pdf (accessed in November 2020)

2. autosprint.corrieredellosport.it/news/mondo-racing/2020/04/07-2,902,342/COVID-19_nanoprom_avvia_la_produzione_di_mascherine/ (accessed in November 2020)

https://lemascherineitaliane.com/nanoprom-dalla-f1-alla-lotta-al-COVID-19-con-una-produzione-fino-a-2-milioni-di-mascherine-al-giorno/ (accessed in November 2020)

https://carcar.news/2020/03/17/nanoprom-from-formula-1-against-the-coronavirus/ (accessed in November 2020)