In recent years a world-wide debate has emerged on the future of business reporting. There is growing agreement that traditional financial reporting is inadequate in meeting with the information needs of stakeholders, particularly in a knowledge economy characterised by a rapidly emerging emphasis on intellectual capital (IC). This study examines voluntary intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) provided by listed Italian companies in annual reports from the year 2001. The study aims to answer two research questions namely: what is the amount and content of ICD; and what are the factors that influence different voluntary reporting behaviours. In relation to amount and content of information disclosed, the results are consistent with previous ICD studies showing extensive disclosure of external capital (in particular about "customers"). Regarding the factors that can explain different voluntary reporting practices, findings suggest that industry and size are not important in determining the content of information disclosed, however, as found in social and environmental disclosure (SED) studies, these factors are relevant in explaining the amount of information disclosed. In summary, this paper highlights the ICD practices of Italian listed companies by examining their annual reports, and compares these results with a number of previous national studies.

Purpose -The purpose of this study is to examine the similarities and differences in the strategic orientation and innovation patterns of small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large companies and to investigate their implications for market performance. Design/methodology/approach -Miles and Snow's strategic typology is applied to 592 new products to determine their companies' strategic orientations. Data collected over a two-year period by 62 companies in the Italian yogurt industry are analyzed. Findings -The results show that, while large firms operate with a "prospector" orientation, SMEs have a "defender" or "reactor" orientation. Only a small number of SMEs can innovate successfully, and an ex post facto investigation reveals that these firms follow an "open innovation model". Originality/value -The findings fill a gap in the literature by clarifying the similarities and differences in the strategic orientations, innovation patterns and performance of SMEs and large companies in a dynamic industry environment. The study also provides insights for managers in new food product development who are concerned about low rates of innovation and high rates of failure.

Using KLD data on more than 900 company's performance over a nine year period in seven areas of corporate social responsibility (environment, community, corporate governance, diversity, employee relations, human rights, and product quality), this research note re-tests Michelon et al. (2013) proxies for prioritization and strategic approaches to CSR. The results show that, when a company pursues CSR initiatives that are linked to stakeholder preferences and allocates resources to these initiatives in a strategic way, the positive effect of its CSR initiatives on financial Corporate Performance (CP) strengthen. The analysis of KLDs' variance and top tiers is thus proposed as a parsimonious way to measure when companies link their CSR initiatives to salient stakeholder preferences and undertake the corporate social actions that are ultimately relevant to the company's strategy and financials.