The main aim of this paper is to demonstrate that, by using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) model in measuring intangibles, companies are using an ‘old’ model to measure ‘new’ factors.1 This demonstration is given from a theoretical point of view, by comparing the BSC and the Intellectual Capital (IC) measurement models in relation to four variables: the notion of firm, the notion of strategy, the relation between strategy and indicators, and the value creation process that underpins the BSC and IC models. The comparison is carried out by analyzing the BSC and IC literature. From the theoretical analysis of the two models, it emerges that only the IC advanced measurement models address the new assumptions regarding firms, strategy and value creation process. The main managerial implications of the paper are that efficient management of organizational resource assets requires an understanding of the role and the interdependencies of such assets in value creation dynamics, and this happens only using a model (i.e., an IC advanced measurement model) which highlights the direct as well as the indirect dependences between tangible resources and intangible resources and activities.

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Intellectual Capital (IC) measurement models are considered to be very similar in the literature, especially in relation to their purpose: both models integrate non-financial indicators within the firm’s report system; both models are reported annexed to the traditional balance sheet; both are models of performance management and, at a first sight, the dimensions of the two models can intersect: BSC customer perspective/IC relational capital, BSC internal processes perspective/IC structural capital, BSC learning and growth perspective/IC human capital; and both models go beyond the bookkeeping model, they mix financial and non-financial indicators and relate them to the firm‘s strategy (Mouritsen et al., 2005). For all these reasons, they are considered to be alternative in measuring intangibles (Bontis et al., 1999; and Olve et al., 1999) and are grouped in the category of non-monetary models with a focus on single intangible assets, instead of on the whole firm (Sveiby, 2001; AIAF, 2003; and Zambon, 2003). This category is known as that of scorecard methods, because the various components of intangible assets or IC are identified and indicators and indices are generated and reported in scorecards or as graphs (Sveiby, 2001).

Accounting Research and Audit Practices, Economic Performance, Millennium Development Goals, Corporate Sustainability, Economic Transactions, Social Management, Environmental Accounting, Corporate Houses, Environmental Management System, Community Development, Waste Management, German Firms, United Nations Environment Program.