The book describes significant multidisciplinary research findings at the Universita Politecnica delle Marche and the expected future advances. It addresses some of the most dramatic challenges posed by today's fast-growing, global society and the changes it has caused, while also discussing solutions to improve the wellbeing of human beings. The book covers the main research achievements made in the social sciences and humanities, and includes chapters that focus on understanding mechanisms that are relevant to all aspects of economic and social interactions among individuals. In line with Giorgio Fua's contribution, the interdisciplinary research being pursued at the Faculty of Economics of Universita Politecnica delle Marche is aimed at interpreting the process of economic development in all of its facets, both at the national and local level, with a particular focus on profit and non-profit organizations. Various disciplines are covered, from economics to sociology, history, statistics, mathematics, law, accounting, finance and management.

Over the last two decades, the term Intellectual Capital (IC) has become synonymous with the knowledge economy, whereby the intangible resources of organisations are linked to the development of value. In order to develop this new way of managing organisations, numerous frameworks have been developed to measure, manage and report IC. However, the take up of IC has been problematic, causing some pundits to question if it's simply 'locked up' in theory. This book seeks to 'unlock' IC so it can become relevant to organisations in the creation of value. It offers practical understanding of how the IC paradigm has progressed since its inception and takes a critical and performative examination of IC research and practices. Based on the authors' extensive experience, it provides real practical examples of how IC has been implemented in practice. This is the first book on IC that is written from a combined academic and practitioner perspective addressing what is defined as the third stage of IC research 'based on a critical and performative analysis of IC practices in action'. The book is therefore useful for both academics and practitioners - not only to understand how IC works, but to question how it can be applied effectively in different contexts.