Intellectual Capital Development in Business Schools: The Role of “Soft Skills” in Italian Business Schools

Soft skills are recognized as a key issue within the Intellectual Capital (IC) framework for leading companies in a global economy. An increasing number of authors and specialists in IC are emphasizing the specific role of people’ soft competences as a condition to consolidate new and well established business initiatives. At the same time soft competences are recognized as a key element for fostering creativity and innovation. Unfortunately in spite of the increasing number of articles in the field, still there is not a unique definition for “Soft Skills” (SK). At the same time there is no empirical evidence that analyses the state of art of Soft Skills in business schools (BS) education. This paper intends to fill the gap reviewing literature on soft competences in order to identify a possible definition. Several papers have been studied recognizing some concepts. Using a content analysis approach the manifestos of a group of Italian school have been analyzed to recognize the importance that Italian BSs assign to each context. The results of this paper could be used to evaluate the impact and relevance of “Soft Skills” in Italian Business Schools and expedite the need to introduce changes in Knowledge creation strategies a proposal to consolidate teaching of “Soft Skill” programs in Business Schools in Italy. The data could be useful to further studies comparing different attitudes on “Soft Skills” in different countries and cultures.