Knowledge capital investment and operational profitability: The Italian listed firms, 'Halfway along' a dark path

«Halfway along our life’s path, I woke to find myself in a dark wood […]» (Comedia’s incipit). During though times, we instinctively search for the light using knowledge, and alike firms do. So we might ask: can firms’ knowledge capital represent a resource that sheds light and support, in general, corporate performance? At an earlier stage, are they expected to enhance the operational efficiency-profitability of firms they belong to? In this perspective, under the Resource-Based Theory, we intend to find whether and to what extent this linkage is verified during the recent crisis in Italy. In more detail, we considered 612 firm-year observations relating to the Italian listed companies during three consecutive years - 2010 to 2012 (when the Italian economy reached the peak of the recent crisis) - analyzing overall about 7.000 data/numbers under a FE Panel Data Model. The findings are robust: we document a significant positive correlation between operational ratio and patent assets & (intellectual property) rights, goodwill and trademarks & licenses, while we do not find a correlation with reference to Research & Development Capital (and Advertising investments), also controlling for employees, leverage and time/sector dummies. Most intellectual assets appear effective than others in hampering the economic drop. Hence, unlike tangible and financial assets, knowledge resources (technology, marketing-related, contractual-legal assets and other accounted intangibles not separately identifiable) are prospected to be more remarkable, as well as strategic, levers that make it possible to maintain efficiency or to allow a faster recovery in terms of wasted efficiency.