Browsing by Author "Kaes, Barbara"
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- ItemIntellectual capital management : a critical analysis of conceptual approaches and tools(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1999-12) Kaes, Barbara; Leibold, M.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Dept. of Business Management.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: It is generally acknowledged that the new millennium is likely to witness a broad based tendency towards being knowledge driven. One manifestation seems particularly important, viz. the realisation that the proactive management of the important organisational resource of intellectual capital (IC) increasingly influences corporate performance. In order for companies to remain competitive in future, it appears essential that an appropriate understanding of the concept of intellectual capital management (ICM) be developed. In view of these observations, there is a need for a critical analysis of extant conceptual approaches and tools to ICM. The objective of the present study was to contribute to an improved understanding of the concept of ICM. To achieve this objective it was considered fundamental to first establish conceptual clarity concerning the resource to be managed through ICM, viz. IC. In a second step, an important task for the achievement of the objective was a critical analysis of extant ICM approaches and tools, to investigate their rationale, origin, and, purpose, as well as to establish advantages and disadvantages inherent in their operationalisation. Scrutiny of the literature revealed that conceptual vagueness and obscurity surround the term IC, and that no clear consensus has yet been established concerning its anatomy. In spite of the divergent views on the definition and the generic properties of IC a preliminary definition of IC could be established by way of a comparative analysis. It was further demonstrated that the anatomy of intellectual capital can be synthesised into a categorisation scheme involving three distinct building blocks, viz. internal capital, human capital and external capital. Three ICM approaches and tools were eclectically chosen and critically analysed: i) Sveiby's "Intangible Asset Monitor," ii) Kaplan and Norton's "Balanced Scorecard," and iii) Edvinnson's "Skandia IC Navigator." These were selected because they were considered to encapsulate pioneering efforts and thus represent the status quo on ICM. Analysis suggested that the three models differ in scope and purpose, i.e. different approaches exist as to whether intellectual capital should be managed in isolation or in conjunction with financial capital, and as to whether they should be used for internal measurement purposes or external reporting. Moreover, extant ICM approaches and tools appear to be static in that they account primarily for stocks of intellectual capital, rather than for flows between the individual IC categories. The salient conclusion of the study was that extant ICM tools are primarily concerned with the measurement of intangible corporate assets and not with their management per se. Based on the conclusions of the study a number of recommendations were forwarded, both in terms of a better understanding of the concept of ICM as well as suggestions for the advancement of business applications and theory. The propositions made range from a validation of the three components of IC discerned in the study to a development of specific management directives for ICM.