An overall index of intellectual capital

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this article is to expound a holistic intellectual capital index. Moreover, the paper presents its implementation within a real estate organization.

Design/methodology/approach

The index is calculated on the basis of 14 structured interviews synthesized through the analytic hierarchy process, min–max normalizations and weighted sums.

Findings

The authors estimate a holistic intellectual capital index and show that an analysis of its components may allow identifying discordances within the organization about the contributions of its value drivers.

Research limitations/implications

The proposed index may be used in a medium-/long-term research to measure the evolution in the organizational intellectual capital and its relation with the top management’s initiatives and the competitive environment changes.

Practical implications

The proposed methodology may integrate the reports prepared for shareholders and stakeholders and provide the top management, with an in-depth understanding of the different perceptions of the organizational human resources.

Originality/value

The authors discuss a holistic index of intellectual capital that allows considering both the performances of the intellectual capital components and the interdependencies among them and also their strategic contribution to the value-creation process. In addition, they propose a novel descriptive statistical analysis of the assessment and management of IC-index components to draw indications for the top management.

Citation

Cricelli, L., Greco, M. and Grimaldi, M. (2014), "An overall index of intellectual capital", Management Research Review, Vol. 37 No. 10, pp. 880-901. https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-04-2013-0088