Editorial

Citation

Chase, R.L. (2006), "Editorial", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 7 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/jic.2006.25007baa.001

Editorial

The contents of this issue reflects the Journal of Intellectual Capital’s objective of providing readers with the latest research and best practice information on all aspects of creating, identifying, managing and measuring intellectual capital in organizations.

Juani Swart’s paper reviews the literature on intellectual capital from the viewpoint of its sub-components and disentangles some of its key definitions. The key contribution of the paper lies in unpacking the definitions and measures of intellectual capital and its sub-components and in disaggregating their interconnection. The paper also seeks to develop clarified definitions of the sub-components of intellectual capital as part of an improved framework for research. This analysis forms an important foundation for future research on valuable, rare and inimitable assets.

In “Measuring and analysing intellectual assets: an integrative approach”, Michael Litschka, Andreas Markom and Susanne Schunder begin with a brief historical review of the approaches to evaluating intellectual capital. They then describe the Plexus model, which is a first approximation for the monetary valuation of organizational human and intellectual assets. According to the authors these assets are easy to calculate using figures which almost all modern organizations have available, and without the need for extra accounting efforts. The limitation of this model is its simplicity, which does not fully depict the interconnectedness of the parameters and the influence of organizations on human motivation. That said, the authors indicate that this model might help raise awareness of human and intellectual capital in organizations.

Rajiv Narvekar and Karuna Jain provide a conceptual cognitive-driven framework to understand the complex technological innovation process. A cross-disciplinary literature survey is used to develop the framework, which can serve as the starting point for research into the design of technological innovation systems, change management and organizational restructuring. The authors have documented the technological innovation process in two Indian companies: a high-tech paint company and a pharmaceutical firm. They have validated the framework using the case study method by examining eight R&D projects in these companies. However, the authors note that more research is required to validate the framework across both business sectors and geographies.

In an organizational setting the use of metrics is not only restricted to financial indicators such as “return of investment”, “gross margin”, and “EBITDA”, but also to almost every aspect of organizational life. The efforts to include non-financial, intangible, or other aspects in a toolset of possible indicators have increased significantly over the past several decades. However, there are different underpinning ideas of how and why these indicators are produced. The main conclusion of the study by Bino Catasus and Jan-Erik Grqjer is that indicators may legitimize, serve as a heuristic tool for learning, or mobilize the organization. Their paper also suggests that human intellectual capital indicators may be produced, transmitted and received differently in relation to their technological and programmatic logics. The study suggests that there is an urgent need to develop a theory of intellectual capital indicators.

“The roles of intermediaries in a regional knowledge system” by Anssi Smedlund provides a tool to map the critical roles of the intermediate organizations. Regional dynamics are presented as networks of production, development and innovation in the regional cluster. The intermediaries are divided into national, regional and local level actors. The roles of the intermediaries from the network dynamics point of view are then illustrated with examples from a case study of a medical technology cluster located in a sparsely inhabited area in Finland. According to the results of a case study, the regional intermediaries have the most important role in the creation and supporting of the network dynamics. The most critical roles include forming of shared innovation strategies between the actors and attracting anchor tenants to the region.

The paper, “Intellectual capital statements on their way to the stock exchange: analyzing new reporting systems”, proposes a model to analyze intellectual capital statements, and applies this model to an intellectual capital statement and an initial public offering (IPO) prospectus. According to the authors, the paper demonstrates that it is possible to analyze prospectuses and intellectual capital statements systematically and even to compare companies on that basis. Since IPOs are often already part of the capital market’s information, the similarities between reading IPOs and intellectual capital statement suggest that intellectual capital statements convey company specific information relevant for financial analysts.

Bram Boekestein has assessed the visibility of intangible assets on the balance sheet of pharmaceutical companies, how these assets overlap with intellectual capital, and whether a relationship can be established between intangible assets and company performance. The author has analyzed the intangible asset reporting practices of 52 globally operating pharmaceutical companies. Results indicate that the majority of companies are specifying intangible assets and that a considerable overlap occurs with intellectual capital. Intangible assets may contribute substantially to the companies’ assets, however, a clear relationship between intangible assets and company performance could not be established. A number of proposals are put forward to improve the visibility of intangible assets and to bring these in line with intellectual capital obligations.

James Guthrie, Richard Petty and Federica Ricceri investigate the voluntary reporting of intellectual capital (IC) by listed companies in Australia and Hong Kong and evaluate size, industry and time effects on IC disclosure levels. The empirical study was conducted in two stages. Stage one was an exploratory study of voluntary IC disclosure for the 20 largest listed Australian companies in 1998. Stage two, using 2002 data, examined voluntary disclosure of 1C attributes for 50 listed entities in Australia and 100 in Hong Kong. Content analysis was used to collect data. The levels of voluntary IC disclosure are found to be low and in qualitative rather than quantitative form in both locations. Disclosure level is positively related to company size, a finding that is consistent with the previous literature on voluntary reporting.

Jay Chatzkel, North American Editor of the Journal of Intellectual Capital, reports on the “The 1st World Conference on Intellectual Capital for Communities in the Knowledge Economy”. The event took place in Paris, France, on June 20, 2005. It was organized by the PRISM-OEP Group of the University of Marne-LaValle in cooperation with the World Bank. The conference was structured into four sessions. Session 1 was intellectual capital (IC) and the knowledge economy; Session 2 was IC for nations; Session 3 was IC for regions; and Session 4, the closing session, focused on looking at the future.

This was the first worldwide event specifically dedicated to addressing concepts and ideas of “natural communities”. The objective of the conference was to raise awareness and promote initiatives geared to stimulating thinking in these areas, leading to the prototyping of IC for communities.

The points the conference sought to address were:

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  visualizing the knowledge capital of nations;

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  developing intelligence flows within and between knowledge capital clusters;

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  cultivating efficiency and renewal of the knowledge capital of regions;

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  capitalizing on knowledge capital, by new innovative social systems, in terms of the collective wealth of nations; and

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  making cities “intelligent”.

Rory L. Chase