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This article reports on the background, the conceptual ideas and the lessons learned from over more than 20 years of IC Statements and Management with a country focus on Germany and some international developments. It calls for an integrated management approach for IC and offers case study evidence on how to accomplish this quest.

Report on the German initiative “Intellectual Capital Statement made in Germany” (ICS m.i.G.). A brief review of the literature describes the background and theoretical foundation of the German IC method. A short description of the method is followed by four detailed case studies to illustrate long-term impact of IC management in very different organizations. A discussion of Lessons Learned from more than 200 implementations and an outlook on current and future developments finalizes the article.

IC Statements made in Germany (ICS m.i.G.) was successful in providing a framework to systematically identify IC, evaluate the status quo of IC relative to the strategic requirements, visualize interdependencies of IC, business processes and business results as well as to connect IC reporting with internal management routines and external communication. However, ICS is not an insulated method but delivers the maximum benefit when integrated with strategy development, strategy implementation, business process optimization accompanied by change management routines. Strong ties to human resource management, information technology departments, quality management, research and development teams as well as business operations as the core of an organization help to yield the most for ICS m.i.G. Over time, the focus of managing IC changes and maturity leads to deutero learning.

ICS m.i.G. proved easy to apply, cost efficient for SMEs, larger corporations and networks. It helps to better accomplish their objectives and to adjust their business models. The guidelines in German and English as well as a software application released were downloaded more than 100,000 times. A certification process based on a three-tier training module is available and was successfully completed by more than 400 practitioners. ICS m.i.G. is supporting current standards of knowledge management, such as ISO 9001, ISO 30401 or DIN SPEC PAS 91443 and therefore will most likely have a continuing impact on knowledge-based value creation.

This paper reports lessons learned from the country-wide IC initiative in Germany over the last 20 years initiated and supported by the authors. Several elements of the method have been published over time, but so far no comprehensive view on Lessons Learned had been published.

Small and medium‐sized companies (SMEs) have started to generate intellectual capital (IC) reports in order to enhance their management and corporate reporting. While the impact of a better management is quite clear, it is still unclear if an IC report has any impact on the rating of a company. The aim of this paper is to determine whether intellectual capital reports of SMEs generate any impact on the valuation behavior of analysts.

A test design was developed which comprised a literature review, a brain trust with financial experts, a quantitative survey, and an experiment with analysts based on two case studies.

If some requirements about structure and content of an IC report are fulfilled, it contributes to a more homogeneous rating than a rating based solely on information from financial reporting. Therefore, intellectual capital reports reduce risks for both investors/banks and SMEs.

The research is based solely on German entities. It focuses on SMEs and their relevant capital market partners, which are banks. The results of the study indicate that also international analysts and companies could profit from additional information about IC.

The results of the study can be used to further develop and adapt IC reports to complement annual reporting according to analysts' requirements.

The paper helps to cover a well‐documented information need of companies that want to communicate their IC to the capital market and do not know how and what kind of impact can be expected.

This paper seeks to describe a methodology for intellectual capital reporting which was successfully tested in Germany. Special focus is on developing a short list of IC drivers for urgent management intervention.

Building on established self‐assessment methodologies from quality management and concepts of system dynamics, an action research design was applied to develop an intellectual capital reporting framework.

It is possible to identify and to assess intellectual capital drivers for corporate results and to prioritize them according to marginal economic contribution. Based on concepts from system dynamics, group learning processes and organizational learning processes are stimulated. Investing scarce resources in specific drivers of intellectual capital with high impact on the organization and additional high levels of managerial control supports long‐term performance.

The research builds on self‐organizing principles; the quality of intellectual capital assessment thus depends massively on the rigour of the team involved. Comparability of assessments is limited, as the standard reference is the organization's strategy.

The suggested methodology builds heavily on methods already established in SMEs and is compatible with general management approaches. It is economical by design and delivers insight into the functioning of the organization as well as insights on future fields for management intervention.

This methodology combines two established concepts of self‐assessment and system analysis and applies them to intellectual capital in order to resolve the decision problem of allocating funds based on economic efficiency and impact.

This article aims to summarise a successful, pioneering prototyping project in Germany with IC statements, supported by the German Ministry of Labour and Economics (BMWA).

A systematic process view method has been applied. A special impact scoring method generates a map, enabling management to determine where they should give executive priority for intellectual capital investment.

Most of the participating companies would like to have a more standardized Wissensbilanz with indicators for added value in order to use the tool as a complimentary report (management report) for the purpose of external reporting as well as comparison.

The project has now inspired some 100 enterprises of different types and is now spreading outside Germany.