intellectual capital

The term Intellectual capital collectively refers to all resources that determine the value and the competitiveness of an enterprise. As such, it includes as subsets the attributes that concur to building all financial statements as well as the balance sheet. ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

Intangibles

The value of an enterprise is made of physical assets, various financial assets and, finally, intangible assets, i.e., intellectual capital (IC).^[4]

The intangibleness refers to the fact that IC is not easily translatable in financial terms. All other assets of a company, such as a piece of real estate or a credit note, can be monetized: i.e., there exist standard criteria for expressing their value in currency. IC, instead, is mainly made of elements (such as the quality of employees or the reputation of a brand among consumers) for which there is no consensual model for monetary expression.

A more precise name for IC would therefore be "non-financial assets".

Elements of Intellectual Capital

In all definitions of IC, the following taxonomy can be recognized:

• Relational capital: All relations a company entertains with external subjects, such as suppliers, partners, clients (brands, ...), research centres, etc.;
• Human capital: Knowledge and competences residing with the company's employees;
• Organizational capital: Collective know-how, beyond the capabilities of individual employees. E.g.: information systems; policies; intellectual property.

References

1. ^ Patrick H. Sullivan (2000); "Value-driven Intellectual Capital" Wiley
2. ^ Thomas A. Stewart (1997) "Intellectual Capital - The New Wealth of Organizations
3. ^ Karl Erik Sveiby (1997) "The Intangible Asset Monitor", J. of Human Resource Casting and Accounting, 2(1)
4. ^ Paolo Magrassi (2002) "A Taxonomy of Intellectual Capital", Research Note COM-17-1985, Gartner

External links

• Intellectual Capital by Jorge Majfud, Political Affairs Magazine, October 13 2009