Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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Analysing and enhancing IC in business networks: Results from a recent study

2010 , Mertins, K. , Will, M. , Meyer, C.

Since the acknowledgement of intellectual capital (IC) as the major driver of a company's competitive and innovative performance numerous scientific models and practical approaches were developed to capture and display the IC elements of businesses in order to make them visible and accessible for management. But since the economy has gone global and businesses are acting within a global business landscape the view on IC needs to be expanded to these new structures. Especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SME) commitment in networks and clusters is crucial for sustainable competitiveness on international markets. Alike single companies, also business networks highly depend on IC in order to perform successfully and effectively. The way businesses cooperate, exchange and acq uire knowledge, find suitable partners, solve problems, develop and profit from the network has an impact on the company itself as well as on the network. Aiming at an IC-based assessment and support of SME networks, the methodology presented in this paper follows a bottom-up approach starting with the assessment of IC in the single company. Within the research projects InCaS: Intellectual Capital Statements Made in Europe and Wissensbilanz Made in Germany a methodology has been developed which has proved to be capable of collecting comparable qualitative IC data. Based on these results, a consolidated approach has been designed recently, collecting IC data from more than 600 companies in Germany. The results are comparable and individual at the same time, allowing to display IC se ttings of single companies as well as to aggregate IC information within an IC portfolio for a whole group of companies. The paper will present the methodology as well as some first results from the study taking a look at the German IC landscape based on more than 600 individual IC assessments. The paper will also discuss the possibilities of using the results for IC enhancement in networks and clusters from the view of the single company.

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How to ensure the quality and reliability of intellectual capital statements?

2007 , Mertins, K. , Wang, W.-H. , Will, M.

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InCaS: Intellectual Capital Statement. Measuring intellectual capital in european small and medium sized enterprises

2009 , Mertins, K. , Will, M. , Meyer, C.

It is a common ground, that Intellectual Capital (IC) has become the critical success factor for enterprises operating in a knowledge driven economy. Especially for European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) it is crucial to utilise and manage their intangible resources efficiently in order to obtain their competitive advantage, since they highly depend on specialised human, structural and relational capital for successful differentiation on the market. Therefore, the EU-project "InCaS: Intellectual Capital Statement - Made in Europe" has been designed to help European SMEs in detecting, analysing, managing and reporting their IC in order to strengthen their capability to quickly respond to market needs and thus, increase their competitiveness. As the main project result the "European Guideline for Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS)" has been published in November 2008 summarising the InCaS methodology that has been developed, empirically tested and enhanced during three project phases in close cooperation between IC experts, European business associations and 25 SMEs from five European countries. Aiming at harmonising the different existing national ICS methods on a practical level suitable for SMEs, the InCaS research team discovered two main opposing approaches: While a quantitative measurement of intangible assets suits the requirements of external reporting as it can be standardised and compared more easily, it shares the problems of common balance sheets: standardised indicators and quantitative data can not display the individual business model and strategy in reasonable depth. Therefore, empirical evidence shows that little value for the management and development of IC can be drawn out of those solely quantitative approaches. Qualitative methods, on the other hand, aim at assessing the strengths and weaknesses of Intellectual Capital in regard to their future value, taking the individual business model and strategy of the single organisation into account. The European ICS is an instrument to assess, develop and report an organisation's IC, to monitor critical success factors systematically, and to support strategic management decisions. Supported by the software " ICS Toolbox", the workshop-based approach of InCaS combines qualitative and quantitative methods in order to overcome the conceptual dilemma stated above. This paper will describe the InCaS method and implementation process as well as empirical findings from 50 pilot-implementations. The evaluation shows that the methodology has proven to be highly beneficial for internal management purposes allowing to derive specific actions for the well-targeted improvement of IC in the value adding processes of the company. Moreover, the standardised process and structure of the ICS report supports the communication of IC to external stakeholders, as well. If some basic quality requirements outlined in the European ICS Guideline are met, the method can also serve as a basis for comparability between different organisations. A quality assurance concept helps to ensure credibility and trustworthiness of the IC reports, especially for investors and banks.

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A consistent assessment of Intellectual Capital in SMEs

2007 , Mertins, K. , Will, M.

The globalisation and the accompanying increasing international competition put considerable pressure European small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). The key to competitiveness increasingly appears to he the people combine, master and commercialise their know-how. Hence it is crucial for European SMEs to utilise and man knowledge efficiently in order to obtain a competitive advantage. While different national approaches on the management Intellectual Capital (IC) have been developed and tested, there is no European wide standard regarding the measurement IC. The collective research project "Intellectual Capital Statement - Made in Europe" aims at harmonising these scattered approaches on a scientific as well as a practical level. Based on scientific consensus a first framework has been developed providing a common ground for the measurement of IC by introducing the Intellectual Capital Statement (ICS). The IC an instrument to assess, develop and report an organisation's IC, to monitor critical success factors systematically, an support strategic management decisions. As InCaS puts emphasis on a practical approach suitable for SMEs, framework is to be understood as a starting point for phase I of the project, providing the basis for further development of the method towards practicability and harmonisation. It will be expanded to the final "European ICS guideline" supported by the "ICS toolbox" in subsequent project phases. Main focus of this paper is the InCaS project and accompanying European approach on measuring IC. As a first result a brief overview on the existing approaches measuring IC is provided. Furthermore, the InCaS project as well as the ICS method is described and preliminary res are discussed.

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Organizational knowledge management: From strategy to operational implementation

2007 , Mertins, K. , Finke, I. , Orth, R. , Will, M.

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Erfolgsfaktoren des intellektuellen Kapitals in mittelständischen Unternehmen

2007 , Mertins, K. , Will, M. , Wuscher, S.

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