Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    Intellectual capital statements in Brazilian SME: Lessons learned from the first pilot-implementations
    ( 2012)
    Fernández y Fernandez, E.
    ;
    Mertins, K.
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    Sequeira, C.A.
    ;
    Will, M.
    In the rapidly emerging Brazilian economy, and especially in the fast moving city and state of Rio de Janeiro, intangible assets become a key success factor for sustainable growth. As experiences from Europe, and for instance from Japan, have shown, the development of systematic management procedures for these intangible assets is particularly importantfor fast growing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in order to function as the solid backbone for an increasingly knowledge-based economy. In this context, keeping productivity at a constant high level in a dynamic and fast growing business environment - and, thus, securing individual profits and national welfare at the same time - becomes a major management goal. This goal can only be achieved if the intangible success factors, such as employees' expertise and motivation, internal communication and management structures as well as external relations, all of which are summarized in theconcept of Intellectual Capit al (IC), are maintained and developed in a professional and adequate manner, meeting the specific demands of fast growing SMEs. This management challenge has been the starting point for the first pilot-project on implementing the management tool "Intellectual Capital Statement" (ICS) in ten pioneer SMEs from Rio de Janeiro. Taking into account the experiences from the German pilot-project "Wissensbilanz - Made in Germany" as well as the European pilot-project "InCaS", a special implementation procedure for micro and small companies has been designed and tested. Theso-called "ICS Factory" aims at ensuring fast practical results in the companies as well as supporting rapid prototypingand an action research approach to be used for the development of an adapted Brazilian version of the ICS. In a two-day workshop concept, with three to five SMEs each represented by two to three senior managers and key people, a complete analysis of the company's individual IC is produced, based on the structured self-ass
  • Publication
    Analysing and enhancing IC in business networks: Results from a recent study
    ( 2010)
    Mertins, K.
    ;
    Will, M.
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    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.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
    Strategic relevance of intellectual capital in European SMEs and sectoral differences
    ( 2008)
    Mertins, K.
    ;
    Will, M.
    As the Lisbon Agenda declares the aim for the European Union to become the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based market in the world until 2010, management instruments are needed to support companies achieving this ambitious goal. Small and medium-sized companies (SMEs) are especially affected by this plan as they are the driving force of Europe's economy. To obtain their competitive advantage, it is crucial for SMEs to utilise knowledge efficiently and to enhance their innovation potential. Thus, managing their specific Intellectual Capital (IC) becomes more and more important for future-oriented organisations. As the value of knowledge highly depends on its particular strategic context it is neither possible nor meaningful to measure the value of knowledge in absolute terms. Knowledge should rather be evaluated regarding its potential to support the company's individual strategic objectives. A practical way to tackle this challenge is the methodology developed by the German pilot project "Wissensbilanz - Made in Germany" and the European pilot project "InCaS: Intellectual Capital Statement - Made in Europe". By applying this method in more than 50 German and 25 European small and medium-sized enterprises it was possible to support the participating companies in identifying, evaluating and developing their strategically relevant knowledge. Furthermore it helped to gain comparable data about crucial knowledge in SMEs and to develop first strategic recommendations in an empirical study. This paper summarises how the InCaS method supports companies developing a knowledge-based strategy. Moreover it describes research results gained from the German and European project about the strategic relevance of particular IC factors in general and their relevance depending on the business sector. Whereas for the German project the differences between the sectors "Industry" and "Services" have been analysed, the results of the European InCaS project allowed for a more detailed analysis between the branches "Business Services & IT", Machinery & Equipment", "Construction", "Electronics" and "Retail Trade & Other Services". Besides the overall dominance of Human Capital factors the results indicate that companies in the Industry sector focus on knowledge management activities based on IT and explicit knowledge (codification strategy). The strategically most relevant knowledge in this sector is professional competences, i.e. specialised know-how needed to run the company's main business processes. Service companies, on the other hand, seem to focus on their individual employees' expertise and informal knowledge transfer if they want to ensure long-term and strategic business success (personalisation strategy). In this sector, motivation and leadership abilities are strategically equally important or even more important than specialised know-how.
  • Publication
    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.
  • Publication
  • Publication
    Organizational knowledge management: From strategy to operational implementation
    ( 2007)
    Mertins, K.
    ;
    Finke, I.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Will, M.
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  • Publication
    Organisationales Wissensmanagement
    ( 2006)
    Mertins, K.
    ;
    Finke, I.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Will, M.
    Organisationen sind heute mehr denn je den wachsenden Anforderungen an Innovation, Qualität, Zeit und Kosten ausgesetzt. Ein ganzheitliches Wissensmanagement (WM) bietet in diesem Zusammenhang einen geeigneten Rahmen, um flexibel auf neue Anforderungen reagieren und erforderliche Anpassungen vornehmen zu können. Bisherige WM-Konzepte weisen jedoch zumeist eine überwiegend strategische oder operativ fokussierte Ausrichtung auf. Dabei bietet die Verknüpfung beider Herangehensweisen in einem ganzheitlichen Modell einen Erfolg versprechenden Hebel zur nachhaltigen Steigerung des Unternehmenswertes. Dieser Beitrag erläutert notwendige Kernfragen, welche für die Umsetzung eines ganzheitlichen Wissensmanagements von Bedeutung sind. Es wird eine Vorgehensweise vorgestellt, die Methoden der strategischen und operativen Ebene in einem aufeinander abgestimmten Wissensmanagementkonzept integriert. Die Schnittstelle zwischen den beiden Ebenen bildet die Wissensstrategie der Organisation. Im Mittelpunkt der Betrachtung stehen die organisationalen Geschäftsprozesse.