Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    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.
  • 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.