Fraunhofer-Institut für Produktionsanlagen und Konstruktionstechnik IPK

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  • Publication
    Intellectual Capital-Driven Technology and Innovation Management
    ( 2017)
    Galeitzke, M.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Kohl, H.
    The significance of intangible resources with regard to business success in general has evidently increased. This paper aims to draw conclusions on a broad empirical basis with regard to internal drivers of innovation and related differences between manufacturing and service enterprises. Measures to improve the enterprises' innovation capability are studied on the basis of 38 intellectual capital statements. Furthermore, the data gained from a large scale survey among more than 1000 enterprises is analyzed with regard to product as well as process innovation. In subsequence, the results of both analyses are matched and compared.
  • Publication
    Intellectual capital statements as a driver for regional development
    ( 2015)
    Kohl, H.
    ;
    Wuscher, S.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    The definition of Intellectual Capital (IC) and the methodology of creating Intellectual Capital Statements (ICS) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) as well as in larger companies and organizational networks have been adequately researched over the last years. The experience gained from more than 1.000 implementations of ICS in European companies has been utilized to derive a standard set of 15 IC factors according to the common categorization into Human Capital, Structural Capital and Relational Capital, which is stable and mainly applicable on the company-level. Since the concept of IC on the company level has been established, first investigations have started to come up with different concepts of IC and ICS on the regional level. These concepts show that both, the definition of IC and the procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level, are not adequately investigated yet though. Therefore, the requirement is to develop and test a stable regional IC concept, meaning a suitable definition of IC and an adjusted procedure for implementing ICS on the regional level. Against this background, the paper at hand seeks to illustrate a conceptual framework for determining and measuring IC on different actor levels (micro, meso and macro level). The illustration of the conceptual framework is based on a literature review of four different regional IC concepts from Germany and of further existing Intellectual Capital concepts on regional and national level. The findings indicate that the definition of IC and the procedure of implementing ICS on the regional level are not adequately investigated yet and an adapted procedure with a balanced combination of quantitative measurement and qualitative assessment of IC is required. The paper introduces a preliminary set of harmonized IC success factors for regions based on a recent survey and workshop with more than 65 representatives from the local and regional level in Germany carried out in September 2014. Furthermore, the paper discusses possible approaches of procedures for implementing Intellectual Capital Statements on the regional level, which is and will be investigated further on in current and planned research projects.
  • Publication
    Fostering organisational innovation through intellectual capital management
    ( 2015)
    Galeitzke, M.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Kohl, H.
    Knowledge and innovation have always played a crucial role in economic and social development (Kefala, 2010). As enterprises are facing constantly transforming framework conditions knowledge and innovation continue to gain importance in research and practice as means to realise sound economic, social and ecologic development. As mere product or incremental process innovations are neither a guarantee for success nor sufficient to cope with the emerging information, knowledge and time-competition (Stern and Jaberg, 2010) and as business model innovation has received increasing attention in times of change (Chesbrough, 2010; Amit and Zott, 2010) the latter shall be investigated complementarily. Design/methodology/approach - Building up on the results of previous research (Kohl et al., 2014) derived measures to improve the enterprises' innovation capability are analysed on the basis of 38 Intellectual Capital Statements. Furthermore, the data gained from a large scale survey among more than 1000 enterprises is analysed with regard to product as well as process innovation and are matched with the results gained from the analysis of the 38 ICS. Originality/value - The significance of intangible resources with regard to business success in general has evidently increased and may in some cases already be assessed as higher than the impact of tangible resources (Mertins et al., 2011; Kohl et al., 2014). This paper aims to draw conclusions on a broad empirical basis with regard to internal drivers of innovation and related differences between manufacturing and service enterprises. Practical implications - The analysis of the direct and indirect correlations between intellectual capital and innovation capabilities and the empirical foundation of these correlations allows sound statements regarding those intellectual capital factors, that should be focused by service and manufacturing enterprises to foster innovation. The examination of literature on intellectual capital and business model innovation builds the theoretical basis for future research with regard to those aspects and may show possible avenues for integrating business model innovation and intellectual capital management.
  • Publication
    Strategic intellectual capital management as a driver of organisational innovation
    ( 2015)
    Galeitzke, M.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Kohl, H.
    The significance of intangible resources for business success has evidently increased. Analyses have indicated some intellectual capital factors as the most prominent and important, yet the impact on the intra- and inter-organisational innovation ecosystems has not been analysed thoroughly. This contribution seeks to close this gap and draw conclusions with regard to drivers of innovation and related differences between manufacturing and service enterprises. The analysis of the correlation between intellectual capital and innovation capabilities allows statements regarding those intellectual capital factors, onto which enterprises should focus to foster innovation. The qualitative content-related analysis of the 38 intellectual capital statements of German enterprises with regard to new and different types of innovation management methodologies allows the identification of existing gaps in intellectual capital management.
  • Publication
    A practical approach to process-oriented knowledge management
    ( 2015)
    Kohl, H.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    Due to global competition and increasingly dynamic markets, the importance of intangible resources such as knowledge has been growing dramatically, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). SMEs have to be more innovative, flexible, and efficient to successfully cope with typical challenges such as growing competition and rapidly changing demand patterns. In the past, knowledge management has been successfully implemented and developed by large enterprises in particular. In contrast, knowledge management for SME is not a matter of course yet. However, current survey results affirm that activities in the area of knowledge management depend less on the size of an enterprise or its industry, but rather on an enterprise's business strategy and core competencies. In the light of these results, SMEs seem not to have disadvantages regarding the implementation of knowledge management because of their size or industry, but rather because they need to take strategic decisions to implement such solutions and have difficulties in doing so. Against this background, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology started the initiative ldquoFit fur den Wissenswettbewerbrdquo to support especially SMEs on the way to the knowledge society. In the course of the initiative, the research institutes Fraunhofer IPK and Fraunhofer IFF initiated the project ldquoProWis - Prozessorientiertes und integriertes Wissensmanagement in KMUrdquo. Within this project, researchers designed methods meeting the specific needs of SMEs allowing the implementation of process-oriented knowledge management at reasonable efforts. Building up on the developed methods, both institutes accompanied 15 SMEs during the implementation of knowledge management and used the findings from these implementations to refine the methods. The results of the project are summarised in the guideline ldquoPraxisleitfaden Wissensmanagementrdquo, which is freely accessible to interested parties and enables SMEs to systematically and autonomously implement knowledge management. Based on the aforementioned results, this article illustrates the processoriented implementation of knowledge management according to the ProWis approach and, by means of a case study, leads the reader through the single steps of the implementation process towards a business process-oriented knowledge management.
  • Publication
    Strategic intellectual capital management as a driver of organisational innovation
    ( 2014)
    Kohl, H.
    ;
    Galeitzke, M.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    Enterprises are facing transforming framework conditions that are manifesting on several levels. Increased competition from emerging markets, limited availability of resources as well as political and societal requirements with regard to the sustainability of enterprises' operations are only an extract of changing factors of influence. The capability to innovate has proven to be a strong competitive advantage and is to be assessed as a major success factor to limit the exposure to the intensified competitive (Schmeisser et. al. 2010), normative or even legal pressure especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach - In order to identify and describe the interdependences between intangible resources, their management and innovation capabilities the principal terms are put into focus at first. Building up on the theoretical explanations and taking the management method "Intellectual Capital Statement - Made in Germany" as a starting point the interdependencies between intellectual capital and product innovation as well as process optimisation and innovation are analysed. Within this article the interdependences between the standard intellectual capital factors are investigated with regard to product and process innovation on the basis of 38 Intellectual Capital Statements of German enterprises. Originality/value - The significance of intangible resources for business success has evidently increased and may in some cases already be assessed as higher than the impact of tangible resources. Analyses have indicated some intellectual capital factors as the most prominent and important, yet the impact on the intra- and inter-organizational innovation ecosystems has not been analysed thoroughly. Although the most important factors of intellectual capital are identified, the specific drivers for innovation have not been investigated. This paper seeks to close this gap and draw meaningful conclusions with regard to drivers of innovation and related differences between manufacturing and service enterprises. Practical implications - The analysis of the correlation between intellectual capital and innovation capabilities allows statements regarding the intellectual capital factors, onto which enterprises should be focused in order to foster innovation. The qualitative content-related analysis of the 38 intellectual capital statements with regard to the consideration of new and different types of innovation management methodologies allows the identification of existing gaps in intellectual capital management. The close examination of the framework of new types of innovation and cross-reference to practical interdependences shall establish the theoretical basis for future case studies with enterprises that have the objective of establishing new types of innovation to continue this very research.
  • Publication
    Process-oriented knowledge management in SMEs
    ( 2014)
    Kohl, H.
    ;
    Orth, R.
    ;
    Steinhöfel, E.
    Against the background of global competition and increasingly dynamic markets, the importance of knowledge has been growing dramatically, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SME). SMEs have to be more innovative, flexible, and efficient to successfully cope with typical challenges such as growing competition and rapidly changing demand patterns. In the past, knowledge management has been successfully implemented and developed by large enterprises in particular. In contrast, knowledge management for SME is not a matter of course yet. However, current survey results affirm that activities in the area of knowledge management depend less on the size of an enterprise or its industry, but rather on an enterprise's business strategy and core competencies. In the light of these results, SMEs seem not to have disadvantages regarding the implementation of knowledge management because of their size or industry, but rather because they need to take strategic decisions to implement such solutions and have difficulties in doing so. Against this background, the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology started the initiative "Fit fur den Wissenswettberb" to support especially SMEs on the way to the knowledge society. In the course of the initiative, the research institutes Fraunhofer IPK and Fraunhofer IFF initiated the project " ProWis - Prozessorientiertes und integriertes Wissensmanagement in KMU". Within this project, researchers designed methods meeting the specific needs of SMEs allowing the implementation of process-oriented knowledge management at reasonable efforts. Building up on the developed methods, both institutes accompanied 15 SMEs during the implementation of knowledge management and used the findings from these implementations to refine the methods. The results of the project are summarized in the guideline " Praxisleitfaden Wissensmanagement", which is freely accessible to interested parties and enables SMEs to systematically and autonomously implement knowledge management. Based on the aforementioned results, this article illustrates the process-oriented implementation of knowledge management according to the ProWis approach and, by means of a case study, leads the reader through the single steps of the implementation process towards a business process-oriented knowledge management.