Integrated strategy development based on intangibles

The development towards a knowledge-based economy has already progressed so far that intangible resources already have, in many cases, a greater influence on business success than classical material production factors. In the context of the digital economy, this challenge becomes even more important as competitive differentials on a globalized market will increasingly rely on intangible features rather than ""hard"" product functionality or price only. The method ""Integrated Strategy Development"" (ISD) aims at enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to design strategies for the development of their business model, systematically integrating the necessary qualitative aspects of intangible assets to meet the needs of the knowledge-based and digital economy. The ISD model has been tested and used in various application contexts where it has proven to be of practical benefit in the strategy definition and the respective implementation planning and monitoring in European SMEs from various business sectors. Incremental adaptations of the method were used in further application contexts including the strategic planning and evaluation of applied research institutes in Brazil. The article concludes with further application and development potential of the ISD method for the digital economy.