Intellectual capital development and protection assessment for institutions of higher education in Еastern Ukraine

Abstract

Modern empirical research on intellectual capital (IC) is related to the establishment of the mutual influence between its components, as well as its impact on the performance of business entities. The purpose of the article is to compare the intellectual capital components and the interpretation of their dynamic influence on the IC development level of the institution of higher education (IHE) in the conditions of reduction of one of the IC components or a sharp drop in the volume of services rendered. Methodology. The development and protection investigation of the IC components provided a factor analysis (the main component method) of the key indicators of the IHE activity. Based on the normalized values of the input indicators and their weights, the integral index of development and protection for the IC components for a certain IHE was calculated based on the results of the factor load research. With the input parameters normalization, some of them could be zero, so in order to prevent the zero values of the integral index of development and protection of the individual component and the IC as a whole, normalized additive convolution was used for their calculations. To interpret their meanings, a scale was developed for assessing the different levels of the IC development and protection in the range from [-1 to 1]. Results. Under evacuation conditions, with a significant reduction in activity and a drop in productivity, the actual state of client capital development and protection depended on the ability of the university to recover or not to lose students. The level of human capital protection was determined by the ability to increase its level quickly at the expense of external resources, and the level of innovative capital protection – with the ability to restore or maintain the indicators of innovation and scientific activity. The values of integral indicators of development and protection as for the IC components fluctuated within [-0.9, 1] and correspond to real tendencies in the activity of the IHE after their forced territorial movement. But among the IHEs there was simultaneously the same (either positive or negative) dynamics of integral indicators of human and innovative capital. A similar pattern is confirmed by studies in the activities of industrial companies and financial institutions. Practical implications. The proposed method for determining the IC development and protection level is universal and may take into account different indicator combinations depending on the management objectives of the IHE. In addition, due to the problem factors normalization including in the analysis of indicators with different units of measurement does not occur. As well as the use of relative indicators, it is possible to match their meaning for different scale of institutions activity. Value / originality. The method involves conducting a non-financial analysis of the IC components, and also is not based on subjective values of the indicators, which is typical for expert methods with a score scale.