Intellectual Capital Explains a Country’s Resilience to Financial Crisis

Abstract

From Resource-Based View (RBV), this chapter introduces intellectual capital as a valuable resource leading to competitive advantage at both organizational and national levels. The chapter elaborates on National Intellectual Capital (NIC) policy implications, using financially-strained countries such as Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain as examples. The co-development of NIC and GDP per capita (ppp) of four southern European countries and four Greater China economies during 2005-2010 are also presented and compared. This NIC development study discloses systematic warning signs starting in 2000 for those countries that were later in deep financial trouble, much earlier than the outburst of 2008 global financial crisis. “Intellectual capital explains a country’s resilience to financial crisis” is observed from the comparison. Consequently, in an era when intangible assets have become a key competitive advantage, investing in national intellectual capital development is investing in future national development and well-being.