Intellectual Capital Models and their Role within Information Systems

Abstract

There is a growing demand to know the status and evolution of firms’ intangible assets. It is motivated by the strategic relevance assigned to these intangible assets. The so-called intangible economy is one of the approaches to the study of intellectual capital (IC), which has attracted the interest of most researchers. The intangible economy treats these assets, because of their special attributes, as having the potential to create competitive advantages for the firm. In this context, the management of intangibles becomes a fundamental strategy from the competitive point of view. If the company does not manage correctly its intangible assets or IC, strategic opportunities will be lost, and even because of the turbulence and complexity of the present environments the position reached in the market could be damaged. This is the topic of the present work. Specifically, we will characterize the concept of IC, and in particular of human capital. Human capital is one of the three divisions into which the intangible dimension of organizations is structured. That intangible dimension is linked to the values, attitudes, and competence of the organization’s employees.