Using Strategic Management Accounting Practices to Measure and Manage Intellectual Capital

Abstract

The main purpose of this chapter is to examine the role of management accounting to measure and manage intellectual capital (IC), and more specifically to explore the potential role of strategic management accounting (SMA) in this process. In addition, this chapter is intended to link SMA practices and some IC resources. SMA practices enable the identification, measurement, and management of IC resources such as production processes and innovation capacity (e.g., target costing), quality management (e.g., quality costing), knowledge-based resources related to the organization´s external relationships (e.g., attribute costing, value chain costing, and target costing), and brand image (e.g., brand valuation/management). SMA practices, given its external orientation, enable, mainly, the identification and management of resources encompassed in relational capital. Therefore, this chapter contributes to the extant literature regarding the measurement and management of IC, highlighting the role of SMA, and provides some suggestions for further research.