National Intellectual Capital: A Comparison of 40 Countries / Edition 1

by Carol Yeh-Yun Lin, Leif Edvinsson

Overview

Over the past decade, knowledge assets and intellectual capital have been attracting an increasing amount of attention, not only from academics and CEOs, but also from national policy makers. To date, most studies of intellectual capital have focused at the organizational level, with an emphasis on explaining the role of “intangible assets” as a differentiator between accounting value and market value as a possible source of corporate competitive advantage. More recently, pioneers in the field, including the authors of this book, have begun to apply these methodologies to a broader scope, with the objective of comparing the intellectual capital indices at the national or regional level. As a result, an increasing number of world organizations and researchers are commissioned to investigate this future-oriented crucial national issue. Yet, the linkage between the value of intangible assets and how to quantify or benchmark it is still tenuous, not to mention easily misunderstood by a layman for guiding better decision making.

With the belief that numbers talk and statistics hide valuable information, this book serves to present the authors’ research findings, covering 14 years (1995-2008) of intellectual capital information, comprised of human capital, market capital, process capital, renewal capital, and financial capital for 40 countries. The last three chapters go beyond analysis of current intellectual capital factors, and present practical tools for launching initiatives at the national level. The book will serve as an essential resource for researchers, policy makers, and business leaders concerned with issues of economic growth and competitiveness, innovation, and business creation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441973764
Publisher:	Springer New York
Publication date:	11/05/2010
Edition description:	2011
Pages:	392
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.24(d)

About the Author

Dr. Carol Yeh-Yun Lin is Professor of Business Administration at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. She received her Ph.D. in Human Resource Development from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992. Dr. Lin has published extensively, with over 40 scholarly articles and 60 conference presentations on strategic human resource management, international human resource management, intellectual capital, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility. Her papers have appeared in the International Journal of Human Resource Management, Journal of Business Ethics, Long Range Planning, Health Care Management Review, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Psychology, and Journal of Intellectual Capital.

Leif Edvinsson, Founding Partner of the consultancy, Universal Networking Intellectual Capital, is the world’s leading expert on Intellectual Capital (IC). As former vice president and the world’s first corporate director of Intellectual Capital at Skandia of Skholm, Sweden, Edvinsson has been a key contributor to the theory of IC and oversaw the creation of the world's first corporate Intellectual Capital Annual Report. In 1996 he was awarded by both the American Productivity and Quality Center (US) and Business Intelligence (UK) for his pioneering work on IC. Mr. Edvinsson was formerly senior vice president for training and development of S-E Bank, and president and chairman of Consultus AB, a Skholm-based consulting company. In light of his work in both training and Intellectual Capital, Edvinsson has been a special advisor on service trade to the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is also special adviser to the Swedish Cabinet on the effects of the new digital economy, special advisor to the United Nations International Trade Center and is a co-founder of the Swedish Coalition of Service Industries.

Mr. Edvinsson holds an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the author or co-author of numerous publications on IC, including one of the first books on the subject, Intellectual Capital (1997), Corporate Longitude (2002), Leveraging Corporate Knowledge (2004), and Intellectual Capital for Communities (2005). He is a regular speaker before such organizations as the BBC, CIO, Conference Board, Economist, Handelsblatt, Insead, and IMD.
Her serves on the Board of Directors of several knowledge-intensive enterprises, including the Swedish Brain Research Foundation and the Center for Molecular Medicine at Karolinska Institute, Skholm. Since 2000 he has been the Honorary Chairman of the UK-based Henley College, KM Forum. Since 2000, he has been Adjunct Professor of Intellectual Capital at Lund University, and since 2007 Chair Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Table of Contents

1 Introduction of National Intellectual Capital 1

Introduction 1

Development of National Intellectual Capital 2

Five Types of Component Capital 3

Expected Contributions 5

Chapter Organization of This Book 6

2 Background of National Intellectual Capital 7

Motivation for Writing This Book 7

Current National Intellectual Capital Measurement Models 8

Measurements Proposed by Regional or World Development Organizations 9

National Intellectual Capital Models Proposed by Individual Researchers 11

Obstacles to the Measurement of National Intellectual Capital 12

Summary 16

3 Methods and National Intellectual Capital Ranking of 40 Countries 17

Proposed National Intellectual Capital Measurement Model 17

Indicator Selection and Validation 18

Validation of NICI40 Measurement Model 21

Methods 21

National Intellectual Capital Indices for 40 Countries 22

Appendix 1 27

Appendix 2 30

4 National Intellectual Capital of Five Nordic Countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden) 33

Introduction 33

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 34

Comparison of Capital Components of the Five Nordic Countries 40

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 44

General Descriptive Information on the Five Nordic Countries 47

Summary 60

5 National Intellectual Capital of Four Larger Western European Countries (France, Germany, Ireland, UK) 63

Introduction 63

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 64

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four Larger European Countries 68

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 72

General Descriptive Information on the Four Larger European Countries 75

Summary 84

6 National Intellectual Capital of Four Smaller Western European Countries (Austria, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland) 87

Introduction 87

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 88

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four Smaller European Countries 93

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 96

General Descriptive Information on the Four Smaller European Countries 99

Summary 108

7 National Intellectual Capital of Four Southern European Countries (Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain) 111

Introduction 111

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 112

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four Southern European Countries 117

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 120

General Descriptive Information on the Four Southern European Countries 123

Summary 134

8 National Intellectual Capital of Four East Central European Countries and South Africa (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, South Africa, Turkey) 137

Introduction 137

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 138

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four East Central European Countries and South Africa 143

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 147

General Descriptive Information on the Four East Central European Countries and South Africa 150

Summary 161

9 National Intellectual Capital of Two North American Countries (Canada, USA) 163

Introduction 163

National Intellectual Capital of the Two Countries 165

Comparison of Capital Components of the Two North American Countries 167

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 170

General Descriptive Information on the Two North American Countries 172

Summary 172

10 National Intellectual Capital of Four Latin American Countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico) 181

Introduction 181

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 182

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four Latin American Countries 186

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 189

General Descriptive Information on the Four Latin American Countries 190

Summary 193

11 National Intellectual Capital of Australia and New Zealand 205

Introduction 205

National Intellectual Capital of Australia and New Zealand 207

Comparison of Capital Components of Australia and New Zealand 209

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 212

General Descriptive Information on Australia and New Zealand 214

Summary 218

12 National Intellectual Capital of Three East Asian Countries (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) 221

Introduction 221

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 222

Comparison of Capital Components of the Three East Asian Countries 226

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 229

General Descriptive Information on the Three East Asian Countries 231

Summary 238

13 National Intellectual Capital of Four Southeast Asian Countries (Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand) 241

Introduction 241

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 242

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four Southeast Asian Countries 246

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 250

General Descriptive Information on the Four Southeast Asian Countries 253

Summary 253

14 National Intellectual Capital of the Four BRIC Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) 263

Introduction 263

National Intellectual Capital of Each Individual Country 264

Comparison of Capital Components of the Four BRIC Countries 268

Three-Period Progression of National Intellectual Capital Development 272

General Descriptive Information on the Four BRIC Countries 275

Summary 285

15 National Intellectual Capital Development: Trajectory from a Poor to a Fast Growth Country 287

Introduction 287

National Intellectual Capital of the Five Poorest Countries 288

National Intellectual Capital of the Five Fastest Growth Countries 292

Comparison of the Poorest and Fastest Growth Countries 295

Trajectory from a Poor to a Fast Growth Country 298

Summary 303

16 Dynamic Systems in National Intellectual Capital 305

Ranking Changes of the Five Component Capitals 305

GDP Growth Comparison 313

Intangible Asset Indicators of Various World Organizations 315

Paths for Planned National Intellectual Capital Growth 315

Summary 333

Appendices 334

Appendix 1 335

Appendix 2 337

Appendix 3 339

Appendix 4 341

Appendix 5 343

Appendix 6 345

17 Policy Implications and Future Perspectives 347

Introduction 347

Internal and External National Intellectual Capital Issues 348

Policy Implications 351

GDP Implications 351

National Context Implications 352

Currency Effect Implications 353

Effectiveness Implications 353

IC Formula I: Turning Liability into Potential and into Value 354

On-Going National Intellectual Capital Development 354

Promote National Intellectual Capital Creation Routes 354

Encourage Three Types of National Intellectual Capital Growth Patterns 355

Growth Patterns 355

Create Intellectual Capital Accelerator 359

Establish an Intellectual Capital Incubator 361

Suggestions for BRIC Countries 361

Limitations and Future Perspectives 367

Conclusion 367

After Note: Looking from Outside 371

References 373

Glossary 385

Author Index 389

Subject Index 391