scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question
Posted Content

Bridging Intellectual Capital and the Competitiveness of Nations

01 Jan 2012-Management and Marketing (De Gruyter Open Sp. z o.o.)-Vol. 7, Iss: 1, pp 73
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the correlations between the competitiveness of nations, the spread of the knowledge-based economies and the way national intellectual capital is exerted, and find that countries in the highest stage of development also rank high at innovation and competitiveness, which suggests that it is a positive correlation between these three variables.
Abstract: . This paper aims to explore the correlations between the competitiveness of nations, the spread of the knowledge-based economies and the way national intellectual capital is exerted. Following an exploratory data analysis, the study answers the following question: does IC truly affect the competitiveness of the countries? Deductive reasoning and a blend of qualitative and quantitative methods are used in the study. The paper analyzes the national IC along four dimensions: human capital, market capital, process capital and renewal capital. A pool of 10 countries is scrutinized through 23 indicators, pertaining to these dimensions. Results show that countries in the highest stage of development also rank high at innovation and competitiveness, which suggests that it is a positive correlation between these three variables. The countries in lower stages of development have weak positions, which means are not able to sustain reliable sources of competitive advantage. Moreover, their innovation patterns show a diminished potential for creating added value through developing new products and services. The originality of this study arises from attempting to shade more light regarding the importance of IC in the development of the countries in an inclusive manner.Keywords: competitive development, national intellectual capital, innovation, wealth.1. IntroductionEconomic development is a topic that constantly has been tackled in research because the wealth and prosperity of a nation is a mutual concern for both society and policymakers. In the past two decades, the competitiveness of nations concept emerged as a new paradigm of economic development. This study investigates the hypothesis that knowledge and intellectual capital, innovation and entrepreneurship are key drivers of economic development and renewal. Unlike traditional resources, human-related resources are steady and their value can be significantly increased. In the knowledge economy, the value of organizations and individuals is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. Especially in the developed countries, the global trends show a clear transition towards an economy based on intellectual capital assets. These countries have most chances to benefit from using and incorporating them in their economic activities. However, as developing countries strive to improve their local factors, they are also searching for ways to broaden their competitive advantages in the international competition. Lately, there has been a strong emphasis on the role of regional development as a key driver for national wealth. Around the world, authorities in charge of regional development focus more and more on computing maps of regional knowledge assets and IC. Such tools may bring a real edge in terms of implementing policies that would sustain economic and social progress. New political agendas and scientists focus on finding methods to quantify the knowledge capital of nations, to boost it and to capitalize it in terms of collective wealth. Development and competitiveness arise due to a fine mixture between skills of individuals, institutions that sustain a healthy innovative environment and proper legislation that supports entrepreneurship. Internationally successful industries with high productivity are those that in which human and structural capital interact in a synergic way. In the global economy, IC research has the potential to make an important contribution to understanding new facets of competitiveness. The development of reliable methodologies for identifying, assessing and measuring national IC may help in terms of coping in the knowledge economy.The main hypothesis of this study is that development, IC and national competitiveness are strongly connected. This paper aims to deepen the discussion related to this liaison and seek for evidence of a certain correlation between these three concepts. The purpose of the study is to outline how the national IC of a country influences the level of economic development. …

Content maybe subject to copyright    Report

Citations
More filters
Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors tie together the insights from the body of research relating to economic complexity theory, structural holes, non-price based competition, and knowledge management through an intellectual capital lens.
Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to tie together the insights from the body of research relating to economic complexity theory, structural holes, non-price based competition, and knowledge management. The insights relating to generating national prosperity are synthesised through an intellectual capital lens. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses literature review combined with insights from an Australian project on state-based economic complexity. Findings The connectivist and autopoietic epistemological paradigms are found to be most aligned with the need to manage transformation between organisational and human resources that will achieve causal ambiguity and hence inimitability. This inimitability forms the basis for achieving non-price based competition and if there is a rich network of economic agents that, both individually and collectively through collaboration, have these characteristics a large share of the economy can operate on the basis of non-priced based competition. If all these agents have an export focus the economic complexity of the economy will be high, and likely increasing, which will enable both the creation and the appropriation of large amounts of value and hence result in increasing national prosperity. Research limitations/implications Findings are only relevant for OECD countries given the origins of the data used. Practical implications Managerial implications are outlined as are major implications for public policy. Originality/value This is the first time that these concepts are linked.

52 citations


Cites background from "Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..."

  • ...Oprescu (2012) linked national intellectual capital to national competitiveness, and similar work aimed at linking national intellectual capital with economic growth, prosperity and/or national competitiveness have been carried out by[2], e.g. Bontis (2004), Andriessen and Stam (2005), Bounfour and…...

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an approach based on panel models (individual vs. random effects) verified with a Hausman specification test was used to examine to what extent EU member states' public spending can have a real impact on changing performance indicators for goals related to competitiveness and sustainable development.
Abstract: The social and economic policy pursued by national and European authorities is supported by the redistribution of public funds. Choices made by European member states regarding the relevant scale of redistribution should promote the individual nation’s sustainable development and competitiveness. Increased capital and workforce flows strengthen so-called fiscal and spending competition, which weakens governments’ capacity for running an autonomous fiscal policy. In EU countries, however, there are still quite significant differences between the basic parameters of fiscal and spending systems, indicating that governments are not as powerless as is often claimed. Further, the fact that elements of fiscal policy have consequences for a country’s competitiveness should not be overlooked. Keeping this in mind, the main purpose of this article is to examine to what extent EU member states’ public spending can have a real impact on changing performance indicators for goals related to competitiveness and sustainable development. To this end, an approach based on panel models (individual vs. random effects) verified with a Hausman specification test was used. Our findings demonstrate the significant impact of an active spending policy on the indicators selected for analysis, i.e. indicators related to the stable development and competitiveness of EU member states within the period of 2008–2018. Our research results have also shown that to measure competitiveness there is a need to integrate a number of varied economic, social and innovative factors to analyze the growth potential of a particular country. In turn, our model studies demonstrate that countries where the fiscal deficit is below 3% of GDP can implement a sustainable development policy more effectively, thus promoting competitiveness, instead of the periodic shocks and budget cuts which accompany remedial processes and procedures to alleviate excessive deficits.

14 citations


Cites background from "Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..."

  • ...According to Oprescu (2012), the achievement of profitable positions depends on variables such as performance, welfare systems, efficiency, innovation and sustainability....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the influence of Intellectual Capital (IC) on Middle East University's (MEU) Business Performance (BP) through examining the managers' perceptions regarding significance and potential use of IC indicators to leverage MEU's performance.
Abstract: The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of Intellectual Capital (IC) on Middle East University's (MEU) Business Performance (BP), through examining the managers’ perceptions regarding significance and potential use of IC indicators to leverage MEU's performance. The study surveyed academic and administrative staffs, as well as, Master and Bachelor students at MEU. Practical data were used in the empirical analysis collected from 167 participants out of 3217 elements, by means of a questionnaire. To confirm the suitability of data collection instrument, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, Cronbach’s Alpha and factor analysis were used. Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA test, correlation, multiple regressions and stepwise regressions were employed. The results showed that the participants were almost similar in their preferences regarding HC, SC and RC, and they believe that MEU has low implementation regarding these three variables. The results also indicated a positive significant relationship between IC and MEU's BP. However, respondents believe that the RC has the highest effect on MEU's BP, followed by HC, while they do not believe that SC affects MEU's BP. Furthermore, empirical results indicated that there are strong inter-relationships and interactions among the three components of IC. The use of a single organization and/or single industry study design limits its generalisability to other organizations and/or industries. Extending the analyses to other settings represent future research opportunities. IC is an important source of organizations’ wealth and therefore it should be taken into serious consideration when formulating the MEU's strategy. MEU should coordinate different perspectives of IC to improve MEU's BP and should assign scales for each of the three components of IC. The data suggest that a similar set of IC indicators could be developed for other organizations and industries whether government, public or private, profitable or non-profitable organizations.

12 citations


Cites background from "Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..."

  • ...Oprescu (2012) revealed that countries in the highest stage of development also rank high at innovation and competitiveness as a part of IC....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors analyzed the theoretical and empirical research in the field of competitiveness and presented the methodology of determining the global competitiveness index in the European Union, in the last years, and the results obtained show that more than half of European Union Member States recorded an increase in the global competitive index on the account of the basic influence factors.
Abstract: Our paper is analyzing the theoretical and empirical research in the field of competitiveness and it presents the methodology of determining the global competitiveness index. Also, our paper is analyzing the evolution of the global competitiveness index in the Member States of the European Union, in the last years. The results obtained show that more than half of European Union Member States recorded an increase in the global competitiveness index on the account of the basic influence factors. With the exception of six countries (Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, France, Italy, Malta), the European Union countries show a favorable influence of the efficiency on the index of global competitiveness. The highest contribution of the efficiency on the increase of global competitiveness is recorded in Portugal, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania and Bulgaria; on the opposite side is Malta, Cyprus and Germany. Regarding the influence of innovation, only three countries have recorded a negative impact of the innovation on the global competitiveness index: Finland, Spain and Austria. On the other hand Romania, Cyprus and Portugal show the highest favorable effect of innovation on the competitiveness.

4 citations


Cites background from "Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..."

  • ...Competitiveness drives prosperity and a high living standard for the citizens (Oprescu, 2012)....

    [...]

01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the gravity model of trade is extended by incorporating the five components of knowledge assets, namely, national market capital, financial capital, renewal and development capital, human capital and process capital as explanatory variables.
Abstract: This study analyses knowledge asset as a determinant factor to bilateral trade flows in ASEAN-5 countries, namely, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand from 2000 to 2015. The gravity model of trade is extended by incorporating the five components of knowledge assets, namely, national’s market capital, financial capital, renewal and development capital, human capital and process capital as explanatory variables. The empirical investigation is based on pooled ASEAN-5 data and done using random effects and fixed effects models. The principle findings corroborate that knowledge assets are positive and have significant effects on bilateral trade flows in ASEAN-5 countries. The consideration of improving human capital and financial capital is vital given that it is a major contribution to the changes of bilateral trade in ASEAN. This study is open for further research on the negative and significant influences of process capital towards bilateral trade flows in ASEAN-5 countries.

3 citations


Cites background or methods from "Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..."

  • ...This study uses R&D investments as a measurement for renewal and development capital (Oprescu 2012)....

    [...]

  • ...Process capital refers to activities or processes and related infrastructures for sharing, creating, transmitting and disseminating knowledge for contributing to individual knowledge workers’ productivity (Oprescu 2012)....

    [...]

  • ...For the past two decades, the sources of national competitive advantages have started to shift from tangible to intangible assets (Oprescu 2012)....

    [...]

References
More filters
Book
01 Jan 1990
TL;DR: The Need for a New Paradigm as discussed by the authors is the need for a new paradigm for the competitive advantage of companies in global industries, as well as the dynamics of national competitive advantage.
Abstract: The Need for a New Paradigm - PART I: FOUNDATIONS - The Competitive Advantage of Firms in Global Industries - Determinants of National Competitive Advantage - The Dynamics of National Advantage - PART II: INDUSTRIES - Four Studies in National Competitive Advantage - National Competitive Advantage in Services - PART III: NATIONS - Patterns of National Competitive Advantage: The Early Postwar Winners - Emerging Nations in the 1970s and 1980s - Shifting National Advantage - The Competitive Development of National Economies - PART IV: IMPLICATIONS - Company Strategy - Government Policy - National Agendas - Epilogue - Appendices - References

22,660 citations

Book
01 Jan 1993
TL;DR: In this paper, Drucker describes how every few hundred years a sharp transformation has taken place and greatly affected society - its worldview, its basic values, its business and economics, and its social and political structure.
Abstract: From the Publisher: A probing and incisive analysis of the major world transformation from the Age of Capitalism to the Knowledge Society and how it will affect society, economics, business, and politics now and in the years ahead. In Post-Capitalist Society Peter Drucker describes how every few hundred years a sharp transformation has taken place and greatly affected society - its worldview, its basic values, its business and economics, and its social and political structure. According to Drucker, we are right in the middle of another time of radical change, from the Age of Capitalism and the Nation-State to a Knowledge Society and a Society of Organizations. The primary resource in the post-capitalist society will be knowledge and the leading social groups will be "knowledge workers." Looking backward and forward, Drucker discusses the Industrial Revolution, the Productivity Revolution, the Management Revolution, and the governance of corporations. He explains the new functions of organizations, the economics of knowledge, and productivity as a social and economic priority. He covers the transformation from Nation-State to Megastate, the new pluralism of political systems, and the needed government turnaround. Finally, Drucker details the knowledge issues and the role and use of knowledge in post-capitalist society. Divided into three parts - Society, Polity, and Knowledge - Post-Capitalist Society provides a searching look into the future as well as a vital analysis of the past, focusing on the challenges of the present transition period and how, if we can understand and respond to them, we can create a new future.

4,459 citations


"Bridging Intellectual Capital and t..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Competitive advantage of organizations is based on the ability to exploit knowledge resources (Drucker, 1993)....

    [...]

Book
01 Jan 1997
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that knowledge has become the most important fact of economic life and that knowledge is the chief ingredient of what is bought and sold, the raw material people work with.
Abstract: This work argues that knowledge has become the most important fact of economic life. It is the chief ingredient of what is bought and sold, the raw material people work with. In the new economy, intellectual capital - not natural resources, machinery or financial capital - has become the one indispensable asset of corporations. The volume shows how the emergence of the information age has changed the nature of wealth, and it offers new ways of looking at what companies do and how to lead them. In an economy based on knowledge, intellectual capital - the untapped, unmapped knowledge of organizations - has become a company's most useful tool. It is found in: the talent of the people who work there; the loyalty of the customers it serves and learns from; the value of its brands, copyrights, patents and other intellectual capital; and the collective knowledge embodied in its systems, management techniques and history - vital assets that are rarely managed and almost never managed skilfully. Readers should learn how to discover and map the human, structural and customer assets that are the knowledge based of a corporation; how General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, McKinsey, Merck & Co manage intellectual capital to improve performance; how intellectual capital can dramatically increase profitability; why the information economy demands new principles of managing people and working with customers; and how the knowledge economy affects readers personally, in their career, and how to capitalize on the opportunities it presents.

3,142 citations

MonographDOI
21 Mar 2002

600 citations