Yes / Intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) in corporate annual reports has received growing European attention. To date, few studies have undertaken systematic analysis of the factors influencing the decision to disclose Intellectual Capital (IC) related information in annual reports. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the level of hidden value (market-to-book ratio), share price volatility, listing age, board composition, ownership structure, audit committee size and directors’ shareholding, in addition to other firm specific factors influence ICD in 100 UK listed knowledge-rich firms. The dependent variable is measured by a 183 item index score, supported by word count and percentage of IC word count metrics to assess the extent, volume and focus of ICD respectively. Results of the analysis based on the three measures indicate significant association with hidden value, using market-to-book ratio as a proxy, and listing age. We further find firm size, share price volatility, director shareholding, audit committee size, and ownership concentration to be associated with ICD in a manner consistent with theoretical expectations. The implications of these findings, hitherto largely untested, are explored from a number of theoretical perspectives.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2003. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Accounting in its current state of practice has lost its ability to inform business accurately about the current state of an organization. In awareness of this lack of information managers and academic researchers have developed different ways of measuring and navigating in a new landscape that has moved from watching tangible, physical assets towards intangible assets. The intellectual capital (IC) of organizations stands in the core of this movement which has to be measured, enabling managers to identify previous IC investment decisions that improved the organization's overall situation. The field of IC measurement is still a young discipline which requires regular reviews about what has been done and what should come next. The purpose of this thesis is to give a comprehensive overview of the field of intellectual capital measurements. In this the thesis focuses on the separation of IC into the three elements mostly used: human capital, structural capital and customer capital. IC measurement tools of commonly known IC-authors like Edvinsson and Malone, Stewart, Sveiby and Kaplan and Norton are presented. Afterwards the thesis discusses those measurements and ends by giving several suggestions creating a foundation for future development of IC measurement tools for organizations and researchers. By doing so the author intends to present a new platform of measurement tools from which further research can be done. Among the most important suggestions the author recommends a stronger focus towards finding standards. Also, organizations and governments should develop certification programmes to ensure the value of IC measurement tool. Other suggestions include the importance of putting lC measuring (and its management) on a strategic level and the relevance of publication of IC in order to learn from criticism. This research has shown that in the young field of IC measurement significant developments have been taking place. Further development will also have to focus on the theoretical background on the practically found measurement applications. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In sy huidige staat het rekeningkunde sy vermoë verloor om besigheid akkuraat in te lig omtrent die huidige stand van 'n organisasie. Omdat hulle van hierdie gebrek aan inligting bewus is, het bestuurers and akademiese navorsers verskillende maniere ontwikkel om 'n nuwe omgewing wat wegbeweeg het van die monitering van tasbare, fisiese bates na onaantasbare bates, te meet en daarin te navigeer. Die intellektuele kapitaal (IK) van organisasies is die kern van hierdie beweging wat gemeet moet word, en stel bestuurders in staat om vorige IK-beleggingsbesluite wat die organisasie se algehele situasie verbeter het, te identifiseer. Die gebied van IK-meting is nog 'n jong dissipline wat gereelde hersiening van wat gedoen moet word en wat volgende moet gebeur, vereis. Die doel van hierdie tesis is om 'n omvattende oorsig te gee van die gebied van die meting van intellektuele kapitaal. In hierdie tesis val die fokus op die verdeling van IK in drie elemente wat die meeste gebruik word, naamlik menslike kapitaal, strukturele kapitaal en kliëntekapitaal. IK-metingsinstrumente van bekende skrywers oor IK, soos Edvinsson en Malone, Stewart, Sveiby en Kaplan, en Norton word aangebied. Daarna word daardie metings bespreek, en word die tesis afgesluit met voorstelle oor die daarstelling van 'n fondament vir toekomstige ontwikkeling van IK metingsinstrumente vir organisasies en navorsers. Sodoende poog die skrywer om 'n nuwe platform van metingsinstrumente aan te bied vir verdere navorsing. Die skrywer stel onder andere 'n sterker fokus op die daarstelling van standaarde voor. Organisasies en regerings behoort ook sertifiseringspropgramme te ontwikkel om die waarde van IK-metingsinstrumente te verseker. Ander voorstelle sluit in die belangrikheid daarvan om IK-meting (en die bestuur daarvan) op 'n strategiese vlak te plaas, en van die publikasie van intellektuele kapitaal ten einde uit kritiek te leer. Hierdie navorsing het getoon dat belangrike ontwikkelings op die jong gebied van IKmeting plaasvind. Verdere ontwikkeling sal ook op die teoretiese agtergrond van die prakties gebaseerde metingstoepassings moet fokus.

Intellectual Capital (IC) is the intellectual capability of an organization; it drives the usage of other productive resources and adds value to the business structure. Although the expanding literature on IC has enhanced our understanding, the effects of IC with relation to consumers have not been explored in the marketing literature. Thus, this study fills this void by approaching the notion of IC from a customer perspective. Customer value also has attracted extensive attention in recent years. However, the lack of agreement among scholars with respect to the conceptualization of customer value has resulted in inconsistent empirical measures. Furthermore, despite extensive research focus on IC and customer value separately, there is a void in the literature as far as investigating the relationship between the two is concerned. Thus, this study also empirically investigates the predictive relationships among the various dimensions of IC and perceived customer value. This dissertation delineates three dimensions of IC (i.e., Human Capital, Structural Capital, and Relational Capital) available to a retail store in creating value for customers. This study tests the psychometric properties of scale items for measuring these three resources in an apparel retailing context. It also tests the effects of IC on customer value using both a student sample and a consumer sample. This study makes several important contributions to the literature and has the potential to improve marketing practices. First, this study revisits the conceptualization of IC in relation to consumer’s perception and to value creation in an apparel retailing context. Second, this study investigates the multidimensional nature of IC and the relative influence of different dimensions on customer value. Lastly, marketing practitioners and retail managers can learn, based on these results, that the types of resources and their utilization affect the perception by consumers of the value of retail stores.

Over the past years, research on the basis of intangible resources and capability has been suggested for the development of corporate competitive advantage. Through the process of learning, the organization can create knowledge and shortage intangible intellectual capital. This study is empirical research carried out on the industrial circles using questionnaires to clean out scholars¡¦ definition on intellectual capital and organizational learning capability. From this study, I try to find out the relationship among organizational learning capability, shortage intellectual capital, and organizational performance, also the interactive effect between organizational learning capability and strategy management of intellectual capital towards company¡¦ performance. The results of the research indicate: I. The factors of organizational learning capability 1. The executives¡¦ direction ability of learning and amelioration 2. Team-leadership competitiveness II. The factors of intellectual capital 1. The factors of human capital are: the knowledge innovation directed by executives, employees¡¦ professional capability. 2. The factors of structural capital are: cross department¡¦ management and storage knowledge, inner process responds to market demand, and cross department¡¦ knowledge group. 3. The factors of relational capital are: flexible business strategy of customer ecosystem¡¦ orientation, the management of service and brand value, and the management of customer orientation. III. Organizational learning capability and intellectual capital¡¦ storage have effects on organizational performance. 1. Through the intellectual capital intermediary effect, the executive¡¦ direction ability of learning and amelioration and the competitiveness from the team¡¦ directed have significant influence on business operational performance. IV. The interaction between organizational learning capability and strategy management of intellectual capital. 1. The interaction between strategy management of knowledge-centered and the executives¡¦ direction ability of learning and amelioration have significant influence on both organizational business operational performance and behavioral performance. 2. The interaction between knowledge-centered strategic management and team-leadership competitiveness has significant influence on organizational behavioral performance. 3. The interaction between strategy management of information-centered and the executives¡¦ direction ability of learning and amelioration have significant influence on both organizational business operational performance and behavioral performance.

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Graduate School of Management, 2004. / "December 2003". Bibliography: p. 210-272.

Fundamental changes in the global economy are changing the basis of organisational competitive advantage. The challenge in attaining a competitive advantage is characterised by factors such as increased competition, market volatility, geographically dispersed operations, customer awareness, raising workforce diversity and stringent regulatory regimes. These factors have driven, and in turn have been driven by, an increasing complexity of products, services and the processes that create value, resulting in changes in the structural and functional dimensions of the organisation. Business executives and academics recognise the shift in value creating assets from the traditional land, labour and capital to intangible assets such as knowledge and information becoming the most important resources an organisation can muster.The combination and integration of intangible assets such as human resources, structural and relational resources has been grouped under the umbrella of intellectual capital. This study comprises of a single descriptive case study analysis to ascertain how intellectual capital is managed strategically to gain a competitive advantage in an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia. Based on document review and semi-structured interviews, this thesis investigated the extent to which an organisation in the banking and financial services sector in Zambia leveraged intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage. In this study it was found that there is a low level appreciation of the intellectual capital phenomenon as a strategic management tool in the participating organisation. However, the organisation has adopted aspects of intellectual capital and has implemented them successfully accounting for the organisation‘s competitive edge in the market.

Human capital development is a prerequisite for a knowledge-based economy and for sustaining economic growth. Capability and capacity in the management of new knowledge and technology is determined by the quality of human capital. With globalization, Malaysia faces ever increasing competition in trade and investment. Therefore, the workforce will have to be equipped with a strong base in education and training. Efforts should, therefore, be made to ensure that the education and training system has the capacity to enhance the quality of intellectual capital as well as expanding the human resource base. In mainstream human capital theory, the basic principle is to measure the quality of human capital through some measure of educational achievement, such as years of schooling. It is generally assumed that more years in schooling improves the quality of human capital. Thus it is assumed by policy makers that an increased level of education will impact directly on labour market productivity. Concomitantly, policy makers argue that increasing the level of schooling will give an impact on wages. One of the obvious methods to assess the impact of investment in education is to calculate the rate of return to education. The overall impact of education on wages for society is described as the social rate of return and for the individual as the private rate of return. The major concern of this thesis is to assess the impact of investment in education on individuals. Thus I use a household income survey to estimate the private rate of return to Malaysian education from 1995 to 2004. A recent important strand in human capital literature is concerned with the role of education in emerging economies. This study is not as well established as in developed economies. Malaysia, as one of the High-Performing Asian Economies (HPAEs) over the past two decades, has experienced a steady growth with continuous improvement in the education system. Data and infonnation collected on Malaysian education and earnings serve to provide an important indicator of the benefits from investment in education for this important economy. Previous data and analysis on returns were hampered by relatively few observations and other data inadequacies. This thesis offers estimates based on a consistent set of household income surveys from 1995 to 2004. Thus, the estimation is more consistent compared with previous fmdings. Moreover, this thesis estimates the returns using both a standard and an alternative approach, i.e. Instrumental Variable (IV) that has never been applied to the Malaysian data. This is important because the latter estimation not only reduces the potential bias but also shows the impact of school reform on the returns. Additionally, returns to education using IV estimation are rarely compared between emerging economies and the developed countries. Such an analysis provides an indication of how important the human capital investment and educational reform have been at the current stage of development. Our results also provide new methodology for developing economies in estimating returns to education. The standard approach to estimating returns is based on homogenous returns to education - everyone gets the same return to the same qualification. Our results from this homogenous returns model shows the private rate of return to education in Malaysia is about the world average. However, endogeneity in schooling, omitted variables and other factors, such as ability will produce potential bias in estimation. The heterogeneous returns model allows for varying returns across individuals. This thesis clarifies differences in returns to different individuals. The exogenous impact in the Malaysian education system. i.e. the schooling reform is used as an instrument. The results reveal that the returns from IV estimation were higher than the standard approach. This result adds to literature by showing that OLS may underestimate the returns to education in the context of a developing country. The literature on rates of return paints a complex picture of the theoretical frameworks, methods and even results of such studies. Many of the benefits of education are not easily measured and are often not even recognized by rate of return studies. It is important for rate of return studies to acknowledge the methodological limitations and explain that rates of return are only an imperfect proxy to education benefits, which should ideally be used in conjunction with other measures of educational results.

Este estudo procura identificar, medir e avaliar as práticas dos empregadores do Brasil e do Canadá em relação à gestão do capital intelectual de seus desenvolvedores de software, comumente chamados de programadores. O trabalho condensa, através da revisão e análise dos principais autores do assunto, os pressupostos básicos da boa gestão do capital intelectual. Tais pressupostos foram determinados especificamente para os desenvolvedores de software, que são agentes nucleares na indústria da tecnologia da informação, tecnologia essa que é onipresente em todas as instituições modernas. A partir desses pressupostos básicos, foram definidos 13 Índices de Capital Intelectual, que possibilitaram a criação de um questionário eletrônico disponibilizado na internet, no qual profissionais do Brasil e do Canadá responderam após serem convidados através do disparo em massa de mensagens de e-mail, gerando assim os dados primários. Os 13 Índices de Capital Intelectual propostos são: Índice de Instrução, Índice de Treinamento, Índice do Sistema de Conhecimento Organizacional, Índice Ocupacional, Índice de Satisfação, Índice Motivacional, Índice Vocacional, Índice de Coleguismo, Índice do Poder de Decisão (empowerment), Índice de Contato Direto com Clientes, Índice de Rotatividade, Índice Hierárquico e Índice do Papel Contábil. Através de uma metodologia original proposta pelo autor, os resultados da pesquisa de campo, fartamente ilustrados com gráficos, mostraram que os respondentes do Canadá obtiveram melhor resultado em 7 índices, enquanto que os brasileiros superaram os canadenses nos demais 6 índices. / This study aims to identify, measure, and evaluate the practices of employers in Brazil and Canada in relation to the management of intellectual capital of its software developers, commonly called programmers. The study condenses, through the review and analysis of the principal authors of the subject, the basic assumptions of the good management of intellectual capital. These assumptions were determined specifically for software developers, who are nuclear agents in the information technology industry, the technology that is omnipresent in all modern institutions. From these basic assumptions, were defined 13 Intellectual Capital Indexes, which enabled the creation of an electronic questionnaire available on the Internet, in which professionals from Brazil and Canada responded after being invited through a mass e-mail sending, generating the primary data. The 13 Intellectual Capital Indexes proposed are: Education Index, Training Index, Organizational Knowledge System Index, Occupational Index, Satisfaction Index, Motivational Index, Vocational Index, Comradeship Index, Empowerment Index, Index of Direct Contact with Customers, Turnover Index, Hierarchical Index, and Accounting Role Index. Using an original methodology proposed by the author, the results of field research, fully illustrated with charts, showed that respondents in Canada obtained better results in 7 indexes, while the Brazilians beat the Canadians in the other 6 indexes.

Sweeping financial management reforms occurred in New Zealand during the late 1980s and early 1990s which radically changed the face of the New Zealand public sector. These reforms sought to significantly restructure and reorganise local government thereby improving their effectiveness and efficiency and improving their accountability to their stakeholders. The principal vehicle for the discharge of this accountability is the annual report, which must be prepared according to Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP) and commercial principles. Organisations in the private sector are beginning to recognise the value of accounting for intellectual capital (IC) (see for example Quinn, 1992; Brooking, 1996; Sveiby, 1997; Edvinsson Malone, 1997; Bontis, Dragonetti, Jacobsen Roos, 1999; Guthrie, Petty Johanson, 2001; Bounfour, 2003). Studies on the measurement, management and reporting of IC have been undertaken internationally in Asia (Abeysekera Guthrie, 2005; Goh Lim, 2004; Ordenez de Pablos, 2002), Australia (Guthrie Petty, 2000), Europe (Bozzolan, Favotto and Ricceri, 2003; Olsson, 2001; Ordenez de Pablos, 2004), United Kingdom (Collier, 2001; Williams, 2001) and Ireland (Brennan, 2001). Despite the significant research interest in the field of intellectual capital internationally, scant attention has been paid to intellectual capital reporting by commercial organisations in New Zealand. An extensive review of the IC literature yielded only two New Zealand based studies (Miller Whiting, 2005; Wong Gardner, 2005). Further, no studies to date have addressed intellectual capital reporting by local governments in either New Zealand or internationally. This study aims to fill this gap through the development of an intellectual capital disclosure model that could be applied to local authorities. The research describes and explains the development of a disclosure index used to measure the extent and quality of current intellectual capital disclosure by local authorities in New Zealand. The index was developed through a consultative process with a panel of local government stakeholders which was used to establish the weightings for each item. The final index comprised 26 items divided into three categories: internal capital, external capital and human capital. The 2004/2005 annual reports of 82 New Zealand local authorities were scored for extent and quality of disclosure against the index. The results indicate that intellectual capital reporting by local authorities is varied. Manukau City Council scored the achieved the highest overall score (76%) out of the 82 reports analysed while Whakatane District Council scored the lowest with 33%. The most reported items were joint ventures/business collaborations and management processes. The least reported items were intellectual property and licensing agreements. The most reported category of intellectual capital was internal capital, followed by external capital. The least reported category was human capital. The findings indicate a number of areas of reporting that could be improved in order to meet with stakeholder disclosure expectations. In the internal capital category, intellectual property disclosures could be improved. In the external capital category disclosure concerning ratepayer demographics and licensing agreements could be improved. In the human capital category, disclosure of most items could be improved, in particular, entrepreneurial innovativeness and vocational qualifications. The study provided an insight into the current level and quality of intellectual capital disclosure by the NZ local government sector. The results indicated that local authorities are disclosing some aspects of intellectual capital in their annual report, however there is no consistent reporting framework, and many areas of IC disclosures are not meeting stakeholder expectations. More research is needed in the area of intellectual capital reporting in the public sector. This study provides a preliminary framework which can be used by local authorities to enhance intellectual capital disclosures in their annual reports.

A firm�s relationships with its customers contribute to its organizational capital and represent an important part of its shareholder value, so the nature of the value in these relationships needs to be understood well and managed carefully. Marketing managers therefore require techniques that will assess relationship value comprehensively in order to manage their portfolio of customer relationships effectively and in order to argue for a sufficient share of the firm�s resources to develop these market based assets for competitive advantage. At present, there is a well-established technique for assessing customer profitability analysis which assigns revenues, expenses, assets and liabilities to customers and algebraically sums their value to reach a profitability figure for each customer. However, even in its more sophisticated forms, the primary focus of customer profitability analysis as it is currently used tends to be the management of profitability by way of the management of existing situations, and particularly of cost, rather than the management of the value that is potentially available in the future from the intangible aspects of a relationship. Without knowledge of the dimensions of intangible value in the relationship, the technique is restricted to assessing those relationship aspects that can be easily quantified in dollar terms by the modification of existing accounting information. This leaves a gap in the available toolbox for managers in assessing relationship value, because much of the value of a relationship may be in its intangible aspects, which at present can not be readily assessed other than by a manager�s experience and intuition. In order to develop techniques specifically for intangible value assessment, it is necessary to understand the dimensions of this intangible value. Development of scales to measure the dimensions of this intangible relationship value and development of an understanding of its structure is thus a useful research goal, which is supported by calls in the literature for the quantification of market-based assets and their value Elucidation of the dimensions and structure of intangible relationship value is therefore the goal of this thesis. Although there are recent reports in the literature of studies that include the intangible aspects of relationship value, most of those that have been conducted in a business-to-business context appear to be primarily concerned with investigating the drivers of value rather than its dimensions, and those that deal with the business-to-consumer context describe techniques to assess the aggregated value of many consumers, rather than an individual buyer as is required for business-to-business applications. The thesis therefore proposes a conceptual framework, synthesised from the intellectual capital literature, which provides a set of six dimensions and a structure of intangible business-to-business buyer-seller value. The six proposed dimensions are unique in that they cover the human aspects of the relationship extensively. The thesis describes the testing of the proposed conceptual framework. This was achieved primarily by the use of the structural equation modelling technique on survey data that was collected from managers in the New Zealand manufacturing industry, following qualitatively analysed interviews with managers. The tests support the framework and its value dimensions. The thesis therefore concludes that this research provides a contribution to the literature on value assessment and that future research should be conducted to validate its findings.