This paper presents an empirical analysis of top executive compensation from intellectual capital perspective using data from US listed companies and aims to examine whether executives get appropriate compensation. I propose a pay-contribution compensation scheme and extend previous research on agency theory, by exploring how executive compensation contract design may be based on the firm’s intellectual capital (IC). Such features would serve the core purpose of compensation design, which is to create long-term firm value. But inappropriate compensation scheme cannot motivate individual ICs to contribute fully and deteriorate firm value eventually. I view CEO, CFO, COO, CMO, CSO, CTO, CHOs as individual intellectual capital of firms, and through examining key indicators from financial contribution, organizational contribution, relational contribution and growth contribution, I find that their total compensations, total incentive compensations and total cash compensations are not significant on their functions for all executives, implying that free rider problem may exist. I conduct two steps regression models: the first step is to reveal free-rider problem based on the significant relationship between executive compensation and his/her role contribution, and the second step is to examine whether executive compensations rewarded by his/her role contribution have significant influence on firm valuation. The outcome of model 1 shows that CEO and CSO have no free-rider problem, while CTO and CHO may have potential free-rider problem, CFO and CMO may have the risk of free-rider problem, and COO may have moderate free-rider problem. The outcome of model 2 shows that CEO and CFO compensation rewarded by role contribution have significant influence on firm valuation; COO, CMO and CHO compensation rewarded by role contribution have moderate influence on firm valuation; while CTO compensation rewarded by role contribution have little influence on firm valuation and CTO compensation rewarded by role contribution have no influence on firm valuation. My result is consistent with agency theory since free rider may cause executive inertia, reduce individual IC productivity, and impair firm value. The findings suggest that pay-contribution compensation contracts and remuneration schemes focus on different executive positions and strategic roles of individual intellectual capital to avoid free rider problem.

Intellectual capital, as opposed to traditional conceptions of intellectual property, is neither as simple to define nor as straightforward to protect and regulate. As companies in the financial services sector attempt the efficient management of increasingly voluminous and strategically important information and knowledge, governance mechanisms currently available in the Canadian context have not kept pace. / This thesis is at once a retrospective and prospective examination of the regulation and control of intellectual capital. The first two substantive sections of this thesis are primarily definitive and contextualizing---first defining the nature of contemporary legal and managerial concepts of intellectual capital and property, then examining the varied legal frameworks from which an intellectual capital governance scheme is distilled. The final chapter attempts a synthesis of these definitions and legal approaches to the governance of intellectual capital. The keystones of this synthesis are twofold: first, uniform Canadian legislation; and second, a more focused incorporation of 'property rights' in intellectual capital.

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.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Structural economic changes in many countries, together with unprecedented developments in the business environment, have significantly affected the value creation processes of firms and the way business is conducted. The traditional financial reporting model is inadequate as a consequence of these developments, and intellectual capital (IC) information has gained importance for investment decision making. Empirical capital markets research demonstrates the value-relevance and predictive ability of certain types of IC information. The use of IC information by capital market participants is a topic that has begun to gain attention from contemporary researchers, but for which scant empirical evidence exists. Much of the research in this area relies on the literature about the use of non-financial information (NFI), which is inadequate in its examination of certain types of IC information. Therefore, the main aim of this thesis is to examine the use and communication of IC information by sell-side analysts. Sell-side analysts are of particular interest because they are capital market intermediaries and sophisticated processors of corporate information. The reports they produce provide an opportunity to examine their use and communication of IC information. The specific objectives of this thesis are to examine: the extent and types of IC information used by sell-side analysts in initiating coverage reports produced by them; how IC information is used and communicated in these reports; and factors that may influence the use of IC information by sell-side analysts. In order to address these research objectives a content analysis of IC references in 64 initiating coverage reports written on an equivalent number of S&P/ASX 200/300 companies is performed. The content analysis identifies and measures IC references by topic, evidence (discursive, monetary, numerical, or visual), news-tenor (positive, neutral or negative) and time orientation (forward-looking, past-oriented or non-time-specific). The findings indicate that Australian sell-side analysts appreciate the importance of IC in firm valuation, and thus are not ambivalent about the use of IC information in general. However, the findings suggest that their communication of IC information is inconsistent and unsystematic, and inadequate in relation to certain types of IC. This highlights the need for undertaking work at a policy level to educate and train sell-side analysts to deal with IC information, and the development of better models and guidelines for analysing and communicating IC information. On how IC information is used, this thesis finds that sell-side analysts have varying uses of IC information. It was found that IC is predominantly communicated discursively, positively, and in a past-oriented manner; and in doing so IC is used as a tool to further the sell-side analysts’ agenda for the company analysed. Further, the results highlight that the type of investment recommendation in analyst reports impacts on the evidence, news tenor, and time-orientation of IC communicated. These findings alert future researchers to the wider role played by IC beyond its use in forecasts and valuations. Also, the findings indicate inter-sectoral differences in the use of IC information in analyst reports, highlighting the need to improve IC reporting practices of firms by including additional information on industry-specific IC value drivers. Further, it was found that sell-side analysts emphasise IC information in analyst reports for companies from high IC-intensive sectors compared to those from low IC-intensive sectors. Similarly, it was found that analyst reports on risky companies contain significantly more IC information than analyst reports on less risky companies. Contrary to expectations, the extent of IC information is not found to vary with firm size and firm profitability. Also, the results support that the extent of certain types of IC information differs between types of analysts’ investment recommendations. More generally, the findings of this thesis suggest that the corporate reporting process could be improved by including additional types of IC information and providing this information more effectively in a manner that enables users to visualise the interrelationships between resources (both tangible and intangible) and outcomes. This study calls for standards or guidelines for intellectual capital reporting (ICR) in Australia and the expansion of the role of auditing and assurance services to enhance reliability of firm provided IC information in a bid to improve the use of IC information in company analysis by sell-side analysts.

Assignment (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / On title page: Master of Philosophy (Information and Knowledge Management. Bibliography. Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--George Washington University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 228-248).

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-76). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.M.S. Accounting) -- University of Waikato, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-187) Also avaiable via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Knowledge workers are a relatively new phenomenon that has until recently been scarcely researched. Within the intellectual capital metaphor and under the title of knowledge management, knowledge workers are being researched. Knowledge workers are critical elements in knowledge creation and capitalisation. Knowledge workers are important human resource capital that can create a competitive advantage for organisations. After the completion of a series of questionnaires by workers, certain knowledge worker characteristics have been identified with correlation with a knowledge worker measurement index. These characteristics have been used to formulate implications and recommendations regarding the management of knowledge workers in the postmodern knowledge era. It is necessary that management understand the knowledge worker within the intellectual capital metaphor and knowledge management tradition, so that the knowledge worker can be capitalized to a maximum. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kenniswerkers is 'n redelike nuwe fenomeen wat tot dusver betreklik min nagevors is. Binne die intellektuele kapitaal-metafoor en onder die vaandel van kennisbestuur, word die bestuur van kenniswerkers in die navorsing onder die soeklig geplaas. Kenniswerkers IS kritiese elemente III kennisskepping en -kapitalisering. Kenniswerkers is belangrike menslike hulpbronkapitaal wat vir die organisasie 'n kompeterende voordeel kan verskaf. 'n Reeks vraelyste is aan werknemers gegee en kenniswerkereienskappe is geïdentifiseer d.m.v. korrellasie met 'n kenniswerker-metingsindeks. Hierdie eienskappe is gebruik om afleidings en aanbevelings te maak vir die bestuur van die kenniswerker in die post-moderne kennisera. Dit is nodig dat bestuur die kenniswerker binne die intellektuele kapitaal-metafoor en kennisbestuurstradisie verstaan, sodat die kenniswerker as kritiese hulpbron maksimaal gekapitaliseer kan word.

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role in Europe's economy. Since SMEs have distinct organisational practices and structures (e.g. owner-run, continuity over several generations, regional engagement), their intellectual capital (IC) differs from large enterprises. However, there is little research on IC in SMEs. Placing special attention on the craft industry, this research aims at closing this gap. It will present a cross-disciplinary review of research on craft to explore the role of knowledge and human capital in the craft industry. The findings point to overall characteristics which can guide future research and inform policy-making in the craft industry.