The paper outlines the most important production factors
and those related tendencies which have significant effect
on management. The paper also covers the definition of intellectual
capital and shows that the growing importance of the intellectual
capital runs parallel to the growing importance of human
factors. As intellectual elements get more focus, the management
of the complex mix of production factors becomes more difficult.
New reliable techniques are required for the continuous
overview and management of intellectual capital. We cannot
stop at the aggregate levels where monetary approach is
more or less resolved; the details of intellectual assets
should be grasped and understood. There are plenty of methodologies
aiming to solve this, but a widely accepted and known common
approach is still not available. Until this issue is resolved,
managers will still face important questions, such as: "where
and how to invest in intellectual capital with maximal result
and minimal risk?" and "how to keep the value
and the stability of the investment and avoid the risk of
losing it?". Despite the uncertainties investigated,
there are promising new directions and useful management
techniques that might provide valuable support until the
ongoing economic revolution produces its widely accepted
methods. These promising techniques link intellectual asset
management to processes, and utilize those valuation and
scorecard methods that are already tested and well understood
by the majority of economists. The paper provides an overview
about these techniques.
It is becoming more and more obvious that the proportion
as well as the importance of tangible assets is gradually
decreasing among production factors, while the importance
of intellectual assets is continuously increasing. It seems
that managers are still very sceptical about using scientific
methodologies as theoretically adequate methods to manage
immaterial, intangible or knowledge production factors.
The corporate decision makers are often doubtful about the
uncertainties assigned to these methodologies, as they do
not see the clear connection between the expenditures invested
in these assets and the revenues generated by them. However,
is it really a dead end or are there some other ways to
make some progress in the different domains of intellectual
capital management? This is the main question we try to
explore and answer in this paper.
|
