An integrated framework for visualising intellectual capital

Date01 December 2005
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/14691930510628799
Published date01 December 2005
Pages510-527
AuthorChristina Boedker,James Guthrie,Suresh Cuganesan
Subject MatterAccounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management
An integrated framework for
visualising intellectual capital
Christina Boedker
School of Accounting, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
James Guthrie
School of Accounting, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia, and
Suresh Cuganesan
Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University,
Sydney, Australia
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this articleis to trace the techniques and consultingmethods developed and
deployed by an Australian project team during an investigation of a client organisation’s intellectual
capital management, measurement and reporting (ICMMR) practices. The article aims to highlight the
benefits of adopting an integrated approach to investigating intellectual capital (IC) and proposes the
Intellectual Capital Value Creation (ICVC)framework as an analytical model for extending the breadth
and depth of existing management consulting andresearch practices into ICMMR.
Design/methodology/approach The methods deployed by the project team durin g the
consulting project included semi-structured interviews and content analyses. Furthermore, the ICVC
framework was developed and deployed as an analytical model to facilitate the investigation of the
client organisation’s ICMMR practices.
Findings – To the client organisation, the ICVC framework proved beneficial inthat it enabled senior
management to visualise their knowledge resources and how these contribute to organisational value
creation. To the project team, the ICVC framework facilitated the identification of organisational
knowledge management gaps, highlighting weaknesses in the client organisation’s utilisation of its
knowledge resources. The framework provides a structured approach for investigating organisations’
ICMMR practices and locating and analysing these within a strategic context.
Originality/value – The paper highlights to management consultants and others the importance of
investigating client organisations’ ICMMR practices in an integrated manner and demonstrates to
organisations the strategic significance of making “visible” their invisible sources of value creation.
Keywords Intellectualcapital, Knowledge management,Management consultancy,Research methods,
Project teams, Australia
Paper type Case study
1. Introduction
Intellectual capital (IC) and related knowledge resources are much featured items on
the agendas of business executives and public policy makers. Questions in foci pertain
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
The authors would like to thank the NSW Department of Lands for participating in the project
and for their financial support and commitment, the Australian Government Consultative
Committee on Knowledge Capital for their ongoing support, the Centre for Management of
Knowledge Capital at Macquarie Graduate School of Management, the Macquarie University
external collaborative grant research scheme, Melissa Jamcotchian and Fiona Crawford for their
research and editorial assistance and the anonymous reviewers of this paper for their
constructive comments.
JIC
6,4
510
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 6 No. 4, 2005
pp. 510-527
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/14691930510628799
to “what constitutes IC?”, “how to strategically manage knowledge resources?”, “how
to establish guidelines for reporting IC?”, and “how to value and measure such
‘invisible’ organisational resources?”. The growing interest in IC is driven by a broader
range of socio-economic changes pertaining to increasingly sophisticated customers,
the surge in service based industries, changing patterns of interpersonal activities and
the emergence of the network society, being digital, virtual and interconnected (Petty
and Guthrie, 2000; Ordo
´nez de Pablos, 2002; Fincham and Roslender, 2003). These
broader socio-economic changes have implications for how organisations manage their
resources and are causing a shift in organisational value drivers, with knowledge
resources taking precedence over traditional physical resources in the pursuit of
competitive advantage (Marr et al., 2004, p. 312).
However, despite the growing acknowledgement of the strategic significance of IC,
there is limited understanding of how organisations manage, measure and report their
knowledge resources (Guthrie, 2001; Fincham and Roslender, 2003). Roos (2005, p. 2)
explains that “despite the widely recognised importance of IC as a vital source of
competitive advantage, there is little understanding of how organisations actually
create IC by dynamically managing knowledge”. There is a growing need to provide
practical examples illustrating how organisations manage, measure and report their
knowledge resources, how they benefit from doing so and how they may improve their
ICMMR activities and capabilities. It is essential to “gain a better conceptual and
operational appreciation of what it means to strategically manage knowledge for
sustained competitive advantage” (McCann and Buckner, 2004, p. 61). To management
consultants and researchers, this requires the development of new analytical models,
research techniques and staff competencies.
This paper addresses this need and outlines how an Australian project team
investigated a client organisation’s ICMMR practices. The overarching objective of the
paper is to outline the techniques and consulting methods developed and deploy ed by
the project team during the IC project. This is achieved through a number of
sub-objectives, pertaining to:
.a classification of IC and definitions of knowledge management (KM) and related
KM activities;
.a review of the analytical framework and consulting methods deployed to
investigate the client organisation’s ICMMR practices; and
.an outline of the outcome of the analyses, illustrating the client organisation’s
knowledge management gaps.
The paper proposes the Intellectual Capital Value Creation (ICVC) framework as an
analytical model for investigating client organisations’ ICMMR practices and
highlights, via illustrations from its application, its relevance, use and potential
impact. The ICVC framework was particularly beneficial in that it made “visible” the
client organisation’s invisible sources of value creation and facilitated the identification
of three knowledge management gaps.
The paper is structured as follows. Section 2 introduces the client organisation and
the consulting objectives. Section 3 provides a brief review of contemporary activities
and trends in the field of IC. Section 4 outlines perspectives on, and definitions of, IC
and KM. Section 5 details the ICVC framework. Section 6 outlines the consulting
methods deployed to investigate the client organisation’s ICMMR practices. Section 7
Visualising
intellectual
capital
511

To continue reading

Request your trial

VLEX uses login cookies to provide you with a better browsing experience. If you click on 'Accept' or continue browsing this site we consider that you accept our cookie policy. ACCEPT