Mapping stakeholder perceptions for a third sector organization
| Pages | 505-527 |
| Published date | 01 December 2003 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930310504536 |
| Date | 01 December 2003 |
| Author | Anne Fletcher,James Guthrie,Peter Steane,Göran Roos,Stephen Pike |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management |
Mapping stakeholder
perceptions for a third sector
organization
Anne Fletcher, James Guthrie and Peter Steane
Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University,
NSW, Australia, and
Go
¨ran Roos and Stephen Pike
Intellectual Capital Services Limited, London, UK
Keywords Intellectual capital, Stakeholders, Non-profit organizations, Intangible assets
Abstract Few authors have examined the intellectual capital of non-profit organizations or
discussed their strategic management in terms of intangibles. The Australian Red Cross Blood
Service (ARCBS), a third sector organization, is the subject of this study. The purpose of the study
is to better understand the value dimensions of the ARCBS from an external stakeholder
perspective. Outcomes include the creation of a value hierarchy, inclusive of the views of 11
stakeholder groups. The results show overall agreement amongst stakeholders about the four most
highly valued key performance areas (KPAs) of ARCBS (safe product, product sufficiency, donor
and volunteer management and public confidence). However, there were many differences between
different stakeholder groups in their perceptions of the relative importance of the nine KPAs and
their constituent attributes. As a result of the study ARCBS has a basis to manage strategy,
organizational performance and communication with stakeholders.
1. Introduction
An intellectual capital approach to management has been widely discussed and
adopted by many organizations. There is much interest in intellectual capital in
developing and managing innovation. There is an increased focus, generally,
on the knowledge resources of economies and, in particular, on the knowledge
resources of organizations wherein intangible assets are identified, measured
and reported (Guthrie, 2001; Bontis et al., 1999; Pike et al., 2002). Apart from
being used as a measure of the wealth of an organization in terms of its
intangible assets, intellectual capital concepts can also be used for strategic
analysis and to drive organizational strategy (Roos et al., 2001; Sveiby, 2001;
Chatzel, 2002).
Intellectual capital has been defined in a variety of terms and classified in
different ways. According to the Meritum guidelines, there is a general
acceptance that intellectual capital embraces all forms of intangibles and that it
is the combination of the human, structural and relational resources of an
organization (Sanchez et al., 2001).
Human capital is further defined by Meritum as the knowledge that
employees take with them when they leave the firm (Sanchez et al., 2001). It
includes the knowledge, skills, experience and abilities of people. Some of this
The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister http://www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
Mapping
stakeholder
perceptions
505
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 4 No. 4, 2003
pp. 505-527
qMCB UP Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/14691930310504536
knowledge is unique to the individual, and some is generic. Examples are
innovation capacity, creativity, know-how and previous experience, teamwork
capacity, employee flexibility, tolerance for ambiguity, motivation, satisfaction,
learning capacity, loyalty, formal training and education.
Structural capital is defined as the pool of knowledge that stays with the
firm at the end of the working day (Sanchez et al., 2001). It comprises the
organizational routines, procedures, systems, cultures, databases, etc. Some of
them may be legally protected and become intellectual property rights, legally
owned by the firm under separate title. Examples are organizational flexibility,
a documentation service, the existence of a knowledge centre, the general use of
information technologies, organizational learning capacity, etc.
Relationship capital is defined as all the resources linked to the external
relationships of the firm such as customers, suppliers or R&D partners
(Sanchez et al., 2001). It comprises that part of human and structural capital
dealing with the company’s relations with stakeholders (investors, creditors,
customers, suppliers etc.) plus the perceptions that they hold about the
company. Examples of this category are image, customer loyalty, customer
satisfaction, links with suppliers, commercial power, negotiating capacity with
financial entities, environmental activities, etc.
Increasingly, as other factors of competitive advantage become equalized,
management of intellectual capital will become the differentiating factor
between organizations (Teece, 2002). To date, an intellectual capital approach
has mostly been applied to the for-profit or business sector (Guthrie, 2001).
Whilst it might be argued that non-profit organizations do not compete and
hence do not need to have a competitive advantage, non-profit organizations do
have to compete with each other in order to obtain community support, sustain
community confidence and to achieve government grants or contracts as in the
case of public-private partnerships. It can therefore be argued that competitive
advantage is important for the non-profit sector.
The adoption of an intellectual capital approach to the management of
non-profit or third sector organizations has not been well studied. A literature
search of the subject revealed very few investigations of intellectual capital in
the non-profit sector. One exception is that intellectual capital growth has been
used to evaluate outcomes of social projects by measuring human and
innovation capital (Joia, 2000). Technology transfer of intellectual property
from non-profit laboratories in university and government agencies to
commercial enterprises to commercialize research outcomes can be difficult to
achieve (Duke, 1995). Thus, there has been an interest in studying innovation in
universities and non-profit environments from an intellectual capital
perspective (Guthrie and Vagnoni, 2001). Because of the rapidly changing
external environment, it is argued that a framework for the management of
intellectual capital in the health care industry is required (Grantham et al.,
1997). However, there are few, if any, studies of the management of intellectual
JIC
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