scholarly journals Enhancing human capital beyond university boundaries

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 434-446
Author(s):  
Maria Jakubik

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case about the emergence of human capital (HC) during the master thesis as a work-based learning project. Design/methodology/approach The case study uses data from 107 master’s students 2007–2011 and feedback from 91 managers as business advisors 2007–2016. Findings The findings show direct contributions of higher education (HE) to intellectual capital (IC) in organisations through the enhanced HC of managers. Originality/value The case contributes to the emerging new, fifth stage of IC research by demonstrating how HC develops beyond the boundaries of an educational institution; how it influences an organisation’s IC and how 91 business advisors, as external stakeholders, assessed the achievements and value creation of HE.

VINE ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Giuliani

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to observe Intellectual Capital (IC) dynamics “in practice” through a temporal lens by considering IC as an on-going process, and thus taking into consideration its life cycle and how it changes over time. Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal case study has been investigated by adopting a participant observation approach to understand how the dynamics of IC are understood in practice. Findings – This study spotlights three main conceptions of IC dynamics (value creation, IC activities and organizational change) which, although generally proposed in literature as separable concepts, do co-exist and interact, in practice as is reflected in the related managerial tools. Research limitations/implications – The main limitations of this study are twofold. The first is related to the methodology adopted and in particular, to the participant observation approach. The second is related to the specifics of the case study undertaken. This paper contributes to the literature on “Intellectual Capital in action” and “Intellectual Capital in practice” by enriching the understanding of IC dynamics. Originality/value – By comparison to the extant literature in which the IC dynamics concepts are considered separately, this study combines the three different concepts and examines them in vivo, adopting a longitudinal perspective.


2015 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 199-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Claver-Cortés ◽  
Patrocinio Carmen Zaragoza-Sáez ◽  
Hipólito Molina-Manchón ◽  
Mercedes Úbeda-García

Purpose – Based on the literature devoted to family firms and the intellectual capital-based view of the firm, the purpose of this paper is not only to identify the most important human capital intangibles owned by family firms but also to show a number of indicators that can help measure them. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case-study-based research approach was adopted taking as reference: 25 family firms belonging to different sectors; previous works existing in the literature; and the intellectus model. Findings – The present study identifies ten intangibles associated with the human capital of family firms and shows 60 indicators that can be used to measure them. It additionally provides empirical evidence and gives examples of these intangibles through the analysis of 25 international family firms. Research limitations/implications – The difficulty in collecting all the human capital intangibles of family firms; the problems associated with the creation of accurate indicators; and those specific to the research methodology adopted. Practical implications – Identifying the human capital intangibles of family firms and their indicators can help managers become aware of their importance, and this will consequently help them improve their management. This could be an interesting starting point to value these intangibles in the balance sheet as well as to draw comparisons between family and non-family organisations. Originality/value – The framework provided by family firms sheds light on several intangibles specific to these firms – precisely for their condition as “family” firms. Those intangibles – human capital intangibles being especially highlighted in this study – provide the basis for the achievement of competitive advantages.


2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (5) ◽  
pp. 1431-1450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Abdullah Al Nuseirat ◽  
Zeyad Mohammad El Kahlout ◽  
Ahmed Abbas ◽  
Dotun Adebanjo ◽  
Prattana Punnakitikashem ◽  
...  

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate a benchmarking project carried out by the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) as part of a structured benchmarking initiative. The project was based on the TRADE benchmarking methodology and this paper examines the tools, activities and outcomes that relate to each stage of the adopted methodology. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on case study methodology. Data were collected from various sources including analysis of project reports written by DEWA’s benchmarking team reporting on their activities during the project. Data were also collected from four project presentations given at different stages of the project. In addition, the research team held three meetings with the DEWA benchmarking team at different stages of the benchmarking project. Findings The results show the key challenges and successes faced during each stage of the benchmarking project. It indicates the actions taken to overcome the challenges and the role played by internal and external stakeholders in facilitating the success of the benchmarking project. Practical implications The study presents information that would guide organisations that wish to carry out a benchmarking project – and particularly those implementing benchmarking for the first time. The study provides a summary of the key lessons learnt by DEWA’s benchmarking team as a guide for other organisations. Originality/value Academic research has not adequately examined and analysed the stage-by-stage elements of a benchmarking project from the perspective of the implementing organisation. This study addresses this gap by detailing and analysing the experiences of a benchmarking project by tracking the stage-by-stage activities of the benchmarking team.


2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 30-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kurt Matzler ◽  
Franz Bailom ◽  
Stephan Friedrich von den Eichen ◽  
Thomas Kohler

PurposeThis article aims to examine the concept of business model innovation and to discuss the design of the key elements. Based on a detailed case study of Nespresso, it seeks to outline how business model innovation can be implemented successfully.Design/methodology/approachBased on a theoretical conceptualization of a business model, the authors conduct an in‐depth case study to draw conclusions for a successful implementation of a business model innovation.FindingsA business model innovation comprises five components: an innovative, unique positioning, a consistent product and service logic, an appropriate value creation architecture, an effective sales and marketing logic and a profit formula that works. Success is based upon a unique, innovative and coherent design of the business model's components.Originality/valueBased on Nespresso's business model, this paper illustrates what a business model innovation is, what its components are and how they should be designed to create and capture value.


2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Federica De Santis ◽  
Claudia Presti

PurposeThis paper aims to give an integrated framework for analysing the main opportunities and threats related to the exploitation of Big Data (BD) technologies within intellectual capital (IC) management.Design/methodology/approachBy means of a structured literature review (SLR) of the extant literature on BD and IC, the study identified distinctive opportunities and challenges of BD technologies and related them to the traditional dimensions of IC.FindingsThe advent of BD has not radically changed the risks and opportunities of IC management already highlighted in previous literature. However, it has significantly amplified their magnitude and the speed with which they manifest themselves. Thus, a revision of the traditional managerial solutions needed to face them is required.Research limitations/implicationsThe developed framework can contribute to academic discourse on BD and IC as a starting point to understanding how BD can be turned into intangible assets from a value creation perspective.Practical implicationsThe framework can also represent a useful decision-making tool for practitioners in identifying and evaluating the main opportunities and threats of an investment in BD technologies for IC management.Originality/valueThe paper responds to the call for more research on the integration of BD discourse in the fourth stage of IC research. It intends to improve this understanding of how BD technologies can be exploited to create value from an IC perspective, focussing not only on the potential of BD for creating value but also on the challenges that it poses to organizations.


2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 537-553 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Romano ◽  
Pierluigi Catalfo ◽  
Melita Nicotra

Purpose – Dealing with intellectual capital (IC), the purpose of this paper is to provide a strategic tool for management activities in knowledge-based organizations. In particular, in the contribution, an integrated framework for intangibles’ representation, evaluation and control in Science Parks is developed. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from a review of the main instruments for measuring intangible resources in an organization, an integrated model of IC for Science Parks is formulated. Findings – The paper demonstrates that Science Parks are big repositories of knowledge but they are neither familiar with the IC management nor with the use of methodologies functional for the resources representations and for the variations dynamics of their value. Thereby it answers to questions related to the IC process representation, responding to managerial exigencies and to measurability and repeatability as strategic activities for business running. Originality/value – Unlike the great number of studies on IC that formulate objective metrics of the value of firms’ intangible assets, the paper presents a model not to describe but to shape processes in a knowledge-based organization and to achieve and communicate results both for management and for increasing transparency of communication with external stakeholders.


2016 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 279-297 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Vale ◽  
Manuel Castelo Branco ◽  
João Ribeiro

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss and analyse how intellectual capital (IC) is created and deteriorated in a meta-organization by assessing the interdependency between the collective IC of the meta-organization and the individual IC of its members. Design/methodology/approach – A case study conducted in a seaport is adopted to explore how creation or deterioration of IC at one level of analysis affects the IC at the other. Four different illustrations are provided, depicting different instances of articulation between both types of IC. Findings – Evidence suggests that, in a meta-organization, IC appears as a function of both individual and collective IC dimensions. Changes in the meta-organization’s IC or in its members’ IC may have different impacts on each other, generating intellectual assets or intellectual liabilities at both levels. Evidence also suggests that those changes in IC should be analysed in a longitudinal way, since both levels affect each other in different ways over time. Research limitations/implications – Despite the validity of the interpretations provided in the context of the case study, generalization to other situations should be conducted only in a theoretically framed manner. Practical implications – This study provides important strategic and managerial implications for meta-organizations and their members, who are concerned with their performance. Originality/value – Although there have been some efforts to apply the traditional IC methodologies to a bigger scope, such as regions or nations, some meso level empirical contexts are yet far unexplored, such as the case of meta-organizations. Furthermore there is a gap in management sciences’ research on seaports.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanan Ali Almutirat

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational innovation in Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) through a case study at KPC on the employees of the corporation (The study population was 2,180 respondents and the sample size was 335 respondents). Design/methodology/approach The statistical package for social science was used to analyze the data. While trying to explore the relationship between intellectual capital and innovation, the researcher used the descriptive analytical method and the case study methodology using various references, periodicals, internal and external documents and data, in addition to conducting a field study on a sample of employees of KPC, through a questionnaire form containing the axes that reflect the study variables. Findings There is a relative approval between the sample of the research on the existence of a good role for training in the corporation in terms of availability for all employees and the compatibility of training programs with the actual needs of employees, and linking the training paths and career paths for promotions in the corporation. The researcher attributed this to the employees' awareness to the importance of training and its role in raising their performance levels, and the awareness of the corporation to the importance of training and capacity building of the human element. Originality/value The research, in general, demonstrated the importance of human capital as the organization's most valuable assets, especially as it supports creativity and innovation, thus enabling competitiveness. The research stressed that human capital is the most important element in the formation of intellectual capital, which requires decision-makers to support it and give the intellectual and human aspects a strategic content that meets the needs to develop innovation and institutional education and to recruit systems and indicators to measure the performance objectively to achieve the goal of survival of the corporation in a competitive sustainable environment, through providing material and moral potentials that can support the implementation of organizational innovation at various levels.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-177 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giustina Secundo ◽  
Maurizio Massaro ◽  
John Dumay ◽  
Carlo Bagnoli

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of a university that uses a collective intelligence approach for managing its intellectual capital (IC). Specifically, the authors investigate how one of Europe’s oldest business schools, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Italy), manages IC through stakeholder engagement to achieve academia’s third mission so contributing to social and economic development. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected through semi-structured interviews and Ca’ Foscari University’s strategic plan. Secundo et al.’s (2016) collective intelligence framework is used to analyse the data. Alvesson and Deetz’s (2000, pp. 19-20) critical management tasks – insight, critique and transformative redefinition – are adopted to frame and discuss the results. Findings On the assumption that a university is a collective intelligence system, the findings demonstrate that IC management needs to change to incorporate an ecosystem perspective, reflecting the fourth stage of IC research. The IC management at the university incorporates its core goal (what), the collective involvement of internal and external stakeholders to achieve the goal (who), the motivations behind the achievement of the goal (why) and, finally, the processes activated inside the university (how) and indicators to assess value creation. Research limitations/implications A new perspective for managing IC in universities that adopts a collective intelligence approach is further developed. Contributions to the fourth stage of IC research – IC in an ecosystem – are highlighted that expand the concept of IC value creation beyond universities into wider society. Practical implications Two key consequences of this case study are that more stakeholders have become involved in IC management and that IC management requires critical rethinking, given the universities’ evolving role. Originality/value This paper brings together issues that are usually dealt with in separate domains of the literature: IC management and collective intelligence in the university setting.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (6) ◽  
pp. 13-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Pérez ◽  
Jesús J. Cambra-Fierro

Purpose – Research suggests that asymmetry has a negative impact on value creation and value distribution and assumes that the smaller partner has an inferior position and must defend itself from value misappropriation. However, industries are plagued with a range of business relationships of varying degree of imbalance. Ambitious and growth-oriented small firms enter relationships with larger counterparts, tolerate the imbalance and learn to achieve successful outcomes. In spite of the increasing importance of asymmetric partnerships, there are still many research and conceptual lacunas. Design/methodology/approach – Ideas and conclusions of this paper are based on the authors’ experience as well as on evidence from a qualitative case study conducted at a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) and one of its key larger partners. Findings – Findings reveal that asymmetric partnerships may offer a clear route to value creation and innovation for firms. Moreover, both partners can fully appropriate the value jointly generated. Originality/value – Asymmetric partnerships, generally characterized by large dissimilarities between firms, offer the possibility of moving beyond the zero-sum game, where firms obtain value at the expense of their partners. By examining the development and dynamic aspects of these partnerships, we found a novel concept, “dual-value appropriation”, and addressed the issues of how and under which conditions dual value emerges to explain the success of asymmetric partnerships.


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