SUMMARY
In the current competitive, globalized and uncertain context, the greatest value of a company is focused on its essential competences, that is, on its intellectual capital. Today, the economic theory of the company highlights that for the formulation of successful strategies, these must be based on knowledge rather than on the management of the company's tangible assets. In a company there are two different types of skills, one in which the intellectual capital of operations is developed and the other oriented to the development of intellectual capital of innovation. The operations of the company are organized through the business units, while the innovation assets are organized through the projects. In both activities, information and communication technologies are a fundamental means of transferring, analyzing,share and store explicit knowledge or information. The main objective of this study is to analyze the intellectual capital of innovation and identify the essential competences and capacities, seeing their importance in the development of innovation projects and in the creation of new knowledge, all for the benefit of the generation. of sustainable competitive advantages.
1.- CURRENT ANALYSIS OF THE ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
In an economic scenario like the current one, in which companies move towards globalization, large merger operations or strategic alliances, a profound change in business models underlies, for this reason the world economy is moving towards a new model based on in the knowledge above the other tangible economic factors. If in the agricultural era the central resource was land and in the industrial era it was machinery (physical capital), in the new economy that is being configured, knowledge and its distribution among the different units that make up the economic system is the element key to wealth creation. In this way, it is possible to define a "knowledge-based economy" as that economy based on the production, distribution and use of knowledge and information.The importance of knowledge creation and innovative activities as factors of economic growth is not a recently appeared theory, despite the recent prominence given to knowledge is explained by the following factors:
- The evolution in the development of indicators and measurement methods has contributed to considering knowledge as a new input inherent in the production process. Knowledge, like any other production factor, can be produced and used in the creation of new goods and / or services (innovation) in the improvement of current operations, products and / or processes and in taking advantage of the relationship with their environment. The appearance and development of new information and communication technologies (ICT) has contributed to greater ease in the use and creation of knowledge.
With all this, knowledge and intellectual capital can be mentioned as the only sources of sustainable competitive advantage. Lawrence Prusak, in his article published in 1996, stated the following: “Researchers in the areas of sustainable competitive advantages have concluded that the only thing that gives an organization lasting competitive advantages is what it knows, how it uses what who knows and his ability to learn new things quickly. ”
2.- CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Having analyzed the current economic environment, it is important to establish the differences between knowledge management and intellectual capital management. According to Karl M. Wiig (1997) “The management of intellectual capital focuses on the construction and management of intellectual assets from a strategic and managerial business perspective, with some tactical derivations. Its function is to consider as a whole the entire intellectual capital of the company ”. On the other hand, knowledge management has a tactical and operational perspective; it is more detailed and focuses on facilitating and managing those activities related to knowledge, such as its creation, capture, transformation and use. Its function is to plan, implement, operate,direct and control all the activities related to knowledge and programs that are required for the effective management of intellectual capital ”.
In this context it is necessary to define the concept of knowledge, Prusak in 1998 defined it as follows: “Knowledge is the fluid, structured mix of experience, values, contextualized information, and a highly skilled clinical eye that provides an excellent framework for evaluate and incorporate new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of those who have it. In organizations, it is often stored not only in documents or databases, but also in routines, procedures, practices and standards. ”
Two types of knowledge emerge from the previous definition: explicit and tacit. The first is that which can be expressed in words and numbers, can be easily transmitted and shared in the form of coded procedures, scientific formulas, or universal principles. In contrast to it, tacit knowledge is highly personalized and its formalization is complex. So it is difficult to convey since it has not taken an explicit form.
Nonaka and Takeuchi in 1995 disclosed the "model of knowledge production cycles", where the following processes of knowledge conversion were expressed:
- From tacit to tacit (Socialization process): Individuals acquire new knowledge directly from others. From tacit to explicit (Outsourcing process): Knowledge is articulated in a tangible way through dialogue. From explicit to explicit (Combination process): Different forms of explicit knowledge are combined by means of documents or databases. From explicit to tacit (Internalization process): Individuals internalize document knowledge in their own experience.
There is a sequential development between data, information and knowledge; the data once associated with an object and structured is converted into information. The information associated with a context and an experience becomes knowledge. The knowledge associated with a person and a series of personal skills becomes wisdom, and finally the knowledge associated with an organization and a series of organizational capacities becomes intellectual capital.
Intellectual capital
Figure 1.- (Source: adaptation JM Viedma by Robert Grant, 1995)
The theory of resources and capabilities comes from the academic field and becomes the forerunner of knowledge management, a concept much more closely linked to the business field. Based on the Porter five forces model, which is a fundamental tool for understanding the competitive environment and the factors that influence companies in the same sector from the outside, the strategic analysis has attempted to investigate because within this same sector, differences in company performance. For this reason, the study of the strategy advanced towards the paradigm based on the resources and capacities that are possessed, this is under an internal approach, or those that must be acquired in order to compete in the market. That is why Benchmarking plays a primary role in referencing products,processes and innovations regarding the best competition. In short, there is a shift from an external approach to an internal one when it comes to justifying the creation of competitive advantages.
Fundamental relationships between resources, capabilities and competitive advantage
When it comes to generating and promoting knowledge in the company, it does not refer to any type of knowledge, but rather that which allows the development of essential competences or essential capacities. The idea is to detect these factors, which are the ones that can effectively generate sustainable competitive advantages. Therefore, for a company's resources to be useful, they must be adequately combined and managed, in order to generate essential capacity or competition, whether in the value chain of operations or in the value chain of innovation.
The table shows that organizational capabilities come from organizational learning, this being a means for the company to solve increasingly complex problems. Intangible resources are also spoken of, these are defined as everything that in an organization is used to create value, but that is not accounted for, it can be organizational capacities, processes or routines. Innovation and organizational learning become processes that increase intellectual capital, but we also have to highlight the value of managing information and people in the organization.
3.- INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL
Steward in 1997 defined intellectual capital as "intellectual material, knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience, that can be used to create value." In Euroforum (1998), “intellectual capital was defined as the set of intangible assets of an organization, which despite not being reflected in traditional financial statements, currently generates value or has the potential to generate it in the future”. These intangible assets include all the tacit and explicit knowledge that generates said economic value.
Classification of intellectual capital
Source: ICMS, JM Viedma 2002 and own elaboration
Figure 2.- Classification of intellectual capital
According to what is shown in figure 2.- Human capital refers to the education, experience, “know how”, knowledge, skills, values and attitudes of the people who work in the company. They are not owned by the company, since they belong to the workers, when they go home they take these assets with them. The organization's tacit knowledge resides in human capital.
Structural capital refers to formal and informal organizational structure, working methods and procedures, software, databases, R&D, leadership and management systems, and company culture.. These assets are the property of the company and some of them can be legally protected (patents, intellectual property, etc.)
Relational capital refers to the client portfolio, relationships with suppliers, banks and shareholders, cooperation agreements and strategic, technological, production and commercial alliances, trademarks and the image of the company. These assets are the property of the company and some of them can be legally protected, as is the case with trademarks.
As we know the weight of intellectual capital on the market value of an organization is increasing and therefore efforts are directed to manage and measure it. In search of sustainable competitive advantages, some models have been recently developed. These models manage the intellectual capital of the two value chains; that is, in the value chain of operations and in the value chain of innovation. The best known are: Skandia Navigator (Leif and Malone, 1997), Intangible Assets Monitor (Sveiby, 1997) and Balanced Scorecard (Kaplan and Norton, 1994). All of them consider the strategy (the vision, mission and objectives) as the main reference and human capital, structural capital and relational capital as the aggregates to manage.Other models also focus on strategy as the main reference, but instead of considering the three types of capital mentioned above, they manage only essential competencies or essential capacities.
The models: Intellectual Capital Benchmarking System (OICBS Viedma, 2001) and Innovation Capabilities Benchmarking System (IICBS Viedma, 2001) are in the second group, as well as Daniel Andriessens: Value Explorer Model (Andriessen, 2001).
Next, the intellectual capital of innovation will be analyzed, based on the IICBS model.
4.- INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL OF INNOVATION
The intellectual capital of innovation in an organization must have as its main purpose to develop different innovation projects for the development of new products and / or key services to obtain essential competencies in the innovation value chain and in the essential capacities of human resources. that allow to maintain or achieve the desired sustainable competitive advantages.
The value chain of the business process
Source: Adapted from Kaplan (1996) by JMViedma
Figure 3.- The value chain of the business process
This objective can only be achieved by visualizing the future needs of customers and performing a Benchmarking process with respect to the best competitor. Faced with this challenge, human capital should stand out for: its capabilities, talent, leadership, values and culture that lead to the creation of new knowledge and individual learning. Meanwhile, structural capital will be required that culture, learning values and organizational structures are oriented to the innovation process. The innovation infrastructure can be common and serve as the basis for the development of different innovation projects. Finally, in relational capital, alliances, agreements, customer relationships, outsourcing, research centers must be developed and motivated,universities and other organizations that promote or facilitate the innovation of products and / or services.
Essential competences and Benchmarking in innovation projects
Source: Adapted from IICBS (2002) JMViedma
Figure 4.- Essential competences and Benchmarking in innovation projects
The intellectual capital of innovation is focused on each innovation project that is strategic for the organization. The essential competencies in innovation projects allow the development of "future core business", so that the organization could subcontract all the others (outsourcing), it is also possible to establish agreements and strategic alliances with suppliers and other companies.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The world economy is moving towards a new knowledge-based economic model in which it has a clear differentiating value, providing competitive advantages thanks to its management.
Intellectual capital refers to intangible assets considered from a strategic and global perspective, while knowledge management refers to the components of intangible assets from a tactical and operational perspective.
Organizational innovation and learning are key elements to increase intellectual capital, based on information and communication technologies and on the people in the organization.
The intellectual capital of innovation is developed through innovation projects, these being the key to achieving competitive advantages tomorrow. In order to achieve this objective, the organization must analyze the needs of the clients and carry out a Benchmarking process with the best competitor of the product and / or service to be developed, with these parameters the essential competences in the value chain of the innovation project will be determined..
Finally, it cannot be ignored that both the management of intellectual capital and the management of knowledge are the cornerstone of the paradigm of the successful company of the 21st century.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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