Self-assessment of intellectual capital in an organisation

Abstract

Purpose Intellectual capital represents an integral part of evaluation in many companies. Applied methods do not consider three crucial aspects of intellectual capital, which are up-to-date research topics, dynamic nature, and internal perspective. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to propose a novel intellectual capital self-evaluation method, addressing this issue. Design/methodology/approach Analysis of topics is based on collocation, correspondence, and co-occurrence analyses. Method construction stage is grounded in knowledge processes and deploys a panel of expert evaluations, Saaty’s decision matrix, based on pairwise comparison and the stakeholders’ estimates. Findings A new method for evaluation enables complex internal view on the status of intellectual capital in an organisation, as it is based on up-to-date research topics, a self-evaluation approach, and the dynamics of knowledge processes. Research limitations/implications The list of applied criteria is extendable, and the set weights are adjusted. Estimates are subjective in their nature. Provided results are tied with the specifics of self-evaluated organisations and cannot be used for inter-organisational comparison. Practical implications Presented system enables organisational self-evaluation, focussed on the complex and dynamic internal view, based on up-to-date topics. Despite the limitations, this self-evaluation can be conducted for various types of economic systems. Originality/value Proposed method is patterned on the current research topics and offers dynamic- and internal-oriented approach to self-evaluation of intellectual capital status.