An overall index of intellectual capital

Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this article is to expound a holistic intellectual capital index. Moreover, the paper presents its implementation within a real estate organization. Design/methodology/approach – The index is calculated on the basis of 14 structured interviews synthesized through the analytic hierarchy process, min–max normalizations and weighted sums. Findings – The authors estimate a holistic intellectual capital index and show that an analysis of its components may allow identifying discordances within the organization about the contributions of its value drivers. Research limitations/implications – The proposed index may be used in a medium-/long-term research to measure the evolution in the organizational intellectual capital and its relation with the top management’s initiatives and the competitive environment changes. Practical implications – The proposed methodology may integrate the reports prepared for shareholders and stakeholders and provide the top management, with an in-depth understanding of the different perceptions of the organizational human resources. Originality/value – The authors discuss a holistic index of intellectual capital that allows considering both the performances of the intellectual capital components and the interdependencies among them and also their strategic contribution to the value-creation process. In addition, they propose a novel descriptive statistical analysis of the assessment and management of IC-index components to draw indications for the top management.