An Overview of Intellectual Capital (IC) Models for SMEs

Abstract

The growing importance of the intangible Economy involves the publication of a growing number of models. Nevertheless, we have observed that there are no generally accepted models for measuring Intellectual Capital in organizations. In recent years, several have been proposed, with a number of similar aspects, but differing with regard to their complexity and adaptability. In this sense, our main original contribution when measuring Intellectual Capital is related to comparing and assessing the different existent Guidelines in SMEs, unlike previous published papers. At the same time, SMEs, as an important part of the business network, should be alert to the political, social, technological and economic changes occurring in their environment. In recent years, these changes have been associated with two key factors for their competitiveness: the information technology and the knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to present and compare some of the most recent and significant contributions from researchers to the field of the measurement and management of intangibles in SMEs.