Information Management Model for Intellectual Capital of HEIs in Oman: Theoretical Quantitative Approach and Practical Results

Abstract

In the last decade, international organisations (World Bank, OECD and OEU) and many European countries have been apprised of the urgent need to develop and enhance what is generally termed “intellectual capital” and thus the “knowledge creating organization”. The importance of this is something that is increasingly being realised. The importance of Intellectual Capital and how to analyse its important components such as human capital, structural capital and customer capital are also being recognised. In fact, these components constitute the main factors whereby institutions produce and disseminate knowledge which in turn serve as the means through which the quantity of knowledge produced within a country can be added to the national pool of knowledge. This paper deals with the importance of measuring and analysing Intellectual Capital, and furthermore, performs an extensive review of national and international practices related to IC. The paper then proposes a model for measuring the Intellectual Capital of private HEIs in Oman. Indeed, such a model as of the kind we visualise, will improve the performance of organisations, develop better understanding of the nature of IC and go on to study the construction of IC and IC reporting in developing countries. The research was done in the Sultanate of Oman and the results show that the level of measuring the IC of HEIs is still in its early stages. The technique called “the point estimate of overall performance” and “overall performance index” are proposed and implemented to differentiate between the performance of ICs of different institutions. Finally, the paper discusses the difficulties that hinder the assessment of IC in institutions.