Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Eckhard Ammann
(referring to <strong>the</strong> relationships with social agents in its surroundings). They group intangible assets
according <strong>the</strong>ir nature. Each component splits into elements, which again integrate variables.
Indicators for variables help for <strong>the</strong> valuation <strong>of</strong> intangible assets.
Figure 1: The Intellectus model
To give an example, <strong>the</strong> human capital component contains an element “aptitudes”, which again
contains four variables (formal education, specialised training, experience, and personal
development). Three indicators are given for “personal development”, one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m is “percentage <strong>of</strong>
people with socio-cultural activities outside <strong>the</strong>ir pr<strong>of</strong>essional life”. Ano<strong>the</strong>r example from <strong>the</strong>
Organizational Capital component is <strong>the</strong> element “processes”, which itself is fur<strong>the</strong>r refined to three
variables: processes directed towards internal customers, external customers and towards <strong>the</strong>
suppliers. An indicator for <strong>the</strong> latter variable is “number <strong>of</strong> supplier risk management processes”.
Alternative IC reference models include <strong>the</strong> 3-domain model by Sveiby (Sveiby 2001) and <strong>the</strong>
approach using a resource distinction tree (see Roos, Pike, Fernström 2005).
2.2 The conception <strong>of</strong> knowledge and knowledge dynamics
In this section, we shortly recap <strong>the</strong> conception <strong>of</strong> knowledge and knowledge dynamics in a company
as already introduced in (Ammann 2009 and Ammann 2010).
Three main dimensions <strong>of</strong> knowledge, namely type, kind and quality, are introduced. The type
dimension categorizes knowledge according to its presence and availability. The conception for <strong>the</strong>
type dimension <strong>of</strong> knowledge follows a distinction between <strong>the</strong> internal and external knowledge types,
seen from <strong>the</strong> perspective <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> human being. As third and intermediary type, explicit knowledge is
seen as an interface for human interaction and for <strong>the</strong> purpose <strong>of</strong> knowledge externalisation, <strong>the</strong> latter
one ending up in external knowledge. Internal (or implicit) knowledge is bound to <strong>the</strong> human being. It
is all that, what a person has “in its brain” due to experience, history, activities and learning. It can be
fur<strong>the</strong>r divided into tacit, latent and conscious knowledge. Explicit knowledge is “made explicit” to <strong>the</strong>
outside world e.g. through spoken language, but is still bound to <strong>the</strong> human being. External
knowledge finally is detached from <strong>the</strong> human being and may be kept in appropriate storage media as
part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organisational memory. In <strong>the</strong> second dimension <strong>of</strong> knowledge, four kinds <strong>of</strong> knowledge
are distinguished: propositional, procedural and strategic knowledge, and familiarity. Finally, <strong>the</strong>
quality dimension introduces five characteristics <strong>of</strong> knowledge with an appropriate qualifying: level,
structure, automation, modality and generality. Knowledge qualities apply to each knowledge asset.
Knowledge dynamics is about acquisition, conversion, transfer, development and usage <strong>of</strong>
knowledge, in an enterprise. Its conception is based on knowledge conversions, i.e. transitions
between <strong>the</strong> different knowledge types, kind and qualities, which are responsible to a high degree for
knowledge development in an organisation. Five basic knowledge conversions in <strong>the</strong> type dimension
are distinguished here: Socialization, explicitation, externalization, internalization and combination.
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