Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Eckhard Ammann
They convert exactly one source knowledge asset into exactly one destination knowledge asset. This
is an generalization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> well-known SECI-model (Nonaka/Takeuchi 1995). More complex
conversions may be easily gained by building on this set. They will consist <strong>of</strong> n-to-m-conversions and
include information assets in addition. General knowledge conversions are modeled converting
several source assets (possibly <strong>of</strong> different types, kinds and quality) to several destination assets
(also possibly different in <strong>the</strong>ir knowledge dimensions). In addition, information assets are considered
as possible contributing or generated parts <strong>of</strong> general knowledge conversions.
With <strong>the</strong> help <strong>of</strong> general nets <strong>of</strong> knowledge conversions, knowledge development activities in a
company can be modeled. This includes as well asset-oriented as process-oriented activities and also
allows for human-to-human interactions for knowledge advancement.
3. A modeling concept <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital advancement
For a dynamic perspective <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital advancement we need to break down <strong>the</strong> overall
picture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> a company to a finer granularity in order to be able to apply
advancement measures. Again this means a change from summarized statements on human capital
to personal development and knowledge adaption <strong>of</strong> individual employees, to give just one example.
In sub-section 3.1., we follow this line and introduce <strong>the</strong> IC space (intellectual capital space) toge<strong>the</strong>r
with three operators (plus three inverse operators), which work along <strong>the</strong> dimensions <strong>of</strong> this IC space.
Sub-section 3.2. introduces concatenated applications <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se operators and indentifies important
classes <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se concatenations.
3.1 IC space and <strong>the</strong> operators <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> model
The IC space (short for intellectual capital space) <strong>of</strong> a company is a three-dimensional space, which
spans <strong>the</strong> whole <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital viewpoints <strong>of</strong> this company. Viewpoints include <strong>the</strong> overall IC
statement <strong>of</strong> company as one extreme (<strong>the</strong> so-called IC origin) and individual statements on personal
aptitudes <strong>of</strong> an employee or single business processes at <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r extreme (<strong>the</strong> so-called knowledge
management base, KM base). In between each level <strong>of</strong> detail regarding parts <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> company or
detailed views <strong>of</strong> IC assets is represented in <strong>the</strong> IC space.
Three operators are introduced, which help to model intellectual capital advancement on each level <strong>of</strong>
granularity: refinement, scope restriction, and individualization. They work along <strong>the</strong> three dimensions
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> IC space, in <strong>the</strong> downward direction from IC origin to KM base. Firstly, refinement leads to a
more detailed observation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> examined issue. For example, aptitude in <strong>the</strong> human capital domain
is refined to formal education, specialized training, experience and so on. Again formal education can
be fur<strong>the</strong>r refined into its constituents. In effect, refinement works down <strong>the</strong> hierarchy <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Intellectus
Model, if this is taken as reference IC model. Secondly, scope restriction starts at <strong>the</strong> entirety <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
organisation and restricts <strong>the</strong> viewpoint to units, activities or teams inside <strong>the</strong> company. Finally,
individualization describes <strong>the</strong> changeover from <strong>the</strong> whole or groups <strong>of</strong> observed employees,
processes or items to <strong>the</strong> individual employee, <strong>the</strong> single process or item.
Note, that refinement and restriction can work piecewise through <strong>the</strong> IC space. For example, a first
application <strong>of</strong> restriction can change <strong>the</strong> viewpoint from <strong>the</strong> company-wide to a business-unit view,
while a second application can fur<strong>the</strong>r change this to a working unit level. Individualization is an
operator mapping combined viewpoints to individualized viewpoints. This can start from IC origin (e.g.
from <strong>the</strong> overall statement on human capital) or at a deeper level (e.g. <strong>the</strong> human capital <strong>of</strong> a
business unit). In any case, an application <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> individualization operator will lead to <strong>the</strong> individual
employee, <strong>the</strong> single item or business process, all at KM base <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> IC space.
In addition, three fur<strong>the</strong>r operators, being effective in <strong>the</strong> inverse (upward) direction to <strong>the</strong> three
already mentioned, are introduced: coarsing, enlargement and generalization. Applying <strong>the</strong>m in a
second phase <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital advancement helps to regain <strong>the</strong> improved overall picture <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
intellectual capital <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organization.
Figure 2 displays <strong>the</strong> IC space with its three dimensions, which again are worked on by <strong>the</strong> three
operators refinement, scope restriction and individualization (<strong>the</strong> three “downward” operators). They
start working on <strong>the</strong> overall IC viewpoint <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> company, <strong>the</strong> IC origin, and break down in direction <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> KM base <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> IC space. The three inverse operators (<strong>the</strong> “upward” operators) would work in <strong>the</strong>
opposite direction, from KM base in direction <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> IC origin.
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