Proceedings of the 3rd European Conference on Intellectual Capital

Kai Mertins and Ronald Orth
<strong>the</strong> organisation’s relations to <strong>the</strong> stakeholders <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> external environment. Based on empirical
results <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> InCaS project a set <strong>of</strong> standard IC factors was developed as shown in table 1.
Table 1: Standard IC factors according to <strong>the</strong> InCaS approach
Human Capital Structural Capital Relational Capital
Pr<strong>of</strong>essional Competence
Social Competence
Employee Motivation
Leadership Ability
Internal Co-operation and
Knowledge Transfer
Management Instruments
IT and Explicit Knowledge
Product Innovation
Process Optimisation and
Innovation
Corporate Culture
Customer Relationships
Supplier Relationships
Public Relationships
Investor Relationships
Relationships to Co-operation
Partners
The development and use <strong>of</strong> intellectual capital provides an important lever for <strong>the</strong> implementation <strong>of</strong>
sustainability management. Thereby, intellectual capital has a comprehensive impact as it affects
equally <strong>the</strong> performance <strong>of</strong> all three dimensions <strong>of</strong> sustainability. Within in <strong>the</strong> adopted InCaS
structural model <strong>the</strong> sustainability dimensions are considered as aspects <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> corporate
performance. This will refer to <strong>the</strong> so called “Triple Bottom Line” (TBL). For internal management and
external reporting <strong>the</strong> triple bottom line perspective means expanding <strong>the</strong> traditional framework taking
into account environmental as well as social performance in addition to economic/financial
performance.
Initial
situation
Vision
Organisational environment (Stakeholder perspective)
Organisation
corporate
Strategy
Measures
(Opportunities & Threats)
Intellectual capital
Human
capital
Structural
capital
Relational
capital
Business processes
Knowledge processes
O<strong>the</strong>r
resources
External
impact
Dimensions <strong>of</strong>
corporate
success:
-Economic
-Social
-Environmental
Figure 3: Adopted ICS structural model – including <strong>the</strong> sustainability perspective
Triple
Bottom
Line
A fur<strong>the</strong>r step <strong>of</strong> integration can be seen in a harmonised set <strong>of</strong> indicators. The concept <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
Sustainability Balanced Scorecard provides indicators for <strong>the</strong> measurement <strong>of</strong> triple bottom line
results. Additionally specific indicators for sustainability reporting are highlighted by various guidelines
as described in chapter 5.2 <strong>of</strong> this paper. At <strong>the</strong> same time <strong>the</strong> standardised process and structure <strong>of</strong>
<strong>the</strong> ICS report proposed by InCaS supports <strong>the</strong> communication <strong>of</strong> IC to external stakeholders as well.
If some basic quality requirements outlined in <strong>the</strong> InCaS guideline are met, <strong>the</strong> method can also serve
as a basis for comparability between different organisations. Table 2 shows examples for indicators
proposed by <strong>the</strong> guideline.
Table 2: Selected IC factors and corresponding indicators
Pr<strong>of</strong>essional competence (HC) Internal Co-operation and
Knowledge Transfer (SC)
Number <strong>of</strong> employees Number <strong>of</strong> internal reconciliation
Employees with university
meetings
degree
Number <strong>of</strong> collaborative projects
Employees with pr<strong>of</strong>essional Succession regulations for CEO
education
Succession regulations for o<strong>the</strong>r
Apprentices
Days for vocational training
top executives
532
Customer Relationships (RC)
Total numbers <strong>of</strong> customers
Number <strong>of</strong> recorded customers
complaints received