Intellectual Capital and Competitiveness

Convenor: Professor Birgitte Andersen
Assessment: Exam (counts 75%), essay (counts 25%) to be submitted 23rd November 2011 (Absolute Cut-Off deadline – 14th December) and workshop attendance.

Aims

Intellectual capital, and related intangible assets and intellectual property, are the CAPITAL OF OUR TIME. They are the sources of corporate competitiveness and value creation for services and manufacturing in terms of financial performance, market dominance, technological advantage, dynamic capabilities, and more. Such capital has been getting increased attention from business leaders, policy makers, consultants, business analysts, and academics over the past couple of decades.

The aim of this course is to provide students with an understanding of such assets and the new managerial challenges they raise for firms. The opportunities for enhancing corporate competitiveness from such intellectual capital has increased in depth and scope, because of the integration of micro-electronics and information and communication technology (ICT) into business practices and organisations. Thus, the competitiveness of e-business is central to the course focus, and e-business here does not merely refer to Internet firms (as in the early days) but includes all services and manufacturing businesses adopting micro-electronics into their operations.

Learning objectives

The course will provide students with a good foundation for understanding the corporate assets of our time. It will introduce a set of analytical frameworks and tools that will help managers, business analysts, industrialists and policy-makers to build and capture the financial and non-financial returns from such intangible assets which in turn will enhance their corporate competitiveness.

Content

On this module, we will explore the following topics:

• Getting a Grip on Intellectual Capital and Intangible Assets: What They Are and Why They Matter?;
• Professoriting from Technological Innovation: Patent Management;
• Professoriting from Innovation in Creative Expressions: Copyright Management;
• Customer Based Intangibles and Market Based Assets: Managing Customer Loyalty and Branding;
• The Managerial Challenges of Social Capital;
• The Capital Embedded in Organizational Forms and Business Models;
• Capitalising on Knowledge: Managing Knowledge Creation and Learning in Organisations; and
• Measuring, Valuing and Reporting Intellectual Capital

Background reading

• Amit, R. and C. Zott (2001) ‘Value Creation in E-business’, Strategic Management Journal 22: 4930520
• Brooking, Annie (1998) Intellectual Capital. International Thomas Business Press.