Structural capital
Structural capital (Structural Capital - SC) can be used as knowledge are referred to, which in the form of structures , processes, and (the objectified aspects) of the corporate culture was institutionalized quasi. This includes patents , copyrights , proprietary software , trade secrets and general organizational knowledge, etc.
It can be recorded in the form of documentation procedures, databases , expert systems , software systems to support decision-making processes and WM systems. The SC is also built through relationships with suppliers, governments and investors .
In addition, knowledge can be “stored” in team or organizational habits without ever having been explicitly described (as shown by successful sports teams, for example). As long as these people or teams are available, one can say that their knowledge is in the “memory” of the organization and is available for repeated use. This knowledge can also be preserved through institutionalization as so-called structural capital in the structures, processes and corporate culture of an organization. In order to save explicit knowledge, supporting measures are required, such as B. the selection, order or categorization, the update but also the deletion of outdated information. The preservation of stored knowledge over a longer period of time comes very close to the application of this knowledge, since knowledge must always be adapted to current circumstances, changed contexts and matters. In order to be able to use the potential of this knowledge, the next activity of the knowledge process - the knowledge sharing - must be guaranteed.
Structural capital in the intellectual capital statement
In our modern world, where no longer alone economic success can achieve, the role of the organization is the necessary structures provide that allow individuals to work together so that both their talents are used optimally and existing market opportunities to economic value to create. And if a company is unable to take advantage of its opportunities and implement them, it is due to their poor organizational skills .
The economic skills metrics show that the value of structural capital is greater than human capital . Otherwise they have no multiplier , but the opposite, which leads to an erosion of human capital. If structural capital is too weak, it cannot transform human capital into economic value. This means that the greatest value component is structural capital, with which it makes human capital productive.
Multiplier
Many positive factors for the future can be derived from this development. One of them is a kind of KIV effect for the human capital, if one forms the structural capital of the organization from this. This KIV effect is also known as the Intellectual Capital Multiplier (ICM) . The higher the structural capital compared to human capital, the higher the value creation potential of the organization. This ratio can be determined very easily in organizations or in companies. As a result, the intellectual capital multiplier becomes a symbol of how management uses the available resources and, for example, better uses the knowledge of employees for value-adding activities in the company.
See also
literature
- International Accounting Standards Committee: Intangible Assets (= International Accounting Standard. 38). IASC, London 1998, ISBN 0-905625-64-1 .
- Leif Edvinsson, Gisela Brünig: Assets Knowledge Capital. Make invisible values accountable. Dr. Th. Gabler, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-409-11540-4 .