Intellectual Capital Measurements and Reporting

Multinational organizations operate across a variety of complex competitive environments. Achieving the right balance of global alignment and local flexibility is central to competitive success for these organizations. Viewed from an intellectual capital perspective, multinational organizations need to: design and execute appropriate structures and systems (structural capital); engage and align its international workforce (human capital); and, generate favourable relationships across the multitude of stakeholders it interacts with globally (relational capital). But in pursuing these goals, a number of issues and challenges are faced: How to make sense of intellectual capital investment decisions? How are they to communicate intellectual capital priorities throughout the multinational business? And, with what tools are they to measure and monitor investments and initiatives such that refinements and corrective action can be made? In dealing with these issues, intellectual capital measurement and reporting practices can help. This chapter presents the conceptual framework underpinning intellectual capital, discusses limitations with traditional financial reporting models, outlines the benefits of intellectual measurement, and reports and presents research on the perspective of finance professionals evaluating global companies.