Intellectual capital: management attitudes in service industries

Developing intellectual capital and knowledge management measuring systems are two fast growing research areas. Many companies are striving to be known as knowledge organizations and have started measuring and analyzing organizational intellectual capital indicators based on what has been reported in the literature. Very little effort has been made to standardize the measurement and reporting of these indicators with most organizations using very general components. This article discusses a research study that sets out to gain an understanding of management attitudes to the measurement of intellectual capital. The study was conducted with 36 top management participants with at least 20 years of experience in a service-related industry in Australia. This research investigates the relationship between the perception of the importance of measuring intellectual capital indicators and the level of understanding of these indicators. The strategic implications of understanding the measurements are also discussed within the context of the attitude of top management.