Intellectual capital and external environment links in organisations: an exploratory study

Abstract

Intellectual capital (IC) is generally categorised into three primary interrelated components: human capital (HC), structural capital (SC), and relational capital (RC). The popular 'value platform' has been widely used to help managers to visualise the importance of value creation through the interactions of the three IC components. However, organisations do not exist in vacuum. External environment conditions are crucial to organisations' ability to function as well as knowledge transfer from and to the organisations. A review of the literature and a series of in-depth interviews with 36 senior executives from 23 organisations in Australia reveal that there is a strong link between IC and external environment in organisations. A better understanding of the link enables organisations to better manage their intellectual resources and external environmental conditions. The paper contributes to the existing IC literature by suggesting a modified IC conceptual framework which highlights the importance of external environment in the today’s knowledge economy.