Title: Benchmarking in the national intellectual capital measurement: is it the best available approach?

Authors: Virginija Januškaitė; Lina Užienė

Addresses: Department of Strategic Management, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, LT – 44239, Lithuania ' Department of Strategic Management, Kaunas University of Technology, Kaunas, LT – 44239, Lithuania

Abstract: Sustainable economic development is an aspiration of every nation in today's knowledge economy. Scientists for a few decades claim that intellectual capital management is the answer how to reach this goal. Currently, benchmarking methodology is the most common approach in the national intellectual capital measurement intended to provide information for management purposes. The aim of this paper is to identify advantages and disadvantages of this methodological approach and provide the answer to the question whether it is the most appropriate one. The most popular methods based on the benchmarking methodology (NICI, ICM, ICI, NIC40, ELSS) are analysed and compared within the paper. Advantages and disadvantages of benchmarking are thoroughly investigated with regard to measurement objectives, validity and applicability of the results as well as other contextual characteristics. Findings of the paper reveal that application of NIC benchmarking needs clearly defined particular purpose and must be handled with a great caution.

Keywords: national intellectual capital; benchmarking; sustainable economic development; policy making; intellectual capital measurement; intangible assets; national wellbeing; management; national competitiveness; wealth creation; sustainability.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLC.2016.081649

International Journal of Learning and Change, 2016 Vol.8 No.3/4, pp.211 - 230

Received: 03 Feb 2016
Accepted: 29 Jun 2016
Published online: 18 Jan 2017 *

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