Background of National Intellectual Capital

Abstract

Intellectual capital, the source of the competencies and capabilities deemed ­essential for national economic growth, human development, and quality of life (Malhotra 2003), have been attracting an increasing amount of attention. Particularly, the results of national level intellectual capital studies and ranking provide a direction for nations to benchmark and to make wise decisions in the effective investment of national intangible assets and their development in the era of the knowledge economy. This chapter first describes the motivation for writing and publishing this book and the national intellectual capital models that are currently in use; this is followed by the obstacles that hinder the measurement of national intellectual capital, and then a presentation of the measurement framework proposed in this book.