The dynamics of intellectual capital flows in the context of change processes of small and medium-sized enterprises Online publication date: Wed, 14-Jan-2015
by Piero Migliarese; Vincenzo Corvello
International Journal of Intelligent Enterprise (IJIE), Vol. 2, No. 2/3, 2014
Abstract: Small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the resources to develop intellectual capital (IC) internally. As a consequence they activate inter-organisational IC flows to acquire the needed intangible resources. The main goal of this study is to understand the relation between IC flows and the actions undertaken by SMEs when they go through phases of change. We studied this relation in the case of discontinuous change and incremental change. A multiple case study involving six firms in the metalworking sector has been conducted. Results show that the dynamics of IC stocks and IC flows are different in the case of innovative rather than routine processes. Both the mechanisms used to activate IC flows and the resulting IC profiles in the interacting organisations are different. The originality of this study lies in the fact that it is one of the few studies considering the dynamics of IC stocks and IC flows in SMEs in the context of innovation processes.
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