MANAGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL IN THE SERVICE ECONOMY: AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

摘要

There have been many changes in the global economy in recent years. Conventional sources of competitive advantage have changed in many ways and there is an increasing focus on innovation. The focus on innovation has become a necessity prompted by several forces such as global competitive pressures, saturated markets, easier communication facilitating information flows, demanding and more knowledgeable customers, and technology advancements. In this environment, it is becoming more and more evident that the conventional view of capital or assets as those that are dependent upon tangible assets alone is not valid any longer. Land, machinery, access to raw materials and cash are not the only resources of an organization. Sources of competitive advantage increasingly relate specifically to knowledge and competence. These intellectual assets are intangible and there are organizations that possess only these assets, which are growing in numbers. The service economy is marked by the growing predominance of companies possessing these intellectual assets almost exclusively. In India, as in the rest of the globe, intellectual assets are increasingly playing a major role in transforming organizations. This paper attempts to draw a distinction between 'knowledge workers' in the classical sense and 'intellectual capital contributors' in the Indian context.