Intellectual Capital Reporting: An Innovative Model to Represent Company’s Invisible Asset

This work start with a brief review of some important European experience held on intellectual capital reporting. The focus of this working paper is to analyse some major project and try to build a new model that can help the stakeholder to know the potential advantage of a company. Usually the balances sheets show the results of some manager’s decisions. In this context the report of intellectual capital offer a paint of next possible firm evolution. In a ICR we can find more information about a set of human skills, firm brand, firm behaviour and brand’s trust, environment information, manager and property skills and goals. It has seen in this view, the report of intellectual capital is the list of a future potential firm, in other words, the report can show possible weaknesses that can conduct a firm in crisis status. From ’90 years, university scholars, politics and financial world are focussing their works on intangible assets, this suggest an important change in economic landscape. The world in which firms operate today is very different from the past. Intangible assets have been always important to firm and is certainly clear shift towards an economy, based on knowledge. More authors argues about a change, in a firm investments; the tangible assets are being secondary to intangible assets. This is true if we analyse the companies assets investments during the last two decades, firms are changing their perspective, managers are understanding that only the knowledge can bring an advantage in this new market. Indeed, many companies are moving toward investment in research and development, sure that this elements represents the competitive advantage in this new economy. In this landscape, we start to talk about knowledge economy; managers, politics and university word have become more sensitive to this topic. The first example to show knowledge is due to Danish Ministry of Science and Technologies that published various guidelines, at least in 2003 on intellectual capital reporting. More other experiences have occurred during the years, lot’s of them are related to a big company, where through the publish of an Intellectual Report find the methods to show outside their competitive advantage and potentiality of their organization.