Abstract:

The paper aims at providing substantial arguments in order to show that intellectual capital has a great impact on universities’ performance worldwide. Nowadays, it seems that measuring performance, comparing individuals’ activities as well as organizations’ results, has become the very essence of all managerial activities and the main focus of all leadership programs. However, there seems to be a higher interest in assessing performance as well as employees’ results in the business sector, rather than in the educational and research sector. In addition, it should be noted that companies have a more complex evaluation system in comparison to research institutions or educational bodies when it comes to valuing intellectual capital, and, in consequence, are more focused on the entrepreneurial side of their activities – investments, innovations, technology transfer, and knowledge development.

The purpose of this work is to analyze the role, influences and value drivers for intellectual capital, offering valuable evidence from the Romanian education system. In order to be able to understand the importance of intellectual capital and its benefits at the level of the educational and research fields, the paper shows the fact that the results obtained by universities and research institutes – namely, both knowledge and technology, are transferred to the society, communities and companies, enhancing in this manner the countries visibility and competitive advantages perspectives, the firms’ performance and the individuals’ opportunities and perspectives.

Firstly, this scientific research summarizes the main findings discovered in the process of analyzing the literature review on the topic of intellectual capital and the way it is measured in the education system. Some comparisons are made with the intellectual capital appraisal and valuation system in the business field (and mainly with accounting and auditing evaluations frameworks, models and methods), since there are far more discoveries acknowledged in the studies in this regard. Secondly, this thesis emphasizes the manner in which intellectual capital measurements can be successfully and constructively used in universities in order to assess performance, in times in which the role of intellectual capital is continuously expending and the opportunities offered by this intangible asset are experiencing a continuous increase. However, another key thing to remember is that this work highlights the manner in which universities and research institutes could turn the intellectual capital appraisal framework and the measuring performance process into a value-creating system, since far too many unsuccessful attempts have been made already to optimally rank universities based on their outcomes as well as their employees’ research results. Thirdly, this study addresses the case of Romanian education system in terms of intellectual capital evaluation and performance measurement, especially because there seems to be a gap in research on this particular subject. Previous studies do exist already on the relationship between intellectual capital and universities’ and institutes’ performance assessment, mainly in European countries, however this subject is new and of high interest worldwide. There has been less previous evidence for the case of Romania, so the aim was to develop a more sophisticated approach by using several research methods: the questioner; the interview; the focus group.

Keywords:

Intellectual capital, intangible asset, education, knowledge, investments, performance, excellence, competition, intangible assets, accounting value, Romania.