An investigation about applying the intellectual capital measurement models into Turkish construction companies

Wealth and growth in today s economy are driven primarily by intangible (intellectual) assets. Physical and financial assets are rapidly becoming commodities, yielding at best an average return on investment (Lev, 2001). In the knowledge economy intellectual capital, with its three component human capital, structural capital and customer capital, is perceived as organizations new competetive advantage. The nature of the construction industry can be described conservative; so indirectly the innovations of other industries are adapted to the construction industry. For the innovation of construction industry the intellectual capital management tool is a key issue as a result of complex internal and external factors but before one manage something, one needs to measure it. This study investigates the implementation of intellectual capital maesurement models to improve construction business processes and to increase the value of construction organizations in the new knowledge economy aspect. The intellectual capital measurement models can be classified as the qualitative and the financial models. For the implementation of the measurement models an empirical study was driven. In this study one of the qualitative model (Value Platform Framework) was applied to the 25 large and medium size companies of Turkish construction companies and one of the financial (Calculated Intangible Value Method, CIV) model was applied to 2 large size Turkish construction companies. The qualitative one determines the measurement parameters of three intellectual capital components, tests the balance of three component of intellectual capital and prepares a theoretical picture of intellectual capital for construction industry. Also the financial approach determines intellectual capital of the construction companies in terms of monetary value. Testing the equilibrium of the two measurement approaches is a considerable consequence of this study. This study argues that qualitative methods described the intellectual capital of a construction company better than financial models. Therefore, in this study these two approaches compared by the means of the outcomes. Keywords: intellectual capital measurement, construction industry, value platform framework, calculated intangible value