Knowledge Economy: list of intangible measurement methods by economic sector

Objective: Information Science includes Knowledge Management as one of its areas of study, in which theory and practice interact systematically to coordinate organizational activities. Knowledge Management and Intellectual Capital emerge to define the development of effective resource management to generate competitive advantages in a knowledge-based economy. In this context, investors, company executives, professionals, governments and academics debate at length the value creation potential of Intellectual Capital. However, the models, definitions and elements that support this scientific field still do not provide a fundamental framework that serves to guide the measurement of Intellectual Capital in the most diverse economic sectors. Therefore, this research aims to identify methods for measuring IC and its correlation with different sectors of the economy. Methods: The Systematic Literature Review technique was used, combined with Content Analysis, being a qualitative and exploratory-descriptive research. Results: A total of 80 studies, remaining from the Systematic Literature Review, were analyzed, identifying the methods for measuring intangibles: Direct Intellectual Capital Methods (DIC), Direct Intellectual Capital Methods (DIC), Market Capitalization Methods (MCM), Return on Assets (ROA) Methods and Scorecard (SC) Methods. These methods were correlated to the Trade of products (industry), Trade of goods, Trade of services and Public sectors. It can be seen that practically all IC measurement categories (DIC, MCM, ROA and SC) demonstrate coverage in the four economic sectors (industry, trade in goods, trade in services and public) identified. However, there is a greater concentration of studies in the ROA and SC categories, showing a considerable balance in the choice between monetary (ROA) and non-monetary (SC) methods for measuring IC. Conclusions: It is concluded that the relationship between intangible measurement methods and economic sectors allows us to understand the reasons why investors, corporate executives, professionals, government authorities and academics decide to measure the Intellectual Capital of organizations. It is expected that this investigation will promote advances in the consolidation of aspects related to intangible measurement methods as an important structure for decision-making in organizations, communities, cities and countries.