The Importance of Intellectual Capital in Entrepreneurial Companies

In today's knowledge economy, intangible assets play a significant role. Intellectual capital represents one of the intangible resources valued as an important element for entrepreneurial activities. Entrepreneurship and intellectual capital have become the focus of close observation and, thanks to their various multidisciplinary perspectives, several definitions have been presented for these two topics. However, there are still few studies clarifying the relationship between the concepts. Each entrepreneurial company is seen as a dynamic power, a source of job creation, economic growth and competitiveness. Intellectual capital is a topic of growing awareness because this phenomenon contributes, with growing emphasis, to the value creation of a company. Its importance has increased since enterprises began recognizing such intangible assets as a worthy source of competitive advantage and one of the keys to sustaining a company's advantage. Identifying non-economic factors that contribute to success in entrepreneurial activities and help to increase entrepreneurial performance is a difficult and challenging task. Therefore, several questions should be asked: What is the relationship between an enterprise's activities and its intellectual capital? What contributions add intellectual capital to the success, or more precisely, to the performance, of an entrepreneurial company? Is there a way to measure such impact and, if so, is it possible to get quantifiable data about this relationship, or are qualitative methods the only route to measuring this relationship? Which methods do companies use to measure their performance and do those methods consider factors of intellectual capital? The aim of this paper is to highlight the role of intellectual capital for entrepreneurship activities and to discover possible ways that such a tool might be used for impact evaluation. A theoretical framework of these topics is provided in order to obtain sufficient background for further research. The relationship of intellectual capital and performance of entrepreneurial companies is analyzed, followed by an elaboration of a theoretical model that may serve as a stepping stone for further discussions. Particular emphasis is placed on the situation in the Czech Republic.