Organizational capital as competitive advantage of the firm

Purpose - The elements that constitute the organizational capital or capital of the firm, namely its culture, structure, organizational learning, can be a source of competitive advantage. This paper is an attempt to assess organizational capital from the resource-based view. Design/methodology/approach - From an extensive literature review, an assessment framework for intellectual capital is developed. Findings - By means of this framework organizational capital can be depicted as a set of: valuable assets; difficult to imitate; to replace; to transfer; with a prolonged life expectancy; and with a feasible rent appropriation. Originality/value - Building of such an evaluation framework allows further research about other components of the intellectual capital of the firm, bridging the literatures focused on the resource-based view and on intangible assets or intellectual capital.