Intellectual capital in Egyptian software firms

Abstract

The distribution of knowledge around the world varies significantly with developed countries possessing most of the world's current intellectual capital (IC) compared to developing countries. Most IC research has been conducted in a variety of international settings such as the UK, Scandinavia, Australia, Canada, Austria, Malaysia, the USA, and Ireland. However, no empirical research has been conducted at the organizational level in the field of IC in Arab countries. These nations are socially, economically, and culturally different from most countries in the aforementioned list. This study describes the IC in Egyptian software firms. The study's objective is to contribute to the IC theory development by building a measurement system in an unique context. This paper highlights the key IC indicators as reported by Egyptian CEOs. Ultimately, the resultant report provides them with a direction for building a strong knowledge base for future IC development. IntroductionWith the emergence of the knowledge-based economy, we have witnessed many changes in the nature of work and the demands placed on organizations to become the storehouses of innovation, nourishing and sustaining wellsprings of talent. The knowledge-based economy has provided us with new notions of globalization (i.e. borderless economies) and new models for firms (i.e. networked learning organizations). These emergent trends have a great influence on management research and require new approaches for investigation. Over four decades back, Penrose (1959) looked at the firm as a repository of knowledge and experience and argued that knowledge is the critical factor in explaining the growth of firms. More recently, intellectual capital (IC) is considered as the critical antecedent for the sustained performance of a firm

Managers' and auditors' perceptions of intellectual capital reporting

“…Australia, U.K, Canada, USA, Scandinavia, Spain and Denmark). In addition, to the best of our knowledge, only one study -Seleim et al (2004) -has explored IC topic within the context of developing countries like Egypt.…”

“…Our paper is different from Seleim et al (2004) in two crucial aspects: First, we will use a large sample size compared with the sample used in Seleim et al (2004). The current study covers big-knowledge-based companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange.…”

“…In a study related more closely to our paper, Seleim et al (2004) aimed to explore the nature of IC in Egyptian software companies, and the relationship between IC indicators and financial performance. They found that Egyptian software companies possess many elements of IC and these elements can be measured.…”

“…The current study covers big-knowledge-based companies listed on the Egyptian Stock Exchange. In addition, the present study will cover different industry sectors, while Seleim et al (2004) covered only one sector (i.e. software companies).…”

Perceptions of Human Capital Measures: From Corporate Executives and Investors

“…High staff turnover is a threat to sustained organizational value and some costs. It may result in the loss of organizational knowledge and memory (Seleim and Ashour 2004). Lower staff turnover means less disruption in the functioning of work groups, reduction in stagnation, and improvement innovation (Addison and Belfield 2004;Seleim and Ashour 2004).…”