Intellectual Capital Management in European Universities in times of changes: an IC Maturity Model

Purpose –The purpose of our paper is to develop a IC Maturity Model (ICMM) for Universities which is a flexible model of implementing Intellectual Capital (IC) approaches within Universities. The ICMM provides a theoretical continuum along which the process of maturity can be developed incrementally from one level to the next one moving from IC Data Collection, Awareness of IC, Adjustment of IC specific indicators, Measurement of IC, Reporting of IC, Interpretation and decision making, Strategy and Planning. Design/methodology/approach – The Maturity Model has been developed in the course of three Mutual Learning Workshops (MLW) organised in Romania in the period October 2012 – May 2013. 15 international experts and practitioners have worked together aiming to develop a Model for IC Management in universities. The MLWs have been developed in the frame of the Project "Quality Assurance in Higher Education through Habilitation and Auditing" initiated by the Executive Agency for Higher Education and Research Funding of Romania (EUFISCDI). Originality/value – Although several methods for IC measurement and management exist, most of these are not able to affording the trade-off between the comparability aims and the efforts to capture the institution’s uniqueness when designing an IC model or framework. Pathways for adoption of IC management and reporting model strongly depend on the characteristics of the university, its previous experience with management tools and its managerial orientation. The IC Maturity Model for Universities (ICMM) explicitly allow to take in consideration these aspects hence enlarging the wide spectrum of Strategic Management approach inside the different University settings. . Practical implications – The IC maturity model provides a staged framework to initiate a step-by-step change within a University based upon its current level of IC management maturity. It allows Universities to follow different paths not necessarily the linear sequence; while some universities may start with the formulation of a strategy and a consecutive operationalization by using some IC indicators, others may gain experience in using some basic indicators and get aware about the necessity to use more specific IC indicators. The ICMM can be used as a controlling and monitoring instrument in times of radical transformations and reforms