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CM Ø97 - Strategic management of intangible assets: Creating value from hidden resources* *NOT ESTABLISHED*

Faculty
Dr Patricia Plackett and guest lecturers
Course Coordinator
Dr Jan Mouritsen
Prerequisite/progression of the course
Students should have had prior courses in one or more of the following: economics, management, strategy, marketing, finance, international business, or human resource management.
Course content, structure and teaching
Why do some companies find unconventional, yet highly profitable, business niches that other companies completely overlook? Why are some cities able to create highly profitable brands while others stagnate despite expensive marketing campaigns? And why do some individuals have success in marketing radically new products and services while most others fail?
Answers to such questions often lie in the ways that intangible assets are managed. Intangible assets – sometimes regarded as ‘hidden’ sources of value creation – are typically not given systematic attention in management and planning. As a result, these assets are routinely under-utilized and sometimes totally ignored. If the ways of mobilizing the potential of these resources are not fully understood in terms of their costs as well as their benefits, then the value that they represent may never be effectively captured.
This course aims to answer the question How do intangibles actually create value? The intention is to try to address the management challenge posed by limitations to our understanding of how intangibles function in different contexts so that they can be managed as effectively well as possible. It will follow a very practical approach to structuring thinking about intangibles. Various theoretical lenses will be introduced to reveal features of intangibles that would otherwise remain invisible. In this course a range of international cases and examples will be examined to identify specific ways in which intangible resources can help in resolving problems and in responding to opportunities. Classes will include mini-lectures, group case analyses, and group discussions with guest speakers to lead discussions on several key themes. The quality of the sessions will be monitored through feedback at the conclusion of each session.
The course's development of personal competences
The aim of this course is to allow students to gain exposure to, and build expertise in, developing and deploying intangible resources to create value. Students can expect to learn the basic concepts and theories as well as to gain insights about best practices in the real world.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course the student should be able to manage competently the following:
Learning Objective 1: To explain clearly how intangible resources can be used to create value by drawing on a wide range of international examples. [Understand empirical work on the subject]
Learning Objective 2: To discuss knowledgably all key concepts, theories, models and frameworks that can be used in the analysis of intangible resources. [Understand theoretical foundations to the subject]
Learning Objective 3: To design and implement practical strategies for creating value through investments in intangible resources based on rigorous and systematic analysis of a variety of real-world cases. [Understand practical approaches to strategy design and implementation related to the subject]
To obtain a score of 12 in this course a student must master the three learning objectives to an exceptional level with lower scores awarded in accordance with reductions in the levels of mastery.
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
Individual oral examination that uses a prepared synopsis as a starting point. The synopsis can be produced individually (3–5 A4 pages) or by groups of 2–4 students (max. 8 A4 pages).
Recommended literature
  • DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) (2001), Creating value from your intangible assets: Unlocking your true potential.
  • Lev, Baruch (2001), Intangibles: Management, measurement and reporting. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, Chapter 1 – What, Why, and Who? and Chapter 2 - The Economics of Intangibles.
  • Wearing, Robert (2005), Cases in corporate governance, London: Sage Publications. Chapter 7 – Enron and Chapter 8 – Parmalat.
  • Mouritsen, Jan, Bukh, Per Nikolaj and Marr, Bernard (2004), “Reporting on intellectual capital: why, how and what? Measuring Business Excellence, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 46-54.
  • Chatterton, Paul and Hollands, Robert (2002), “Theorizing urban playscapes: Producing, regulating and consuming youthful nightlife city spaces,” Urban Studies, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp.95-116.
  • Ooi, Can-Seng (2004), "Brand Singapore: the hub of New Asia," Pp. 242-260 in Morgen, N., Pritchard, A. and Pride, R. (Eds.), Destination Branding: Creating the Unique Destination Proposition. 2nd Ed., London: Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann.
  • Evans, Graeme (2003), “Hard-Branding the Cultural City - From Prado to Prada,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 27, No. 2. (June), pp. 417-440.
  • Kaplan, Robert S. and Norton, David P. (2004), “Measuring the strategic readiness of intangible assets,” Harvard Business Review, February, pp. 52-63.
  • Ulrich, Dave and Smallwood, Norm (2004), “Capitalizing on capabilities,” Harvard Business Review,
  • Vol. 82, Issue 6, pp. 119-127.
Case studies:
  • Zara: A cut apart from the competition [Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, 2009]
  • Kimberley Clark Andean Region: Creating a winning culture [Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2009]
  • Keeping Google “Googley” [Harvard Business School, 2009]
  • A confrontation of mindsets: French retailers operating in Poland. [The CASE Association, 2009]
  • VeeV on the rocks? [Harvard Business School, 2009]

Last updated by The Electives Office 21/12/2009