The Human capital valuation in IC paradigm: an empirical proposal

Intellectual Capital (IC) is an important source of value for companies and in recent years has been the focus of attention for scholars. In a knowledge-based economic scenario, the role of human resources has been reallocated over time in the theory of the firm to a higher degree than in the past. The worker’s labor and management have been transformed as a result of the growing attention to the intangible assets held by each business system. In knowledge economy, manufacturing industries are investing more and more in the processes of scientific and technological research in order to introduce new knowledge in production systems and ensure its survival by creating business value. The competitive firm invests in new productive ideas through scientific and technological research, the human factor and services. The knowledge worker, at every organizational level, has the knowledge that allows the organization to be competitive and deal with the complexity of the environment by creating intellectual added value. The traditional factors of “old economy” based on physical assets has been replaced, or at least reinforced with the belief that the “new economy” takes it steps mainly through IC. The aim of this paper is to examine the methods of evaluation of human capital and to provide an empirical methodology proposed by using an intersection logic concerning the increase in value of the three components of intellectual capital. In particular, the proposed methodology consists in the construction of an adjusted multiplier based on a simplified version of VAICTM capable of expressing a direct relationship with the Return on Equity (ROE) from the perspective of creating value for shareholders based on the dynamics of the company’s performance compared with that of industry.