Volume 7 - Issue 4

EJKM
Volume 7 Issue 4
Special Issue ECIC, The Netherlands 2009

Intellectual Capital of the European Union 2008: Measuring the Lisbon Strategy for Growth and Jobs
Christiaan D. Stam and Daan G. Andriessen
INHolland University of Applied Sciences, Haarlem, The Netherlands

In 2004 we published the report Intellectual capital of the European Union (Andriessen & Stam, 2004). In this report we provided insight into the value of the intellectual capital of the fifteen countries of the European Union, in relationship to the goals set by the European Council in March 2000. The main Lisbon goal was to become “the most competitive and knowledge-based economy in the world” in 2010. Since our previous report, the EU grew from 15 to 27 countries and the Lisbon goals were reformulated in 2005. The aim of this paper is to measure the IC of the enlarged EU in relationship to the new Lisbon goals. In order to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy, the EU decided to focus on “delivering stronger, lasting growth and creating more and better jobs” (CEC, 2005d, p.7). In this paper we translate this overall goal in 38 indicators. As the data was not available for all the new member states, we decided to limit our paper to the so-called EU-19. Based on our measurements we conclude that the EU-19 is still behind Japan and far behind the USA, however the EU is catching up as both Japan and the USA have considerably lower growth figures than the EU-19. From an IC perspective, the EU is geographically divided. The Nordic countries are still the best performing countries. The southern European countries and the new member states stay behind. However, as the new member states invest more in their IC, it might be expected that their positions will improve in the future. Of all the new member states the Czech Republic has the best potential. The aim of our paper was to measure the progress of the Lisbon Agenda for growth and jobs. Based on our measurements we conclude that the EU-19 is successful in terms of creating more and better jobs, but not successful in terms of delivering stronger, lasting growth. In order to further close the competitiveness gap, the EU should primarily focus on strengthening its SC and RC.

Keywords: intellectual capital, intellectual capital of nations, European Union, Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs, Lisbon goals, IC monitor, measurement, multidimensional value measurement

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