The Measurement of Human Capital in Family Firms

Abstract

Intangibles are the key elements underpinning the competitiveness of enterprises. Among them a decisive role is certainly represented by the skills, knowledge, skills and experience possessed by members within organizations, as fundamental drivers thanks to which delineate identity and strategic objectives. Intangible assets became the determinants and foremost sources of company success (Drucker, 1993). The literature on human capital proposed that firms require to recruit, nurture and retain talents so that the knowledge base can be extended, which has the capacity to improve an organization's overall productivity (Boxall, 2003; Lin & Wang, 2005, Lim et al., 2010; Mehralian et al., 2013). The management of human capital as an important component of intangible assets often creates and sustains an organization's wealth and competitive advantage (Lim et al., 2010). The main aim of this paper is to define a list of indicators that can be to measure human capital intangibles identified in family firms.