Intellektuellt kapital – osynligt men väsentligt : En kvalitativ studie hur finansiella rådgivare inom bankväsendet värderar och bedömer intellektuellt kapital hos kunskapsföretag

Sammanfattning: Expansion, development and knowledge have characterized the economy in recent decades and we are now living in a knowledge society. This has created an alteration in the typical features of the assets where invisible capital in the form of intellectual capital has become more important. An uncertainty has arisen in how the intellectual capital should be accounted for and how it is valued and assessed by stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to investigate how financial advisors value and assess intellectual capital within knowledge companies, also understand the possible irrational elements in their process because of the ambiguity of this capital. A qualitative method is used in this study where interviews with five financial advisors within the banking sector are carried out. The result demonstrates that there is a similar understanding about what intellectual capital is, but that valuation and assessment of this vary. The result also indicates that human capital is the essential asset for knowledge companies. Elements of irrational decisions also have a meaning in their valuation and assessment process. The conclusion is that intellectual capital is still something that stakeholders find difficult to grasp, and when valuing and assessing knowledge companies with significant intellectual capital, elements of irrational decisions are implied to be more obvious.