What is the importance of Intellectual Capital?

Answer 1

Intellectual capital is very important for countries which lack natural resources, take Singapore for instance. It invests heavily in education and training to make their labour more skilled.

Singapore is just an island which does not have raw materials and rely on its financial and tourism industry to generate revenue. Intellectual capital is all they have to sustain themselves, that is why all their cabinets are either from the Ivy Leagues or Oxbridge.

Also, because the government recognises the importance of intellectual capital, it brain drains plenty of bright students from neighbouring countries, offering them generous scholarships.

A country with plenty of raw materials such as most African countries can still feed themselves through selling these materials without actually having to be intellectual.

Answer 2

It depends on what the institutional environment is and whether or not there is enough physical capital to combine with intellectual capital. Generally, the importance of intellectual capital is the greatest when a country has high-quality institutions and abundant physical capital. Without the other two, intellectual capital is not worth much...

Answer 3

The primary importance of Intellectual Capital is the retention of the Intellectual Capital. Forfeiting this precious commodity to the competition should be avoided by providing services and employment that will maintain the Intellectual Capital and allow it to flourish freely.

Answer 4

Simple: It is an economic good that has value in trade.

That is true without regard to any related physical capital as the previous poster stated. IOW I can have valued intellectual property and its value is not dependent at all on if I have the means to produce anything else or not - only on if the broader market wants to make use of it.