Carlos Serrano Cinca

An Approach to the Measurement of Intangible Assets in Public Sector Using Scaling Techniques

This paper discusses the identification and measurement of intangible assets in the public sector. A discussion of intellectual capital theory identifies and classifies a number of intangible assets of relevance to the public sector. Multidimensional scaling and related multivariate techniques are proposed for their detection and quantification. The methodology is illustrated with a case study: the provision of council services through the Internet by Spanish municipalities. The technique identifies three intangible assets related to external structural capital: service, image and transparency. Five strategic groups reveal the different objectives, strategic use of the Internet, and actions taken by the various Spanish councils.

Reflexiones en Torno a la Aplicación del Capital Intelectual en el Sector Público

RESUMEN Los administradores de las entidades públicas gestionan activos intangibles, tanto o más que sus colegas de las empresas privadas, lo que justifica su creciente interés en los progresos del Capital Intelectual. Sin embargo, resulta difícil aplicar al sector público modelos diseñados para la empresa ya que los objetivos de las administraciones públicas difieren de los empresariales, como maximizar el beneficio o crear valor para el accionista. En este artículo se propone un modelo de Capital Intelectual adaptado a las características especiales del sector público y se presentan algunos indicadores de gestión del Capital Intelectual destinados al sector público, agrupados en varias categorías.

Finding Treasure Buried in Data

The main characteristics of multivariate data can be made explicit by means of a statistical map. Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) provides a series of techniques to project the main features of the data in the form of maps. We survey the application of MDS in Management and give an example of its use. MDS maps can be augmented with the results of other multivariate statistical techniques.