The concept of intellectual capital in legislation: the case of Latvia

Abstract

Nowdays intellectual capital has become one of most important resources which provide sustainable competitive advantage for a company. Despite it, intellectual capital in companies in Latvia is limited. Previous studies, conducted by the authors, showed that one of the factors that influence intellectual capital in companies is legal protection of intellectual capital. The purpose of the study is to analyse the concept of intellectual capital in legislation in order to clarify the understanding of the concept of intellectual capital. The following qualitative and quantitative research methods have been used: logical and comparative analysis, the deductive method, the statistical method, the empirical method and the induction method. The current study results show that an additional factor, which influences the intellectual capital development in companies in Latvia, is lack of uniform approach to the concept of intellectual capital in legislation.