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Intangible Asset Gap in Global Competitiveness

Mapping and Responding to the New Economy

  • Provides a unique economic, social and environmental policy analysis on intangible assets (IA)
  • Proposes a strategy and policy approach to advance the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
  • Compares Sweden’s intangible assets (IA) with smaller, similar, high-tech nations

Part of the book series: SpringerBriefs in Business (BRIEFSBUSINESS)

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxi
  2. Introduction

    • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
    Pages 1-9
  3. Maps to Tell a New Story

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11
    2. IC and Long-Term Wealth Creation at the National Level

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 13-36
    3. IC & IA Mapping at the Global Enterprise Level

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 37-50
  4. Policy Discussion in a New IA Era

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 51-51
    2. Policy Implications

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 53-55
    3. Discussions of Further Dimensions

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 57-64
  5. Closing the IA Gap

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 65-65
    2. Strategic Initiatives

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 67-72
    3. Workshop

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 73-74
  6. Emerging New Trade Structures and IA

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75
    2. The Urgency of the Topic of IA for Sweden

      • Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin
      Pages 77-78
  7. Back Matter

    Pages 79-102

About this book

This book examines the role of intangible assets (IA) in companies and countries for achieving sustainable economic growth. The authors particularly focus on Sweden and other Nordic countries to analyse the IA gap using a systematized “IA metrics” approach. They also discuss the incentives needed for strategic investments into useful IA to gain national competitiveness from an economic, social and environmental policy perspective.

The authors contend that despite the increasing importance of IA and intellectual capital (IC) in the economy, the current discussion has only been centered on intellectual property, which is one of the more prominent forms of intangibles. As this book demonstrates, IC and IA encompass wider dimensions of human, process, market, and renewal capital, among others. Featuring real case examples from Spotify, Minecraft and Izettle, this book offers a strategy for the resurrection of competitive advantage in the globalized economy and the advancement of some key United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Economics, George Mason University, Fairfax, USA

    Eskil Ullberg

  • New Club of Paris, Stockholm, Sweden

    Leif Edvinsson

  • Department of Business Administration, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Carol Yeh-Yun Lin

About the authors

Leif Edvinsson is Emeritus Professor of Intellectual Capital (IC) at Lund University (Sweden), Chair Professor at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (Hong Kong) and Co-founder and Founding Chairman of The New Club of Paris (France). Prof. Edvinsson is a key pioneering contributor to theory and practice of IC. Becoming the world’s first director of IC in 1991, he initiated the creation of the world's first public corporate Intellectual Capital Annual Report 1994, and inspired the development of IC metrics ever since. In 2013, he was awarded the Thought Leader Award by European Commission, Intel and Peter Drucker Association. In 2015, he was appointed Advisory Board to the Japan Innovation Network (JIN). He was also appointed to the Advisory Board of Norway Open Innovation Forum in 2016 and awarded the KM Award in Geneva at the United Nations in 2017. 

Eskil Ullberg is Professor of Economics at George Mason University and Director of the Trade in Ideas Program at the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology (Stockholm, Sweden). Prof. Ullberg is a pioneer in experimental studies of markets in patents and strategy consultant for 20 years. He works on patent markets and teaching finance and economic development classes for 5+ years and is active in the patent market discussions with United Nations, European Commission, World Trade Organization and others. Prior to research and teaching over 20 years of experience as international management consultant in strategy for firms, international organizations and government agencies alike (central bank, patent offices, other) with special focus on management of risk. 


Carol Yeh-Yun Lin is a Professor in the Department of Business Administration at National Chengchi University in Taiwan. She received her PhD in Human Resource Development from the University of Texas at Austin in 1992. Her research interests include strategic human resource management, international human resource management and intellectual capital.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Intangible Asset Gap in Global Competitiveness

  • Book Subtitle: Mapping and Responding to the New Economy

  • Authors: Eskil Ullberg, Leif Edvinsson, Carol Yeh-Yun Lin

  • Series Title: SpringerBriefs in Business

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55666-2

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-55665-5Published: 01 December 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-55666-2Published: 30 November 2020

  • Series ISSN: 2191-5482

  • Series E-ISSN: 2191-5490

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXI, 102

  • Topics: Accounting/Auditing, Corporate Environmental Management, Development Economics

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access