The significance of R&D activities for managing intellectual capital of enterprises

Enterprises are developing, increasing their profits, value and competitiveness based on successful synergies of human, structural and relational intellectual capital. In addition, R&D (Research and Development) has been acknowledged as a crucial contributor to the competitive advantage in today's competitive market. By performing R&D activities, companies create, develop and use intellectual resources (the knowledge of employees and managers, the knowledge contained in technology and processes), which are valorized on the market and converted into a certain value. R&D is the primary source of knowledge stored within individuals in the enterprise. The most generally used indicators of R&D outputs are patents and innovations, and very important components of structural intellectual capital. Both of these indicators are used to evaluate a company's technological strength and capabilities. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationships and connections between investment in R&D, the components of the intellectual capital of enterprises and the efficiency of intangible assets as visible intellectual capital and the efficiency of the total intellectual capital. This paper aims to point out the importance of performing R&D activities for managing the intellectual capital of the enterprises. Correlation and regression analysis were used for that purpose. The results of the analysis show that R&D investments are positively correlated with visible and invisible intellectual capital, and the efficiency of intangible assets, while R&D investments have a positive influence on visible and invisible intellectual capital.