What Does it Mean for an Organisation to Be Intelligent? Measuring Intellectual Bandwidth for Value Creation

Abstract

The importance of electronic collaboration has risen as successful organisations recognize that they need to convert their intellectual resources into goods and services their customers will value. The shift from personal computing to interpersonal or collaborative computing has given rise to ways of working that may bring about better and more effective use of intellectual resources. Current efforts in managing knowledge have concentrated on producing, sharing and storing knowledge while business problems require the use of these intellectual resources to create value. This paper draws upon Nunamaker et. al.'s (2001) Intellectual Bandwidth Model to measure an organization's potential to create value. Following an analysis of initial data collected at the Netherlands branch of Cap-Gemini Ernst & Young, conclusions are drawn with respect to what it means for an organisation to be intelligent and how such organisations can create value through the use of information and collaboration technologies to increase its intellectual bandwidth.

Keywords: intellectual bandwidth, electronic collaboration, information assimilation

JEL Classification: M, M11, R4, L29