Purpose – The growing interest regarding intangibles and intellectual capital (IC) has extended from
firms to public institutions such as universities and research centres during the last decade. Since
universities are considered critical institutional actors in national innovation systems, European
higher education and research institutions are going through an important transformation process
with the aim of making them more comparable, flexible, transparent and competitive. The objective of
the paper is two-fold. On the one hand, its aim is to address the importance of measuring and
managing IC in universities to improve research management and contribute to comparative analysis
in European universities, and on the other hand, to highlight some methodological and conceptual
considerations in relation to the analytical framework developed within an ongoing experience – the
Observatory of European Universities (OEU).
Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses a specific case within the OEU: the
Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) in Spain. The problems and difficulties within the process
of applying the OEU analytical framework are examined.
Findings – This analysis provides some insight into the utility of the framework. From a conceptual
point of view, we find some similarities between IC approaches and the OEU, but a different
terminology is identified.
Originality/value – This paper argues that important benefits can be achieved when adapting the
Observatory’s framework to the IC approach and terminology, regarding the increasing impact of IC
approaches at firm and political level