You can find the course material as below:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AjaPv6kEZ6pPgWwEgtmOl6xF1MmV?e=UWQWf5

Once accept the order,
1. Please confirm if you can receive and open the file successfully
2. Please use the concept of the course material for completing the assignment and let me know which part of course material you have used.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks

ANSWER

Managing and Measuring Intellectual Capital: Hong Kong Disneyland

Question 1

The operations, competitive advantage, and success in a company are determined by its tangible assets such as products and services provided and its intangible assets such as intellectual capital. Intellectual capital includes intangible assets and resources used to create intangible sources of competitive advantage and that contribute to a company’s bottom line, value creation, including human capital; talent, structural capital; intellectual properties, methodologies, and customer capital; customer relationships shared in a company (Lecture 2 pg. 2). The chosen company is Hong Kong Disneyland (HKD), a theme park located in Lantau Island, opened in 2005, owned and managed by the Hong Kong Government through the HKITP (Hong Kong International Theme Parks) and The Walt Disney Company (HKD, 2021).

Understanding this background and specific intellectual capital in HKD company is crucial as it helps set the ground for effective strategic IC management. Strategic IC management involves the tools that enable a company to explore the knowledge and intellectual capital possessed, identifying or measuring those that may not be effectively exploited and strategically aligning them for maximized competitive advantage and value creation (Lecture 2 pg. 25). When discussing the customer fit, it is essential to establish and understand products and services wanted, needed, and desired by customers acquiring deep knowledge regarding market channels, government associations, customer/supplier relationships, and how they affect the relationship between the company and customers. The notable customer and relational capital, which includes resources linked to the external relations a company has with its stakeholders that strategically make HKD competitive and create value, involves having a famous brand, corporate image, and reputation bearing the value placed on Disneyland globally. Customer loyalty is high, as its brand and concepts have been highly integrated globally and locally. The customer responsiveness is high, attracting a large number of the local Asian community and global visitors. Moreover, HKD Company has localized the Disneyfication experience, maximizing customer experience and satisfaction as well as diversifying products and services granted that lack in its primary competitor, Ocean Park, namely affordability with modern entertainment amenities, accommodation, and dining services. External connections and networks are strong and broad due to the Walt Disney brand’s value, thus, collaborating with numerous companies to pursue their marketing strategy and distribution channels. The company presents effective governmental relationships, as the government is highly involved, supporting expansion projects and providing effective leadership.

Technological fit is crucial in every company, primarily in the 21^st century, where technological advancement is a new competitive norm. As technology advances, so does it influence other market channels and trends, impacting the changing customer needs, production processes, and general management practices. HKD is known for its innovativeness, even winning an award as the most innovative with unique IT initiatives and solutions that have enhanced business operations (HKB, 2019). The company has adopted smart technologies ranging from digital Data Applications for easy ticket purchase to technologically advanced amenities, such as its big rides and ambiances. Another strategy adopted to make HKD technologically fit and strategically aligned is the focus on information quality (Lecture 2 pg. 32). The notable human capital that supports the company’s strategic technological fit includes the strong know-how among the workforce due to long-term experience, technical soundness, lifelong training, and development. Moreover, in maintaining high-quality service, HKD ensures hiring and recruiting candidates with high vocational qualifications, expressing high work-related competencies and high business acumen. Hence, the workforce is well-motivated, enrolled in a continuous learning and training system, long experience, and high teamwork capacity (Lecture 2 pg. 12).

Competitive fit in a firm involves adopting valuable, rare, non-imitable, and non-substitutional strategies to maximize its competitiveness and uniqueness in the industry (Lecture 2 pg. 30). In HKD, various IC ranging from the human, customer, and structural capital have been adopted to develop competitive strategies. For instance, structural capital in the company, which includes the knowledge left within the company even when the staff leave (Lecture 2 pg. 14) that maximize HKD’s competitiveness includes having design rights for all amenities used, well-guarded and sought out trade secrets by its competitors, and trademarks for Disneyland, highly valued by the Walt Disney Company. Management processes are swift with the strong leadership of 11 executives (HKD, 2021), an inclusive and diverse organizational culture that creates motivated, well-equipped, and engaged employees, viewed as valuable assets, as well as creating a magical experience for its customers and visitors through the localization of the Disneyfication experience (Choi, 2012).

b)

An example of the IC Value chain in HKD Company is integrating the accommodation and dining services in Disneyland. This is an example of customer capital and structural capital value creation. Value creation activities such as diversifying products and services are seen, increasing the localization of Disneyfication experience for the Asian population and other visitors. These services will create a long-term Disney experience, where customers can hold longer Disney concerts, events, and parties, hence more time spent, more money spent. In extracting the value, structural capital, including integrating new and advanced technologies, will be adopted to invest in training and create a learning culture that will maximize profit generation sources.

Question 2

The CICM model of intellectual capital management involves three main stages: Knowledge Management, Innovation Management, and Intellectual Property stages. Through these stages, a company such as HKD can recognize how its IC progresses from being raw resources with potential value (knowledge management to create value) to become intellectual assesses with extracted value (innovation management to extract value) meant to be commercialized for competitive advantage, maximized value creation and be legally protected intellectual assets (IP management to maximize value) (Lecture 3&4 pg. 2). The table below summarizes HKD’s IC as they help identify corporate systems, practices, rules, and processes in relation to the CICM Approach.

From the above analysis, one can argue that HKD Company creates value by providing entertainment products and services such as creating a magical Disney kingdom with fairy tales attractions such as jungles, outer space themes, Disney parades, Disney shows, and events such as celebrating Chinese New Year, Christmas and Halloween, among others. The company also creates value through Disney characters, provision of accommodation, and dining services. When establishing the status and performance in the company’s knowledge management, the primary elements to gauge are its knowledge creation, acquisition, retention, sharing, transmission, and inflow.

In the innovative management stage, HKD can be categorized as integrating the cost leadership and differentiation innovative strategies (Lecture 3&4 pg. 17) as its pricing structure is affordable and has integrated modern and advanced technology to provide differentiated products and high-quality services not seen among its competitors. The company’s degree of innovativeness is that of innovators and early adopters of advanced and disruptive technology (Yao, 2017). However, despite the high innovativeness and picture of high-value extraction through the adopted work processes and concepts, it seems it is not extracting value highly as it has been recording financial losses for four years straight, which would not be expected (Tsang, 2019).

Finally, the status of HKD’s IP management performance could be described as high as it uses its IP portfolio of design rights for all amenities used, well-guarded and sought out trade secrets by its competitors, and trademarks for Disneyland, highly valued by the Walt Disney Company that maximize their competitive advantage and value creation.

References

Choi, K. (2012). Disneyfication and Localisation. Urban Studies, Vol 49(2), pp; 383-397. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26150847.

HKB. (2019, March 01). Hong Kong Disneyland Resort bags Technology Excellence Awards for Media & Entertainment. Retrieved from Hong Kong Business: https://hongkongbusiness.hk/co-written-partner/more-news/hong-kong-disneyland-resort-bags-technology-excellence-awards-media-ent

HKD. (2021). Corporate Information. Retrieved from https://hkcorporate.hongkongdisneyland.com/about/our-company/corp-info.html

Tsang, D. (2019, February 18). Hong Kong Disneyland Resort posts loss for fourth straight year – despite higher visitor numbers reducing deficit to HK$54 million. Retrieved from https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/2186633/more-visitors-helps-hong-kong-disneyland-resort

Yao, J. (2017). Research on marketing strategy: case study of Disneyland. Advances in Economics, Business and Management Research, Vol 33, pp; 473-481.