In strategic management literature, the human capital implicated in a firm's employees has already for a couple of decades been considered as an important strategic resource (or asset) for a firm. Obviously, in "knowledge economy", the value of this particular type of knowledge has become increasingly important, especially in knowledge-intensive and creative industries (such as financial services, IT, or biotechnology)
The protection of corporate intellectual properties is an important issue for any firm, and particularly so for globally operating high-tech companies. Unfortunately, part of the firm's challenge is to prevent its own employees from leaking corporate information and secrets to competitors. Even if it was only a fraction of a firm's employees -- perhaps 1-5% -- who might have the unfortunate predisposition to make leaks under certain conditions, the challenge is real.
