Abstract: With the in-depth implementation of the national intellectual property strategy, intellectual property has become a strategic resource and decisive factor for improving the core competitiveness of enterprises. As a main indicator to measure the core competitiveness of high-tech enterprises, intellectual property capacity (IPC briefly) is also an important means to accelerate the transformation of intellectual property from quantitative speed to quality efficiency. Existing studies have highlighted the features of the measurement problem of IPC for high-tech enterprises, involving criteria interdependency, combination of qualitative and quantitative measurement, and consideration of gross and relative criteria. However, existing models can not satisfy the requirements of these aforementioned features. In view of this, it is necessary to present a scientific definition of IPC for high-tech enterprises and propose an effective index model to ensure the scientificity of the measurement process and the accuracy of measurement results.In Section 2, a research schemeinvolved connotation definition, criteria system and index model is designed. Firstly, the connotation definition of IPC for high-tech enterprises is given, i.e., IPC is a comprehensive capacity with basic innovation capacity as basis and conditions guarantees, and formed around intellectual property creation, utilization, protection and management processes. Five elements are involved in IPC, which are elaborated in the following, respectively. (1) Basic innovation capacity. It reflects the ability to provide the necessary sales income, R&D investment, and other material foundations for the development of intellectual property work. (2) Intellectual property creation capacity. It reflects the ability to carry out innovative activities and form various types of innovation achievements based on intellectual property investment. (3) Intellectual property utilization capacity. It reflects the ability to transform the existing intellectual property advantages into profit advantages through the commercialization and marketization of its own innovation achievements. (4) Intellectual property protection capacity. It reflects the ability to prevent and dispose of intellectual property risks. (5) Intellectual property management capacity. It reflects the ability to provide normative guidance and service support for the organization, coordination, system construction and staffing of intellectual property work. It is important to emphasize that these elements are not completely independent, but with interdependency. The improvement of the intellectual property rights of high-tech enterprises is the results of the concerted efforts, including the continued stability of basic innovation, the enhancement of quality and efficiency of intellectual property creation, the effective promotion of the utilization of intellectual property rights, the promotion of awareness of intellectual property protection, and the improvement of the intellectual property management system.Subsequently, a criteria system is constructed with a network hierarchical structure. The selection process of criteria is conducted by aguidance of the defined IPC connotation, a combination of qualitative and quantitative IPC measurement, and the balance between gross and relative criteria. Four principles are followed, i.e., criteria can be described, data can be obtained, processes can be traced, and results can be compared. Based on literature review and expert interviews, 25 criteria are determined, including product sales income, R&D investment, and so on. These criteria are further classified into five dimensions including basic innovation capacity, intellectual property creation capacity, intellectual property utilization capacity, intellectual property protection capacity and intellectual property management capacity. Thus, the network hierarchical structure of the criteria system is finalized with goal layer, dimension layer, and criteria layer as well as dimension interdependency and criteria interdependency.Then,an index model for IPC measurement is constructed based on DEMATEL-VIKOR. The process of IPC measurement is divided into three stages. The first stage is criteria interdependency analysis. In this stage, referring to the idea of DEMATEL method, the criteria interdependency is quantified to achieve the determination and visualization of the importance and classification of criteria, and the computation of dimension criteria weights and the overall criteria weights. The second stage is criteria data processing. In this stage, for qualitative criteria described in the form of “Yes or No”, it is converted into 0-1 information. For quantitative criteria, 1-norm is used to standardize the criteria values according to the cost-benefit type of criteria. The last stage is index measurements for IPC and each dimension. Based on the idea of VIKOR method, the subjective preferences of experts are integrated into the IPC measurement. Next, the IPC index and dimension index of each enterprise are determined by taking into account the maximum utility of the participating companies and the minimization of individual regrets. Thus, the compromise ranking of IPC of each enterprise can be obtained.In Section 3, an empirical study is conducted based on the collected intellectual property information of 615 sample enterprises from 2013 to 2015. Based on the proposed DEMATEL-VIKOR model, the collected data are processed to obtain the IPC index and dimension index of sample enterprises. The computation results are further compared from the perspectives of cross years and different decision mechanisms. This study shows that: (1) the measurement results can facilitate administrators to judge their real level and annual development trend of IPC, and clarify their advantages, disadvantages and the gaps with peers, (2) the measurement results are significantly influenced by the selection of decision mechanisms, verifying the effectiveness of the proposed model.The main contributions of this study are as follows. First, it enriches the connotation of IPC. Combining the typical characteristics of high-tech enterprises and their higher requirements for intellectual property rights, the connotation of IPC is defined. The five-dimensional elements including the "basic innovation capacity - intellectual property creation capacity - intellectual property utilization capacity - intellectual property protection capacity – intellectual property management capacity" are further clarified, respectively. Second, an IPC criteria system with a network hierarchical structure is constructed. Based on the principles that criteria can be described, data can be obtained, processes can be traced, and results can be compared, the criteria for IPC measurement are selected, and a network processing of criteria interdependency is conducted according to the non-bidirectional equivalence of the criteria. Third, an index model based on DEMATEL-VIKOR is proposed. The design of the measurement process of the model fully echoes the characteristics of the IPC measurement problem of high-tech enterprises. The criteria interdependency analysis and criteria data processing are used to solve the criteria interdependency, as well as the combination of qualitative and quantitative measurement and the balance between the gross and the relative criteria, respectively. At the same time, the model is with a clear solution and strong practicability. It not only can realize the visualization of the importance and classification of criteria, but also provides necessary decision support for the formulation of IPC improvement strategies. It also incorporates the subjective preferences of experts and considers both the maximization of group utility and the minimization of individual regrets, making the measurement results of IPC closer to reality.

Key words: intellectual property capacity (IPC) measurement, high-tech enterprises, index model, DEMATEL-VIKOR