ABSTRACT
Since the end of the XX century, economy presents some characteristics that are far less different from the industrial economy presented up to the middle of the last century. It seems to be tacitly accepted that this new economic paradigm is characterised by the fundamental role of the intangible assets in the current economic progress of the nations.
In this line of thought, we find in the literature different models that seek explaining the differences of the innovative output and competitive development by means of such intangible perspective. Although with different denominations and some modifications, each model breaks up generally the intellectual capital in three underlying blocks: human capital, structural capital and relational capital. Indicators selection and weight assignations, when apply, are made according to author’s personal opinion and are aspects that these models have in common. Likewise, some models are constituted by a huge number of indicators, which makes considerably difficult its functionality.
On the other hand, the literature of the National Innovation Systems has also made a remarkable contribution to measure the countries innovative effort and their performance. According to the inconsistencies in the models of intellectual capital outlined previously and having into account the literature of the national innovation systems, the main objective of this research is:  
From the intellectual capital and national innovation system’s perspective, to identify the keys for a nation to be competitive and, as a result, it can develop the capacity to build a more prosperous and solid economy to their inhabitants. 
To confirm our theoretical arguments, the empirical work (multivariable methodology, factor and linear regression) has the aim of studying 55 countries as sample and 28 variables linked to the theory in a period of time ranging from 2000 to 2006. The main source of information was the database of the statistics annual of the business school in Switzerland “IMD”
The main conclusions derived from our research are:
	 The competitiveness and the innovation capacity of the countries is explained by the innovation systems (composed by blocks of companies, education, interactions and technology) and the social capital and government’s policies, basically. With such factors an explanation of the 67.8% on the variance is obtained and at the same time they represent the key factors of the national innovation system.
In the same way, we confirm the three hypothesis that previously were set out:
- H1. There exists a considerably convergence between the models of intellectual capital and the national innovation systems.
- H2. Intangibles, approximated through the national innovation system define the competitiveness capacity of the economy (given by its PIB per capita ppp)
- H3. Intangibles, approximated through the national innovation system define the innovation output of the economy (given by its patents USPTO and EPO per capita).