Abstract
This paper is examines the question "What are the barriers to mainstream use of IC concepts?" by discussing and critiquing two contemporary grand-theories about IC being market-to-book ratios as a representation of IC and disclosing IC leads to greater profitability. The paper also explores reasons why the theories hinder the take-up of IC concluding that these theories mislead because they cannot be proven empirically. Therefore, managers should attempt to better understand the possible causal relationships between their people, processes and stakeholders (human, structural and relational capital) which work for them rather than adopting someone else's mousetrap. Thus, in order to improve the use of IC concepts they should be examined as differentiation theories of practice which take into account the agent (people) as a unit of analysis, the actual practice of IC and the resultant changes within an organisation: rather than trying to achieve the impossible generalisations of IC grand-theories.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 7th International conference on intellectual capital, knowledge management & organisational learning |
| Editors | Eric Tsui |
| Place of Publication | United Kingdom |
| Publisher | Academic Publishing International |
| Pages | 146-153 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781906638856 |
| Publication status | Published - 2010 |
| Event | International conference on intellectual capital, knowledge management & organisational learning (7th : 2010) - Hong Kong Duration: 11 Nov 2010 → 12 Nov 2010 |
Conference
| Conference | International conference on intellectual capital, knowledge management & organisational learning (7th : 2010) |
|---|---|
| City | Hong Kong |
| Period | 11/11/10 → 12/11/10 |
Keywords
- intellectual capital
- market-to-book ratios
- grand-theory
- disclosure
- causal relationships
- differentiation theories of practice