Beyond reason: the utility of narrative in advancing the management of intellectual capital

The use of narrative in the intellectual capital (IC) literature has been espoused as providing the rationalisation for organisations’ forays in to IC practice. This identified as a narrow view which prompts a fuller investigation of the utility of narrative in relation to IC. To argue this point, three case studies are summarised. Each offers a different analysis of the utility of narrative from an IC perspective. The first two cases take a structuralist view of IC in action. The first identifies that IC narrative offers the opportunity to understand the impact of IC over time. The second concludes that narrative extends beyond offering the ‘raison d’être’ and becomes the ‘modus operandi’. The third case uses narrative in an interpretive approach to understanding the complex interactions between IC elements and value creation. The overarching conclusion of the paper is to identify how narrative allows insights into IC in action in a way that numbers alone cannot.