Intellectual Capital and Organizational Information Systems

In a world whose attribute of intangibility is getting more and more pronounced, intellectual capital has become a key component for the growth of a successful enterprise. However, there is still no generally accepted definition of this concept. Numerous researchers have analyzed the content of this notion, but its epistemological perimeter varies from one thinker to another. Therefore, we consider a conceptual overview of intellectual capital to be of crucial importance for the identification of its primary components and the development of reliable management models within the major schools of thought. Intellectual capital has not been included in the traditional accounting models of recognition and evaluation based on historical costs and balance sheet capitalization. However, this is not a valid reason to think of intellectual capital exclusively as a cost of the economic activity. Its real value and its contribution to the global performance of an entity have been the subject of several surveys among corporate shareholders, financial analysts and bankers, who strongly believe in the necessity of disclosing such information. An effort towards the mapping of intellectual capital should provide crucial information on the value creation sources of an enterprise, which are in a strong connection with the strategic vision of the management. For all these reasons, a critical consideration of several recognition and measurement models for intellectual capital is definitely timely and relevant. If we accept the hypothesis that organizational performance is intimately link with the proliferation of intangibles and specialized knowledge, then intellectual capital should be treated as a peer for human or financial capital. However, the use of intellectual capital is not as straightforward as the employment of other types of capital. The dedicated literature suggests the idea that the optimal use of intangibles is only possible in the presence of certain information systems, along with their special infrastructures, networks, databases and market valuation models. Consequently, the study of intellectual capital implies the study of the qualitative attributes of enterprise information systems, in the context of these systems' contribution to value creation and economic growth. As the literature on intellectual capital and intangible value creation is both deep and vast, our contribution will provide a synthesis of the main conceptual frameworks that deal with the link between value creation, intangible recognition and corporate information systems.