A critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital: from reporting to disclosure
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a personal critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital (IC) based on my experience as an IC researcher, author, editor, teacher and practitioner.
Design/methodology/approach
Offers a first-hand reflection on the future of IC, using evidence collected from IC in the field and the author’s personal reflections.
Findings
I argue that the authors need to abandon reporting and instead concentrate on how an organisation discloses what “was previously secret or unknown”, so that all stakeholders understand how an organisation takes into consideration ethical, social and environmental impacts in keeping with an eco-systems approach to IC.
Research limitations/implications
While much of the empirical evidence presented in this paper is freely available to all scholars, the interpretation and findings is subjective. Other researchers, given the same opportunity and evidence, may not necessarily make the same conclusions.
Social implications
We are now on the cusp of the fourth stage of IC research (Dumay, 2013), whereby IC expands its boundaries into the wider eco-system, to “go beyond IC reporting” (Edvinsson, 2013, p. 163).
Originality/value
Offers a critical review of the impact of IC reporting which is relevant to consider because of the newfound resurging interest in IC, based on the current push for integrated reporting ( < IR > ), which arguably contains IC information targeted at investors.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper uses the author ' s plenary speech to close the 10th Interdisciplinary EIASM Workshop on “Intangibles, IC and Extra-Financial Information”, University of Ferrara (Italy), 18-19 September 2014 as its basis. The author thanks the conference organisers, especially Professor Stefano Zambon, for his support and the opportunity to present challenging ideas to the IC community. Thanks also to the conference participants for their feedback and constructive critique of the ideas presented in this paper and to Fiona Crawford of the Editorial Collective for her sterling editorial work.
Citation
Dumay, J. (2016), "A critical reflection on the future of intellectual capital: from reporting to disclosure", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 17 No. 1, pp. 168-184. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-08-2015-0072
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited