Intellectual Capital dynamics: seeing them “in practice” through a temporal lens

The purpose of this study is to observe Intellectual Capital (IC) dynamics “in practice” through a temporal lens by considering IC as an on-going process, and thus taking into consideration its life cycle and how it changes over time.

A longitudinal case study has been investigated by adopting a participant observation approach to understand how the dynamics of IC are understood in practice.

This study spotlights three main conceptions of IC dynamics (value creation, IC activities and organizational change) which, although generally proposed in literature as separable concepts, do co-exist and interact, in practice as is reflected in the related managerial tools.

The main limitations of this study are twofold. The first is related to the methodology adopted and in particular, to the participant observation approach. The second is related to the specifics of the case study undertaken. This paper contributes to the literature on “Intellectual Capital in action” and “Intellectual Capital in practice” by enriching the understanding of IC dynamics.

By comparison to the extant literature in which the IC dynamics concepts are considered separately, this study combines the three different concepts and examines them in vivo, adopting a longitudinal perspective.