As my term as the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intellectual Capital draws to a close, I want to reflect on these past years and express my profound gratitude to some of the many individuals who made this a rich experience.
We have witnessed a maturation of the intellectual capital research published in our esteemed journal in recent years, which aligns with emerging managerial principles that have re-imagined how to create and sustain value. The evolution of the field, chronicled in several scientometric studies, such as Dabić et al. (2021), has been noteworthy. Arising from an accounting perspective that sought to assign a monetary value to the residual of a firm's total market capitalization minus its book value (what we once called “good will”) – the intrinsic (nonfinancial) value of the firm – intellectual capital was merely considered an intangible asset of a publicly traded company. But our modern conceptualization of this research domain relates more to the phenomena of value creation and maintenance. The field now comprises the study of the processes and outcomes of managerial decisions and actions that have given rise to some of the most valuable companies in the world. This intellectual capital is attributable to the knowledge, innovation, relationships, and other factors that give an organization its “real value.” Intellectual capital defines the capacity of the company to acquire knowledge, innovate, and transform by a collective approach. It enables the design of social innovation capital (McElroy, 2002), involving the capacity for innovation for and by the community in a sustainable way. Because so much of a firm's value is now embodied in intangible elements, emerging information security threats have introduced a new strategic vulnerability, worthy of practical and scholarly attention.
The socio-technical systems, along with the organization's tacit knowledge (often difficult to formalize and digitize), have been developed by innovative organizations that foster the rapid growth of knowledge resources. This has introduced a new rule book for dynamic explosive new capabilities and affordances of technologies such as AI, robotics, and digital twins. In our lifetime, these emerging systems and technologies have dramatically altered the lives of everyone.
These processes, including creative efforts, leadership, coordination/collaboration, and protection of intellectual resources, have ushered in a new age of corporate giants and also a new opportunity for meaningful and practical research to explore and expand these important phenomena. Modern intellectual capital research spans a much wider domain of research, and I am thrilled to see new research topics and new research methods take hold in our journal. Intellectual capital research has grown beyond accounting and now encompasses managerial and technological areas of research and is now applied to understanding the role of government, the value of regional cooperation, relationship management, and information security.
I am excited to see how the developments of artificial intelligence will disrupt existing corporate value creation platforms. We could not have fully anticipated what we are now witnessing, and the current wave of innovation will undoubtedly introduce new paradigms of firm value creation. What a thrilling time to be an observer and participant of such noteworthy changes to our companies, their employees, and their customers.
Change has come to our journal as well! It has also been rewarding to see the journal grow and gain increased recognition for its scholarly rigor and impact on academia. Our editorial metrics offer evidence that we are increasingly seen as a valuable source of research results to inform our knowledge in this area.
I am so grateful to all the global scholars who submitted their work, to my wonderful Editorial Review Board members, and especially to the wonderful group of associate editors and Managing Editor Dr Veronica Scuotto for the generous and professional support they have provided to me during these last 8 years as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Intellectual Capital. Together, we have strengthened our journal as we have also grown it from a quarterly to a bimonthly and increased participation from scholars around the world. I look forward to many years of continued success for the journal.
Editor-in-Chief, 2018–2025
