The purpose of this paper is to argue that the kind of variety among firms that is a condition for economic progress is fundamentally based on the intellectual capital (IC) of each firm.
The theoretical analysis is illustrated with case study findings from the Finnish games industry.
The firm heterogeneity essential for the development of a knowledge‐intensive industry cannot be accurately captured with the concepts “routines” or “dynamic capabilities”. Instead, IC should be adopted for this purpose as it emphasises the skills, actions and determination of people and their interactions, thus capturing the uniqueness of each firm.
Case study findings from other knowledge‐intensive industries would be needed to make the argument more general.
Papers approaching IC from the industry‐level have been scarce, likewise papers tying IC to the evolutionary theory of economic change.
