An Epistemology of Intellectual Capital and its Transition to a Practical Application

Abstract

Organization requirements for survival evolve reflective of the environment in which they exist. It has been theorized the organizational tool for survival of the 21st century is intellectual capital. As with new concepts the transition from theory to practical implementation is not without challenges. Intellectual capital struggles with transitioning into the world of business. This chapter includes a limited study of organizations in the Midwestern United States whose executives espouse a valuation of their organizations’ intellectual capital but have not bridged the gap from the theoretical understanding of intellectual capital to the practical documentation of their organizational intellectual capital in practice. This finding illustrates an estrangement between the academic field of theory and the practical implementation in the organizations.