Intellectual Capital For 21st Century Business Contemporary Thoughts And Futuristic Thrust

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to roll out a cognitive map spotlighting the quintessence of the valuable information in contemporary IC literature of how IC has been historically and currently vital.  It also aims to give the fundamental frameworks against the backdrop of today‘s strategic concepts used in business and industry.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the seminal literature of IC to be a theoretical framework.

Findings – The findings show that IC has been a catalyst in the lives of people and business since time immemorial. This is at the core of   contemporary business occupying the centre stage in 21^st century organizations synergizing business models and practices. Hence, its comprehension and robust application  by all concerned in terms of its definitions, elements, frameworks, measurement models   are indispensable and imperative.

Research limitations/implications – The review is limited to scholarly peer-reviewed,   referred international journals   published before August 2013.

Practical implications – IC is an area of interest to numerous parties, including managers, accountants and accounting firms, shareholders, individual and institutional investors, regulators, analysts, technologists, scholars, board of directors, corporate executives, policymakers and other stakeholders. IC can equip them to formulate effective strategies to discover blue oceans and stay ahead of Strategic Inflection Points (SIP), a fact of life in the 21^st century going by recessions, political upheavals and the political and economic balance of power among nation states.  This paper serves as a useful reference on the evolution of IC and the concepts for application to business and management.

Originality/value – The study examines the why, what and how of IC.  Existing strategy literature   rarely connects the different IC dimensions and points out their interdependencies with a line of sight with business strategy and execution.   This overarching perspective knitting the past-present-future horizon helps to integrate the different dimensions of IC to formulate and execute strategy by organizations.