Global brain-reflective accounting practices. Forms of intellectual capital contributing to value creation and sustainable development
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-01-2019-0016 |
| Pages | 733-762 |
| Date | 15 November 2019 |
| Published date | 15 November 2019 |
| Author | Khaldoon Al-Htaybat,Khaled Hutaibat,Larissa von Alberti-Alhtaybat |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Global brain-reflective
accounting practices
Forms of intellectual capital contributing to
value creation and sustainable development
Khaldoon Al-Htaybat
Department of Accounting, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Khaled Hutaibat
Mutah University, Karak, Jordan, and
Larissa von Alberti-Alhtaybat
Prince Mohammad Bin Salman College of Business and Entrepreneurship,
King Abdullah Economic City, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersection of accounting practices and new
technologies in the age of agility as a form of intellectual capital, through sharing the conceptualization and
real implications of accounting and accountability ideas in exploring and deploying new technologies, such as
big data analytics, blockchain and augmented accounting practices and expounding how they constitute new
forms of intellectual capital to support value creation and realise Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Design/methodology/approach –The adopted methodology is cyber-ethnography, which investigates
online practices through observation and discourse analysis, reflecting on new business models and practices,
and how accounting relates to these developments. The global brain sets the conceptual context, which
reflects the distributed network intelligence that is created through the internet.
Findings –The main findings focus on various developments of accounting practice that reflect, utilise or
support digital companies and new technologies, including augmentation, big data analytics and blockchain
technology, as new forms of intellectual capital, that is knowledge and skills within organisations, that have
the potential to support value creation and realise SDGs. These relate to and originate from the global brain,
which constitutes the umbrella of tech-related intellectual capital.
Originality/value –This paper determines new developments in accounting practices in relation to new
technologies, due to the continuous expansion and influence of the intelligence of the collective network, the
global brain, as forms of intellectual capital, contributing to value creation, sustainable development and the
realisation of SDGs.
Keywords Sustainable development, Value creation, Intellectual capital, Blockchain, Augmented reality,
Global brain ‒distributed network
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Technology has significantly been altering our lifestyle and life concepts, impacting on the
workplaceand the private space, creating alternative realitiesthat we can operate within, such
as a “real, or analog”and a “virtual and digital”reality.Rapid change is a significant element of
these developme nts (Bonilla et al., 2018). Also, new generations, such as Gen Y and Gen Z,
consider speed an important work achievement ( Barac et al., 2016). What is generically referred
to as new technologies encompasses a wide variety of practices and artefacts that support,
actively create and connect the various realities we can experience in different contexts.
Connectivity isone of the most important characteristics of new technologies (Barac et al.,
2016), and thegrowing network, which they formand are part of, is one of the most important
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 20 No. 6, 2019
pp. 733-762
© Emerald PublishingLimited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-01-2019-0016
Received 19 January 2019
Revised 12 June 2019
Accepted 7 August 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
The project was funded by the Deanship of Scientific Research (DSR), King Abdulaziz University,
Jeddah, under Grant No. (DF-064-120-1441). The authors, therefore, gratefully acknowledge DSR
technical and financial support.
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Global brain-
reflective
accounting
practices
features of recent technological developments. Such new technologies include Internet of
Things (IoT), cyber-physical systems (CPSs), Internet of Services (IoS), blockchain and big
data analytics (BDA), as well as various applications related to social media, augmented and
virtual realities (Bonilla et al., 2018). The total connectivity concept is the underlying
foundation for the global brain, which ultimately refers to different types of technologies
connecting through the internet and creating a network of all users who communicateacross
the world. The global brain is adopted, as it reflects the fourth stage of intellectual capital
research, which focusses on the eco-systems in which such capital is created and utilised
(Dumay and Garanina, 2013; Dumay, 2016). In particular, the current study seeks to
investigate these new forms of intellectual capitals in support of megatrends, such as
organisational value creation and contribution to realise the Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs) (Adams, 2017) and manage sustainability, in general (Massaro et al., 2018). The
definition of intellectual capital adopted in the current study refers to the sum of knowledge
existing within anorganisation that provides the competitive edge and can beused to create
value (Dumay, 2016). Value creation is consideredin terms of Dumay’s (2016) types of value:
monetary (primaryvalue), utility (usefulness of goodsand services provided for stakeholders
and in terms of generating monetary value), social (benefit to society in general) and
sustainable (cornerstone of fourth stage, also reflected in SDGs). The SDGs refer to the 2030
Agenda proposed by the United Nations to improve various conditions through achieving
seventeen goals (Bebbington and Unerman, 2018). Current and future generations should
ideally benefitfrom sustainability initiatives both at societaland at organisational levels, and
both Gen Y and Gen Z place significant emphasis on sustainability and societal benefits.
Furthermore, achieving sustainable value creation is “mandatory”at this point in order to
remedy current societal and planetary concerns (Hutton and Cox, 2010).
New technologies matter with regard to both megatrends, as they have given rise to new
business models and practices, disrupting existing models, delivering instant, intimate,
frictionless value on a large scale and focusing more on delivering value for customers and
other stakeholders. For instance, long-term value creation is supported through growth and
management of knowledge (Massingham et al., 2019). Furthermore, these can also be applied
to accountingpractice, for instancethe blockchain, as willbe discussed in this study’sfindings.
Such technologies also constitute a significantsource of competitive advantage for both large
and small organisations, which is also manifested in the collective knowledge, that is the
intellectualcapital, of organisations (Badia et al., 2019; Torres et al., 2018). Based on academic
consensus, intellectual capital can be divided into human, relational and structural capital
(Abhayawansa et al., 2019). Technology that supports any of these elements of intellectual
capital, therefore, sustains intellectual capital (Abhayawansa et al., 2019). Thus, knowledge
created through and contained in new technologies creates a significant competitive
advantagethrough intellectual capital for the respective organisation, which results in desired
value creation and sustainable development. Both are important elements, of these new
business models, which can successfully counteract disruption (Denning, 2016; Verdin and
Tackx, 2015), and technology has been at the forefront of these developments.
These new business models are based on agility, through connecting everyone and everything,
everywhere, all the time working in small teams in short cycles, through networked organisational
arrangements rather than top‒down bureaucracy and silos (Denning, 2017). Agility is understood
as “the ability to detect and seize market opportunities with speed and surprise”(Gupta and
Bharadwaj, 2013, p. 370) and, in addition, the ability to respond to unexpected change (Denning,
2018). It, therefore, is unplanned and unscheduled adaptation to unforeseen and unexpected
external circumstances (Goranson, 1999; Denning, 2018). Thus, management practice is being
redefined for these new business models to be agile, responsive and able to change on short notice,
thus executing multiple strategies concurrently and leading in unpredictable and uncertain
contexts (Al-Htaybat and von Alberti-Alhtaybat, 2017; Michelman, 2016).
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