Guest editorial
| Pages | 141-143 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-03-2020-284 |
| Published date | 08 June 2020 |
| Date | 08 June 2020 |
| Author | Karen Renaud |
| Subject Matter | Organizational structure/dynamics,HR & organizational behaviour,Accounting/accountancy,Knowledge management,Behavioural accounting |
Guest editorial
Exploring research at the intersection of intellectual capital and cyber
security
In 1983, Peter Russell presciently described the world as a global brain with an increasing
number of connection networks and nodes. Dumay and Edvinsson (2013) mention Russell’s
description, and point out that the Internet now connects around five billion brains,
integrating knowledge work across the globe. They also argue that knowledge is essentially a
“social process”meaning that the interconnections facilitated by the Internet are crucial in
expediting organizational knowledge flow. Knowledge is an organizational asset that
contributes to organizational value (Sen, 2019). To capture the dimensions of this knowledge
asset within organizations, the term intellectual capital (IC) was coined, and is described by
Choong as “the result of the network effect of utilizing various intellectual, human, capital and
organizational resources.”(Choong, 2008, p. 616).
Choong (2008) explains that IC is composed of (1) human capital, (2) structural capital and
(3) relational capital. Rastogi (2002) adopts a knowledge-centric perspective of IC, defining it
as an organization’s“knowledge management nexus”.Dal Mas (2019) explains that IC
research has been characterized by “waves”. Researchers in the first wave sought to arrive at
a shared terminology for IC and its components. The second wave then focused on the
measurement, management and reporting of IC. The third wave is characterized by studies
into IC “in context”, examining managerial considerations. Dal Mas reports that a recently
emergent fourth wave widens IC’s perspective beyond organizations to the wider society. One
societal area that has recently come to the fore is the interplay between IC and cyber Security
(Renaud et al., 2019).
Cyber breaches occur with such frequency that they hardly cause a ripple on our collective
consciousness. The successes of cyber criminals belie the serious efforts governments and
researchers are undertaking to remedy this situation. While technical security measures have
improved a great deal over the last few years, insecure human behavior still constitutes
something of a challenge. The humans in question inhabit a variety of roles: ranging from the
average computer users to the software developer, the person who maintains organizational
systems and also managers who resource information security activities within their
organizations.
This special issue contributes to the fourth wave of research into IC, mentioned by
Dal Mas (2019), bringing together two important and crucial fields impacting businesses
across the globe: intellectual capital and cyber security.
We received a total of 21 submissi ons for this special issue, and ac cepted eight (38%).
Two of the eight specifically address privacy-related beh aviors, with four tackling human
security-related behavioral as pects. These papers can be linked to th e human component
of IC. Ferguson et al.’s paper uses a justic e theory lens to propose folding ethi cal
considerations into tradition al digital forensics investi gation frameworks. The final p aper
is conceptual in nature, roundi ng off this special issue by leading us to question our
stances when it comes to the security ceremonies people engage in, and the impact of
society on these. This editori al commenced by arguing that knowledge is a social process.
The final paper focuses our attenti on on how cyber activities are impac ted by cultural
and societal context, and li nks to relational aspect of IC. The structural compone nt of IC is
implicit in these papers, as an essential facilitator of commu nication and knowledge
sharing.
Guest editorial
141
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 21 No. 2, 2020
pp. 141-143
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-03-2020-284
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