Intellectual capital accounting in action: enhancing learning through interventionist research
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14691931311289011 |
| Date | 11 January 2013 |
| Published date | 11 January 2013 |
| Pages | 48-68 |
| Author | Maria Serena Chiucchi |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management |
Intellectual capital accounting
in action: enhancing learning
through interventionist research
Maria Serena Chiucchi
Department of Management, Polytechnic University of the Marche,
Ancona, Italy
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to contribute to understanding how measuring intellectual capital
(IC) can favor IC mobilization, examining the role of actors who design and implement the system in
influencing managers’ IC learning processes and their take up of IC management practices.
Design/methodology/approach – A constructive case study, in which the researcher was directly
involved in measuring IC, is presented. Kolb’s experiential learning theory model examines if and how
the actors mobilized IC and how the researcher and controller influenced their learning process.
Findings – The paper shows that actors must complete an experiential learning cycle to mobilize IC.
The controller’s role is pivotal in promoting IC mobilization, provided he/she experiences a deep
learning process and he/she moves from “IC counting” to “IC accounting.” The paper also highlights
how research intervention contributes to IC mobilization by influencing the actors’ learning process.
Research limitations/implications – The paper is limited to one Italian company, so the results
cannot be generalized; they were influenced by the researcher’s “strong” interventionist approach and
by the model adopted.
Practical implications – Companies introducing IC will become aware of barriers and levers to
measuring and mobilizing IC, thus enabling them to devise strategies to avoid the former and take
advantage of the latter.
Originality/value – The experiential learning theory model offers an alternative way of
understanding how IC measurement produces effects and how the controller and researcher can
influence the managers’ IC learning journey thus contributing to mobilization of IC.
Keywords Intellectual capital, Interventionist research, Case studies, Learning cycle, Controller,
Italy, Accounting
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Intellectual capital (IC) accounting has catalyzed the interest of the academic and
practice communities over the last two decades. During this period, research has
passed through three stages whereby the focus has changed from raising awareness
and theory building to “critically” investigating IC by challenging the taken-
for-granted assumptions that have taken hold over the years (Dumay, 2009a; Guthrie
et al., 2012). In particular, despite the proliferation of IC measurement and reporting
frameworks, their use is not so widespread in practice (Dumay, 2009b, pp. 492-93).
This raises the question of whether and how measuring IC can help to realize the
benefits usually attributed to IC. Consequently, research has been directed toward
investigating, through a bottom-up performative approach, how measuring and
reporting IC is able to mobilize actions towards managing IC, thus realizing its
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/1469-1930.htm
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 14 No. 1, 2013
pp. 48-68
rEmeraldGroup Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/14691931311289011
The author would like to thank Dr John C. Dumay for his insightful and critical comments,
Professor Stefano Marasca, Polytechnic University of the Marche, for his suggestions and the
anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on the paper.
48
JIC
14,1
potential (Chaharbaghi and Cripps, 2006; Mouritsen, 2006; O’Donnell et al., 2006;
Dumay, 2009a,b; Mouritsen and Roslender, 2009).
This paper focusses attention on the role played by the actors who “champion”
IC and “speak on its behalf” (in this case, the researcher and the controller) by guiding
the design and implementation of its measurement to ascertain how it can influence
managers’ IC learning process, thus favoring or hindering the mobilization of
IC in practice. This phenomenon is investigated by presenting a constructive case
study about the design and implementation of an IC measurement system within
an Italian company.
The case findings are analyzed using Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT),
which effectively describes the learning process that managers go through when IC is
introduced in a company: first they must build their own meaning of IC by reflecting on
it and on what it does, in order to gain insights on how they can mobilize IC. Kolb’s
model portrays learning “as an idealized lear ning cycle or spiral where the learner
‘touches all the bases’ – experiencing, reflecting, thinking, and acting – in a recursive
process that is responsive to the learning situation and what is being lear ned” (Kolb
and Kolb, 2005, p. 194).
The paper contributes to the extan t IC literature by critically analyzing how those
who guide the design and implementation of an IC measurement system can play
a determinative role that goes beyond merely defining the technical aspects of
the system by encouraging the take up of IC management practices. The study
explores how actors can intervene based on their alignment with different stages of
the experiential learning process (ELP) and how they “make a difference” when
mobilizing IC.
From a practice perspective, the paper focusses attention on mana gers’ ELP, on the
barriers that impede IC development and the strategies devised to overcome them, and
on the levers adopted to activate and re-activate the learning process at different stages
of implementing IC accounting practices. Thus, the case findings could be useful when
measuring IC in order to make implementing IC more effective and to bring about
desired organizational changes.
The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents the literature review and the
research question. Section 3 outlines the theory and the method chosen to address
the issues at stake. Section 4 gives a brief description of the case organization, while
Sections 5 and 6 present the empirical evidence from the interventionist case study in
the two temporal phases of the project corresponding to two different phases in the
managers’ ELP. Section 7 discusses the case findings and offers conclusions.
2. Litera ture review
Mouritsen (2006) fostered the adoption of the performative approach in studying IC.
This implies moving away from the ostensive idea that IC has a predefined essence and
that it is possible to identify a priori the form and functions of IC and its role within an
organization or to discover the formula through which IC is connected to value
creation. Instead, the performative approach assumes that “IC is strongly str uctured in
individual site-use where it gains its particular identity or role and thus has the ability
to make a difference via its associations with other entities that are part of the specific
site, e.g. a firm” (Mouritsen, 2006, p. 826). In other words, IC is given a meaning in the
specific situation in which it is applied and where its elements are allowed to do certain
things that are context-specific. Therefore, attention is focussed on how organizational
actors develop value by drawing on IC.
49
Intellectual
capital
accounting
To continue reading
Request your trial