Intellectual capital at the crossroads: managing, measuring, and reporting of IC

This introductory editorial to the special issue “IC at the crossroads: theory and research” explains the rationale and background to the studies. In addition it outlines reasons why the field of intellectual (IC) capital is at the crossroads. It seems that awareness of the importance of IC has been created. It is now the role of researchers as well as practitioners to move to the next level. This next level involves issues around taxonomies as well as research methodologies. In order to move on, precise definitions of concepts such as IC, better justifications of why organizations need to measure and manage IC, and increased clarity about terms such as measurement, assessment, or valuation are needed. In addition, more rigorous research methods are needed in order to test and validate existing theories in the field.