INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL: AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL APPROACH

For more than 40 years, the concept of intellectual capital (IC) occupies the headlines of the researches developed in both technological and social areas. Little by little, it captures the attention of both practitioners and academics, and it evolves from the individual level to the organizational one; it switches from being a human behavior to describing an organizational capability. Just like knowledge, it crosses individual's boundaries and it floods in all the activities in which people are involved. According to the first theories, which followed an informative or inductive approach, IC is born at individual level where is labeled as "internal capital" and then through cooperation, collaboration and organizational processes its abstract content which is entitled as "external capital" is developed. Against this backdrop, IC becomes to be a valuable asset for the policymakers from both private and public sector. Therefore, its boundaries are extended to the regional and even national level. Despite these, the field is still in an embryonic phase of development; so far, there is no general accepted framework for its analysis; new dimensions are identified, new variables are brought forward, new indicators are used and new models are being developed on regular basis. Considering these, we aim to analyze the concept of "intellectual capital" from an epistemological approach. In order to achieve our goal, we develop an exploratory research and employ a qualitative analysis. Based on inductive reasoning and interpretative endeavor, we emphasize that the studies developed by now are either dominated by an inductive approach or by an integrative one. No matter the level of analysis, most of the researches focus on an empirical or integrative approaches, and neglect the value-added generated by the hermeneutical, rational or mystical approaches. These highlight a powerful need for capturing the unseen and labeling it in a number format. Besides, there is a lack of skeptical and interpretative perspectives. Finally yet importantly, the previous models concentrate on using a static approach although IC is based on knowledge, which is a dynamic and fluid resource.