Global brain-reflective accounting practices: Forms of intellectual capital contributing to value creation and sustainable development

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.

Citation

Al-Htaybat, K., Hutaibat, K. and von Alberti-Alhtaybat, L. (2019), "Global brain-reflective accounting practices: Forms of intellectual capital contributing to value creation and sustainable development", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 733-762. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-01-2019-0016