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The purpose of the paper is to offer some advancing in the understanding of the market-to-book value (MBV) gap (or ratio) as the symptom and the metrics for intellectual capital (IC) value, and to discuss the major criticisms against it. The original contribution of the paper lies in developing the analysis of the meaning of the MBV from a theory-of-the-firm perspective. Such an approach is employed to shed light on the two sides of MBV: book and market values.

The paper reviews research on MBV and the theory of the firm, employing a deductive approach that explores criticisms and advantages of the use of the MBV gap as the symptom and the metrics of IC according to a specific theory of the firm.

The paper finds that the presumption that an “accounting fallacy” exists, which refers to the gap between market and book values, must be revised depending on the chosen theory of the firm. In fact, depending on the theory of the firm to which IC scholars refer, book value could not necessarily equate to market value, even if the latter was unbiased. Again, market value could not be able to express the value of IC.

Implications of the paper are mainly for improving consistency in research, but they also support practice for consciousness and awareness. Limitations are the following. First, the paper offers an analysis of just three selected theories of the firm. Second, the analysis is based on a deductive reasoning that can be criticised for results even if not for the aim. Third, one could feel that an IC-centred theory of the firm does not yet exist at all.

Once reasons for abandoning the misbelief that accounting standards should be set in order to close the gap are highlighted, research on IC can move towards more appropriate goals. On the basis of the criticism presented in the paper, empirical research, which makes use of market and book data, could be carried out in a much more consistent way in relation to theoretical background. The paper highlights how the use of the MBV approach can lead to mistakes without a clear reference to the theory of the firm.

The paper focuses on the meaning of the MBV from a theory-of-the-firm perspective, assisting the researcher in avoiding potential mistakes and inconsistencies in their work, and also suggesting some consequences on the practice of IC.

Purpose – The integration of librarians and technologists to deliver information services represents a new and costly organizational challenge for many library administrators. To understand how to control the costs of integration, this study uses structural contingency theory to study the coordination of librarians and technologists within the information commons.

Design/methodology/approach – This study tests the structural contingency theory expectation that an organization will achieve higher levels of performance when there is a positive relationship between the degree of workflow interdependence and the complexity of coordinative structures necessary to integrate these workflows. This expectation was tested by (a) identifying and collecting a sample of information common; (b) developing and validating survey instruments to test the proposition; and (c) quantitatively analyzing the data to test the proposed contingency theory relationship.

Findings – The contingency theory expectations were confirmed by finding both a positive relationship between coordination and interdependence and a positive relationship between perceptions of performance and degree of congruency between interdependence and coordination.

Limitations – The findings of this study are limited to both the context of an information common and the structures tested. Future research should seek to both broaden the context in which these findings are applicable, and test additional structural relationships as proposed by contingency theory

Practical implications – This study contributes to the library profession in a number of ways. First, it suggests that managers can improve IC performance by matching coordination structures to the degree of interdependence. For instance, when librarians and technologists are strictly co-located, managers should coordinate workflows using less resource-intensive policies rather than meetings. Second, the instruments developed in this study will improve the library manager's ability to measure and report unit interdependence and coordination in a valid and reliable manner. Lastly, it also contributes to the study of structural contingency theory by presenting one of the first empirical confirmations of a positive relationship between interdependence and coordination.

Originality/value – This study represents one of the first empirical confirmations of the structural contingency theory expectations of both a positive relationship between workflow interdependence and coordination, and a positive relationship between performance and coordination's fit to workflow interdependence. These findings are of value to both organizational theorists and to administrators of information commons.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of a critical research perspective in the development of research in the field of intellectual capital (IC) practice.

The paper initiates a reflective discourse about the relevance of contemporary approaches to research and practice in the field of IC and explores the way forward with a view to improving the relevance of IC to academics, practitioners and their organisations.

It is not the intention of this paper to prescribe specific formulae for the measurement, management and reporting of IC, nor further develop theory. It is the intention of the paper to lay the foundations for further discourse on the thinking behind contemporary IC theory and practice.

The limitation of the paper is that it represents the informed opinion of the author and these views may not be shared by other researchers and practitioners. The implications are first that it aligns IC to the current general and economic environment as there is a perceived increase in awareness among stakeholders to manage scarce and intangible resources. Second, by taking a critical approach to IC research it advocates how to develop insights and processes that can help build the recognition and benefits of IC practices.

This paper openly questions the need to develop further IC theory and advocates a way forward by outlining a critical approach to researching and implementing IC in practice.

The purpose of this paper is to answer the question “What are the barriers to the use of IC concepts?” by discussing and critiquing two contemporary grand theories about IC, being market‐to‐book ratios as a representation of IC and that disclosing IC leads to greater profitability.

The paper reviews contemporary IC literature and explores reasons why these grand theories of IC hinder its adoption.

The research finds that these grand theories mislead because they cannot be proven empirically. Therefore, managers should attempt to better understand the possible causal relationships between their people, processes and stakeholders (human, structural and relational capital) rather than adopting someone else's mousetrap.

In order to improve the use of IC concepts they should be examined as differentiation theories of practice that take into account the agent (people) as a unit of analysis, the actual practice of IC and the resultant changes within an organisation, rather than trying to achieve the impossible generalisations of IC grand theories. Researchers need to conduct more critical and performative research into IC rather than ostensive research.

Allows academics and practitioners to understand the barriers to implementing IC in organisations, potentially allowing for the development of better engineered IC practices rather than the development of additional IC models.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the usefulness of referring to a theory of the firm as a way to strongly improve internal consistency in both research and practice. To this end, the paper explores how a theory-of-the-firm perspective can assist in a consistent analysis of IC, focusing on five IC-related issues: the definition and the origins of IC; the set of property rights on IC; its role in the competitive advantage and the value generation process of the firm; the way IC can be valued, including issues relating to the internal and external reporting; and finally the most efficient way to effectively manage and control IC. Analysis is carried out referring to the strengths and weaknesses of the resource-based view (RBV), being the main reference theories for IC scholars and practitioners.

The paper employs a deductive approach to explore how different theories of the firm shape the way IC-related issues could be consistently analysed.

The research finds that referring to a theory of the firm assists investigating IC-related issues. It carries out the analysis of five important issues under the two forms of the RBV, demonstrating how a different theory of the firm differentiates analysis and offers room for improving the internal consistency for both research and practice.

Implications of the paper are mainly for improving consistency in research, but they also support practice as for consciousness and awareness. Limitations are as follows. First, the paper offers an analysis of only two selected theories of the firm. Second, the analysis is based on a deductive reasoning which can be criticised for the results, even if not for the aim.

The paper offer stimuli to both theoretical and empirical research and practice. As for research, the paper highlights how consistency can be developed and also focusses on the way empirical research could be consistently carried out. As for practitioners, the paper assists in enlightening covered links between practice and theories.

The paper pays attention to the role of the theory of the firm, as a way for improving internal consistency in the study and the practice of IC.

This paper aims to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework for interpreting voluntary IC disclosure practices by organizations.

Four most‐commonly used theories in the area, namely agency theory, stakeholder theory, signalling theory, and legitimacy theory, were integrated in terms of the interrelated concepts relating to voluntary IC disclosure.

The constructed theoretical framework includes three concepts: to reduce information asymmetry; to discharge accountability to various stakeholders; and to signal organizational legitimacy and excellence (or superior quality) to society, which are seen as motivations for organizations to disclose their IC on a voluntary basis.

The framework ignores some other theoretical perspectives which are also relevant to voluntary IC disclosure; the framework is not justified by any empirical evidence.

This research is the first attempt to construct a comprehensive theoretical framework for the voluntary disclosure of IC; the constructed framework can be employed as a theoretical foundation for future empirical studies in relation to voluntary IC disclosure.

Intellectual capital (IC) cyber security is a priority in all organizations. Because of the dearth in IC cyber security (ICCS) research theories and the constant call to theory building, this study proposes a theory of ICCS drawing upon tested empirical data of information systems security (ISS) theory in Lebanon.

After a pilot test, the authors tested the newly developed ISS theory using a field study consisting of 187 respondents, representing many industries, thus contributing to generalizability. ISS theory is used as a proxy for the development of ICCS theory.

Based on a review of the literature from the past three decades in the information systems (IS) discipline and a discovery of the partial yet significant relevance of ISS literature to ICCS, this study succinctly summarized the antecedents and independent variables impacting security compliance behavior, putting the variables into one comprehensive yet parsimonious theoretical model. This study shows the theoretical and practical relevancy of ISS theory to ICCS theory building.

This paper highlights the importance of ISS compliance in the context of ICCS, especially in the area of spoken knowledge in environments containing Internet-based security devices.

This research article is original, as it presents the theory of ICCS, which was developed by drawing upon a comprehensive literature review of the IS discipline and finding the bridges between the security of both IS and IC.

The purpose of this paper is to respond to calls to research recognising impediments to innovation practice. The paper argues that decision-making preferences by risk-averse managers are a key impediment to the organisational support required for the commercialisation of new ideas, by exploring the relationship between forms of intellectual capital (IC) and innovation. As a result, categories are derived that contrast with the current grand theory that IC drives innovative practices.

The paper critically examines cross-sectional empirical data gathered through semi-structured interviews with 27 Australian executive managers from leading Australian companies and the public sector. These interviews elicited narratives about successful and unsuccessful innovations where interviewees had significant involvement in the outcome. In all, 54 narratives of innovation from executive managers – 27 successes and 27 failures, were analysed using the repertory grid technique to unearth patterns about the process of innovation, especially in relation to the stability of the business environment and the need for innovation.

The paper finds that successful innovation in a context identified as demonstrating risk-averse decision-making behaviours requires different management approaches, depending on whether the innovation is radical, evolutionary or incremental. The paper discovers 12 different factors contributing to innovation processes and identifies those that are more likely to contribute to the success of innovative endeavours. From this the current grand theory that IC drives innovative practices is challenged by developing an IC-based differentiation theory of innovation practice.

As always, the observations and conclusions reached are limited to the 27 interviews and the Australian context. Further, findings are based on the authors’ objective analysis. As with any qualitative study the authors also caution about generalising the findings, and as with any theory it should be used to develop insights into actions, rather than prescribing them.

For educators it highlights the need to teach students to critique innovation rather than accepting that all innovation is beneficial. For researchers it shows they must avoid success bias by investigating both successful and failed innovations, developing differentiation theories of innovation practice. The findings highlight how senior managers responsible for enabling and resourcing innovation need to develop skills for identifying the innovation type enabled, matching it to an appropriate strategic approach. Finally, for policy makers it shows how different forms of successful innovation require different approaches, and each can be encouraged, developed and enabled differently.

The paper is novel because it addresses the interaction and complexities of the different factors that enable successful innovation and possibly contribute to innovation failures, and the types of innovation relevant to each context. This approach is in contrast to the contemporary innovation literature, which tends to focus on successful radical innovation. As a result, the paper offers a more holistic view of the diverse and interrelated factors that impact innovation success and/or failure.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the drivers for voluntary intellectual capital (IC) reporting based on agency theory. This study responds to calls for critical investigations of IC reporting utilising Goebel’s (2015a) IC measuring approach to investigate the role of IC value and mispricing for IC reporting.

A mandatory management report offers a unique research setting in Germany. The content analysis results of 428 German management reports are used in a regression analysis with leverage, ownership diffusion, IC value and mispricing. Additionally, a propensity score matching approach examines the relationship between IC reporting and IC value.

The regression results show that companies use voluntary IC reporting to encounter mispricing. IC reporting is negatively associated with leverage, whereas ownership diffusion and IC value show no significant results. The propensity score matching approach is also not significant.

This study contributes to strengthening and testing agency theory for IC reporting. As mispricing is identified to play an important role for IC reporting, IC research should account for mispricing.

The findings suggest to reopen a discussion on the declared aims of the German management report and the international integrated reporting model to provide information on value creation, as IC value shows no link to IC reporting.

This study innovatively links IC reporting to IC value and mispricing to investigate drivers for voluntary IC reporting.

This study attempts to formulate an ontological proposition for the intellectual capital (IC) domain. This study is motivated by the debate of contemporary thinking for different IC research streams (IC1‐ostensive versus IC2‐performative) and their different ontological perceptions for IC. The proposed ontological proposition aims to serve the epistemological requirements towards the development of a common accepted generic IC theory.

The formulation of the ontology for the IC domain is based on contemporary tools within the fields of ontology and conceptual modelling. The principal dimensions of the ontology for the IC domain are identified following the directions of the Sowa's generalised theory for ontological frameworks. For each dimension, a generic entity is defined by drawing inferences from disciplines relevant to the contemporary IC inquiry. The relationships between the generic entities are modelled with the semantic representations of General Systems Theory (GST).

This paper provides an answer to the epistemological problem of how to perceive the substance of the IC domain. The derived ontology for the IC domain recognises different IC ontological dimensions that correspond to the IC ontological assumptions of different IC research streams, attempts to associate the IC of an organization with the tangible dimension of the enterprise, and provides conceptual semantics for modelling firm‐specific IC domains under the prism of different epistemological perspectives for IC.

The proposed ontological proposition for the IC domain is an abstract ontology. It might empower researchers with guidelines for systemising the formulation of theoretical propositions and descriptions for their research fields. Yet, as an abstract ontology, it might create difficulty in its practical implementation.

The ontological proposition for the IC domain can contribute towards the debate on the establishment of a common research communicational rationalism within the IC research community for coordinating individual research efforts.