Klaipėdos universitetas

Intellectual capital as a discipline appeared a decade ago as a result of practitioners’ observations proving the need to raise the issue up to the scientific level and management discipline. The history of the new science is very short compared to other fundamentals and what is important it is developing at rocket speed that attracts extensive attention to the field. Intangible assets are major creators of business value and a source of competitive advantage. This statement can be proved by the fact that intangibles represented 87% of the market capitalization of listed companies forming part of the S&P 500 stock-market index in 2015. Moreover, investments in R&D in many cases exceed the profit of the company to ensure long-term progress and business success in the future pioneering in the market. Therefore, innovation leads to investment in the creation of intellectual capital for businesses and provides opportunities for researchers and practitioners. The aim of research is to revise the findings of scientific papers, analysing the evolution of the phenomenon throughout the time span. The findings of the paper present the structure of modern research and the block chain of the research evolution on intellectual capital as well as identify gaps and open questions to analyse.

Intellectual capital (IC) has evolved and excelled as an academic discipline since the early 1990s, and has reached the fourth stage of research. Research was promoted by analysts in companies to understand the value creation process and identify resources required. Investment and spending on IC and value creation analysis have changed a firm’s decisions and impact analysis.