The Value Evolution

Abstract

Intellectual capital (IC) and intangibles offer a possible pathway for reconciling our business and economic models in an environment of global interdependencies, environmental concern and larger social responsibility. However, the most common intellectual capital frameworks still operate within a traditional view of the enterprise that limits the type of business and economic analysis that might be. Realizing the larger impact of the IC and intangibles perspective requires expanding potential value domains to include: business relationships; human competence; internal structures; social citizenship; environmental health and corporate identity. An expanded view of value allows us to begin redefining value to understand knowledge and intangible benefits as currency in their own right and attend to more types of value exchange. At the macro‐economic level this new thinking allows us to more fully appreciate intangible assets such as the social fabric of a country, healthy ecosystems, and previously unseen social and economic contributions.