Screening and enhancing intellectual capital consistency: A scoping review of systematised literature reviews

Abstract

This scoping review aimed to screen and enhance intellectual capital consistency, providing a general overview of existing systematised literature reviews of intellectual capital. This scoping review addressed five research questions: 1. How did the typology of publications, both theoretical and empirical, evolve considering the different stages of intellectual capital? 2. What are the milestone studies marking the beginning of the five stages of evolution of the intellectual capital framework? 3. How has the intellectual capital construct evolved? 4. What are the main streams of research on intellectual capital and how are they characterised? 5. What are the most relevant topics, gaps, and future trends in the field of intellectual capital? To answer the research questions, a scoping review was conducted following a search of the Web of Science and SCOPUS databases. The final search identified 78 full-text articles, published between 2005 and 2023. The evidence revealed the emergence of new topics and identified 13 clusters. We found evidence of the beginning of the fifth stage around 2018 due to the change in the research paradigm observed in this study and the development of new themes, such as innovation, digitalisation, knowledge, sustainability, and entrepreneurship, contributing to the ecosystem development of cities, regions, and nations. This pioneering scoping review systematised literature reviews about intellectual capital, providing important implications for theory, as it presents paths to follow and relevant indications for the evolving fifth stage of intellectual capital.