Some Unintended Consequences of Metaphors: The Case of Capital in Intellectual Capital Research

The paper focuses on the consequences that the metaphorical use of the concept of capital can generate on research on Intellectual Capital. Consequences here analysed refer to: 1) the understanding of IC as being composed of homogenous and separable units; 2) those that are assets; 3) those expected to be under the proprietorship of someone; and 4) those expressible in monetary terms on the balance sheet. The analysis of consequences also offers some insights into overcoming the capital metaphor in favour of a sharper differentiation between the concepts at the basis of the traditional notion of capital, and the ones at the basis of IC.