Intellectual Capital, Smart Technologies and Digitalization. Emerging Issues and Opportunities

This volume is promoted by the Italian Association of Scholars in Accounting and Business Administration (SIDREA). It is the result of the joint studies conducted by the research group on Smart Technologies, Digitalization and Intellectual Capital (STEDIC). The SIDREA STEDIC research group is composed of more than one hundred scholars and was born in 2019 with the aims to diffuse and promote the culture of corporate intangibles, among which intellectual capital, smart technolo- gies, and digitalization assume a prominent role. It was a long research journey, which was characterized by strong interaction among scholars and exchange of ideas, and, finally, after two years of study by the research group, this led to the results collected in this volume. This edited book is directed to widely discover emerging issues in intellectual capital, smart technologies, and digitalization landscape. Particularly, this volume aims to investigate in depth all the nuances of the meaning and characteristics of intellectual capital, smart technologies, and digital processes, delving into their interactions and also defining new thrilling research paths and opportunities. In this scenario, the investigation of this multifaceted research topic intends to propose new insights both from a theoretical and from an empirical point of view to scholars, offering new evidence and advancing literature. In recent years, the advent of the digital revolution has emphasized the relevance of the traditional intangible assets and has caused the insurgence of new corporate intangibles through which to achieve competitive advantages and foster value creation. Intangible assets need to be addressed in the perspective of intellectual capital (e.g., human capital, structural capital, and relational capital). Meanwhile, new intangibles follow innovative definitions focusing on smart technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of things, blockchain, big data, and data analytics) and corporate digitalization processes and models. Thus, the motivation for this volume is to fix corporate challenges related to the measurement and management of these traditional and new intangibles, in the current and future scenario. To this aim we have collected qualitative and quantitative studies, theoretically based on the fields of business administration and accounting. Results of this edited book are based on several perspectives of analysis useful for a wide range of readers including the academic community.