The Relationship Between Intellectual Capital and Information Technology: Findings Based on a Systematic Review

The world is experiencing a knowledge-based economy with a revolution in information technology, innovation, and telecommunications. The rise of the "new economy", driven by information and knowledge, has led to an increased interest in intellectual capital theory, which aims to manage intangible assets of organizations. Firms belonging to technology and knowledge-based industries recognize intellectual capital as the key knowledge base that contributes to the creation of a competitive advantage for the firm. This paper aims to answer the question "How are Intellectual Capital (IC) and Information Technology (IT) related?" through a systematic review based on four steps: 1) search conduction; 2) selection of papers based on their titles and abstracts; 3) content analysis of selected papers; 4) evidence mapping and discussions. The analyzed papers were categorized into five themes: "Statistical analysis or case study in IT companies from the Intellectual Capital perspective"; "IT as a tool for Intellectual Capital Management"; "Intellectual Capital or technology knowledge assets influencing innovation and development", "Intellectual Capital assets to evaluate a technology" and "Intellectual Capital theory as a way to understand and share knowledge in IT projects". Our findings evidenced that the Human Capital was the main dimension studied by the authors, followed by Structural Capital and Relational Capital. We believe that this work may help to clarify on Intellectual Capital Management procedures into Information Technology projects, thus opening new topics for future research.