The impact of Smart Technologies and Digitalization on Intellectual Capital

The value creation potential of IC and intangible assets is acquiring a crucial role within the modern economies, especially in crisis situations and in highly competitive environments (Flamholtz & Hua, 2003), where information and knowledge represent one of the key drivers for value creation (Esposito & Ricci, 2014) and the acquisition of a lasting competitive advantage (Del Giudice et al., 2013; Murray et al., 2016). The rise of the fourth industrial revolution and the increasing social connectivity have the ability to change the way in which companies interact with their customers, employees, suppliers and partners, and is forcing companies to face new challenges. Industry 4.0 and its related technologies (the purported smart technologies) can thus exert a significant impact on IC (Edvinsson, 2013; Borin & Donato, 2015). By means of a structured lietarture review, this chapter aims at investigating how smart technologies impact on IC management as a whole and how digitalization can influence the individual components of IC.