Investigating the barriers to IC measurement through Sociology of Worth: a case study

This paper aims to answer the call for analyzing IC practices from a critical and performative perspective by investigating the barriers to the use of IC measurement tools and, as a consequence, to the spread of IC practices. The paper presents a single in-depth case study in which the theoretical framework of Sociology of Worth (SOW) is used to detect the hindering factors which prevented the use of IC information for managerial purposes within the analyzed company. SOW helps to focus attention on how IC and its measures became objects of dispute, on the different “worlds” (values and beliefs) underpinning the justifications used by actors to defend their points of view and finally, on how the disputes were either ended, through compromises, or were left unsolved. In the case studied, compromises, referred to IC and its measures, revealed themselves to be temporary: once reached, they were broken, re-crafted, broken again and ultimately, the disputes remained unsolved. This was due to a clash between different actors’ “worlds”, where there was radical disagreement over the values and beliefs supposed to be relevant to interpreting IC and its measures. The paper shows that the mindset actors use to understand and interpret IC and its measures can play a central role in hindering or enabling their use. The findings can support companies in enabling IC management practices, by contributing to creating the conditions for overcoming the barriers to the use of IC information.