Intellectual capital statements in the Danish utility sector: materialisation and enactment

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how three similar utility companies have adopted intellectual capital statements as a management technology, incorporated it into existing practices, developed and adapted it.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on ethnomethodology using accounts where the data collection was mainly through semi‐structured interviews with practitioners. The analysis is based on the actor network theory where the idea of an intellectual capital statement is enacted and materialised.Findings – The paper finds that the local context and the local actors have a decisive influence on the network creation taking place around the intellectual capital statement as an object, where the objects create room for different actions. It is concluded that the intellectual capital statement in the companies functions as a conceptual framework where existing initiatives can be integrated into a whole. Further, it is concluded that an actor with a strong position is necessary in ord...