Integrating Big Data and Intellectual Capital: Resource Complementarity in Business Value Creation

Intellectual capital is gaining increasing attention, especially through the adoption of innovative technologies such as big data. Literature has scrutinized the impact of big data and intellectual capital independently and reveals a positive influence on the value of business from their utilization. Nevertheless, relying on the theory of based-view resource and the experience of practitioners in the field, this study proposes that the effects of their complementary and shared utilization should be much bigger. Such a proposal has not been discussed and empirically examined so far. This paper discusses how to deploy big data and intellectual capital concurrently in the framework of accounting and information systems, with a discussion of the interaction of big data and intellectual capital as resources that could pull out the most complementary value for companies and establish a future research agenda.