Building causal maps in the intellectual capital domain: A methodological perspective

This chapter aims to examine the role that causal maps can play in the development of research in the Intellectual Capital (IC) domain and the methodologies that can be used to build these maps for representing IC dynamics. The chapter shows that causal maps are useful for visualizing, understanding and managing IC, for making sense of and using IC performance indicators according to the organizational strategy of IC creation and development and for grasping the temporal dimensions of IC (dynamics, pace, succession and time-lags). The chapter also describes how IC casual maps can be designed according to quantitative or qualitative approaches, and adopting a retrospective or prospective approach, according to the purpose of the map and the available data.