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A qualitative analysis of intellectual capital in social service non-profit organisations: A theory–practice divide

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Eric Kong  and
Gaby Ramia
Eric Kong
Affiliation:
School of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia
Gaby Ramia
Affiliation:
Graduate School of Government, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
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Abstract

The paper contributes to debates on non-profit strategy, first by arguing that intellectual capital (IC) can be utilised as a non-profit strategic management conceptual framework and second by highlighting nuances in the meaning and significance of IC. In responding to the public management agendas of government, non-profit organisations (NPOs) have had to commercialise their strategies. On the basis of data from in-depth interviews with 35 senior non-profit managers across 22 large Australian social service non-profit organisations (SSNPOs), the analysis confirms that IC assists SSNPOs in managing the social–commercial divide, but that managers' understandings of the IC concept are often different to those contained in the IC literature. IC scholars suggest that IC is synergetic with its components being inter-dependent. The managers perceived that very few inter-relationships existed between IC components. Implications of the theory—practice divide for non-profit strategy are discussed. Research limitations and future research direction are presented in the paper.

Keywords

intellectual capitalsocial service non-profit organisationsnon-profit strategy
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Management & Organization , Volume 16 , Issue 5 , November 2010 , pp. 656 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2010

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