The study of intangible capital analysis in economics literature in Scopus sources 1908-2021: The corporate black box unaddressed

Purpose: This paper performs a comprehensive bibliometric investigation of the role of intangible capital in the economics literature and aims to identify unanswered questions and gaps to guide future research. Design/methodology: The systematic literature review concerned with intangible capital employed bibliometric methods, including the obtaining of datasets from reputable article databases (Scopus), dataset preprocessing and refinement of records, construction and visualisation of networks, and analysis and interpretation that among others involved standard descriptive and qualitative analyses. Findings: The study highlights that the economics literature on intangible capital focuses on productivity research on the micro, meso and macro levels by showing how intangibles positively impact productivity. Yet, at the same time the results reveal a gap in understanding the mechanism of transmission or the 'why' and 'how' of the impact. Originality and Value: This study is the first comprehensive bibliometric analysis of intangible capital in economics and complements the earlier limited approaches by conducting a systematic review of research in this area. Further, gaps are identified while the need for deeper understanding of the mechanisms of intangible capital's transmission to productivity is highlighted. Limitations: The overview of the field given means the research is limited by the lack of detailed analysis for each topic determined to be relevant. Still, future research could identify variables of interest and existing causal mechanisms for each issue to explain how intangible capital affects productivity and spillover effects.