Theories of Chemistry and Physics Applied to Developing an Economic Theory of Intellectual Capital

Successful entrepreneurs employ a variety of assets with the objective of seeking unusually high returns on invested financial capital. Intellectual entrepreneurs effectively use some intangible factors, like intellectual capital, to reach impressive results. Each asset employed by entrepreneurs involves a category of capital. Capital, in its sense of being used to do something is analogous to a property in physical science that is labelled as ‘energy’.

Energy is often defined as the capacity to do work. And thermodynamics is a field in which the applications of energy and heat are thoroughly studied. Thermodynamics provides a useful analogy for understanding intellectual capital. Intellectual capital is best described as a low entropic component involving both the human mind and human spirit in will-directed actions that forms a special quality of intellectual entrepreneurship. The second law of thermodynamics is a key to understanding the properties of energy and is used as a prime analogy for understanding capital and its theories. More

Mieczyslaw Dobija
Cracow University of Economics