The emerging Optional Capital View: understanding how the co-mobilization of knowledge capital, social capital and institutional capital creates value

Purpose This work develops a novel model, which integrates different research traditions on the intangible resources and capabilities of organizations. We elaborate the construct of optional capital, viewed as the expected outcome of a successful mobilization of the other intangibles. Optional capital measures the (i) sustainability and (ii) potential benefits of the latent capabilities, i.e. the further primary capabilities that the organization has the opportunity to develop and that, although possibly useless at present, may become crucial in the future. We argue that the organizations with a better optional capital portfolio are likely to display higher levels of organizational resilience and long-term competitive excellence in turbulent business environments.Design/methodology/approach - We develop the Optional Capital View (OCV) on the basis of a qualitative research exploring the Italian community of the Contratti di Rete (business network contracts). This community addresses today's turbulent economic scenario through innovative business networking. Thanks to the collaboration of this community, we selected and investigated 8 exemplary networks, involving 134 firms.Originality/value - Our findings suggest that optional capital can be continuously generated and regenerated only through the mobilization of the "primary level" of the intangibles, including knowledge capital, social capital, institutional capital, and primary capabilities. The healthy co-mobilization and interplay of these intangibles, thanks to the pivotal role of dynamic capabilities, allows the generation of a portfolio of options on the organization's future capabilities. Our model may have relevant implications for the sister disciplines of strategic management, organization studies and business evaluation.Practical implications - Our analysis on the interviews and texts collected during our research allowed us to achieve an operationalizable definition of the construct of optional capital and its likely antecedents. This may contribute to the development of tools, such as guidelines, questionnaires and indicators, aimed to better understand and evaluate the role of intangible resources and capabilities in today's scenario. Such tools would be useful both for firm leaders (entrepreneurs and managers) and business evaluation professionals (banks, venture capitalist, etc.)