Guest editors' introduction: ethical management of intangible assets in contemporary organizations

This essay explains how intangible asset management oriented\r\ntoward enhancing corporate performance increasingly embeds ethical concerns,\r\nprimarily to address stakeholder expectations. We discuss how ethical dimensions\r\nin intangible asset management may be co-constructed and intertwined\r\nin organization-stakeholder interactions to generate collaborative meaning making\r\naccording to a stakeholder-centric view of the fi rm. In so doing, this article adopts\r\nan ethical view that acknowledges that stakeholders beyond the fi rm have equal\r\nstatus and agency to engage in a social construction process of intangible assets\r\nnurtured by ongoing dialogue and reciprocal understanding between organization\r\nand stakeholders. The essay concludes by envisioning how the dialogic process\r\nof social construction of intangible assets involving both organization and stakeholders\r\nis best conceived as a social contract between the two that enacts a cultural\r\nbond between intangible assets together with ethical and societal resources that are\r\ncollectively generated, owned, and maintained.