Being Critical About Intellectual Capital in 2024: Chocolate as a Manifesto for Social Change

John Dumay ()
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John Dumay: Macquarie University

A chapter in Futurizing Intellectual Capital, 2025, pp 319-334 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract Intellectual capital should be worthwhile to society, not just worth something to companies. In this chapter, we critically analyse the intellectual capital of the cocoa supply chain through the Chocolate Scorecard project. We find that the outcome of producing chocolate (manufactured capital) from cocoa beans and the downstream financial gains (Financial capital) comes with a heavy price because the chocolate companies and retailers are contributing to destroying human capital (farmers and their families) and natural capital (land and the forests). At the heart of the problem is the shared value business model that keeps companies rich, farmers poor, and their children have no choice but to work on the farms as modern-day slaves. However, chocolate companies can pay more and do more, as companies like Tony’s Chocolonely and Godiva do. The changed business models positively impact people’s lives (human capital) and the environment (natural capital), and this is certainly worthwhile.

Keywords: Fifth-stage IC research; Cocoa farming; Chocolate production; Modern slavery; Child labour; Shared value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:kmochp:978-3-031-80197-6_17

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DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-80197-6_17

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