An assessment of the modified VAIC models

Following the inconclusive results of empirical analyses based on the value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC), many authors have proposed modified VAIC models. Based on the tenet that even significant empirical tests are not a substitute for theory, this paper analyses 12 modified VAIC models in light of the critical drawbacks affecting their ancestor. The analysis reveals that the theoretical and conceptual criticisms of the VAIC still hold for the modified models. Despite the new types of capital added to make the VAIC closer to the most common model of intellectual capital (IC) in the literature, the proposed models contain obscurities, ambiguities, and inconsistencies in how the new types of capital are measured and conceptualised, and they unfortunately magnify some of the concerns affecting Pulic’s VAIC.