Abstract
From the perspective of the Chicago school, there is no behaviour that can not be interpreted as economic. In this paper, through our conceptual framework named “Emotional Capital” (EC), I discuss the assertion in the perspective of an optimal constitution and exploitation of Human Capital. In reference to emotional intelligence, I show that emotional capital, more than an additional capital, is a booster capital potentializing, which energizes or empowers the human, social and cultural capitals. EC is critical to enable human capital formation, accumulation and its optimal exploitation for individuals. Also, it is crucial in knowledge management in the today's increasingly complex and competitive global workplace for companies and organisations. Our conceptual model enables to understand student academic success or failure on the one hand, the different occupational and jobs choices and career prospect between men and women, and organisations or companies successes as well, on the other hand.