Intellectual capital performance in the case of Romanian public companies
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the intellectual capital (IC) performance of the Romanian companies, to empirically examine the association between IC performance and traditional corporate performance and to analyse the relative importance of various components of IC on the company's performance.
Design/methodology/approach
Value Added Intellectual Coefficient model (VAICTM) is applied to measure IC performance. Traditional corporate performance is measured through profitability, productivity and market value. In total, 12 null hypotheses are tested using multiple regression analysis where another two control variables (firm size and industry type) are generally included.
Findings
Entities creating value from their intellectual, physical and financial resources are penalized by the capital market. Capital employed has an insignificant role in both value creation and in reducing company's production costs. Market value is not necessarily improved by a properly managed structural capital but is influenced by company size. Human capital plays a major role in productivity variation.
Research limitations/implications
Results related to the impact of control factors are mixed and sometimes not significant. Additional research could introduce other control factors, may investigate paper's hypotheses across time, revisit some of the basic assumptions of the VAICM and assess their potential consequences for the validity of empirical testing and results.
Originality/value
This is the first study that replicates VAICTM in the case of Romanian companies. It provides valuable insights about corporate performance in an emerging economy and into the association between IC and traditional corporate performance. It enriches both IC and management literature with new empirical evidence and provides a basis for comparison with other studies.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This study is a revised version of a paper presented at the 8th International Conference on Intellectual Capital and Knowledge Management held at The Institute for Knowledge and Innovation Southeast Asia (IKI-SEA) of Bangkok University, Bangkok, Thailand, on 27-28 October 2011, 7th International Conference on Accounting and Management Information Systems held at the Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania, on 13-14 June, 2012, and 8th International Forum on Knowledge Asset Dynamics (IFKAD), Smart Growth: Organizations, Cities and Communities held at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Economics & Business, on 12-14 June 2013. The author thanks for the constructive feedback received from unknown reviewers and the participants to the three conferences and especially to Professor John-Christopher (J.C.) Spender. Additionally, the author gratefully acknowledges the invaluable suggestions and comments received from the reviewers and guest editors of the Journal of Intellectual Capital special edition, Managing Intellectual Capital Dimensions for Organizational Value Creation, Dr Roberto Linzalone and Professor Antonio Lerro.
Citation
Maria Morariu, C. (2014), "Intellectual capital performance in the case of Romanian public companies", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 392-410. https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-05-2014-0061
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2014, Emerald Group Publishing Limited