Intellectual Capital, Technological Innovation and Firm Performance: Evidence from China’s Manufacturing Sector

Abstract

Intellectual capital (IC) is considered to be a main driver of organizational success in the knowledge economy. This study examines the impacts of three IC components, including human capital (HC), structural capital (SC), and relational capital (RC), on technological innovation and firm performance. Data are collected from 1112 manufacturing listed companies in China during 2013–17. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the results show that HC and SC exert a positive impact on firm performance while RC has a negative impact; SC has a positive influence on technological innovation while HC has a negative influence; technological innovation can enhance the firm’s performance. In addition, technological innovation partially mediates the relationship between SC and firm performance. This study will bridge the gap in research by investigating the impacts of IC components on technological innovation and firm performance in developing countries.

The Impact of Information Technology Capabilities of Manufacturing Enterprises on Innovation Performance: Evidences from SEM and fsQCA

“…PDI indicates development and introduction of new or improved products and/or services that are successful in the market, while PSI involves adopting new or improved processes and methods, such as manufacturing and distribution. As innovation performance involved in this study highlights technological innovation performance [25,26], this study focuses on two perspectives of innovation performance (both PSIP and PDIP).…”

Unpacking the importance of intangible skills in new product development and sustainable business performance; strategies for marketing managers

“…To build the new products that result in sustainable competitive performance, some managers rely on tangible resources such as adopting a new technology [2,3] accessing sufficient financial capital [3,4]), and infrastructure [5,6], etc. However, others have faith in intangible resources such as intellectual capital [7,8], networking [9,10], market knowledge [11,12], and reputation [13,14]), etc. Indeed, both the strategies (either building new products via tangible or intangible approach) is useful.…”

Intellectual capital management and Its effect on innovation and performance of MSMEs: An empirical study

“…El capital intelectual contribuye a que estos recursos estratégicos intangibles puedan ser medidos, si bien, no existe un consenso sobre como categorizar los diferentes componentes del conocimiento estratégico . A pesar de ello gran parte de la literatura acepta que sus componentes son: el capital humano, el capital estructural y el capital relacional (Crema, & Verbano, 2016;Alazzawi et al, 2018;Xu et al, 2019).…”

“…El capital estructural representa los mecanismos y estructura de la organización, que se componen de los procesos, sistemas de información, bases de datos y la cultura corporativa (Chen et al 2015), garantizando con ello una toma de decisiones eficiente (Carmona-Lavado, Cuevas-Rodríguez, & Cabello-Medina, 2010;Walsh, & Ungson, 1991). La importancia del capital estructural radica en que desarrolla la infraestructura que el capital humano necesita para crear valor (Xu et al, 2019).…”

“…La innovación en productos y en procesos juegan un papel importante en el rendimiento de la empresa (Maldonado-Guzman, Garza-Reyes, Pinzón- Castro, & Kumar, 2019). La innovación permite realizar mejoras constantes en los procesos de trabajo para así mejorar sus productos o servicios (Xu et al, 2019). Las innovaciones en procesos mejoran el rendimiento al reducir los costos o aumentar la calidad de bienes y servicios, aunque son menos tangibles y menos obvias para el cliente que las innovaciones en productos (Gomes, & Wojahn, 2017).…”