Intellectual capital and business performance in Malaysian industries

Author(s):

Nick Bontis (Michael G. DeGroote School of Business, McMaster University; Director, Institute for Intellectual Capital Research, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada)

William Chua Chong Keow (Department of American Degree Program, HELP Institute, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and)

Stanley Richardson (Faculty of Management, Multimedia University, Selangor, Malaysia)

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Acknowledgements:

The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the respondents and their institutions, and especially the assistance given by colleagues in the Multimedia University, HELP Institute and the Institute for Intellectual Capital Research. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 7th Tun Abdul Razak International Conference, December 1999 in Penang, Malaysia.

Abstract:

The purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the three elements of intellectual capital, i.e. human capital, structural capital, and customer capital, and their inter‐relationships within two industry sectors in Malaysia. The study was conducted using a psychometrically validated questionnaire which was originally administered in Canada. The main conclusions from this particular study are that: human capital is important regardless of industry type; human capital has a greater influence on how a business should be structured in non‐service industries compared to service industries; customer capital has a significant influence over structural capital irrespective of industry; and finally, the development of structural capital has a positive relationship with business performance regardless of industry. The final specified models in this study show a robust explanation of business performance variance within the Malaysian context which bodes well for future research in alternative contexts.

Keywords:

Intellectual capital, Human capital, Structural capital, Customer capital, Partial least squares

Type:

Research paper

Publisher:

MCB UP Ltd

Copyright:

© MCB UP Limited 2000
Published by MCB UP Ltd

Citation:

Nick Bontis, William Chua Chong Keow, Stanley Richardson, (2000) "Intellectual capital and business performance in Malaysian industries", Journal of Intellectual Capital, Vol. 1 Issue: 1, pp.85-100, https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930010324188

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