Intellectual capital efficiency and firm performance of listed companies in Malaysia

Abstract

The objective of this study is to extend empirical evidence on the effect of intellectual capital efficiency (ICe) on firm performance in listed companies on main market and Access, Certainty, Efficiency (ACE) market in Malaysia. The study does so by using a refined Pulic model in comparison to the original Pulic model. Furthermore, it examines the difference in effect of ICe on firm performance of listed companies in high ICe sectors compared to low ICe sectors. Moreover, this study investigates the role of human capital efficiency (HCe) in the direct and indirect relationships between ICe components and firm performance of Malaysian listed companies. This study referred to Resource-based view (RBV) and knowledge-based view (KBV) as theories in developing the hypotheses to be tested. The basis for the calculation of ICe and its components is Pulic’s VAIC, while market capitalisation (MC), Earning Per Share (EPS), return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) are used as indicators of firm performance (FP). The sample of the study is 261 companies listed on Bursa Malaysia’s main and ACE markets. Data were collected from the annual reports of these companies for the year 2018. Regressions were used to test the direct and indirect associations between ICe and its components with FP. The findings of this study indicated that the refined model, generally provided higher explanatory power than the original Pulic model, except for MC. Therefore, it was worthwhile to run subsequent test using the refined model. The results showed that ICe is significantly associated with FP, even with the inclusion of CEe. HCe is the most significant determinant of FP amongst the components of ICe. These results applied to the listed companies in Malaysia, including the ACE market. Moreover, some differences were found in the significance levels of the ICe components’ coefficients in their association with FP when the high ICe sector companies were compared with their low ICe sector counterparts. Furthermore, and most importantly, HCe was found to mediate between SCe and FP, as well as could potentially be a mediator between RCe and FP in the future. Hence, the components of ICe not only have a direct association with FP but indirect associations as well. Extensions of this study in relation to the refined Pulic model, and HCe as a mediator variable should be beneficial to future researchers. Then, the findings of this study could be of interest to the companies itself, whether they are on the main market or ACE market, and whether they are in high ICe sectors or even in low ICe sectors. These Malaysian listed companies should be particularly interested to know that HCe is a key driver of FP, even more significant than physical and financial capital (CEe) and it also seems to act as an intermediary between the other IC components, particularly SCe, and FP.