Impact of intellectual capital on performance: Proposal of a conceptual model

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to the research on intellectual capital, in particular its relationship with performance, which according to many researchers is ambiguous. Indeed, it is only in the 1990s that intellectual capital started to be considered as a component of wealth. It was adopted in 2005 by the World Bank as a scientific parameter. There is no universally accepted definition of intellectual capital, but its division into three components, namely human capital, structural capital and relational capital, is becoming increasingly authoritative among researchers. The key to understanding its contribution to performance could be found in the study of the interactions between its different components mentioned above. The importance of this interaction has been emphasized in several works that assert that a component of intellectual capital does not create value individually but rather by being associated with other components. In this perspective, researchers have investigated several mechanisms of interaction between these components. After a review of the literature, we propose a conceptual model explaining the impact of intellectual capital on performance that is intended to be an extension of this previous work. By providing a detailed analysis of the empirical studies that have investigated the relationship between each of the components of intellectual capital and performance, this paper opens the door to future studies by taking stock of what exists.

Keywords: Human capital, Structural capital, Relationnal capital, Performance

JEL Classification: M10

Paper type: Theoretical Research