Intellectual capital performance in the case of Romanian public companies

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.