Intellectual capital development : a case study of Middle East University

Abstract EN

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of Intellectual Capital (IC) on Middle East University's (MEU) Business Performance (BP), through examining the managers’ perceptions regarding significance and potential use of IC indicators to leverage MEU's performance.

The study surveyed academic and administrative staffs, as well as, Master and Bachelor students at MEU.

Practical data were used in the empirical analysis collected from 167 participants out of 3217 elements, by means of a questionnaire.

To confirm the suitability of data collection instrument, a Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) test, Cronbach’s Alpha and factor analysis were used.

Statistical techniques such as descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA test, correlation, multiple regressions and stepwise regressions were employed.

The results showed that the participants were almost similar in their preferences regarding HC, SC and RC, and they believe that MEU has low implementation regarding these three variables.

The results also indicated a positive significant relationship between IC and MEU's BP.

However, respondents believe that the RC has the highest effect on MEU's BP, followed by HC, while they do not believe that SC affects MEU's BP.

Furthermore, empirical results indicated that there are strong inter-relationships and interactions among the three components of IC.

The use of a single organization and / or single industry study design limits its generalisability to other organizations and / or industries.

Extending the analyses to other settings represent future research opportunities.

IC is an important source of organizations’ wealth and therefore it should be taken into serious consideration when formulating the MEU's strategy.

MEU should coordinate different perspectives of IC to improve MEU's BP and should assign scales for each of the three components of IC.

The data suggest that a similar set of IC indicators could be developed for other organizations and industries whether government, public or private, profitable or non-profitable organizations.