I-Chen Lee, Carol Y.Y. Lin and Te-Yi Lin
The purpose of this paper is to explain the difference of national intellectual capital from the perspective of national culture and to illustrate how national leaders or…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explain the difference of national intellectual capital from the perspective of national culture and to illustrate how national leaders or policy-makers increase their country’s national intellectual capital.
Design/methodology/approach
The study conducts a descriptive analysis combining the research outcome of Lin and Edvinsson’s (2011) national intellectual capital with Hofstede’s (2001) national culture. The research findings and results of these two studies were compared before running a t-test to determine whether countries with relatively high national intellectual capital have a higher level of certain national culture.
Findings
Based on the matching data of 26 countries, the study proposed that countries with certain national culture possess lower intellectual capital. Countries with high intellectual capital tend to exhibit a common culture of low power distance, weak uncertainty avoidance, and individualism.
Practical implications
The study suggests that for a country to enhance its overall intellectual capital, it should strive for a culture of equality, freedom and safety, and an active competitive environment, while avoiding social class distance in order to eliminate insecurity. The study proposes some suggestions to advance the countries’ national intellectual capital. In addition to admit the weakness of their intellectual capital due to cultural reasons, these countries could go a step further to increase their own national intellectual capital by increasing or enhancing certain national cultures if possible.
Originality/value
The study compares national intellectual capital and national culture and finds the relationship between these two sets of constructs. This study proves that national culture not only influences the strategies or behaviors of business level but also the competitiveness of national levels.
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Carol Y.Y. Lin and Leif Edvinsson
The threefold purpose of this paper is to reflect on the evolution and transformation of the Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) over the past 20 years, to project its future…
Abstract
Purpose
The threefold purpose of this paper is to reflect on the evolution and transformation of the Journal of Intellectual Capital (JIC) over the past 20 years, to project its future research directions, and, finally, to propose an IC ecosystem.
Design/methodology/approach
We adopted a combination of a narrative and a systematic review of 700 JIC papers appearing in the journal in its entirety, from Volume 1 (2000) to Volume 20 (2019). The categorization of topics is based on the frequency of keywords in the titles of the papers.
Findings
Scholars have proposed four stages of intellectual capital (IC) research: definition/awareness, measurement/management, implementation/strategy, and ecosystem. Over the past 20 years, a total of 16 special issues were published in the journal. The five topics with the highest paper counts in descending order are country-specific studies, concept papers, reporting and disclosure, measurement and performance. Four issues require the researcher’s special attention: theoretical development, IC research methodology, national intellectual capital, and data collection. An IC ecosystem is proposed to invite discussion and refinement. For future research, ecosystem-oriented and interdisciplinary research are suggested. Research design aimed at achieving Sustainable Development Goals are encouraged.
Research limitations/implications
Intellectual capital research has implications for four major types of stakeholders, namely academia, government agencies, practitioners, and top management team of organizations. The major limitation of this research is that this review of twenty years of intellectual capital research is limited exclusively to the papers published in the JIC; IC papers published in relevant journals or conferences were not included.
Originality/value
This paper presents a comprehensive review of the articles published in the first 20 volumes of the JIC. The field of intellectual capital has evolved from the social construction of IC knowledge to IC knowledge diffusion and inheritance. Hopefully, a fully developed IC ecosystem will eventually emerge. IC researchers can position themselves in the IC research continuum and devise distinctive pathways to enhance their contributions to the transformation of IC research.
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The purpose of this paper is to uncover the national intellectual capital (NIC) of South Africa by making comparisons with Poland and Romania.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to uncover the national intellectual capital (NIC) of South Africa by making comparisons with Poland and Romania.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a database of an NIC measurement model spanning 2001-2015, this study plotted the development trend of the NIC and its component capitals – human, market, process and renewal capitals. Their correlations with GDP per capita (ppp) (GDP hereinafter) were also presented.
Findings
The NIC of South Africa is lower than that of both Poland and Romania. Except for the increase of its human capital together with its GDP, the other capitals have lower relevance. Poland experienced highly correlated growth for its NIC and GDP, shedding light for South Africa. The qualitative findings are also reported.
Research limitations/implications
The IMD database carries South African data only for the African continent. Therefore, this paper cannot cover other countries from the continent.
Practical implications
There are three implications from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses: initiate national transformation from the two core issues of education and health; invite and provide attractive incentives for South African returnees from abroad and members of local private sectors to take part in the national transformation efforts; and learn from the NIC development pattern of Poland and Romania by investing in market capital and process capital as soon as possible for faster results.
Social implications
The research findings of this paper unveil the root of the social problems in South Africa, including education, health, high unemployment and so on. Suggestions are provided for mid-term and long-term potential solutions.
Originality/value
This paper demonstrates the value of an NIC in the economically successful Poland whose growth and GDP growth occurred at a similar pace.
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Pirjo Ståhle, Sten Ståhle and Carol Y.Y. Lin
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent national intangible capital (NIC) explains GDP growth and to assess its impact on GDP formation in different countries. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine to what extent national intangible capital (NIC) explains GDP growth and to assess its impact on GDP formation in different countries. The paper brings a new perspective to explaining hidden economic drivers.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces a new theoretically and computationally justified method, so-called ELSS model that is based on expansion and augmentation of the Cobb-Douglas production function with a wide range of NIC indicators. The method is applied by using the database that contains NIC indices for 48 countries covering the period from 2001 to 2011.
Findings
The results show that intangible capital accounts for 45 per cent of world GDP. The figure for the USA is 70.3 per cent and for the European Union 51.6 per cent. The Nordic countries stand out with a higher figure at 64.7 per cent, with NIC contributing to 72.5 per cent of GDP in Sweden, 69.7 per cent in Finland and 67.6 per cent in Denmark.
Research limitations/implications
The expanded Cobb-Douglas production function is sensitive to valuations of capital inputs and sensitive to estimates of production shares for various augmenting and expanding inputs. Therefore further work is needed to develop and test methodologies for the assessment of all of these.
Practical implications
ELSS production function helps to give a realistic picture of the value and impact of NIC and accordingly gives evidence for accurate investment decisions for the future.
Social implications
The method will help policy makers figure out what steps are needed to reduce the cross-country NIC differences.
Originality/value
The authors have uncovered the value of NIC beyond monetary inputs, and at the same time taken account of country specifics. The ELSS formula is comprehensive yet not too complicated to replicate. The approach significantly contributes to the development of the current research tradition into intangibles.
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Badi H. Baltagi, Georges Bresson and Jean-Michel Etienne
This chapter proposes semiparametric estimation of the relationship between growth rate of GDP per capita, growth rates of physical and human capital, labor as well as other…
Abstract
This chapter proposes semiparametric estimation of the relationship between growth rate of GDP per capita, growth rates of physical and human capital, labor as well as other covariates and common trends for a panel of 23 OECD countries observed over the period 1971–2015. The observed differentiated behaviors by country reveal strong heterogeneity. This is the motivation behind using a mixed fixed- and random coefficients model to estimate this relationship. In particular, this chapter uses a semiparametric specification with random intercepts and slopes coefficients. Motivated by Lee and Wand (2016), the authors estimate a mean field variational Bayes semiparametric model with random coefficients for this panel of countries. Results reveal nonparametric specifications for the common trends. The use of this flexible methodology may enrich the empirical growth literature underlining a large diversity of responses across variables and countries.
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This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse how both Lin’s birthplace identity and his Christian identity contributed to his fruitful public career and to ascertain which identity became the most significant.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival research is the main method used in this paper. The most important archives drawn from are the Daniel Tse Collection in the Special Collection and Archives of the Hong Kong Baptist University Library. Oral history has also been used in this paper to uncover more material that has not yet been discussed in existing scholarly works.
Findings
This paper argues that although Lin’s birthplace identity and social networks helped him to start his business career in Nam Pak Hong and develop into a leader in the local Chaozhou communities, these factors were insufficient to his becoming a respectable member of the Chinese elite in post-war Hong Kong. He became well known not because of his leading position in local Chaozhou communities or any great achievement he had obtained in business but because of his contribution to the development of Christian education. These achievements earned him a reputation as a “Christian educator”. Thus Lin’s Christian identity became more important than his birthplace identity in contributing to his successful public career.
Originality/value
This paper has value in showing how Christian influences interacted with various cultural factors in early Hong Kong. It also offers insights into Lin’s life and motivations as well as the history of the institutions he contributed to/founded. It not only furthers our understanding of the Chinese Christian business elite in early Hong Kong but also provides us with insights when further studying this group of people in other British colonies in Asia.
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Qualitative data analysis requires methodological knowledge and intellectual competence. Analysis is not about adhering to any one correct approach or set of right techniques; it…
Abstract
Qualitative data analysis requires methodological knowledge and intellectual competence. Analysis is not about adhering to any one correct approach or set of right techniques; it is imaginative, artful, flexible, and reflexive. It should also be methodical, scholarly, and intellectually rigorous. (Coffey and Atkinson, 1996, p.1.
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Hongyu Ma, Yongmei Carol Zhang, Federico Guillermo Topolansky Barbe and Mark Stuart
There is a pressing need for research on the difference in entrepreneurial performance influenced by the integration of migrant workers’ psychological capital and entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
There is a pressing need for research on the difference in entrepreneurial performance influenced by the integration of migrant workers’ psychological capital and entrepreneurial opportunity identification. In addition, there is limited research on the association of entrepreneurial performance with different dimensions of psychological capital and how these dimensions affect the entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers. This research will partially address this gap in knowledge by assessing the influence of psychological capital and entrepreneurial opportunity identification on the entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers in China.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts a theoretical analysis of psychological capital, entrepreneurial opportunity identification and entrepreneurial performance and proposes a theoretical model of entrepreneurial opportunity identification acting as the intermediary role between psychological capital and the entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers. Based on the data collected from 899 rural households in Shaanxi Province, a structural equation model and a bootstrap method are used to verify the association between psychological capital, entrepreneurial opportunity identification and entrepreneurial performance.
Findings
Both entrepreneurial opportunity identification and psychological capital are conducive to the improvement of entrepreneurial performance. However, the entrepreneurial opportunity identification is found to exert a more significant impact on the entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers than psychological capital does. Findings have also revealed that the intermediary role of entrepreneurial opportunity identification is more prominent in the relationship between adventure and innovation and the entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers than that of self-confidence and optimism and entrepreneurial performance of migrant workers.
Originality/value
Based on the results of empirical analysis, the paper proposes corresponding policy recommendations for guiding migrant workers to capitalize on their psychological capital, identify entrepreneurial opportunities, weigh up entrepreneurial risks and ultimately improve their entrepreneurial performance.