Intellectual Capital and Shareholders’ Wealth. The Economic Value Added Approach

Abstract

The role of intangible assets such as intellectual capital promoting corporate competitiveness and further shareholders’ value has attracted attention in the finance literature. This study investigated intellectual capital efficiency as a source of creating shareholders’ wealth in Nigeria. To achieve the study's aim, correlational research design was adopted. The study’s data were collected from content analysis of financial statements of listed service companies in Nigeria. The sample used in this study includes 17 service firms listed on the Nigeria Exchange Group from 2011 to 2022. The VAIC model was utilized to estimate intellectual capital. Descriptive statistics were conducted while some diagnostic tests were piloted before the regression analysis. The random effect regression model was used to verify whether the studied variables impact shareholders’ wealth of listed service companies in Nigeria. Findings indicated that value added intellectual coefficient as a measure of intellectual capital has a significant positive association with shareholders’ wealth. Results further revealed that human capital efficiency, relational capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency (as components of intellectual capital) are significantly and positively associated with shareholders’ wealth while structural capital efficiency has a positive but not significant relationship with shareholders’ wealth creation. The study concludes that efficient management of intellectual capital can enhance shareholders’ wealth in listed service companies in Nigeria and recommends amongst others that firms should make strategic plans regarding intellectual capital and intangible assets as it can increase corporate competitive advantage.