Knowledge-oriented leadership and business performance: the mediating role of intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage in the knowledge-intensive service industry
| Date | 31 December 2024 |
| Pages | 152-173 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-05-2024-0161 |
| Published date | 31 December 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
| Author | Behrooz Ghlichlee,Fatemeh Bayat,Amir Hatami |
Knowledge-oriented leadership and
business performance: the mediating
role of intellectual capital and
sustainable competitive advantage in
the knowledge-intensive
service industry
Behrooz Ghlichlee, Fatemeh Bayat and Amir Hatami
Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership
(KOL) and business performance (BP) in a knowledge-intensive industry and further investigate, heretofore
neglected, a mediating effect of intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage in the relationship
between KOL and BP.
Design/methodology/approach–A quantitative approach was adopted to conduct the present study.Data were
collected from the full-service branches of private banks in Tehran, Iran. A confirmatory factor analysis was
conducted to ascertain the validity and reliability of the observed items, and a structural equation model was
employed for testing the proposed hypotheses.
Findings –The findings revealed that both intellectual capital and sustainable competitive advantage fully
mediate the influence of KOL on branch performance.
Research limitations/implications –The study was conducted in the banking sector in Iran. Therefore, our
conclusions may not be applicable to other countries. Future studies should be carried out with samples from
other contexts. Moreover,as the study was cross-sectional,the causal relationships could not be inferred directly.
Practical implications –In this study, we found that knowledge-oriented leaders should increase their
investment in intellectual capital to gain competitive advantage and improve branch performance.
Originality/value –This study contributes to advanced research on KOL by trying to explain how intellectual
capital and sustainable competitive advantage can influence the relationship between KOL and BP in a
knowledge-intensive service industry.
Keywords Knowledge-oriented leadership, Intellectual capital, Sustainable competitive advantage,
Business performance, Knowledge-intensive organizations
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
According to the knowledge-based theory of the firm (Grant, 1996), success in competition
between firms will be based on the management of intellectual capital (Choo and Bontis,
2002). In a knowledge-based environment, the most successful companies are those that invest
in their intellectual assets more and faster (Ghlichlee and Goodarzi, 2023). Investing in these
assets correlates with productivity and growth in knowledge-intensive industries. Companies
riding this trend effectively are outperforming others. A McKinsey survey reveals that “top
growers” – companies in the top quartile for growth in gross value added (GVA) – invest 2.6
times more in intangibles than low growers, companies in the bottom two quartiles (Hazan
et al., 2021).
In a fast-growing knowledge economy, leadership capabilities are critical for the success of
knowledge-intensive organizations. According to the Deloitte (2023) Global Human Capital
JIC
26,1
152
Availability of data: The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the
corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restrictions.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/1469-1930.htm
Received 1 June 2024
Revised 27 October 2024
3 December 2024
Accepted 5 December 2024
Journalof Intellectual Capital
Vol.26 No. 1, 2025
pp.152-173
©Emerald Publishing Limited
e-ISSN:1758-7468
p-ISSN:1469-1930
DOI10.1108/JIC-05-2024-0161
Trends survey, 94% of respondents believe leadership capabilities are important or very
important to their organization’s success. Yet only 23% believe their organization’s leaders
currently have the capabilities necessary to manage in a disrupted, boundaryless business
environment (Deloitte, 2023). Leadership in a knowledge-intensive environment is
particularly relevant when employees perceive leaders as actively engaging in knowledge
processes within the organization (Chaithanapat et al., 2022).
According to the social exchange theory (SET) (Blau, 1964), a social system is a series of
sequential transactions between two or more participants, such as leaders and employees. The
SET posits that participants may respond positively to positive initiating actions and
negatively to negative initiating actions, demonstrating reciprocating responses (Cropanzano
and Mitchell, 2005). Drawing from the principles of this theory, a knowledge-oriented leader
focuses on the intellectual stimulation of employees and provides incentives to develop the
mechanism for knowledge management (Williams and Sullivan, 2011)they can then create an
obligation for their employees to positively reciprocate the benefit they receive by engaging in
converting their tacit knowledge into the organization’s intellectual capital that in turn benefit
their leaders and organization (Shamm et al., 2017). Knowledge-oriented leadership (KOL) is
a new style that has received increasing attention from scholars in recent years (e.g. Donate and
de Pablo, 2015;Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin, 2018). In knowledge-intensive organizations,
leaders develop their organization’s intellectual capital and this brings profit creation as it
protects competitive advantage over its rivals in the market (Donate and de Pablo, 2015).
According to the theory of KOL (Donate and de Pablo, 2015), this study provides support
for the notion that KOL is related to the improvement of a knowledge-intensive organization’s
performance (e.g. G€
urlek and Cemberci, 2020;Rehman and Iqbal, 2020;Farooq Sahibzada
et al., 2021). In addition, prior researchers have documented KOL’s relationship with
intellectual capital (e.g. Shamm et al., 2017;Manzoor and Zhang, 2024;Chaithanapat et al.,
2022) as well as its relationship with sustainable competitive advantage (Naqshbandi and
Jasimuddin, 2018;Banmairuroy et al., 2022). Although previous research has shown
mediating elements between KOL and a firm’s business performance (BP), such as knowledge
employee satisfaction (Farooq Sahibzada et al., 2021) and knowledge management processes
and innovation (Donate and de Pablo, 2015;Rehman and Iqbal, 2020), the existing literature
provides no clear evidence of studies that have examined intellectual capital and sustainable
competitive advantage’s sequential mediation in the relationship between KOL and BP in a
knowledge-intensive service industry.
Based on the knowledge-based theory of the firm (Grant, 1996) and the KOL theory
(Donate and de Pablo, 2015), therefore, we offer a research model that explains specific links
between managerial efforts in KOL and the development of intellectual capital, and in turn, the
enhancing of more competitive advantage and BP.
Among knowledge-intensive industries, the banking sector is a knowledge-intensive sector
as most of its activities have an intellectual nature (Mention and Bontis, 2013). This study
focuses on the retail banking sector in Iran. In today’s retail banking market, the winning
banks’ leaders act promptly to choose a knowledge-based business model by which they can
lead and commit to building key intellectual capabilities to gain competitive advantage and
improve BP on the knowledge battlefield (Adarkar et al., 2022).
This study is structured as follows. First, we will review the theoretical background and
develop research hypotheses. Second, the research methodology and findings are discussed,
and finally, the study is concluded with the theoretical as well as the practical implications,
limitations and future research.
2. Literature review and hypothesis development
2.1 Knowledge-oriented leadership
Ribi
ere and Sitar (2003) discuss that in a knowledge-intensive environment, business leaders
need to lead through a knowledge lens. According to Naqshbandi and Jasimuddin (2018),
Journal of
Intellectual
Capital
153
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeStart Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
Start Your Free Trial of vLex and Vincent AI, Your Precision-Engineered Legal Assistant
-
Access comprehensive legal content with no limitations across vLex's unparalleled global legal database
-
Build stronger arguments with verified citations and CERT citator that tracks case history and precedential strength
-
Transform your legal research from hours to minutes with Vincent AI's intelligent search and analysis capabilities
-
Elevate your practice by focusing your expertise where it matters most while Vincent handles the heavy lifting
