The impact of intellectual capital on start-up expectations
| Date | 10 October 2016 |
| Pages | 654-674 |
| Published date | 10 October 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JIC-04-2016-0040 |
| Author | Diego Matricano |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management,Knowledge management,HR & organizational behaviour,Organizational structure/dynamics,Accounting & Finance,Accounting/accountancy,Behavioural accounting |
The impact of intellectual capital
on start-up expectations
Diego Matricano
Department of Management, Second University of Naples, Capua, Italy
Abstract
Purpose –According to an emerging research trend, which seeks to apply the concept of intellectual
capital (IC) to the field of entrepreneurship, the purpose of this paper is to test whether IC can affect the
start-up expectations of aspiring entrepreneurs.
Design/methodology/approach –Binary logisti c regression model s, based on empirical
data derived from the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor website and referring to Italy over the
years 2005-2010, are used to test the influence of IC (comprising human, structural and relational
capital) on start-up expectations.
Findings –Binary logistic regression models reveal robust results. Human, structural and relational
capitals affect start-up expectations in Italy. Only in 2010 did structural capital fail to do so.
Research limitations/implications –This study has three main limitations. The first concerns the
need for further research to confirm the influence of IC on start-up expectations. The second concerns
in-depth, more exhaustive analyses that cannot be carried out due to the use of second- hand data.
The third deals with the reference only to Italy, over a limited time-span (2005-2010).
Originality/value –To the best knowledge of the author, this is one of the first empirical studies that
investigate whether IC can affect start-up expectations. Results revealed by the regression models
might steer other scholars’interest toward this research path (linking IC and entrepreneurship) that
has not yet been properly considered.
Keywords Structural capital, Intellectual capital, Human capital, Relational capital,
Binary logistic model, Start-up expectations
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Intellectual capital (IC), defined as the set of intangible assets from which ventures can
derive their competitive advantage, enhance profit and create value, continues to
attract widespread attention (Bontis, 1996, 1998, 2001; Sveiby, 1997; Petty and Guthrie,
2000; Hormiga et al., 2011). Most scholars investigate IC from a managerial perspective,
i.e. in reference to established ventures that, by definition, compete in the markets in
order to grow and develop.
The growing interest that policy makers are showing toward start-ups, which are
expected to underpin social and economic development (Audretsch, 2004), is leading
some scholars to apply the concept of IC to entrepreneurial studies as well. Attention
has partly focussed on the role of IC in reference to science parks (Schiavone et al., 2014)
and business incubators (Calza et al., 2014). Other scholars have investigated IC with
reference to start-up success (Peña, 2002; Hayton, 2005; Hormiga et al., 2011; Link and
Ruhm, 2011; Musteen and Ahsan, 2013). From the above, it clearly emerges that a new
field of research, linking IC to entrepreneurship, is slowly unfolding.
Against this background, this paper seeks to broaden and enrich the analysis of the
effect that IC can have on entrepreneurship. In particular, the research question posed
here sets out to investigate the extent to which IC is relevant for aspiring entrepreneurs,
i.e. individuals who aim to launch a new venture but have not yet created it. In the
author’s opinion, if IC is relevant for established companies and for start-ups, as shown
by the contributions cited above, then IC might also be important for aspiring
Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 17 No. 4, 2016
pp. 654-674
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/JIC-04-2016-0040
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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JIC
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entrepreneurs. Indeed, even before new ventures are created, aspiring entrepreneurs
might need to leverage on their intangible assets, which are embodied i n IC, in order to
launch new start-ups.
With a view to testing whether IC might affect start-up expectations, the paper is
structured as follows. In Section 2, the specialist literature is reviewed in order to define the
concept of IC. After defining the dependent variable of the theoretical model (start-up
expectations), IC is applied to entrepreneurial studies. The reference is not risk-free since
managerial concepts need to be turned into entrepreneurial ones. At the end of this section,
three research propositions (related to human, structural and relational capital, the three
main components of IC) are proposed and then tested. In Section 3, the research
methodology (binary logistic regression model) and the research design are defined.
In order to carry out the empirical part, use was made of second-hand data obtained from
the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) website for Italy over the years 2005-2010.
In Section 4, the findings are presented and discussed. Finally, in Section 5, conclusions are
drawn by presenting the managerial implications related to the study, underlining its
limitations and suggesting some highlights for future research.
2. Literature review and research hypotheses
Since 1969, when Galbraith introduced the concept of IC by assuming that it stood for an
intellectual contribution offered by individuals in order to ensure the success of knowledge-
intensive ventures (Khalique et al., 2015), management scholars have always
been interested in it. Even if the concept of IC can be applied to several disciplines, from
corporate strategies to the production of measurement tools (Petty and Guthrie, 2000), there
is general agreement on the fact that IC is instrumental in the creation of value by
knowledge-intensive ventures. Khalique et al. (2015) clearly express this by assuming that
IC is made up of intangible resources. These resources need to be combined and effectively
managed in order to create value and attain a sustainable competitive advantage.
In order to test whether and to what extent IC can contribute to the above aims,
managerial scholars have proposed different models for measurement purposes.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (1999) considers only
structural and human capital. Structural capital refers to software systems used in
knowledge-intensive ventures and networks developed around them. Human capital,
instead, concerns resources both within ventures (generally meaning all the staff) and
outside them (such as customers and suppliers). Despite the importance of the OECD,
another classification is more widely agreed upon, according to which it is appropriate
to consider external (customer-related), internal (structural) and human capital (Sveiby,
1997; Roos et al., 1997; Stewart, 1997; Bontis et al., 2000). In subsequent proposals, some
managerial scholars (McElroy, 2002) replaced customer capital with social capital.
As time passes, others propose different new classifications. According to Brooking
(1996), IC comprises market, human, intellectual and infrastructural capital. Finally,
Khalique et al. (2011, 2015) propose a model incorporating six components of IC: human,
customer, structural, social, technological and spiritual capital.
Of course, it is a tall order to state which of the above classifications is right or
wrong. For this reason, in the present paper, the most commonly used classification of
IC, according to which it is appropriate to investigate three sub-components of IC
(human, structural and relational capital), is shared and embraced (Sullivan, 1999;
Brennan and Connell, 2000; Petty and Guthrie, 2000; Sanchez et al., 2000; Roos et al.,
2001; Peña, 2002; Kaufmann and Schneider, 2004; Boedker et al., 2005; Hormiga et al.,
2011; Musteen and Ahsan, 2013).
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Intellectual
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