Investigating intellectual capital: The role of intellectual property rights reform

Abstract

We investigate the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on firm performance (FP). This study contributes to the literature on IC by extending the IC components and exploring the moderating effect of intellectual property right (IPR) reform on the IC–FP association. An analysis of a dataset of non-financial enterprises with 6,303 firm-year observations collected from ASEAN member countries from 2009 to 2019 reveals thatFP is positively related to IC and IC components. Human capital is found to be the leading element because it exerts direct as well as indirect influences on FP. On the other hand, IPR determines both significance and the strength of the relationship between IP and FP.