Do intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty affect firm performance? A mediating role of value chain

Abstract

A value chain plays a crucial role in increasing production efficiency due to business uncertainty and high competition between business entities. Of these, the business must carry out the activities effectively and efficiently to achieve maximum profit. However, the study that focuses on the moderating role of the value chain in its relationship to firm performance is still limited. Thus, the present study aims to examine the effect of intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty toward firm performance and the mediating role of the value chain in the relationship between intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty to firm performance. This study was designed using a quantitative approach through an online survey. A total of 207 staff from non-financial state-owned enterprises consists of 10 clusters and 76 companies. The data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modeling with Partial Least Square method (SEM-PLS) and assisted by statistical software, namely SmartPLS 3.3.3. The result indicated that intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty have a significant effect on firm performance. Also, this study found that a value chain moderates the relationship of intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty toward firm performance. In conclusion, this study has successfully examined the effect of intellectual capital and environmental uncertainty on firm performance—also, the role of a value chain in the relationship of studied variables. In addition, the findings of this study showed that a value chain is an important tool for companies to improve their business performance.