Research On The Effects Of Intellectual Capital And Dynamic Capabilities On Enterprise Performance

How to create and maintain competitive advantage is the research focus of strategic management theory. According to the resource-based view, enterprise performance is mainly determined by the resource difference of enterprises. While according to the capability-based view, enterprise performance lies on the capability of the enterprise to some extent. In the dynamic environment, the enterprises should obtain, integrate and release their resources according to the dynamic changes of the environment, that is to say, enterprises must coordinate with the environment closely. As the supplement to resource-based view, dynamic capability theory can make a reasonable explanation to the great development of the enterprises in hyper-competitive environment. Because of the close relationship between resource and capability, the resource-based view and the capability-based view are in no contradict. In fact, the capability-based view is a great development of the resource-based view, so they should be put into one model to disclose the sources of competitive advantage.In the era of knowledge economy, the market environment is constantly changing because of the rapid development of new technology, and the hyper-competitive environment is emerging and strengthened heavily. Dynamic capability theory has great significance to all kinds of the enterprises in dynamic competition, because dynamic capabilities enable the enterprises to adapt to the complex changes of their business environment quickly, then establish and maintain the competitive advantage position. In china, because most of the enterprises have limited capacity of re-integration of resources when the environment changes greatly, the average life expectancy is far shorter than that of foreign enterprises. In the knowledge economy era, intellectual capital is the most important asset for the enterprise, while dynamic capability is the most important capability for the enterprise to respond to the market changes, so intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance can be placed in the same research model. However, most of the existing related researches are dwelled on the paradigm of "intellectual capital—enterprise performance" or "dynamic capability—enterprise performance". What’s more, few scholars have analyzed the internal relationship between intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities. In a word, the research on the mechanism of intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance is still in the preliminary stage, and the examination of the control variables in this process is also necessary at the same time. This study reveals the "black box" from intellectual capital to enterprises performance, the mediating effect of dynamic capabilities and the moderating effect of slack resources and environment dynamism. Based on theoretical and empirical analysis, this study indicates that the capability-based view is the development and extension of the resource-based view. All of the enterprise must bridge the interactive link between resources and capabilities in the process of industrial upgrading, especially the effective interaction between intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities.Both intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities are very important when the enterprises grow up. The most important problems that should be solved in this study are how to cultivate the intellectual capital and how to prompt the dynamic capabilities. Generally speaking, there are mainly three core issues in this research. Firstly, the dimensions of intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance must be determined reasonably, which is the basis and premise for this study. Secondly, the mechanism of dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance should be analyzed too, especially the moderating effect of slack resources and environment dynamism in this process. Thirdly, how to promote the dynamic capabilities of enterprise is very important, so this study analyses the relationship between intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities in depth. Most of the relevant data in this study is obtained through the questionnaire survey. In order to improve the validity of the questionnaire, this study both conducted the semi-structured interviews of typical enterprise and studied the relevant research scales carefully.This study is combined of normative analysis and empirical analysis. The literature research method is used to lay a solid theoretical foundation in the normative analysis. Based on the reading of the existing literatures, this study tries hard to know about the research status of related problems and define the research object accurately, which makes a good prepare for the empirical analysis. Generally speaking, there are three steps in the empirical analysis. Firstly, this study analyses three famous cases, including Shanzhai mobile phone, Kodak company and Lenovo Group, thus understands the logical relationship between intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance. Secondly, this study selects eight typical enterprises and conducts the semi-structured interviews, so that the various dimensions of intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance are determined in the end. Thirdly, this study uses the questionnaire to acquire the data of intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance, then analyses all the data using SPSS17.0and AMOS18.0to reveal the effect of intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance.The main work is to solve four problems in this research. Firstly, this study analyses the relationship between intellectual capital and enterprise performance. Intellectual capital is the most important strategic resource for enterprise in the knowledge economy era, which is valuable, rare, non-imitable and non-substitutable. The enterprise performance is dependent closely on the accumulation of intellectual capital, and the intellectual capital is mainly reflected by three aspects, which are human capital, structural capital and relationship capital. Specifically, this study analyses the effect path of intellectual capital on enterprise performance.Secondly, this study examines the mediating role of dynamic capabilities between intellectual capital and enterprise performance. On the one hand, the resource is the foundation and carrier of the capability, so the accumulation of intellectual capital determines the development and evolution of dynamic capabilities at a certain extent. On the other hand, dynamic capabilities can prompt the enterprise performance and the competitive position greatly when the market competitive is very fierce. That is to say, intellectual capital can improve the dynamic capabilities of enterprises, and improve the enterprise performance in the end. In other words, dynamic capability is an important mediator between intellectual capital and enterprise performance. Using structural equation model, this study reveals the close relationship between resource, capability and enterprise performance, through the analysis of the impact of intellectual capital on dynamic capabilities and dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance. Thirdly, this study examines the moderating role of slack resources between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance. As slack resources are the buffers when enterprises take actions to respond to the environmental changes, there is a contingency influential effect of slack resources when the dynamic capabilities prompt the enterprise performance. On the one hand, the existence of slack resources enable the enterprises to show certain inertia, that is to say, there is a negative relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance if the intense degree about the change of external environment isn’t considered. On the other hand, there must be a certain number of slack resources if the business leaders want to adjust the current strategy when the enterprises are faced with severe competition.Fourthly, this study examines the moderating role of environmental dynamism between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance. Cultivating dynamic capabilities may lead to the increase of cost and the decline of enterprise performance in a relatively stable environment. Sometimes there is a positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance, while sometimes there is a negative relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance. The cultivating of dynamic capabilities can improve the capability to respond effectively to environmental change and increase the enterprise performance in a turbulent environment. In other words, environmental dynamism is an important moderator between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance.The innovation of this study is mainly reflected in three aspects. Firstly, this study makes a preliminary exploration of the sources of dynamic capabilities from the resource-based theory, analyses the process of cultivating dynamic capabilities based on the intellectual capital perspective, and reveals the forming path of dynamic capabilities with the method of structural equation model. Using AMOS18.0, this study analyses the relationship between different dimensions of intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities, and the logical relationship of three dimensions of dynamic capabilities, which enriched the relevant researches of dynamic capabilities greatly. Secondly, this study analyses the logical relationships between intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance, in which enterprise performance is divided into the short-term performance and the long-term performance. This study finds the relation-matrix of intellectual capital, dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance through the contrast and analysis of three typical cases, which can enrich the theory of the source of enterprise competitive advantage. Like two sides of the coin, intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities are dependent closely. The accumulation of intellectual capital and the development of dynamic capabilities can improve the enterprise performance greatly. As for the enterprise’s short-term performance, intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities substitute for each other in some circumstances, and for the enterprise’s long-term performance, intellectual capital and dynamic capabilities are complementary.Thirdly, the relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance is still under great uncertainty. In the research model of this study, in addition to the environmental dynamism mentioned in the existing researches, slack resources is also included to investigate the impact of dynamic capabilities on enterprise performance. At the same time, this study makes a three-way interaction among dynamic capabilities, slack resources and environmental dynamism, which can eliminate the inconformity between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance in all of the previous research. As the relationship between dynamic capabilities and enterprise performance is moderated by slack resources and environmental dynamism at the same time, all of the managers should pay close attention to the match between resource and environment, and conduct the effective management of slack resources in the enterprises according to the environmental context.