Intellectual Capital and Firm Performance: Moderating Role of Corporate Governance and Disclosure Quality

Abstract

This study attempts to investigate the association between intellectual capital and firm performance with moderating role of disclosure quality and corporate governance. It empirically examines the relationship understudy in three emerging economies of South Asia i.e. Pakistan, India and Bangladesh for the period from 2009 to 2018. Being in line with intellectual capital theory perspective, this investigation also extends the understanding of agency theory as well as information asymmetry theory. For the purpose of analysis, the data from 50 non-financial listed firms from each market is used. Panel regression is employed as the estimation procedure. The results show that intellectual capital effects firm performance in case of all three data sets. However, the role of corporate governance as moderator only exists in case of Pakistan and India. The moderating role of disclosure quality in all three economies does not exist. Though limited by data, this study offers insight to major users of financial statements. This study calls upon the researchers to engage in similar exploration but with huge data sets and examining the financial sector as well