The Impact Of Intellectual Capital On Multinational Corporations Performance

With the competition of enterprises gradually relying on intangible assets such as knowledge,intellectual capital has been paid more and more attention by researchers.The scarcity of resources has always been an important factor limiting the development of enterprises.As a major driving force of value creation,intellectual capital can effectively alleviate the shackles of insufficient resources and help enterprises build their own competitive advantages.As the main body of international market competition,transnational enterprises have a decisive impact on the world economy.At present,trade protectionism is on the rise,and the negative impact of COVID-19 has not subsided.In the post-COVID-19 era,multinational enterprises will face more complex and severe survival challenges due to the changes in the international market environment and other adverse factors.Therefore,in view of the current internal and external challenges facing enterprises,it is necessary to actively consider the advantages of intangible assets such as intellectual capital,so that enterprises can better compete in foreign markets and maximize their profit value.In addition,based on the diversity of resources within an organization,redundant resources,as available resources that can be transferred or redeployed according to the enterprise strategy and desire,play an important role in the international operation of multinational enterprises.Different types of redundant resources usually show different mechanisms of action,which will lead this study to further explore the influence of organizational redundancy on intellectual capital advantage.Combined with the special background of the current post-pandemic era,this study focused on the moderating effect of intellectual capital on the performance of transnational enterprises and redundant resources,and conducted an empirical analysis on 175 transnational enterprises from 2012 to 2021,aiming to explore the influence of different dimensions of intellectual capital on the performance of transnational enterprises.And the moderating effects of precipitated redundant resources and non-precipitated redundant resources,and the following conclusions are drawn:First,intellectual capital is an important factor affecting the performance of multinational enterprises.Among the elements of intellectual capital,human capital has a significant negative correlation with firm performance,while structural capital and relational capital have a significant positive correlation with firm performance.In the process of international operation of multinational corporations,excessive investment in human capital will inhibit enterprise performance,while investment in structural capital and relational capital can bring more benefits to enterprises.Through rational use of intellectual capital and optimization of intellectual capital construction,multinational enterprises can overcome the dilemma of insufficient resources,provide stronger competitiveness for enterprises,maintain their competitive advantages and achieve a higher level of performance.Second,different types of slack resources have different moderating effects on the relationship between different dimensions of intellectual capital and MNC performance.Absorbed slack resources can enhance the effect of human capital on the performance of transnational enterprises,but weaken the effect of structural capital on the performance of transnational enterprises.However,unabsorbed slack resources will enhance the effect of relational capital on the performance of multinational firms.It can be seen that the utilization of different types of slack resources also needs to consider the characteristics of different dimensions of intellectual capital.Third,based on the previous research,this study verifies the influence of different dimensions of intellectual capital and slack resources on multinational enterprises through further time division and combined with the background of the current post-epidemic era.After the outbreak of COVID-19,human capital and relational capital no longer have a significant impact on the performance of multinational enterprises,but structural capital can still play a significant role in promoting the performance of multinational enterprises.This conclusion emphasizes the importance and stability of structured capital.In addition,the results of the moderating effect of slack resources show that absorbed slack resources and unabsorbed slack resources cannot regulate the relationship between intellectual capital and multinational enterprise performance after the outbreak of COVID-19.In the context of sudden crisis,slack resources can hardly play the role of "buffer" in the short term.The innovation of this paper lies in that it takes transnational corporations as the research object,which helps to break the limitations caused by geography or the single research subject,broaden the research perspective,and construct the joint mechanism of "intellectual capital-slack resources-multinational enterprise performance",so as to further provide theoretical reference for the utilization and optimization of enterprises’ own resources from a micro perspective.In addition,by combining the background of the post-epidemic era and comparing the regulatory effects of intellectual capital on enterprise performance and redundant resources before and after the COVID-19 pandemic,this study aims to investigate the different performance of different resources owned by organizations in the crisis environment,so as to provide reference for enterprises to rationally use and optimize resources in the post-epidemic era.Finally,according to the research conclusions,this study not only provides rich theoretical basis for multinational enterprises to rationally optimize intangible assets such as intellectual capital,but also provides theoretical support for multinational enterprises to effectively utilize organizational resources and formulate goals and policies in the post-epidemic era.At the same time,it enriches the content of related research fields and has practical reference value for international human resource management and international business practice.