The relationship between intellectual capital and employees' productivity: evidence from the Gulf Cooperation Council

A theoretical review on the role of knowledge sharing and intellectual capital in employees' innovative behaviors at work

With the rapid growth of technologies, sciences, and globalization, many organizations have modified and updated their managerial policies to meet modern requirements. To survive difficulties and setbacks, especially unexpected crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies turned their attention to employees' knowledge sharing, intellectual capital, and innovative thoughts and behaviors to gain wealth, value, and success. Given the severe shock that the pandemic exerted on many countries' economy, the psycho-emotional and individual aspects of work obtained unprecedented scholarly attention. However, the way knowledge sharing and intellectual capital can interact to foster and enhance innovation at workplaces has remained under-researched. To fill this gap, the present review article presented the theoretical and empirical foundations of these three factors and stressed their possible interplay. In the end, some implications and suggestions for further research were offered to managers and eager researchers to practically and scientifically examine the interplay of knowledge sharing, intellectual capital, and innovative work behaviors.

Does the Efficiency of a Firm’s Intellectual Capital and Working Capital Management Affect Its Performance?

This study explores the efficiency of intellectual capital (ICE) and working capital management (WCME) in the GCC industrial sector and its potential impact on firm performance. The data were gathered from Standard & Poor’s database from 2015 to 2019. This study uses data envelopment analysis (DEA), regression analysis, and robustness tests to accomplish its aims. The results indicate that most firms do not employ their intellectual and working capital investments well and need improvement actions to achieve the best practices. The regression model results reveal that ICE and WCME significantly and positively influence firms’ performance. The results of this study support the resource-based, trade-off, and pecking order theories. The study findings have important implications for many stakeholders; for example, they would be helpful for firm decision-makers in managing their investments in intellectual and working capital to achieve the best practices and improve a firm's performance. In addition, the findings would be helpful for financiers, because high-performance firms are likely to have more reasonable valuations that facilitate debt financing. Moreover, the findings have noteworthy implications for trading procedures as investors aspire to attractive economic returns for their investments in corporations that pasture ICE and WCME issues. Additionally, these findings have important implications for employee job satisfaction and retention by improving IC management.

Analyzing the Efficiency of Working Capital Management: a New Approach Based on DEA-Malmquist Technology

In this study, we analyze the efficiency of working capital management (WCME) for Gulf companies before and during the coronavirus crisis, then explore the influence of the coronavirus crisis on WCME. This study uses several techniques to achieve its goals, including the Malmquist index (MI), data envelopment analysis (DEA), and Tobit regression. The results demonstrate that most firms (approximately 84%) adopt a conservative strategy for their WCM. The WCME results revealed a statistical difference in the technological and pure efficiency scores for companies before and during the coronavirus crisis, while the results revealed no statistical difference in the technical, scale, and total factor productivity scores. Tobit’s results show that the coronavirus crisis had no significant influence on companies’ WCM performance. Finally, our results indicate that firms that are efficient in terms of WCM have higher sales returns and net income. The findings of this study have important implications for stakeholders to increase their awareness of companies’ WCM performance before and during a crisis. In addition, the results could have implications for trading strategies as investors and financiers seek to invest in companies with good WCM. The implications of WCM performance on social interests would cause decision-makers to use the best strategies and procedures to enhance WCM activities to improve their investments and image in the community in which it operates. We advance a novel contribution to the literature by analyzing and appraising the WCME for companies before and during the coronavirus crisis using a new approach based on DEA-Malmquist technology and then examining whether the coronavirus crisis has affected the WCME.