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Purpose The purpose of this study is to find evidence of the impact of intellectual capital on firm value, and, in turn, enhance the existing literature which lacks consensus on it. By employing some distinctive proxies for human capital, innovation capital, customer capital and process capital, this study might provide valuable information for firms to make strategic decisions. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Tobin's Q to represent firm value and various variables to be the proxies for intellectual capitals. By utilizing firm-year observations, this study applies panel data models first, and then Petersen regression models for further investigation to enhance the robustness of the empirical results. Findings Firm value is affected positively by the average net profit per employee as well as goodwill and intangible assets. This is because firms having employees with abundant knowledge will possess advantage for innovation, and the excellent reputation, a part of goodwill for oriental firms, would encourage people to consume and invest more. Research limitations/implications The constraint of data resource is the main limitation. With the limited scales and as an emerging market of Taiwan Stock Exchange, it is not confirmed whether the results are appropriate for the developed markets. Nevertheless, firms should make efforts on developing intellectual capital and corporate governance for operating businesses with competitiveness and safety. Originality/value Since capable employees enhance the innovation, innovation improves customer's satisfaction and good customer relationship increases the sales; this study illustrates that for expanding businesses, firms should make more efforts on developing intellectual capital.
Ni et al. (Mon,) studied this question.