This study examines the role of intellectual capital in enhancing lecturer performance in faith-based higher education institutions in Indonesia, while also investigating the contingent roles of religious values and transformational leadership. Drawing on the Resource-Based View and institutional perspectives, this research analyzes how human, structural, and relational capital contribute to academic performance and whether organizational values and leadership practices condition these effects. The study was conducted through a survey of 303 lecturers from Islamic-based higher education institutions, and the data were analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that relational capital has a significant positive effect on lecturer performance, whereas human capital and structural capital do not exhibit significant direct effects. Religious values show a modest but significant positive direct impact on performance; however, they do not moderate the relationships between intellectual capital dimensions and performance. In contrast, transformational leadership demonstrates a significant positive direct effect on lecturer performance. It significantly strengthens the relationship between human capital and performance, highlighting its dual role as both a direct driver and a resource-activation mechanism. These findings suggest that lecturer performance in faith-based higher education institutions is primarily driven by relational embeddedness and leadership effectiveness.
Jusriadi et al. (Sun,) studied this question.