The intellectual capital performance of the Indian banking sector

Purpose The paper seeks to estimate and analyze the Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC™) for measuring the value‐based performance of the Indian banking sector for a period of five years from 2000 to 2004. Design/methodology/approach Annual reports, especially the profit/loss account and balance‐sheet of the banks concerned for the relevant years, were used to obtain the data. A review is conducted of the international literature on intellectual capital with specific reference to literature that reviews measurement techniques and tools, and the VAIC™ method is applied in order to analyze the data of Indian banks for the five‐year period. The intellectual or human capital (HC) and physical capital (CA) of the Indian banking sector is analysed and their impact on the banks' value‐based performance is discussed. Findings The study confirms the existence of vast differences in the performance of Indian banks in different segments, and there is also an improvement in the overall performance over the study period. There is an evident bias in favour of the performance of foreign banks compared with domestic banks. Research limitations/implications All 98 scheduled commercial banks are studied as per the information provided by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI)/India's Apex bank. Regional rural banks (RRBs), a segment of the indian banking sector, are not dealt with in the study since their number is large (more than 200), but they contribute only 3 percent of the market of Indian banks. This paper is a landmark in Indian banking history as it approaches performance measurement with a new dimension. Practical implications The paper has strong theoretical foundations, which have a proven record and applications. The methodology adopted has been research tested. Domestic banks in India are provided with a new dimension to understand and evaluate their performance and benchmark it with global standards. The paper also has policy implications, as it reflects the lop‐sided growth of a few sections in the Indian banking segment. Originality/value The paper represents a pioneering and seminal attempt to understand the implications of the business performance of the Indian banking sector from an intellectual resource perspective.