The moderating role of corporate governance on the relationship between intellectual capital efficiency and firm's performance: evidence from Saudi Arabia

This study examined the moderating role of corporate governance on the interaction between intellectual capital efficiency and financial, operational and market performance. The study used a pooled data of 171 firms listed on the Saudi Stock Exchange during the period from 2012 to 2014. Multiple regression approach was incorporated under fixed-effect method. The findings revealed that the inclusion of corporate governance as a moderating variable has influenced positively the relationship between intellectual capital components and financial, operational and market performance. In addition, only capital employed efficiency positively affects financial performance, while structural capital efficiency and capital employed efficiency positively affect the operational performance. As for market performance, it was affected positively by all the Intellectual capital components. Further, the findings showed that the larger firms, the higher level of human capital efficiency, and smaller firms, the higher level of structural capital and capital employed efficiency.