Exploring The Mediating Role Of Dynamic Capabilities In The Relationship Between Intellectual Capital And Performance Of Information And Communications Technology Firms

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HO CHI MINH CITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOANG THANH NHON Student ID: PBAIU2002 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHYLOSOPHY IN BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Exploring the mediating role of dynamic capabilities in the relationship between intellectual capital and performance of information and communications technology firms HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022 Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration: Major Code: PBA Independent Reviewer 1: Assoc Prof Van Van Dut Independent Reviewer 2: Dr Kieu Anh Tai Committee Chair: Assoc Prof Vo Thi Quy Committee Secretary: Assoc Prof Nguyen Nhu Ty Committee member (Examiner 1): Prof Ha Nam Khanh Giao Committee member (Examiner 2): Assoc Prof Hoang Thi Phuong Thao Committee member (Examiner 3): Assoc Prof Bui Thi Thanh Committee member: Assoc Prof Tu Van Binh Committee member: Dr Le Dinh Minh Tri The Principal Coordinating Supervisors: Associate Prof Mai Ngoc Khuong Dr Bui Quang Thong HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022 i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I want to celebrate this achievement together with individuals who help me made it happen I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Associate Prof Mai Ngọc Khương and Dr Bui Quang Thong, thank you for trusting my abilities and granting me the freedom to work individually at my own pace I am very thankful for Associate Prof Mai Ngoc Khuong for being great mentor whom I was always able to share ideas and concerns I am very thankful for Dr Tran Anh Tuan, the former acting director of The HCMC Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) supported me the data collection I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my preliminary examiners Your comments and remarks helped me to put the finishing touches to the manuscript I had the honor to work and study a full academic year at International University-Vietnam National University in 2009-2019 I am very thankful for my colleagues who guide me in academic works Finally, I am blessed to have great friends A massive thanks go to my parents, wife and International University-Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh city for helping me to keep balance mentality Ho Chi Minh city, April 2022 Hoang Thanh Nhon ii ABSTRACT With the rise of innovation-driven and Industry 4.0 era, knowledge has become the most important feature in the firm’s value creating process Academics and practitioners have been devoting their attention to the study of intellectual capitals for the last two decades Intellectual capital is an emerging and fast-evolving concept Several reports have supposed that most of the corporate value and the global wealth are now based on intellectual capital Scholars have widely recognized that intellectual capital dimensions including human capital, organizational capital and social capital, drive innovation, corporate change and social change locally, nationally and worldwide Three separately literature streams developed in this study are intellectual capitals (ICs), dynamic capabilities and firm performance There are arguments about the mediating role of the dynamic capabilities on the impacts of ICs on firm performance in an emerging market like Vietnam, especially in Information Technology Communication (ICT) sector Therefore, one of the purposes of the study is to examine the mediating role of dynamic capabilities To examine this potential, this dissertation tests a conceptual model to explain how three types of dynamic capabilities -learning, integration, and reconfiguration capability- mediate the impact of intellectual capital dimensions, including human, social, and organizational capital, on firm performance This study, using a sample of 370 Vietnamese firms in the information and communications technology sector, found that dynamic capabilities play a mediating role in the relationship between intellectual capital dimensions and iii firm performance Among dynamic capabilities, learning capability has the most significant mediating effect Furthermore, the important roles of human, social, and organizational capital are addressed due to their direct effects on performance based on resource-based view theory, as well as their indirect effect via the mediation of dynamic capabilities Keywords: intellectual capitals, intangible capitals, human capital, social capital, organizational capital, firm performance learning, integration, and reconfiguration capability iv TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research background 1.2 Problem Identification 1.3 Rationale and Deficiencies for Current Research 1.4 Research Gap 1.5 Purpose of study 1.6 Research Questions 1.7 Dissertation Structure CHAPTER 10 LITERATURE REVIEW 10 2.1 Resource-based view 10 2.2 Dynamic Capabilities View 13 2.3 The firm performance 21 2.4 Intellectual capital 24 2.4.1 Human capital 26 2.4.2 Organizational capital 27 2.4.3 Social Capital 28 2.5 Hypothesis Development 29 2.5.1 The direct impact of human, organizational and social capital on firm performance 29 2.5.2 The direct impact of human capital on Learning, Integration and Configuration Capability 32 2.5.3 The direct impact of social capital on Learning, Integration and Configuration capability 33 2.5.4 The direct impact of organizational capital on Learning, Integration and Cofiguration capability 34 v 2.5.4 Mediating effects of Learning Capability 36 2.5.5 Mediating effects of Integration capability 37 2.5.6 Mediating effects of reconfiguration capability 38 2.5 Conceptual Model 39 2.6 Theoretical map 41 2.7 Summary 41 CHAPTER 42 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 42 3.1 Research Design 42 3.1.1 Research Philosophies 42 3.1.2 Strategies of Inquiry 44 3.1.3 Research Methodologies 45 3.2 Types of questionnaire 47 3.3 Translation 47 3.4 The category of measurement items 48 3.4.1 Measurement items of the intellectual capital types 48 3.4.2 Measurement items of the firm performance 49 3.4.3 Measurement items of Learning, Integration and Reconfiguration capability 50 3.5 Sampling method 51 3.6 Data Collection Procedures 56 3.6.1 Participants 57 3.7 Data Analysis Procedures 57 3.7.1 Exploring Factor Analysis (EFA) 58 3.7.2 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) 59 3.7.3 Mediation Analysis 63 3.8 Summary 65 CHAPTER 67 RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS 67 4.1 Data Description 67 4.2 Descriptive statistics of measured items 71 4.3 The result of the construct reliability and validity evaluation 75 4.4 The result of convergent and discriminant validity evaluation 77 vi 4.5 The result of hypotheses tests in conceptual models: 80 4.6 Summary 87 CHAPTER 88 DISCUSSIONS 88 5.1 The Impact of Intellectual capital on dynamic capabilities 88 5.2 The impact of intellectual capital on firm performance 91 5.3 Complementary mediation for the relationship between Intellectual capital and firm performance 92 5.4 Dynamic capabilities and Firm Performance 93 5.5 Summary 95 CHAPTER 96 CONCLUSIONS 96 6.1 Theoretical contributions 96 6.2 Managerial implications 99 6.3 Limitations and further researches 102 vii ... intellectual capitals (ICs), dynamic capabilities and firm performance There are arguments about the mediating role of the dynamic capabilities on the impacts of ICs on firm performance in an emerging... Vietnam, especially in Information Technology Communication (ICT) sector Therefore, one of the purposes of the study is to examine the mediating role of dynamic capabilities To examine this potential,... organizational capital, on firm performance This study, using a sample of 370 Vietnamese firms in the information and communications technology sector, found that dynamic capabilities play a mediating role