Title: Are R&D and intellectual property rights related to the firms' financial performance? The perspectives on intellectual capital

Authors: William S. Chang

Addresses: Department of Finance, Ming-Chuan University, No.250, Sec. 5, ZhongShan N. Road, Taipei 111, Taiwan

Abstract: R&D and Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) have been viewed as an essential competitiveness for IT companies in the knowledge-based economy. Particularly, the most IT firms strive to transform the business model from labour-intensive to knowledge-intensive which aims to endeavour in higher value added activities especially in the trend of micro profit. One of the ways to enhance the firm's profitability is through the effective process of intellectual capital (IC) components. Hence, the goal of this paper is to describe the effects of IT firms' technological capabilities. The study used 362 IT companies to examine the relationships among IC components management and furthermore, the results showed that IC components generally have a positive direct/indirect effects on financial performance. Additionally, this study also demonstrates that TCE is positively related to IC effectiveness. The study proves that R&D and IPRs as either a moderator or mediator to progressively enrich the firms' financial performance.

Keywords: intellectual capital; TCE; technological capital efficiency; human capital; structural capital; social capital; IPR; intellectual property rights; R&D; research and development; IT firms; information technology; firm performance; financial performance; technological capabilities.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2013.054846

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2013 Vol.13 No.3, pp.245 - 260

Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

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