Influence of Intellectual Capital on the Efficiency of Russian Companies

Nowadays intellectual capital becomes one of the most demanded field of research and study as one of the key drivers of financial performance growth for companies of various industries. One of the reasons of high interest may be the presence of significant information asymmetry between the internal and external stakeholders during the assessment of a company’s intangible assets. This paper contributes to the field of knowledge about intellectual capital features and attempts to explain the nature of its impact on performance of Russian companies. The following study is focused on exploring the structural elements of intellectual capital and the assessment of possible relationship between them and financial indicators of large Russian companies that are actively investing in human, structural and client capital. The author analyzes the various approaches of intellectual capital determination and methods of its assessment, as well as suggests an original methodology for assessing its impact on company’s profitability. The empirical study is based on a survey of senior managers and a regression analysis of panel data that include proxy variables built on financial information of 19 public innovative Russian companies from several sectors during the 2015-2019 period. The obtained results show a significant impact of intellectual capital and its structural elements on the effectiveness of the Russian companies and also gives reasons to surmise that there is an opportunity to maximize the influence of intellectual capital on company’s profitability.