A Study on the Effect of Intellectual Capital on the Organizational Performance of Banking Sector in Malaysia

In the twenty first century, intellectual capital appears as one of the most important strategic assets for the success of knowledge-intensive organizations. The aim of this chapter is to examine the effect of intellectual capital on the organizational performance of banking sector operating in Kuching Malaysia. In this study, Integrated Intellectual Capital Model (IICM) is used to test the role of intellectual capital in banking sector in Kuching. This model is based on human capital, customer capital, structural capital, social capital, technological capital, and spiritual capital. This study uses a sample of 300 participants employed in banking sector to examine the role of intellectual capital. A convenience sampling technique is used to select the respondents. To achieve the objective of this study, seven research hypotheses are constructed. Multiple regression analysis is used to test the proposed research hypotheses. The findings demonstrate that all the proposed research hypotheses are not supported. The findings of this study are contrary to the previous studies. However, this study opens a new discussion in intellectual capital field. This study demands further empirical researches to affirm the role of intellectual capital in the knowledge-intensive organization.

Towards a New Definition of Social Innovation

This chapter focuses on social innovation, a topic that the literature has been increasingly discussing in the last decade. The authors revise the many available (and, to some extent, too general) definitions as well as identify the main features that have been claimed as relevant for social innovation (e.g. Mumford, 2002), which concur in providing its definition. By doing so, they pursue the assessment of a less fuzzy definition of social innovation and make a first attempt to focus on the role that companies play in developing as well as scaling social innovations. The adopted approach exploits the literature review and is based on an in-depth analysis of the definitions of social innovation: the authors collected and catalogued them, so identifying the main dimensions of analysis. Clarifying what social innovation is and the role that companies play in social innovation initiatives can increase companies' awareness of what they (can) do with respect to social innovation, possibly taking advantage of this in terms of business objectives.

Knowledge Management in Small and Medium Enterprises

Today, success and worth of a business depend more on intellectual capital than physical capital. Hence, knowledge that exists within an organization is a sustainable source of competitive advantage, which makes Knowledge Management (KM) a critical input in the growth of any organization and more so in the case of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Even though much has been researched and written on the subject of knowledge management in large and multinational organizations, very little focus and research has been done on KM in SMEs. Globalization of supply chains, rapid technological advances, superior returns on intellectual capital, and the growing importance of knowledge-intensive industries make KM a strategic tool in the growth and success of all businesses. Access and integration of SMEs with regional, national, and international supply chains require bridging the gaps between the requirements of supply chains and efficiency of SMEs' KM systems. KM-enabled SMEs are essential for competitive and sustainable growth. Hence, a judicious approach for KM in SMEs is a must in the current scenario. The overall mission of this chapter is to aid researchers in recognizing and understanding the knowledge management spectrum for small and medium enterprises in a globalized world. This would be indispensable for successful goal attainment and sustainable business in a contemporary complex economy.

International Market Entry Modes

The Chinese pharmaceutical market has become the world's second largest market. The Chinese pharmaceutical industry is becoming a growing player in global pharmaceutical chain. This chapter aims to solve following issues: the market orientation and resource base of Chinese pharmaceutical industry, the role in the global pharmaceutical industrial chain, and the international market entry modes of Chinese pharmaceutical companies. The sample companies are selected and surveyed with a focus on the international market entry modes. Through an empirical research, this chapter summarizes the experience of Chinese pharmaceutical internationalization and finds the effective modes of international market entry are product upgrading along the industrial chain, international certification and cooperation, outsourcing and licensing, and other paths of overseas expansion. The implication for pharmaceutical companies of emerging markets is to choose the suitable entry modes based on advantages, learn from the experience of other emerging markets and domestic leading companies of internationalization, and gradually enter the standard market. This study not only provides international market entry modes for the latecomer of Chinese pharmaceutical companies but also enriches the internationalization theory of emerging markets.

Biopharma Innovation Models for Gulf Region in the Era of Globalisation

Biopharmaceutical is the most upcoming segment of the pharmaceutical industry as the use of biotechnology has the potential to provide cures for the most life threatening and difficult ailments. At the same time for biopharma innovation, factors such as increasing costs, high continuous funding, and risk funding are of increasing concern for the emerging economies. This chapter measures the strength of biopharma innovation indicators in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and explores the potential biopharma innovation models for gulf countries.

Knowledge Management Strategies

In an era of sweeping technological and economic change, interest in Knowledge Management (KM) and the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) has grown among public administrators because these address issues of change, innovation, and environmental adaptation, all of which have been major concerns in organisation theory and practice for decades and are clearly important now as public organisations are being reinvented and reengineered. This chapter aims to investigate how do Knowledge Management Strategies influence the development of an organisation's strategies and how BSC could be used to develop Strategic Knowledge Management Balanced System (KMBS) for strategic management. The research provides a theoretical theory through linking research and literature on Strategic Management (SM), Knowledge Management (KM), and Balance Scorecard (BSC). This chapter examines the underappreciated influence of strategic Knowledge Management on performance management by using the Balanced Scorecard in the public sector.

Workplace Spirituality and Transformational Leadership

Workplace spirituality or spirituality in the workplace is about employees search for meaning, purpose, and interconnectedness in the workplace. Similarly, transformational leadership is a leadership style that encourages a higher level of moral maturity and performance standard for followers. In this chapter, through a review of literature and propositional analysis, the authors demonstrate that transformational leadership has the capacity to drive employees towards meaning, purpose, and interconnectedness with the organization's goals and values. Researchers agree that transformational leadership inspires, motivates, and also attempts to connect with followers. Thus, while workplace spirituality is a potent ingredient in the modern workplace, transformational leadership is the driving force that actually transforms the workplace. Thus, the authors conclude by proposing that transformational leadership can potentially encourage and sustain workplace spirituality. Suggestions and recommendations for future empirical research are provided.

Modularization (MD) and IT in Auto Industry

This chapter is a pioneer study on the application and impact of modularization in the Chinese auto industry. The role of IT as a mediator and moderator is also analyzed in this study. Although Modularization (MD) has become a global trend in the auto industry, few empirical studies have been conducted because it is a difficult task to operationalize the multi-faceted, complex modularization. This research made an analysis through the lenses of international business theories like internationalization theory and Knowledge-Based-View of the firm (KBV). Quantitative methodology like regression and correlation analysis was applied in this study, based on the data collected from 250 automotive firms in China. Academically, this research fills in the gap of empirical study on modularization and its impact in the auto industry of developing economies. In practice, it can help decision makers in the auto industry make a more scientific decision about whether and how they should go into modularization, and have a better understanding of the characteristics of the global auto industry in developing economies.

Entrepreneur Social Capital, Knowledge Acquisition, and Start-Up Firm Performance

Entrepreneurial social capital is founded on the basis of the environmental trust. It takes advantage of a series of social network resources which are built by a network of relationships and coordinate abilities, so as to realize knowledge acquisition which will promote network capacity of firm performance. In the transition process of Chinese economy, the social capital of entrepreneurs themselves have practical significance on newly-established firms which need to break through the resource constraint and realize rapid growth. The research theory has enriched the theoretical connotation of entrepreneurs' social capital. It is divided into three dimensionalities; they are environmental trust, network relation, and network capacity, and then building a good model about entrepreneurial social capital, knowledge acquisition, and start-up firm performance. According to the empirical analysis of the newly established 564 companies in Yangtze delta area, the research results show that environmental trust has positive effect on the construction of network relationship and network capacity. While the knowledge acquisition was significantly and positively correlated with the start-up firm performance, it also indicates that the relation between the environmental trust and the start-up firm performance is an inverse U shape. However, the knowledge acquisition of enterprises will promote the relationship between entrepreneurial social capital and enterprise performance, as well as announcing that only having strong entrepreneurial social capitals can get the needed knowledge. Furthermore, one needs to translate knowledge into the internal ability of enterprise. Consequently, one can get a competitive advantage. This chapter explores all of this.

Mobile Financial Services at the Base of the Pyramid

Mobile financial services is one of the uprising movements to bank the unbanked by integrating philanthropic and business approaches for financial inclusion. In this chapter, the authors address how a systemic view helps integrate the Philanthropic Initiatives (PI) and the Commercial Initiatives (CI) to get a sustainable impact on the unbanked micro-entrepreneurs. However, each approach has pros and cons as they go along the stages of design, deployment, and sustainability. Using the soft system thinking, the authors theorise the Base of the Pyramid (BoP) as a business system to mix-up the relatively high start-up capabilities of the PI with the relatively sustainable impact of CI. The mobile money case shows that donors, local private enterprises, and multinational corporations follow the BoP strategy to develop an online grid that offers a reconciled balanced scorecard for economic returns, social benefits, and local impact. Such a strategy guarantees flexible, long-term investments and facilitates developing innovative financial services.