سرمایه فکری و عملکرد توسعه محصول جدید : نقش میانجی گری قابلیت یادگیری سازمانی

Previous studies rarely examined the relationship between intellectual capital and organizational learning capability. Moreover, most studies neglect the mediating effect of organizational learning capability in the relationship between intellectual capital and new product development performance. This study uses interviews and the survey method to discuss the relationships governing intellectual capital, organizational learning capability, and new product development performance. Results are based on empirical data from Taiwan's IC design industry, and are generated by the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. Results show that human capital and relational capital actually improve new product development performance through organizational learning capability. Although structural capital positively affects organizational learning capability, managers should pay attention to possibly negative effects of structural capital on new product development performance. Relational capital is the greatest factor among these three types of intellectual capital in Taiwanese IC design companies, structural capital is second, and human capital is last. Comparing three types of intellectual capital of Taiwan's large enterprises with those of Taiwan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs) reveals that the relational capital of Taiwan's SMEs is marginally less than that of large enterprises.

Intellectual capital is becoming a crucial factor for a firm's long-term profit and performance in the knowledge-based economy as more and more firms identify their core competence as invisible assets rather than visible assets [1]. Nonaka and Takeuchi [2] point out that future society is a knowledge-based society in which knowledge storage and application are the basis of economic growth and accumulated capital. Industries in such a society do not rely on traditional production factors for their competitive advantage, but on knowledge management and integration. This trend stresses the importance of organizational learning capability and how to create, manage, and evaluate intellectual capital. Despite the fact that intellectual capital and organizational learning capability are so important to firms' development, few studies focus on how these two factors relate to each other and affect new product development performance. Griffin's research posits that about 32.4% of company sales is generated by new market products [3]. New product development is necessary for firm survival and competitive advantage [4], especially salient in the high-tech industry. Many studies focus on new product development performance [5], [6], [7] and [8], yet analysis of factors affecting new product development performance remains incomplete. For example, although Chen et al. [9] discuss the relationship between intellectual capital and new product development performance, the study does not address how intellectual capital and organizational learning capability simultaneously affect new product development performance. Studies often neglect organizational learning capability as a firm's mediating role. Therefore, this study fills the research gap by exploring the influence of three types of intellectual capital – i.e. human capital, structural capital, and relational capital – and organizational learning capability upon new product development performance. This study examines the relationship between intellectual capital – including human capital, structural capital, and relational capital – and organizational learning capability. Then, the mediating role of organizational learning capability in the intellectual capital–new product development relationship is discussed. Third, this study uses the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method to analyze the joint effect of intellectual capital and organizational learning capability on improving new product development performance. Hopefully, these research results can help governments or managers and contribute to relevant studies and future research.

Intellectual capital has recently attracted much attention from scholars, enterprises, and governments in practical applications and further discussion. However, no relevant studies explore the mediating role of organizational learning capability in the relationship between intellectual capital and new product development performance relationship. This study therefore focuses on and fills this research gap. The study explores the influence of three types of intellectual capital, i.e. human capital, structural capital, and relational capital, on new product development performance, and regards organizational learning capability as a mediator in exploring whether intellectual capital influences new product development performance through organizational learning capability. 7.1. Implications This work reexamines various intellectual capital dimensions and their interactive relationships. Empirical results show that human capital positively affects structural capital and relational capital, and relational capital positively affects structural capital. This investigation also proposes a theoretical model that demonstrates organizational learning capability relevance using intellectual capital. Relational capital, the most important predictor, can be explained by the relationship of customers and partners, where sustaining a good relationship is fundamental. Human capital also significantly affects organizational learning capability, meaning that good quality human resources form a key element in knowledge-intensive industries because knowledgeable workers create organizational learning capability. As for the marginally significant effect of structural capital on organizational learning capability, investments in information technology and innovation help a firm utilize and maximize knowledge value to improve its organizational learning capability. This study considers the roles of intellectual capital and organizational learning capability in generating new product development performance, which jointly contributes to new product development performance. A firm emphasizing human capital gives its employees the chance to contribute more to new product development performance. Structural capital marginally negatively affects new product development performance, indicating that excessive expenditures on information technology or innovation may not always be beneficial to new product development performance. Relational capital does not directly affect new product development performance because it affects new product development performance through organizational learning capability. The relationship between organizational learning capability and new product development indicates that new product development performance has a strong learning component, coming as it does from the learning process. Furthermore, this study discusses the mediating effect of organizational learning capability on the intellectual capital–new product development performance relationship. Empirical results show that human capital and relational capital affect new product development performance through organizational learning capability, especially for relational capital. Managers, therefore, need to realize that if they want to maximize their intellectual capital, it is necessary to enhance their organizational learning capabilities. Finally, this work analyzes three types of intellectual capital – human capital, structural capital, and relational capital – in Taiwan and calculates their mean values, respectively, as a reference for managers in Taiwan to evaluate their intellectual capital. Moreover, enterprise managers in Taiwan can refer to questionnaire items in this study to evaluate the strength and weakness of their intellectual capital and new product development performance. New product development is an important approach to changing corporation image in a market. We hope that this study provides investors with measurable indicators of intellectual capital and new product development performance to use as a useful tool to evaluate company performance beyond financial statements. 7.2. Limitations and directions for future research The results of this study have some limitations, and some points need further research. First, this study focuses on IC design companies in Taiwan. Study results warrant further studies that could examine different samples in other industries or countries. This would provide the basis for generalization. Second, this study uses the IC design industry as the research sample, concluding that structural capital marginally negatively affects new product development performance. The hypothesized relationships of this study are worthy of further study in other contexts. Third, this study employs subjective measures from interviewed project managers and R&D engineers. Although their subjective evaluations measured by multi-item scales are generally in line with objective measurements of new product development projects, their subjective evaluations may differ from objective data. Future studies should consider using objective indicators to reexamine the proposed hypotheses. Fourth, this study tested hypotheses with a questionnaire survey that provided only cross-sectional data; we did not gather longitudinal data to observe changes in intellectual capital throughout the new product development process. Therefore, future studies can develop a longitudinal study to find intellectual capital differences in the new product development process. Finally, future studies may try to examine other mediators in the relationship between intellectual capital and new product development performance, increasing our understanding of how intellectual capital affects new product development performance.