Modeling the intellectual capital management on the public infrastructure projects performance

• Main Author: Saeed, Almuharrami Sulayem Saleh Musallam
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2022
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HD Industries. Land use. Labor
• Online Access: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26982/; https://plh.utem.edu.my/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=122193

The number of infrastructural projects has escalated rapidly within the United Arab Emirates (UAE) over the last decade. This development is in line with the government’s aim to establish the UAE as a preferred, commercial, and tourist destination. The government was highly concerned about achieving the pre-planned vision in 2021 which included integrated tangible and intangible assets. However, this vision is more focused on human capital. The absence of other components of intangible assets forms a gap that might foster intangible innovation potential toward the improvement of infrastructure project performance. The absent intangible assets in this context include innovation capital intervention within the intellectual capital model and within the UAE infrastructure industry, which is considered as a transfer channel of resource-based knowledge. Studies conducted in the UAE did not discuss intellectual capital in a wider and holistic context. Thus, this study argues that the performance of infrastructure projects in the UAE can be positively impacted by the influence of intellectual capital. This study aims to assess the impact of innovation capital as a moderator factor, as the UAE government’s initiative neglected the integrative role of intellectual capital. The objective of this study is to model intellectual capital management on the public infrastructure project performance. Using the proposed model, this study analysed the impacts of intellectual capital on the performance of public infrastructure projects. A quantitative approach was employed to test the structured hypotheses. The two types of study data tested in this study included the secondary data retrieved from 13 listed infrastructure and property companies, and the primary data from 721 unlisted infrastructure and property companies, that were involved in infrastructure projects within the country. The data were analysed using the SmartPls software and to construct the proposed modelling of intellectual capital within the UAE infrastructure projects. The secondary data were collected from 2014 to 2018 to explore the optimal adoption of the intellectual capital components according to the infrastructure project companies to overcome the slowdown in the economy. Meanwhile, the primary data collection was performed through questionnaires that were distributed to 251 managers from the UAE's unlisted infrastructure companies. The findings from the primary data revealed significant impacts of four intellectual capital components on the performance of public infrastructure projects, namely human capital (β = 0.023), structural capital (β = 0.028), relational capital (β = 0.960), and social capital (β = 0.053). The secondary data was used as a supportive investigation to test the moderation effects of innovation capital. The three performance indicators that were used included return on assets, return on equity, and earnings per share. The results from the secondary data indicated significant moderation effects of innovation capital on the three performance indicators of public infrastructure projects. An intellectual capital model within the UAE infrastructure projects was proposed based on the results of the structural equation modelling. The results emphasised the great effects of human capital, crystallised by innovation capital, to effectively boost the performance of infrastructure projects. In short, project managers are encouraged to consider intellectual capital by incorporating the role of innovation capital to integrate the relationship between intellectual capital and project performance.