Exploring The Mediating Role Of Dynamic Capabilities In The Relationship Between Intellectual Capital And Performance Of Information And Communications Technology Firms

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HO CHI MINH CITY INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY HOANG THANH NHON Student ID: PBAIU2002 A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHYLOSOPHY IN BUSINES

VIET NAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HO CHI MINH CITY

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY

HOANG THANH NHON

Student ID: PBAIU2002

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF

DOCTOR OF PHYLOSOPHY IN BUSINESS

ADMINISTRATION

Exploring the mediating role of dynamic capabilities in the relationship between intellectual capital and performance of information and communications

technology firms

HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022

Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration:

Major Code: PBA

Independent Reviewer 1: Assoc Prof Van Van Dut

Independent Reviewer 2: Dr Kieu Anh Tai

Committee Chair: Assoc Prof Vo Thi Quy

Committee Secretary: Assoc Prof Nguyen Nhu Ty

Committee member (Examiner 1): Prof Ha Nam Khanh Giao

Committee member (Examiner 2): Assoc Prof Hoang Thi Phuong Thao Committee member (Examiner 3): Assoc Prof Bui Thi Thanh

Committee member: Assoc Prof Tu Van Binh

Committee member: Dr Le Dinh Minh Tri

The Principal Coordinating Supervisors:

1 Associate Prof Mai Ngoc Khuong

2 Dr Bui Quang Thong

HO CHI MINH CITY, April 2022

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I want to celebrate this achievement together with individuals who help me made

it happen I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Associate Prof Mai Ngọc Khương and Dr Bui Quang Thong, thank you for trusting my abilities and granting

me the freedom to work individually at my own pace I am very thankful for Associate Prof Mai Ngoc Khuong for being great mentor whom I was always able to share ideas and concerns I am very thankful for Dr Tran Anh Tuan, the former acting director of The HCMC Institute for Development Studies (HIDS) supported me the data collection

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my preliminary examiners Your comments and remarks helped me to put the finishing touches to the manuscript

I had the honor to work and study a full academic year at International University-Vietnam National University in 2009-2019 I am very thankful for my colleagues who guide me in academic works

Finally, I am blessed to have great friends A massive thanks go to my parents, wife and International University-Vietnam National University-Ho Chi Minh city for helping me to keep balance mentality

Ho Chi Minh city, April 2022

Hoang Thanh Nhon

ABSTRACT

With the rise of innovation-driven and Industry 4.0 era, knowledge has become the most important feature in the firm’s value creating process Academics and practitioners have been devoting their attention to the study of intellectual capitals for the last two decades Intellectual capital is an emerging and fast-evolving concept Several reports have supposed that most of the corporate value and the global wealth are now based on intellectual capital Scholars have widely recognized that intellectual capital dimensions including human capital, organizational capital and social capital, drive innovation, corporate change and social change locally, nationally and worldwide

Three separately literature streams developed in this study are intellectual capitals (ICs), dynamic capabilities and firm performance There are arguments about the mediating role of the dynamic capabilities on the impacts of ICs on firm performance

in an emerging market like Vietnam, especially in Information Technology Communication (ICT) sector Therefore, one of the purposes of the study is to examine the mediating role of dynamic capabilities To examine this potential, this dissertation tests a conceptual model to explain how three types of dynamic capabilities -learning, integration, and reconfiguration capability- mediate the impact

of intellectual capital dimensions, including human, social, and organizational capital,

on firm performance This study, using a sample of 370 Vietnamese firms in the information and communications technology sector, found that dynamic capabilities play a mediating role in the relationship between intellectual capital dimensions and

firm performance Among dynamic capabilities, learning capability has the most significant mediating effect Furthermore, the important roles of human, social, and organizational capital are addressed due to their direct effects on performance based

on resource-based view theory, as well as their indirect effect via the mediation of dynamic capabilities

Keywords: intellectual capitals, intangible capitals, human capital, social capital,

organizational capital, firm performance learning, integration, and reconfiguration capability

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1 1

INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research background 1

1.2 Problem Identification 3

1.3 Rationale and Deficiencies for Current Research 5

1.4 Research Gap 6

1.5 Purpose of study 6

1.6 Research Questions 7

1.7 Dissertation Structure 7

CHAPTER 2 10

LITERATURE REVIEW 10

2.1 Resource-based view 10

2.2 Dynamic Capabilities View 13

2.3 The firm performance 21

2.4 Intellectual capital 24

2.4.1 Human capital 26

2.4.2 Organizational capital 27

2.4.3 Social Capital 28

2.5 Hypothesis Development 29

2.5.1 The direct impact of human, organizational and social capital on firm performance 29

2.5.2 The direct impact of human capital on Learning, Integration and Configuration Capability 32

2.5.3 The direct impact of social capital on Learning, Integration and Configuration capability 33

2.5.4 The direct impact of organizational capital on Learning, Integration and Cofiguration capability 34

2.5.4 Mediating effects of Learning Capability 36

2.5.5 Mediating effects of Integration capability 37

2.5.6 Mediating effects of reconfiguration capability 38

2.5 Conceptual Model 39

2.6 Theoretical map 41

2.7 Summary 41

CHAPTER 3 42

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 42

3.1 Research Design 42

3.1.1 Research Philosophies 42

3.1.2 Strategies of Inquiry 44

3.1.3 Research Methodologies 45

3.2 Types of questionnaire 47

3.3 Translation 47

3.4 The category of measurement items 48

3.4.1 Measurement items of the intellectual capital types 48

3.4.2 Measurement items of the firm performance 49

3.4.3 Measurement items of Learning, Integration and Reconfiguration capability 50

3.5 Sampling method 51

3.6 Data Collection Procedures 56

3.6.1 Participants 57

3.7 Data Analysis Procedures 57

3.7.1 Exploring Factor Analysis (EFA) 58

3.7.2 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) 59

3.7.3 Mediation Analysis 63

3.8 Summary 65

CHAPTER 4 67

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS 67

4.1 Data Description 67

4.2 Descriptive statistics of measured items 71

4.3 The result of the construct reliability and validity evaluation 75

4.5 The result of hypotheses tests in conceptual models: 80

4.6 Summary 87

CHAPTER 5 88

DISCUSSIONS 88

5.1 The Impact of Intellectual capital on dynamic capabilities 88

5.2 The impact of intellectual capital on firm performance 91

5.3 Complementary mediation for the relationship between Intellectual capital and firm performance 92

5.4 Dynamic capabilities and Firm Performance 93

5.5 Summary 95

CHAPTER 6 96

CONCLUSIONS 96

6.1 Theoretical contributions 96

6.2 Managerial implications 99

6.3 Limitations and further researches 102