VỐN TRÍ TUỆ VÀ TĂNG TRƯỞNG TỐI ƯU CỦA CÁC DOANH NGHIỆP NIÊM YẾT TRÊN THỊ TRƯỜNG CHỨNG KHOÁN VIỆT NAM VỐN TRÍ TUỆ VÀ TĂNG TRƯỞNG TỐI ƯU CỦA CÁC DOANH NGHIỆP NIÊM YẾT TRÊN THỊ TRƯỜNG CHỨNG KHOÁN VIỆT NAM VỐN TRÍ TUỆ VÀ TĂNG TRƯỞNG TỐI ƯU CỦA CÁC DOANH NGHIỆP NIÊM YẾT TRÊN THỊ TRƯỜNG CHỨNG KHOÁN VIỆT NAM Intellectual Capital of the Top Management Team and Firm Sustainable Growth: An Empirical Study from Vietnamese Listed Firms.. On the other hand, previous studies focused on empirical re
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
CAN THO UNIVERSITY
SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL THESIS
MAJOR: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION
MAJOR CODE: 9340101
PHAM THI NGOC SUONG
INTELLECTUAL CAPITAL AND SUSTAINABLE GROWTH OF FIRMS LISTED ON THE VIETNAMESE STOCK MARKET
YEAR 2025
Trang 2DOCTORAL THESIS WAS COMPLETED AT
CAN THO UNIVERSITY
Supervisors: Assoc Prof Dr Vo Van Dut
The thesis is defended before the doctoral dissertation committee at the professional unit level
Meeting at: Doctoral Thesis Defense Room (Meeting Room 3, 2nd Floor, Executive House), Campus II - Can Tho University
At 14:00 on 18/01/ 2025
Reviewer 1: Assoc Prof Dr Ha Minh Tri
Reviewer 2: Assoc Prof Dr Le Nhat Hanh
The thesis can be found at the libraries:
Learning Resource Center, Can Tho University
National Library of Vietnam
Trang 3LIST OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES
1 Pham Thi Ngoc Suong, Vo Van Dut (2022) The effects of intellectual capital on firms’ sustainable growth: a systematic review and future research agenda VNU Journal of Economics and Business 2 58-68
2 Pham Thi Ngoc Suong & Dut Van Vo (2022) A systematic review of the effects of intellectual capital on the enterprises’ sustainable growth and future research The fourth International Conference on Business, Economics & Finance 2022, Hue University ISBN: 978-604-337-731-6
3 Pham Thi Ngoc Suong & Vo Van Dut (2023) Intellectual Capital and Firm Sustainable Growth: the Moderating Impact of Management Experience of Top Management Team The Sixth
International Conference on Contemporary Issues in Economics, Management and Business, National Economics University ISBN: 978-604-330-939-3
4 Pham Thi Ngoc Suong & Vo Van Dut (2024) Intellectual Capital
of the Top Management Team and Firm Sustainable Growth: An Empirical Study from Vietnamese Listed Firms International Conference on Business and Finance 2024, University of Economics Ho Chi Minh City ISBN: 978-604-492-360-4
Trang 4CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Research context
Firms play an extremely important role in the national economy
In Vietnam, firms contribute over 60% of the gross domestic product every year According to data from the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, in the period from 2014 to 2019, the number of operating firms, newly established firms, and inactive or dissolved firms all increased This shows the lack of sustainability in the operations of firms One of the causes of this unsustainability can be excessive growth and exceeding the limits of firm growth Therefore, the firm needs to have a growth rate that does not exceed the sustainable growth rate The concept of sustainable growth has received attention from many scholars under the name "sustainable growth" Thence, the concepts of sustainable growth and sustainable growth of firms used in this study are not different in meaning and content
The results of the literature review show that there are still limitations in prior studies on the impact of intellectual capital on firm sustainable growth First, the author found that the results found from previous studies were not consistent despite using the same measurement technique The author believes that the estimation method is not reliable, leading to differences On the other hand, previous studies focused on empirical results on the impact of intellectual capital on firm sustainable growth while ignoring the management role of the top management team (TMT) and lacking theoretical foundation Therefore, this study carries out the following research contents:
Firstly, the study examines the impact of intellectual capital and its components on firm sustainable growth The author uses the two-step system generalized moment method (S-GMM) to overcome the endogeneity problem in the research models
Trang 5Second, the author examines the interactive influence of top management team (TMT) through their management experience to the influence of intellectual capital and its components on firm sustainable growth
Third, this study considers the impact of TMT intellectual capital
on firm sustainable growth because TMT plays an extremely important role in firms, especially in the context of a world with many fluctuations TMT are the representatives of firm decisions, the ones who make strategies, and manage strategies to achieve efficiency (Sohel Rana & Hossain, 2023)
The study applies and combines The Resource Theory (Barney, 1991), The Human Capital Theory (Becker, 1962), The Growth Theory (Penrose, 1959), The Upper Echelons Theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984), The Theory of Intellectual Capital and some studies extending the theories (Gibbons & Waldman, 2004) to explain the influence of intellectual capital, its components and TMT intellectual capital on firm sustainable growth At the same time, the study also considers the moderating role of TMT’s management experience on the relationship between intellectual capital, its components and sustainable growth of firms This study is conducted based on firms listed on the Vietnamese Stock Market
1.2 Research objectives
The general objective of the study is to measure the impact of intellectual capital on sustainable growth of listed firms on the Vietnamese Stock Market Therefrom, the author proposes management implications to help firms promote sustainable growth through intellectual capital and contribute to sustainable development of firms in the future
Specific objectives of the study:
Trang 6* First objective: Measuring the impact of intellectual capital,
components of intellectual capital on sustainable growth of firms and analyze the moderating role of TMT’s management experience on the relationship between intellectual capital, components of intellectual capital and sustainable growth of listed firms on the Vietnamese Stock Market
* Second objective: Measuring the impact of TMT’s intellectual
capital on sustainable growth of listed firms on the Vietnamese Stock Market
* Third objective: Proposing some management implications to
help promote firms to grow more optimally in the future through intellectual capital
1.3 Research object and scope
* Scope of research content
This thesis carries out the following three specific contents: 1)
researching on the impact of intellectual capital, its components on the sustainable growth of firms listed on the Vietnamese Stock Market; 2) examining the moderating influence of TMT’s management experience
on the relationship between intellectual capital, its components and the sustainable growth of firms; 3) analysing the influence of TMT’s intellectual capital on the sustainable growth of firms
* Scope of research time
This study was conducted based on data from firms listed on three stock exchanges and collected by the author during the period from 2014
to 2019
* Scope of research space
This study focused on Vietnamese firms listed on three stock exchanges: HOSE stock exchange under the Ho Chi Minh City Stock
Trang 7Exchange; HNX stock exchange under the Hanoi Stock Exchange and UPCOM stock exchange managed by the Hanoi Stock Exchange
1.4 Contribution of the thesis
1.4.1 Scientific contribution
First, the scientific contribution of thesis is demonstrated by showing the intellectual capital of firms, the management experience of TMT and the intellectual capital of TMT in firms considered valuable resources The novelty of study is considering intellectual capital as a resource and argument based on theories including The Resource Theory (Barney, 1991), The Human Capital Theory (Becker, 1962; Gibbons & Waldman, 2004), The Upper Echelons Theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984) and The Theory of Intellectual Capital to consider the impact to sustainable growth of firms These are points that previous studies have not made it
In addition, the study’s scientific significance is the basis for affirming the consideration of intellectual capital of firms, management experience and intellectual capital of TMT as resources and assets of firms besides traditional resources The research is the basis for expanding viewpoints on resources in the study of Barney (1991), Becker (1962) and Gibbons and Waldman (2004) and considering the fundamental characteristics of TMT in the study of Hambrick and Mason (1984) as valuable resources to expand the sustainable growth rate of the firm
The study is a supplementary source of documents and enriches the source of documents for research on intellectual capital of firms, management experience of TMT and intellectual capital of TMT for sustainable growth of firms
1.4.2 Practical contribution
The thesis is a new research project in examining the impact of intellectual capital on sustainable growth of listed firms on the
Trang 8Vietnamese Stock Market The thesis contributes to practical significance
in the following aspects:
Firstly, the thesis is proof of the contribution of intellectual capital
to the sustainable growth of firms It is groundwork to promote the sustainable growth rate of firms and guide firms towards sustainable growth while limiting risks in the growth process
Secondly, the research results of the thesis show valuable contributions of TMT’s management experience to promoting the sustainable growth of firms
Thirdly, the study shows the valuable contribution of the TMT’s intellectual capital to the sustainable growth of firms The study measured this capital based on the argument of knowledge increase from the existing knowledge base through learning, experience accumulation and from mutual knowledge learning of group members based on The Upper Echelons Theory of Hambrick and Mason (1984)
Finally, this study also discovered the reason causes of different results in previous studies because of endogeneity problems from research models The research results are a certain affirmation of contribution of this capital to the sustainable growth of firms
The above scientific and practical contributions are the foundation for the author to propose management implications for firms in Vietnam, and these contributions help firms grow optimally and develop sustainably, limiting certain risks in the process of firm growth
CHAPTER 2 OVERVIEW OF LITERATURE AND THEORETICAL BASE 2.1 Overview of literature
2.1.1 Literature review method
To review literature for the study, the author searched on two large databases as Scopus and Web of Science and then used VOSViewer
Trang 9software (Van Eck & Watman, 2021) to analyse documents by appling the co-occurrence technique This analysis is based on the appearance of keywords in the publications In the co-occurrence analysis, the author selected the appearance of keywords at least twice
Seven publications were found on the relationship between intellectual capital and sustainable growth Content analysis of these documents shows that the research areas concentrate in China, accounting for 3/7 studies, Romania (1), Pakistan (1), India (1), Korea (1), Indonesia (1) The studies tend to increase and start from 2018 and the most numerous in 2021 (with 4 studies) The results have not found any research on the impact of intellectual capital on firm sustainable growth
in Vietnam
2.1.2 Overview of theory
This study used The Resource Theory (Barney (1991), The Human Capital Theory (Becker, 1962; Gibbons & Waldman, 2004), Growth Theory (Penrose, 1959; Garnsey; 1998) and The Upper Echelons Theory (Hambrick & Mason, 1984) and The Theory of Intellectual Capital in the analysis and argumentation process to explain the research models
2.1.3 Overview of empirical studies
Based on the studies were found on the relationship between intellectual capital and sustainable growth In terms of the application of sustainable growth models in calculating the sustainable growth rate, previous studies have used the sustainable growth models of Higgins (1977) (2 studies), Van Horne (1988) (3 studies), Van Horne and Wachowicz (2015) (1 study), Rappaport (1978) (1 study), Colley et al (2002) (1 study) In which, there are two studies using two different models as the studies of Ionita and Dinu (2021) and Xu et al (2020)
In terms of intellectual capital measurement methods, the popular intellectual capital measurement models in the studies are the value added
Trang 10intellectual capital (VAIC) measurement model of Pulic (1998) and Pulic (2000) with two studies, the expanded value added intellectual capital (MVAIC) measurement model with two studies, one intellectual capital measurement model by human capital, structural capital and relational capital and one intellectual capital measuring model by intangible assets (Ionita & Dinu, 2021) The research periods focused on the years from
2009 to 2019 In the studies, there are two studies based on The Human Resource Theory to explain the impact of intellectual capital on sustainable growth (Lu et al., 2021; Xu et al., 2021)
Second, the process of examining the impact of intellectual capital
on sustainable growth of firms has ignored the moderating effects of factors in the models and overlooked the role of TMT’s intellectual capital in previous studies
Third, only a few studies have applied The Resource Theory to explain the relationship between intellectual capital and sustainable growth The remaining studies have not mentioned the application of theories in the studies
Fourth, the studies have not considered the endogenous factors that exist in the research models This may lead to differences in some research results
2.3 The concept of sustainable growth and measurement methods
Trang 11In this study, the meaning of the concept of sustainable growth of firms and sustainable growth of Higgins (2001) is the same Accordingly, this concept is understood as the ceiling or maximum growth level without exhausting the operating cash flow of the firm and this level can also be called the growth break-even point The concept of sustainable growth is used in this study instead of the concept of sustainable growth
as in the literature review process for two reasons First, in terms of meaning, both concepts are understood as the maximum growth rate of firms under certain financial conditions Second, the concept of sustainable growth is used to avoid confusion with the concept of sustainable growth that is related to environmental factors, social benefits and community-oriented activities
In the calculation model of sustainable growth, Higgins (2001) used the initial equity, the model is as follows:
SG = R × ROEbop
In which: R is the retained earnings ratio; ROEbop is the ratio between profit and equity; using equity at the beginning of the period
2.4 Concept of intellectual capital and measurement method
Ante Pulic is the author of many studies on intellectual capital and supports the method of measuring this capital through the efficiency of using value-added intellectual capital (VAIC) In 2008, Pulic, once again, affirmed that money or assets (factories, land, machinery, etc.) and human knowledge cannot become capital but only themselves if they are not used
to create value The interaction of these two groups of resources will create the best values for the firm With this viewpoint, Pulic's measuring method of intellectual capital is based on creating added value from capital sources Value is created from the interaction and conversion of value from knowledge of human resources and value is created from finance (money) and assets of the firm In this study, the author uses the
Trang 12measuring method of firm intellectual capital by the value-added intellectual capital coefficient (VAIC) of Pulic (2000)
2.5 Concept of intellectual capital of top management team and measurement method
According to Hambrick and Mason (1984), the top management team of the firm plays special roles and is very important in the operation
of the firm Nows, there are many different concepts of intellectual capital, but the concept of intellectual capital of the group is rarely proposed This study argues based on the views of Díaz-Fernández et al (2015) and The Upper Echelons Theory of Hambrick and Mason (1984)
to determine the intellectual capital of TMT Thereby, the intellectual capital of TMT is determined by characteristics on average age, management experience, diversity in educational level and diversity in knowledge background of the group
2.6 Research model on the relationship between intellectual capital and firm sustainable growth
2.6.1 Research model tổng quát
Figure 2.1: A general research model on the relationship between intellectual capital and sustainable growth of firm listed on the Vietnamese Stock Market
VAIC
Firm sustainable growth
Control variables
- Number of TMT ‘s members
- Number of operation years of firm
Trang 13(Source: Author's data analysis results with data collected from HOSE, HNX
of educational background and level diversity on firm sustainable growth show that diversity helps TMT’ members form new creative thinking, and the team’s final decisions are better than the decisions by individuals The research results also show that the average age of TMT has a negative impact on firm sustainable growth This result is contrary to the hypothesis H3b The younger TMT has a better influence on firm sustainable growth That means the hypothesis H3b can be based on the viewponts of Hambrick and Mason (1984) (risk acceptance in younger CEOs is better than that of older CEOs)
4.4 The influence of control variables in research models
In some research models, the size of TMT and the size of the firms have a positive impact on firm sustainable growth The number of operating years of firms has a negative impact on firm sustainable growth with a significant level of 1% However, financial leverage has not been found to affect statistical significance on firm sustainable growth However, the impact coefficient has a negative value That means financial leverage can have a negative impact on firm sustainable growth Similarly, in the research model on the impact of TMT’s intellectual capital on firm sustainable growth, the firm size variable has a positive impact on firm sustainable growth with a significance level of 1% and the number of operating years of firm has a negative impact on firm sustainable growth at a significance level of 1% Besause the significant positive impact of TMT’s size on educational background and level