A Hybrid Multiple Criteria Decision-Making Technique to Evaluate Regional Intellectual Capital: Evidence from China

Kexin Li,Liping Su,Ding Li,Shuting Lu,Peng Jiang,Chao Liu,Anni Li

doi:10.3390/math9141676

Abstract

With the dawn of economic globalization and the knowledge economy, intellectual capital has become the most important factor to determine economic growth. However, due to resource endowment, location conditions, policy differences, and other factors, provinces in China show sizeable differences in regional intellectual capital (RIC), which affects the coordinated development of the regional economy. Evaluating RIC is a typical multiple-criteria decision-making (MCDM) problem. Therefore, this study employs a set of MCDM techniques to solve this problem. First, the Delphi method is used to determine the formal decision structure based on a systematic literature review. A novel hybrid method, namely, the Grey-based Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) and Analytic Network Process (ANP), i.e., GDANP, is employed to obtain the relative weight of each criterion. Finally, based on the data of 31 provinces in China, the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to evaluate the RIC. According to the questionnaires filled out by an expert panel, we establish an evaluation index of RIC with 21 criteria. Based on the results of empirical study, the level of RIC in different regions in China is quite different. Furthermore, the RIC ranking is largely consistent with the provincial gross domestic product (GDP) ranking, in line with the current status of development in the regions. Indeed, this paper shows that the proposed hybrid method can effectively measure the level of RIC.

Highlights

Since the 1980s, as the economic development model began to transition away from an investment-driven phase towards an innovation-driven phase, the world economy entered a period of industrial restructuring, and economic development aligned itself with the knowledge economy era
The weighted ranking of criteria determined by the GDANP method was reasonable
After constructing a formal decision structure according to the Delphi method, this paper uses the GDANP method to calculate the weight of each indicator in the system

Summary

Introduction

Since the 1980s, as the economic development model began to transition away from an investment-driven phase towards an innovation-driven phase, the world economy entered a period of industrial restructuring, and economic development aligned itself with the knowledge economy era. Intellectual capital (IC) has become one of the most valuable assets of an organization, region, or country [1]. In this process, IC separated from other factors of production, and became the engine of economic growth and technological progress [2]. Advanced countries create national value through service innovation, research, and development, or an increase in gross domestic product (GDP) per working hour [3]. The development potential of any organization is embedded in its IC, which is considered to be the basic resource for creating value at regional and national levels [4]

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion