Emerging economies and investment in intellectual capital in crisis time: The case of Russia

Abstract

Emerging economies have specific characteristics that condition the use of intellectual capital. The economic crisis has had important consequences for emerging countries. The investments in intellectual capital could slow down this influence. This paper uses a new model for assessing the effects of an investment in intellectual capital on the performance of Russian companies in a period of crisis. The model is applied in Russian companies with data from 1,096 companies for the period 2004–2014 and 12,056 observations were made. The panel data included only active companies (from January 2004) listed with annual reports and were obtained from Bureau Van Dijk’s Ruslana database. Each company’s data cover at least seven years. The study used hierarchical linear models to unravel the effect of intellectual capital on value-added. The results show that investments in structural capital and relational capital have a direct effect on the stock of intellectual capital and generates value. The results show that investments in structural capital and relational capital have a direct effect on the stock of intellectual capital and generates value.