Investigating of Relationship between Intellectual Capital and Financial Performance of Petrochemical Companies Listed in Tehran Stock Exchange

Abstract

Today, the role of intellectual capital in the profitability and competitive advantage of companies is more than financial capital. The main purpose of this paper is to raise an awareness of intellectual capital among Petrochemical Companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Also, this study emphasis on empirical evidence of the relationship between intellectual capital and companies' profitability indicators. Measuring the intellectual capital with Pulic’s model and for measuring the companies’ profitability, return on assets and return on equity are used. The time domain is between 2008 until 2012 and to test hypotheses and analyze data panel regression, least squares (LS) is used. Research findings show that there is significant relationship between intellectual capital and two performance indicators (return on equity and return on sales) in Petrochemical Companies listed in Tehran Stock Exchange. Also, our findings show that among component of intellectual capital, structural capital efficiency has most relationship with financial performance indicators and so among the financial performance indicators, return on sales (ROS) has most relationship with component of intellectual capital.