The Influence of Intellectual Capital on New Product Development Performance – The Manufacturing Companies of Taiwan as an Example

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of intellectual capital of Taiwanese manufacturing companies upon their new product development performance. This study showed that three types of intellectual capital – human capital, structural capital, and relational capital – had a significantly positive relationship with new product development performance. Moreover, the results also indicated that the higher the growth rate of an industry, the stronger were the positive relationships between three types of intellectual capital and new product development performance. Besides, relational capital was the greatest among these three types of intellectual capital in Taiwanese manufacturing companies, human capital was the next, and structural capital was the least. This shows two points; first, Taiwanese manufacturing companies emphasized the interactive ‘relations’ with their suppliers, clients, and partners; second, it was imperative for Taiwanese manufacturing enterprises to develop their structural capital to increase their new product development performance. In addition, comparing three types of intellectual capital of Taiwan's large enterprises with those of Taiwan's small and medium enterprises (SMEs), the results showed that human capital and structural capital of Taiwan's SMEs was obviously less than those of large enterprises. Therefore, it was imperative for SMEs of Taiwan to create and develop their human capital and structural capital.