The impact of intellectual capital on commercial banks' performance: evidence from Bangladesh

Purpose - Intellectual capital (IC) and financial performance is now a very contemporary issue in the banking sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate empirically the impact of IC on financial performance of all the listed commercial banks of Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach - Bangladesh Bank database and financial statement of the listed commercial banks of Bangladesh for the period of 2014–2018 have been used to collect data. Value added intellectual coefficient (VAICTM) methods have been used for measuring the performance of banks. VAICTMdetermined IC and its three major components like structural, human and capital employed. Findings - The results suggest that human capital efficiency (HCE) and capital employed efficiency (CEE) have statistically significant relationships with bank performance, but when VAICTMis divided then structural capital efficiency (SCE) does not have a significant relationship with bank performance. Research limitations/implications - The study uses only listed banks, but it does not include all the commercial banks specially nationalized commercial banks. Practical implications - The findings allowed banks to focus more on human capital (HC) and structural capital, because in the present world, HC is considered one of the key factors for the success in business. This study also provides an awareness on how good IC of the banking companies will bring more assistance to a better life of a society. Originality/value - This is one of the very few studies which examine the impact of IC on bank financial performance in Bangladesh.