Analysis of the rate of growth of intellectual capital ability in predicting present and future profitability of Sharia commercial banks in Indonesia

PurposeThis research examines the growth of intellectual assets in Islamic banking (IB) in Indonesia and intellectual capital (IC) growth to predict Islamic commercial banks' (ICBs) current and future profitability.Design/methodology/approachThis research is a quantitative descriptive research, a study that emphasizes theory testing by measuring research variables with numbers that aim to test the hypothesis. The object of this research is sharia banking companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange during 2014–2019. This study takes IB companies as an object because IB has its types of relatively different transactions from conventional banking or commercial banks.FindingsThe results show that the rate of growth of IC (ROGIC) for ICBs in Indonesia can predict the current year's financial performance but has not been able to predict the profitability of the future year.Originality/valueThis study examines the predictive value rate of IC return in predicting current and next three years’ earnings, which previous researchers have never done.