The influence of human, organizational and relational capital of universities on their performance: a developing economy perspective

PurposeOne in every four graduates of the world will be the product of Indian higher education system by the year 2030 as per a report issued by the FICCI (Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry) in 2015. This brings out the growing significance of higher education sector and purpose of the study. The present study tries to explore the relationship between intellectual capital of universities and their performance.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modeling (SEM) was applied on the dataset of 590 respondents, and the suggested model reiterate that human capital, organizational capital and relational capital have a significant influence on a university's performance.FindingsHuman capital, organizational capital and relational capital have a significant influence on a university's performance. The study strongly recommends that factors like research facilitation, quality of work life, knowledge sharing, industry academia relationship and information disclosure have a strong influence on performance.Originality/valueNot just India, but policymakers across Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) can strategize around intellectual capital to give a push to the fast-growing higher education sector.