The impact of intellectual capital on financial performance in Argentina, Chile and Peru

Intellectual capital research is a topic that has stood out in recent decades and has allowed us to recognize other types of strategic non-accounting resources that allow organizations to increase their financial performance. Despite the importance of the subject, the evidence for emerging economies, especially in Latin America is scarce and outdated with inconclusive results. This motivates this research. The objective of this work is to determine and quantify the impact of intellectual capital and its components, human capital, relational capital, and structural capital on the financial performance of the electricity industry in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. The estimates are considered using a panel analysis and the generalized methods of moments and fixed effects are used. The results are not conclusive when estimating a contemporary relationship between human capital, relational capital, and structural capital and financial performance. However, a significant positive relationship is observed when lagged measures are used for each proposed measure of intellectual capital.   Key words: Intellectual capital, firms’ performance, electricity industry, emerging markets.