Investigating the Impact of Intellectual Capital on Innovation in Education Organization

Organizations are increasingly facing dynamic and changing environments. Due to more complexity for organizations to adapt to environmental changes, the education organization like the other ones should be able to adopt new technologies to give appropriate responses to environmental changes. This social institution plays a critical role in the management of society and the sustainable development of the country. Therefore, its continued growth can be guaranteed by promoting intellectual capital and moving towards innovative behaviors. accordingly, the purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of intellectual capital on organizational innovation.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK:

A brief look at intellectual capital literature shows that there exists no consensus on its definition between scholars. However, there is agreement on its economy-oriented and knowledge-oriented approaches to it and researchers consider the main three components of intellectual capital as human, structural, and customer capital. Intellectual capital is the total hidden assets of the organization that are not shown in the balance sheet. Therefore, it includes both what is in the brains of the organization's members and what remains after people leave the organization. On the other hand, organizational innovation which is an intangible and inimitable resource can be defined as the successful implementation of new ideas encompassing changes in the structure and processes of an organization to apply new management, work, and operational concepts.

A quantitative approach in the form of a survey-analytical strategy was used to conduct the research. The study population consisted of all managers and administrative experts of the General Department of Education of Razavi Khorasan province. Using Cochran's formula, the sample size was calculated to be 282 people. To collect data, a questionnaire with five-point Likert-type scales was utilized. Finally, Structural equation modeling was conducted in SmartPLS software to test the research hypotheses.

In terms of the components of intellectual capital, the findings showed that human, structural, and relational capital respectively has the highest mean. Regarding the components of organizational innovation, the components of technical and managerial innovation had the highest and lowest mean respectively. While all the path coefficients were significant, the component of relational capital had the strongest effect (β=0.532) on organizational innovation. This finding highlights the importance of relational capital. In total, intellectual capital was able to explain about 72 percent of the variance in organizational innovation.

CONCLUSIONS & SUGGESTIONS:

Since the effect of the three components of intellectual capital on organizational innovation was positive and significant, it can be recommended to investigate the affecting factors of these components separately in the organization of education. To facilitate the implementation of new ideas in this organization, we propose setting up a suggestion system using IT technology in line with promoting open innovation. Moreover, to implement more educational innovations, it is suggested to make strategic agreements and links with scientific centers such as universities, knowledge-based firms, and science and technology parks.