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Happy Employees Make Happy Customers: The Role of Intellectual Capital in Supporting Sustainable Value Creation in Organizations

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Intellectual Capital Management as a Driver of Sustainability

Abstract

Intellectual capital has become a prominent driver of organizational and societal performance and wellbeing. However, the role of intellectual capital in the context of sustainable organizational value and wealth creation—that is, how organizations can simultaneously create customer value while also satisfying their internal stakeholders—has been virtually unexplored so far. Hence, this chapter examines the role of intellectual capital as a driver of organizational-level economic and social sustainability. It focuses on examining the effect of intellectual capital on customer value creation and the moderating role of job satisfaction in this relationship. We utilize survey data collected from 259 Finnish companies to empirically examine the research model. We find that both intellectual capital and job satisfaction are positively associated with customer value creation and that job satisfaction moderates the relationship between intra-firm relational capital and customer value creation. This shows that organizational social sustainability (measured by job satisfaction) is integrally linked with value creation in end-customer markets. Overall, our results contribute to the understanding of the role of intellectual capital as an important driver of sustainable value creation in organizations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Business and Management, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Henri Hussinki, Aino Kianto, Mika Vanhala & Paavo Ritala

Authors
  1. Henri Hussinki
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  2. Aino Kianto
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  3. Mika Vanhala
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  4. Paavo Ritala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Henri Hussinki .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. ICAA – Intellectual Capital Association, Santarém, Portugal

    Florinda Matos  & Valter Vairinhos  & 

  2. DINÂMIA’CET – IUL, Centre for Socioeconomic and Territorial Studies, Lisboa, Portugal

    Florinda Matos

  3. Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Santa Catarina, Brazil

    Paulo MaurĂ­cio Selig

  4. The New Club of Paris e.V., Lund University, Vienna, Austria

    Leif Edvinsson

Appendix: Measurement Items

Appendix: Measurement Items

Intra-firm relational capital

Different units and functions within our company—such as R&D, marketing, and production—understand each other well

0.757***

Our employees frequently collaborate to solve problems

0.839***

Internal cooperation in our company runs smoothly

0.840***

CR

0.85

AVE

0.66

External relational capital

Our company and its external stakeholders—such as customers, suppliers, and partners—understand each other well

0.776***

Our company and its external stakeholders frequently collaborate to solve problems

0.865***

Cooperation between our company and its external stakeholders runs smoothly

0.825***

CR

0.86

AVE

0.68

Structural capital

Our company has efficient and relevant information systems to support business operations

0.661***

Our company has tools and facilities to support cooperation between employees

0.697***

Our company has a great deal of useful knowledge in documents and databases

0.810***

Existing documents and solutions are easily accessible

0.806***

CR

0.83

AVE

0.56

Human capital

Our employees are highly skilled at their jobs

0.833***

Our employees are highly motivated in their work

0.757***

Our employees have a high level of expertise

0.877***

CR

0.86

AVE

0.68

Customer value creation

Solving actual customer needs

0.626***

Producing benefits related to perceptions and emotions for customers in addition to solving actual customer needs

0.658***

Customer trust in your company’s products, services, and operations in general

0.619***

Responsiveness to enquiries and problems as experienced by customers

0.636***

Employees’ professionalism and businesslike conduct as experienced by customers

0.679***

Care and individual attention as experienced by customers

0.712***

Value related to the display, tidiness, and functionality of the company’s products and services as experienced by customers

0.649***

CR

0.84

AVE

0.43

Job satisfaction

Our employees are generally very satisfied with their jobs

0778***

Most of our employees would like to switch to another company (R)

0.657***

Our employees are generally very satisfied with their current duties

0.809***

CR

0.79

AVE

0.56

  1. Note: ***Significant at <0.005; (R) denotes reversed item

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Hussinki, H., Kianto, A., Vanhala, M., Ritala, P. (2019). Happy Employees Make Happy Customers: The Role of Intellectual Capital in Supporting Sustainable Value Creation in Organizations. In: Matos, F., Vairinhos, V., Selig, P.M., Edvinsson, L. (eds) Intellectual Capital Management as a Driver of Sustainability. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79051-0_6

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