Interaction Effect of Intellectual Capitals on University Performance

Intangible assets constitute major resources in the university’s system. However, little or no attention has been given to effective utilization of these resources. This has not only affected the performance of the public universities in Nigeria adversely but also the economic development of the country. Hence, this study examined the effect of the interaction among intellectual capital components on the performance of public universities in South-Western Nigeria. The primary data obtained through the structured questionnaire administered on four hundred and twenty-four (424) respondents were analyzed using ordinary least square regression analysis. The result of the study revealed that the interaction between human capital and structural capital and the interaction between human capital and relational capital has significant positive effect on the performance of public universities in the South-Western Nigeria as indicated by p-values of 0.000 and 0.002 respectively. The result also shows that the interaction between structural intellectual capital and relational capital has an insignificant positive effect on the performance of public universities in the South-Western region of Nigeria as indicated by p-values of 0.139. This study therefore concluded that effective combination of the intellectual capital components improves the performance of public universities in the South-Western region of Nigeria. This study recommends that government at various levels should pay attention to funding strategies of higher education, particularly at university level. Innovative funding strategies that touch all aspects of university activities should reflected in the budget of university education from time to time to translate the expected mandate of ivory tower to reality.