On the relationship between intellectual capital efficiency and firm value: evidence from the Nigerian oil and gas downstream sector

We use a multi-theory framework which combines the lenses of clean surplus theory, resource-based theory and stakeholder theory to examine the relationship between measures of intellectual capital efficiency and firm market value. We employ Prais-Winsten regression with panel corrected standard errors to estimate our model. We find that while capital employed and structural capital efficiencies significantly and positively determine firm value, relational capital efficiency's positive effect appears mild. However, human capital efficiency appears to have no relationship with firm value. The significance of our findings is demonstrated by two key contributions to the literature. Firstly, this study is the first of its kind conducted in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. Secondly, our results provide further evidence in support of the clean surplus theory in its function of facilitating the role of accounting numbers in determining and explaining market values. These results are robust to an alternative time-series estimation at aggregate downstream sector level.