ABSTRACT
This research is designed to analyze the concept of intellectual capital and how its effective
management can impact on competitive advantage of manufacturing industry with special
reference to selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. Globally, intellectual capital
drives and sustains an economy, providing the needed advantage to emerge as a developed
economy. Today, organizations inability to effectively harness intellectual capital has
brought about performance and development constraints. Thus, there is need to develop
strategies for management to maximally harness intellectual capabilities in the face of
structural adjustments. To this end the study sought to ascertain the extent to which human
capital development is planned in order to have differentiation advantage, explore the extent
to which relational capital can be controlled in order to have low cost provider advantage,
determine the extent to which organizational capital can be designed in order to have best
cost provider advantage, investigate the extent to which brain power can lead to innovative
advantage and finally ascertain the extent to which organizational learning correlates with
focused advantage strategy in selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. The researcher
adopted a descriptive research design. The tools used for collection of data were five point
likert scale questionnaire, oral interview and model modification in line with the objectives of
the study. The sources of data for the study were primary and secondary sources. The
population of the study was 850 and comprised the top management, middle management and
lower management staff of the four selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. They were
Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigeria Breweries Plc, and SAB Miller Breweries and consolidated
Breweries Plc. The firms were chosen because they operate in the same geographical area
and also produce similar but differentiated products. The study applied an exhaustive
sampling hence the sample size was 850. The data generated from the field survey were
presented and analyzed using frequency distribution tables and simple percentages.
Hypotheses testing were done using Z-test of population proportion for hypotheses one, two
and three while Z-test for the likert scale was used for testing hypotheses four and five. The
research instrument was validated by some specialist in data analysis using content validity
approach.
The instrument was checked for reliability using cronbach alpha with a value of
0.75. The results of the study showed that effective plan on human capital development had a
positive relationship with differentiation advantage, effective relational capital control
system had a positive advantage on low cost provider advantage, effective organizational
capital design had a positive relationship on best cost provider advantage, brain power lead
had a positive influence on innovative advantage and that there was a positive correlation
between organizational learning and focused advantage strategy. In conclusion
organizations that have meaningful performance information about its intellectual capital
can use it to inform decision making, to test and review strategy, and to manage risks
associated with business activities for better performance. The study therefore recommends
that the strategic managers in the brewing firms studied should be backed by policy. Human
capital development should be effectively planned in order to have differentiation advantage
over other competitors, relational capital should be efficiently and effectively controlled
among organization’s members to sustain low-cost provider advantage, there must be
effective organizational design to enable the organizations to have a formal system of task
and job reporting relationships that determine effective use of resources so as to achieve the
best cost provider advantage over rivals, the organizations should provide enabling
environment to enhance the skill and capabilities of their workforce to achieve innovative
advantage and the organizations should be responsive to learning in order to have focused
advantage over their competitors.
