R&D and intellectual capital: An application on BIST

The main objective of a firm is to attain sustainability while maximizing its value. One of the main factors enhancing the value of a firm is the knowledge that provides them a competitive advantage. Companies can obtaion competitiveness by attaining unique knowlege through R&D investments. As those investments are realized by bearing risks and incurring costs, they expected to generate value. One side of such value is intellectual capital. This thesis examines the relationship between R&D investments and intellectual capital for firms traded in Borsa Istanbul. Firstly, the concept of the R&D, its importance, aims and purpose have been explained then, the information regarding R& D investments as well as indicators in the World and Turkey have been provided. Secondly, the concept of intellectual capital and measuring methods of it have been explained. Providing the relation between R&D and intellectual capital ; the relationship between R&D investment and Value Added Intellectual Coefficient (VAIC), including the components of VAIC, Capital Employed Efficiency (CEE), Human Capital Efficiency (HCE) and Structural Capital Efficiency (SCE) has been analyzed by the use of panel analysis. For the period of 2010-2018 total of 20 companies which are traded in BIST, from the white goods and consumer durables; petrol and chemical; automotive; informaion and technology sectors companies have been examined. Analyses are carried out with whole data and also on the sector basis. In the analysis where all sectors were taken into consideration together, except the CEE, significant positive results were obtained for the relationship between R&D investments with HCE, SCE and VAIC. In the automotive, white goods and durable consumption sectors, a positive and significant relationship was obtained between VAIC, and its components while significant results were found with CEE in the chemical sector, HCE,SCE and VAIC in the information and technology sectors.