The impact of intellectual capital of large firms on their innovation based competitive advantage: A research on businesses established in Eskişehir

Intellectual capital is the sum of the intangible assets such as the talents of the employees in the enterprise, their work-related competencies, entrepreneurial spirits, the production of information, as well as the production methods owned by the enterprise, the technology used, its patents, copyrights, image, and license agreements. Innovation is a new idea, product or service aimed at growth and development, where social and economic changes turn into benefits as a result of the intellectual capital the business has. With innovation and intellectual capital, the company gains a competitive advantage. Today, businesses not only want to be superior in competition, but also want to make this superiority sustainable. In this study, the role of intellectual capital on innovation and competitive advantage is explored. The main objective of the research is to reveal the relationship between sustainable competitive advantage, innovation structure and intellectual capital of large-scale enterprises operating in the industrial sector of Eskişehir province. 42 large-scale enterprises were reached in this study. The data were collected by asking the participants the survey questions obtained as a result of the scale developed. The data collected was analyzed in the SPSS 25 software. The main findings of the research are as follows: There is a high-level positive and significant relationship between intellectual capital and methods of achieving innovation and competitive advantage. There is also a high-level positive and significant relationship between innovation and competitive advantage. In addition, there is no significant relationship between the company's sector and the year of establishment and the methods of achieving intellectual capital, innovation and competitive advantage. However, there is a significant relationship between the target market in which the business operates and the methods of achieving intellectual capital, innovation and competitive advantage. Keywords; Intellectual Capital, Innovation, Competitive Advantage, Sustainability Competitive Advantage, Large Firms in Eskişehir Province