The impact of intellectual capital towardscompetitive advantage and total quality management applications: A research in Libyan public universities

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of Intellectual Capital (IC) towards Competitive Advantage (CA), and Total Quality Management applications (TQM). IC core elements included human capital (HC), structural capital (SC), and relational capital (RC). CA included differentiation (D) and speed of response (SR). Meanwhile, TQM applications included continuous improvement (CI) and unlimited improvement (UI). Based on the theoretical framework, five main hypotheses were developed and statistically tested. The research population consisted of All academic leaders (deans and heads of scientific and administrative departments) in the Libyan public universities in the western region and the data were gathered through a questionnaire, the final number of respondents, involved in this study, was 120 colleges (faculties) within 6 public universities. The hypotheses of the study were tested by applying simple statistical data analyses. Findings showed a significant impact of IC on competitive advantage and total quality management applications. Moreover, the findings indicated that the total quality management applications had a direct and positive effect on the competitive advantage of universities.