Intellectual Capital and Operational Excellence: An Influential Assessment

Competent intellectual capital is one of the most essential wealth that an organization requires in the present era of cutthroat competition. Operations management is nothing but management of operational processes in every big and small organization, and such activities constitute a major chunk of all organizational activities. Therefore, the present work targets to explore the association between intellectual capital and operational excellence, review of already conducted studies in the said area, and future directions through systematic literature review process. A total number of 165 articles provided by Scopus database (2010 to 2019) is used for analysis and interpretation. Bibliometric analysis and network analysis deliver significant clusters (operations management and optimization; intellectual capital and intellectual investment; knowledge management and decision support system; strategic planning and resource allocation; sustainable operations management and performance standards; behavioural research and change management), which is in turn a novel contribution of this article. The study concludes with a proposed conceptual model and key take away for researchers, academicians, and managers. KeywordsIntellectual capital, Operational excellence, Bibliometric analysis, Operations management, Network analysis


Introduction
Operational excellence is the key to achieve profitable operational performance. Broadly, operational excellence is dependent upon various resources not limited to financial, infrastructure and technological. However, intellectual capital/resources form the base of every other activity/process in an organization (Cheung et al., 2010;Chen and Delmas, 2011;Tan et al., 2013). Competent intellectual capital is one of the most essential wealth that an organization requires in the present era of cutthroat competition (Huang et al., 2010;Cherrafi et al., 2018;Chen et al., 2019;. Efficient and wise use of intellectual capital leads to excellent operational performances (Cahill et al., 2011;Priya and Ranjith Kumar, 2015;Modrak and Soltysova, 2018;Kalaitzi et al., 2019). Effective functioning of operations department is a big achievement for every individual involved. The said phenomenon is very well present in prominent sectors that includes banking and insurance, healthcare and information. Chugani and Jung (2010), Siebers and Aickelin (2011) and Simonetti et al. (2015) opine that successful management of operations is entirely dependent upon intellectual capital of organizations. It is worthwhile to invest in intellectual capital in order to cherish excellent operational activities in return (Sarkis et al., 2010;Aloini et al., 2011;Walker et al., 2015). Simply put, intellectual capital and operational excellence are extremely important and are supposed to go hand in hand. Further, an effectual orientation of above said combination delivers sustainable competitive advantage to contemporary organizations (Chugani and Jung, 2010;Siebers and Aickelin, 2011;Simonetti et al., 2015).
Keeping the given background in consideration, this work targets to explore following research questions: RQ1: What is the relationship between intellectual capital and operational excellence? RQ2: Is there any contribution towards intellectual capital and operational excellence, when and where? RQ3: What are the existing trends and future directions towards intellectual capital and operational excellence?
The present study follows systematic literature review. The collected data of 165 articles from Scopus database (until 10 October 2019) is analysed by using bibliometric and network analysis. Interpretation of inferences is drawn from cluster analysis. The remaining sections of the article covers literature review, research methodology, data analysis, findings and discussion.

Review of Literature
Operations management is nothing but management of operational processes in every big and small organization that constitutes a major chunk of all organizational activities (Mahapatra et al., 2010;Skotner et al., 2011;Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2015). Intellectual capital denotes one of the most important tangible assets for every organization for effective management of resources (Jianshe and Qun, 2010;Volochienko et al., 2018;Al-Rabeeah et al., 2019). Management of operations is the central activity in various organizations. Different organizations have varied needs to increase their performance outputs, and it is not a matter of luck that an organization receives effectual intellectual resources easily (Mahapatra et al., 2010;Skotner et al., 2011;Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2015). In similar vein, Chugani and Jung (2010), Siebers and Aickelin (2011) and Simonetti et al. (2015) commented that it takes substantial time to mould an individual as per the requirements of the organization. Operations management deals with a gamut of activities in organizations (Cahill et al., 2011;Priya and Ranjith Kumar, 2015;Modrak and Soltysova, 2018;Kalaitzi et al., 2019). Anselmsson et al. (2016) and Bonadonna et al. (2019) discussed the need and role of effective trainings that prove extremely advantageous for people dealing with operational activities. Li and Yang (2010), Ahmad and Schroeder (2011) considered intellectual capital as the main element around which various operational activities revolve. The advent of technology has affected operations management in both ways i.e. good as many complex procedures are easy now, and bad because to learn technological skills to perform operational activities is in itself a big challenge (Orhorhoro et al., 2018;Aronov et al., 2019;Dhamija and Bag, 2020). Mizutani and Nakagawa (2018) and Torlak et al. (2019) highlighted the importance of required skills that an individual must possess to attain operational excellence. This article presents a review of last 10 years to understand that how intellectual capital and operational excellence connect with each other.

Research Methodology and Data Statistics
Research methodology explain the adopted research methods, here it is systematic literature review and data statistics discusses the descriptive structure of collected data.

Initial Keywords
Appropriate keywords constitute one of the crucial steps in the process of systematic literature reviews. Similarly, for this article the author decides to work with certain selected keywords i.e.

Initial and Refined Search Results
Scopus database forms the base of present work as it populates the largest repository of articles (70 million, as per the information available on the Scopus website on 10 October 2019) in the form of articles, articles in press, conference papers/proceedings and books. Scholarly work by reputed publication houses (Elsevier, Emerald, Springer and Taylor and Francis) in varied areas (social sciences, information systems, business management, accounting and medicine) is found in Scopus. Initial search carried out by using different combinations of selected keywords delivered a list of 195 articles. Following which, certain filters (articles, articles in press and English language) delivered a final figure of 165 articles for analysis (refer to Table 1).

Descriptive Statistics
Descriptive statistics elaborates the basic facts related to selected articles (intellectual capital and operational excellence) in terms of their annual production, journal-wise figures, affiliation status, top countries, authors, funding agencies and subject classification while considering information received from Scopus database. With respect to annual output of articles (refer to Table 2    The journal-wise analysis indicates top journals who are accepting work in the selected area (refer to Table 4). Top 10 journals in the last 10 years of time include Journal of Cleaner Production (06), Journal of the International Academy for Case Studies (05), International Journal of Production Research (04), Journal of Operations Management (04) and IOP Conference Series Materials Science and Engineering (03). This interpretation confirms the popularity of a journal for existing and future researches.
Assessing the research performance/output of various countries has always been a choice of authors. In similar vein, this article also explores which country is working towards intellectual capital and operational excellence. Table 5 discusses the list of top 10 countries i.e. United States (44), China (17), United Kingdom (17), Italy (13) and Australia (12). It is an indication for other countries to start researching in this direction. Intellectual capital and operational excellence are important in every field of work. None of the areas are left untouched without human intervention and operational activities. Likewise, different subjects also consider these areas as important variables to research. Topmost subjects include (refer to Table 6) engineering (87), business, management, and accounting (76), computer science (35), decision science (28) and energy (19). Research funding is a big support for researcher's (research projects, consultancy projects, doctoral and post-doctoral academic fellowships and other related activities). In last 10 years of time, prominent funding agencies providing financial support towards selected area of research includes National Natural Science Foundation of China (08), City University of Hong Kong (02), AUTO21 Network of Centres of Excellence (01), Advanced Scientific Computing Research (01) and Beijing Higher Education Young Elite Teacher Project (01) (refer to Table 7).

Data Analysis
Bibliometric analysis and network analysis are used to interpret data received from Scopus database.

Bibliometric Analysis
BibExcel software is used to carry out bibliometric analysis. It is one of the methods to pursue systematic literature reviews. The results are received as topmost authors, keywords and searched words with respect to selected area of research, here it is intellectual capital and operational excellence. Eventually, .Net file is generated to be used for network analysis.

Topmost Author(s)
Although, several authors are working in the selected area of research, yet topmost are only a few. The list of top 10 authors who have contributed towards intellectual capital and operational management is shared below (refer to Table 8). Cheung et al. (2010), Dubey and Gunasekaran (2015), Orhorhoro et al. (2018), Sarkis et al. (2010) and Aloini et al. (2011) are the main leads (refer to Table 8). The work contributed by them can be consulted for better understanding of concepts.

Keyword Statistics
Keywords are the real source to increase citations for a particular domain. Suitable keywords are the key to increase the popularity of a topic. In a similar vein, the most searched keywords with respect to intellectual capital and operational management (refer to Table 9) include human resource management (121), operations management (37), knowledge management (21), workforce management (20) and sustainable operations management (17).

Common Search Words
Alike keywords, every topic is searched by using certain specific words, that are not keywords, but they are directly or indirectly related with the selected area of area of research. For intellectual capital and operational excellence, such words include (refer to Table 10) human resources (129), performance standards (101), risk management (78), performance measures (61) and decision support systems (47).

Network Analysis
Network analysis is the following step of bibliometric analysis. It relates to citation statistics of articles produced towards a particular domain. The more the citations, the better it is for the popularity of both i.e. article and respective author(s). It extends detailed understanding that who is working for a particular topic. The .Net file created by BibExcel is supplied to Gephi, and is further interpreted to receive results in the form of citation and co-citation with PageRank values.

Citation and PageRank Analysis
Citation analysis is the source to understand the goodness and viability of a particular area of research. PageRank analysis confirms the total number of visits by several readers towards a particular article. Top author(s) based on citation and PageRank analysis for intellectual capital and operational excellence comprise of Koehne et al. (2010) Table 11). The contributions enable good reference material for future studies.  (2011) 0.000248 35 Matthews and Marzec (2012) 0.000110 10 Bourne et al. (2013) 0.000731 08 Koltai et al. (2014) 0.000692 08 Wang (2015) 0.000145 07 Munoz and Bastian (2016) 0.000552 07 Guo et al. (2017) 0.000692 05 Shisheng et al. (2018) 0.000258 04 Mou and Robb (2019) 0.000448 02 Source: Scopus Database2010 to 2019 (10 October) and Authors' Compilation

Co-citation and Cluster Analysis
The next step after citation analysis is the co-citation analysis and cluster analysis. This process elaborates the interconnection pattern among individual citations of selected articles. Gephi software allows to frame meaningful inferences. Once the .Net file is supplied to Gephi, a random image with 97 nodes and edges 1069 is produced (refer to Figure 1). Nodes represents dots (big and small) and edges convey connecting threads between nodes. In the next step, the received random image is fine-tuned to receive clusters (refer to Figure 2) by using 'Force Atlas' layout. Each cluster represents a particular theme. Every respective cluster conveys a specific theme followed by their interconnection with each other in last 10 years of time.
Cluster 1 describes importance of operations management and optimization. Operational excellence is a deadly requirement in every concern. Any organization can collapse without efficient operations management. Investigating that how optimization can prove beneficial to achieve operational excellence is the need of hour. Cluster 2 confirms that intellectual investment towards intellectual capital can result in wonders for contemporary organizations. Efficient intellectual capital is extremely essential to achieve operational excellence. Purposeful trainings can develop a fleet of mindful people as intellectual assets. Cluster 3 brings a very interesting theme of knowledge management and decision support systems. Effective decision-making is highly International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences Vol. 5, No. 6, 1062-1076 https://doi.org/10.33889/IJMEMS.2020.5.6.081 1070 dependent on the possession of knowledge for a particular domain. Management of operations is full of big and small decisions, which makes it even more crucial to understand things thoroughly before finalising.  -Explains the meaning of operations management and optimization. (Cheung et al., 2010;Chen and Delmas, 2011;Tan et al., 2013;Cherrafi et al., 2018;Chen et al., 2019) Recommended to explore the relationship between operations management and optimization.

Cluster 2:Intellectual
Capital and Intellectual Investment -Discusses the association between intellectual capital and intellectual investment. (Huang et al., 2010;Cahill et al., 2011;Priya and Ranjith Kumar, 2015;Modrak and Soltysova, 2018;Kalaitzi et al., 2019) An analysis that how intellectual investment can fetch maximum benefits is advised.
Cluster 3:Knowledge Management and Decision Support System -Confirms that knowledge management and decision support systems go hand in hand. (Li and Yang, 2010;Ahmad and Schroeder, 2011;Sparrow and Cooper, 2014;Anselmsson et al., 2016;Bonadonna et al., 2019) Intelligent decisions are possible only with adequate knowledge. An approach towards effective knowledge management is highly recommended.

Cluster 4:Strategic
Planning and Resource Allocation -Elaborates the importance of strategic planning while allocating intellectual resources. (Mahapatra et al., 2010;Skotner et al., 2011;Dubey and Gunasekaran, 2015;Orhorhoro et al., 2018;Aronov et al., 2019) Intellectual resources forms the base of every big or small organization. A deep look is needed to understand allocation of human capital especially in the era of Industry 4.0.

Cluster 5:Sustainable
Operations Management and Performance Standards -Discusses the meaning of sustainable operations management and performance standards. (Sarkis et al., 2010;Aloini et al., 2011;Walker et al., 2015;Volochienko et al., 2018;Al-Rabeeah et al., 2019) Assessment that how performance standards contribute towards sustainable operational excellence is highly advised.

Cluster 6:Behavioural
Research and Change Management -Confirms a strong connection between human behaviour and change management. (Chugani and Jung, 2010;Siebers and Aickelin, 2011;Simonetti et al., 2015;Mizutani and Nakagawa, 2018;Torlak et al., 2019) Adjusting human behaviour is the key to accept change. Intellectual capital must be trained accordingly.
Source: Scopus Database 2010 to 2019 (10 October) and Authors' Compilation Cluster 4 elaborates the importance of strategic planning with respect to intellectual allocation of resources. Intellectual resources are the root on which every organization stand and flourish. Absence of strategic planning for intelligent allocation of resources can push any organization in loss. Cluster 5 performance standards significantly contribute towards success or failure of an organization. Success of contemporary organizations revolves around their sustainable existence. A deep look into the measures that can result in sustainable operations management is highly needed. Cluster 6 discusses association between behavioural research and change management. Human behaviour is one of the most complex aspect to understand, and change management cannot be ignored. Training intellectual capital to accept change is the need of the hour. Accepting change is a step towards success, which can be achieved with positive mental cognition.

Discussion and Contribution
Present work is a unique contribution towards existing body of knowledge. The availability of limited number of articles with respect to intellectual capital and operational excellence justifies that not much work is produced in this line of research. Understanding a particular area in terms that what has already happened in the last 10 years of time and scope for future is the novel significance of this article.
Theoretically, the article answers framed research questions. It is evidenced that there exists an association between intellectual capital and its allied areas with operations management or operational excellence. Further, which author has contributed the most, which country is most actively producing, what can be explored in future and other similar issues are discussed in length. An interesting element is the interconnection of various clusters. Cluster 1 Operations Management and Optimization is common to all other clusters, as optimization is the key for everything. The interconnection between Cluster 3 Knowledge Management and Decision Support System, Cluster 4 Strategic Planning and Resource Allocation, and Cluster 5 Sustainable Operations Management and Performance Standards conveys sensitive association because sustainability can be achieved only with adequate knowledge management and strategic initiatives. The second group of Cluster 2 Intellectual Capital and Intellectual Investment and Cluster 6 Behavioural Research and Change Management conveys the importance of investment towards humans. Managers and policy makers constitute an important decision-making authority in various organizations across sectors, and operations management is one of the crucial departments. Firstly, it becomes very important for the managers to understand the right mix of people who not only can work together in cohesiveness. Secondly, the upcoming of technology is undoubtedly delivering benefits to the people at large; however, it is also bringing technological challenges. Many trainings are required to make people ready to accept this change. Managers and policy makers are advised to overview the peculiarities of operational activities before deploying people. Thirdly, the acceptance of change is not inevitable by everyone. At times, an individual might take long to accept the desired change. Operational excellence is all about adopting suitable change at appropriate time to gain competitive advantage. Eventually, adopting of all identified themes can serve real achievement for the managers and policy makers. Until and unless each cluster is assessed and analysed thoroughly by concerned authorities, the real advantages cannot be secured.
Given the above background and author's understanding, a conceptual model (refer to Figure 3) based on identified clusters is proposed for future researches. The testing of proposed model will confirm if intellectual management leads to sustainable operations management and optimized operations while considering change management, strategic planning, performance decision and standardized support in various hypothetical associations. The said model, if tested, can deliver meaningful and significant results in this domain.

Limitations of the Study
Every research possesses certain limitations. Similarly, in this article, the selection of keywords is at the discretion of the author. Secondly, apart from BibExcel and Gephi, systematic literature reviews are possible with other tools as well, which might prove slight variation in the existing results.

Conclusion
The article provides an interesting theme for the researchers, academicians and policy makers. It extends a good food for thought to pursue connected researches for future scope of work. To the author's surprise, the selected variables i.e. intellectual capital and operations management are not new, yet the author could receive less data from Scopus database in the last 10 years of time. The importance of said combinations are very well reflected in the identified predominant themes. Merely publishing articles in not enough. The review of already published work enables meaningful outcomes and interesting directions to be explored, and the same is addressed by this article.