The major determinants of influencing the operating performance from the perspective of intellectual capital: Evidence on CPA industry

Abstract From the perspective of intellectual capital theory, this paper attempts to evaluate the operating performance of Taiwan's accounting firms in the four dimensions, namely human capital, process capital, innovation capital and customer capital. It then constructs a multiple regression performance evaluation model. The results suggest that the operating performance is better for firms with young employees, a majority of field staffs, high invested labor cost, long business age, more management consulting firms, high marketing expense ratio, and provision of services in China. Overall, the human, process and customer capitals are major dimensions that affect the CPA industry in maintaining good operating performance. The findings can serve as a reference to the operating performance evaluation of accounting firms, and establishment of a well-planned management system, thus bringing positive benefits for the service quality and operating performance of the accounting firms.