The influence of regional intellectual capital on regional economic development-evidence from China

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between regional intellectual capital and economic performance in China. Using the methods of factor analysis and ridge regression, this paper makes an empirical study on the function of regional intellectual capital (RIC) on regional economic development by evaluating the RIC of 17 cities in Shandong Province in 2012. It is found that RIC and the development of regional economy are positively correlated and regional intellectual capital explains 29.9 percent of the growth of GDP. But there exists some differences in the degree of their contribution to the economic development. In the four elements of intellectual capital, the regional innovation capital and structure capital have larger contribution on regional economic development than relational capital and human capital. And there also exists some differences in the level of RIC in different areas. Based on the results of such research, it will then be possible to recommend appropriate comments and suggestions of promoting balanced development of regional economy through the development of RIC. © 2015 SERSC.