How does the intangible asset affect company efficiency? Evidence from the listed companies in Serbia's meat industry

Abstract

With an intangible asset becoming the most valuable part of nowadays businesses, there is an unanswered question - how much does the human capital as part of the intangible assets affect the efficiency of the meat industry in the Republic of Serbia? By analyzing the top 45 Serbian meat companies during the 5-year period (2013-2017), the authors used the DEA method to measure the efficiency of the representative companies and compare it to the HCVA index. The results indicate that the companies with a greater level of using human capital had higher efficiency indicators. By analyzing the literature, it was shown that there is a lack of research in this field. From the originality point, this is the first paper that examines the impact of human capital on the financial performance of the Serbian meat industry.