By Maduagwu, Esther Nneka
This research is designed to analyze the concept of intellectual capital and how its effective management can impact on competitive advantage of manufacturing industry with special reference to selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. Globally, intellectual capital drives and sustains an economy, providing the needed advantage to emerge as a developed economy. Today, organizations inability to effectively harness intellectual capital has brought about performance and development constraints. Thus, there is need to develop strategies for management to maximally harness intellectual capabilities in the face of structural adjustments. To this end the study sought to ascertain the extent to which human capital development is planned in order to have differentiation advantage, explore the extent to which relational capital can be controlled in order to have low cost provider advantage, determine the extent to which organizational capital can be designed in order to have best cost provider advantage, investigate the extent to which brain power can lead to innovative advantage and finally ascertain the extent to which organizational learning correlates with focused advantage strategy in selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. The researcher adopted a descriptive research design. The tools used for collection of data were five point likert scale questionnaire, oral interview and model modification in line with the objectives of the study. The sources of data for the study were primary and secondary sources. The population of the study was 850 and comprised the top management, middle management and lower management staff of the four selected brewing firms in South East Nigeria. They were Guinness Nigeria Plc, Nigeria Breweries Plc, and SAB Miller Breweries and consolidated Breweries Plc. The firms were chosen because they operate in the same geographical area and also produce similar but differentiated products. The study applied an exhaustive sampling hence the sample size was 850. The data generated from the field survey were presented and analyzed using frequency distribution tables and simple percentages. Hypotheses testing were done using Z-test of population proportion for hypotheses one, two and three while Z-test for the likert scale was used for testing hypotheses four and five. The research instrument was validated by some specialist in data analysis using content validity approach. The instrument was checked for reliability using cronbach alpha with a value of 0.75. The results of the study showed that effective plan on human capital development had a positive relationship with differentiation advantage, effective relational capital control system had a positive advantage on low cost provider advantage, effective organizational capital design had a positive relationship on best cost provider advantage, brain power lead had a positive influence on innovative advantage and that there was a positive correlation between organizational learning and focused advantage strategy. In conclusion organizations that have meaningful performance information about its intellectual capital can use it to inform decision making, to test and review strategy, and to manage risks associated with business activities for better performance. The study therefore recommends that the strategic managers in the brewing firms studied should be backed by policy. Human capital development should be effectively planned in order to have differentiation advantage over other competitors, relational capital should be efficiently and effectively controlled among organization’s members to sustain low-cost provider advantage, there must be effective organizational design to enable the organizations to have a formal system of task and job reporting relationships that determine effective use of resources so as to achieve the best cost provider advantage over rivals, the organizations should provide enabling environment to enhance the skill and capabilities of their workforce to achieve innovative advantage and the organizations should be responsive to learning in order to have focused advantage over their competitors.