Which resources matter the most to firm performance? An experimental study on Malaysian listed firms

This study investigates the impact of various resources, specifically both tangible and intangible ones, together with capabilities of Malaysian listed firms, on their performance. This empirical study attempts to enrich the understanding of the resources-performance relationship, which is one of a business process within the firm, as well as filling the gaps in present knowledge. Firms, which are not able to develop and sustain their performance, are associated with the vulnerability and adverse performance result, especially during various periods of economic crisis (three sub-periods of major shocks, i.e., The Volcker Shock (Commodities Shock) of early 1980s, Asian Financial Crisis of the late 1990s, and the Global Financial Meltdown of 2008). Hence, this research intends to explore which resources matter the most to firm profitability and its success. Drawing upon the combination of Donabedian's structure process outcome and resource-based theories of the firm a conceptual framework is developed. Data for the study were collected from a sample of 250 publicly traded companies listed on Bursa Malaysia (MYX). In order to achieve the objective and response to the study question, partial least square and regression analysis are applied. Findings indicate that tangible resources have no impact, while intangible resources have positive and significant impact on firm performance. In addition, results show that efficient allocation of intangible resources is crucial to achieving good performance.