Intellectual Capital and Its Role in Crisis Management During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study in Kuwait

ABSTRACT

The study aimed to assess the availability of intellectual capital in Kuwaiti private universities in terms of its three dimensions (human capital, structural capital, and relational capital), as well as its role in crisis management (crisis preparedness, crisis mitigation, confrontation, and response to the crisis, and learning from the crisis) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the boards of trustees, university presidents, their deputies, and deans of the colleges were chosen as respondents to this study from a sample of (8) private universities in Kuwait, with the sampling unit consisting of leaders in these universities. The study revealed that all dimensions of intellectual capital play a statistically significant impact in executing crisis management during the COVID-19 pandemic at Kuwaiti private universities after conducting the data analysis process. The study concluded that universities should pay attention to intellectual capital in all its dimensions (human capital, structural capital, and relational capital) because of its role in improving their ability to implement crisis management strategies and strive to improve their capabilities to face crises by implementing crisis management strategies.