Introduction

Mozambique still an emerging economy, and the Government has been struggling on finding ways to achieve sustainability in economic development, with knowledge and know-how as the main sources of economic growth. Proponents of resource-based view argued that in the current world of Schumpeterian disruption of innovation, hard assets are no longer sources of competitive advantage because other market players can acquire due to its mobility. Thus, companies that need to remain competitive must invest it soft assets where intellectual capital is the most critical.

Objectives

The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of intellectual capital (human capital, technological and spiritual) on Mozambican business performance.

Methodology

Quantitative research was applied and a sample of 652 companies were randomly selected from a population of 17334 companies from the Instituto Nacional de Estatitica 2021 data base, with a returned response of 509 companies and 400 valid as the final sample. A partial least square structural equation model was applied for data analysis.

Results

Findings show that human capital, structural and spiritual have significant effect on Mozambican business performance. The contribution of the research to the theory is to cover the existing gap as to the best of our knowledge until to data there is no official research discussing this matter has been published. The practical contribution is making business manager aware that they can improve their business performance by training their human capital, investing in technological capital or improving their leadership style to strengthen their spiritual capital.

Conclusion

The research concluded that intellectual capital is critical source of improving business performance of Mozambican firms. This shows the importance of investing in qualified human capital, technology and leadership to assure business performance and economic growth.

Key words: intellectual capital and business performance.