ABSTRACT
Investment opportunities are vital to the sustainability of firms and ultimately, the nation’s economic growth and development (Myers 1977). This issue is paramount for a developing economy such as Malaysia particularly because it is aiming for a developed country status by 2020. With only 7 years remaining, its main development indicators (GDP, income level and education) are still lagging behind those of developed markets in Asia (World Bank 2011). Malaysia has embarked on various plans including the 2002 Economy Master Plan and New Economic Model to accelerate the transformation progress. Nucleus to these plans is intellectual capital (IC) as the country is relying on knowledge-based economy as its transformation and sustenance vehicle. Figure 1 illustrates the three basic elements of the Australian bureau of statistics (ABS) framework which is built on those of APEC and OECD frameworks (Tocan 2012: 10). To a great extent, the Malaysian framework of knowledgebased economy is consistent with that of the ABS. The advantage of Malaysian knowledge economy structure stems on its emphasis on IC while simultaneously recognizes the importance of the traditional physical and natural factors of production such as raw materials, labor, capital and entrepreneurship.
