The role of social media as a voluntary intellectual capital disclosure in universities: Evidence from Indonesia

Purpose: This research explains the influence of social media as a tool for the voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital on university performance. Design/methodology: All universities in Indonesia were analyzed based on the observation of their social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube channels after which they were correlated with the university performance. Findings: The results showed that social media can be used as voluntary disclosure of intellectual capital. This was indicated by the positive correlation between the popularity of the universities on social media and their relational capital and institutional performance. However, no impact was found on the number of students but a significant difference was recorded in the use of social media between public and private universities in Indonesia. Research limitations/implications: The data were obtained only from one country and this means there is a need to analyze several other countries with different social media platforms in the future. Practical implications: From a strategic management perspective, this is an opportunity for universities to manage social media effectively in order to increase the popularity of their cyberspace and institutional performance. It is recommended that universities have a special role in managing their social media content in order to be able to develop and manage digital communications effectively as a strategy to improve the performance of institutions. Social implications: Social media plays a vital role in improving an organization’s performance and providing adequate information to stakeholders. This is important because the existence of intangible assets is critical to the survival of a business. Originality/value: This research empirically examines the impact of using social media on publicsector organizations (universities) with a specific focus on its application as a voluntary disclosure tool of intellectual capital.