An Empirical Analysis of the Impact of Human Capital as an Intangible Asset on Environmental Performance

This study empirically examines the impact of human capital as an intangible asset on environmental performance. Human capital is defined in a broad sense as employees' ability to perform their jobs and labor force, which are indispensable to organizations, and environmental performance is defined as the outcome of a company's efforts to meet or exceed society's expectations on environmental issues. In this study, we propose the hypothesis that human capital as an intangible asset enhances environmental performance and conduct an empirical analysis using three years (2020-2022) of published data from the Ministry of Environment’s Environmental Management Practices Survey, following the validation model of Usman, Wirawan, and Zulkifli. Specifically, a regression analysis was conducted using a proxy variable for environmental performance using the Environmental Management Practices Survey data as the explained variable, and three proxy variables for human capital, which were defined from the firm's sales, total assets, and total number of employees, as the explanatory variables. In addition to the main validation on the total number of employees, the analysis included a quartile-split validation based on the total number of employees and an additional validation to account for the effect of outliers. The results of these tests support the hypothesis that human capital as an intangible asset has a positive impact on environmental performance.