The Influence of Regional Intellectual Capital on Regional Economic Development: Evidence from Shandong Province

The purpose of this paper is to examine the intellectual capital on a regional level. This paper makes an empirical study on the function of regional intellectual capital (RIC) on regional economic development by evaluating the RIC of 17 cities in Shandong Province in 2012. It is found that RIC and the development of regional economy are positively correlated. But there still exists some differences in the degree of their contribution to the economic development. And there also exists some differences in the level of RIC in different areas. According to the results of empirical research, I will propose some appropriate comments and suggestions on the development of regional economy in different regions of Shandong Province in the last.