Commitment-based HR practices,different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance

Research on human resource (HR) practices and innovation has increased in the strategic HR management literature over the last decades. Scholars suggest that commitment-based HR practices contribute to innovation performance of the firm. However, prior research puts little emphasis on the causal linkages among commitment-based HR practices, different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. This article opens the black box of the relationship between HR management and firm performance by examining the causal relationships among a bundle of commitment-based HR practices (i.e. a commitment-based HR system), different types of innovation activities and firm innovation performance. On the basis of a survey of 103 Turkish firms, empirical results show that a commitment-based HR system has a positive effect on process, organizational and marketing innovation activities. Furthermore, a commitment-based HR system mainly affects organizational innovation activities and shows that these innovation activities are the core drivers of process and marketing innovation activities, leading to higher rate of product innovation activities. Subsequently, product innovation activities enhance firm innovation performance, emphasizing their determinant role.     

Does corporate environmental responsibility engagement affect firm value? The mediating role of corporate innovation

This paper aims to construct a comprehensive corporate environmental responsibility (CER) engagement measurement to examine the relationship between CER engagement and firm value as well as explore the mediating effect of corporate innovation on this relationship based on a sample of 496 China's A‐share listed companies from 2008 to 2016. The results show that when firms start to adopt environmental regulations, CER would have a negative effect on firm value; however, at a specific level, CER would start to enhance firm value positively. In addition to this, corporate innovation plays a mediating role in the relationship between CER and firm value. Corporate innovation promotes firm value of firms with CER more than firms without CER. Overall, the findings of this paper are extremely relevant for the government, investors, and firm's managers and can be utilized for policy and investment decision making. Also, the findings encourage firms to enhance their sense of environmental responsibility in order to enhance their competitive advantages, enhance corporate innovation capabilities, and thus enhance firm value.     

Interactive strategies in supply chains–a double-edged portfolio approach to small-and medium-sized subcontractors’ position analyses

China is concerned to improve the technical capability of its industry. It has chosen Science and Technology Industry Parks (STIPs) as the model for incubating its R&D capability and driving its hi-tech policy. Against this background, the authors examine two main issues. First, we review assessments of university science parks in the UK and a wider context extracted from the literature before examining specifically China's R&D intensity and hi-tech policy. Second, we examine the performance of hi-tech companies situated on STIPs and those located outside STIPs, comparing their success in commercializing technology. We pay particular attention to the role of entrepreneurship in this activity by those engaged in it. Our findings are based on secondary quantitative data and qualitative data collected by means of interviews and focus groups in the Beijing and Shanghai areas in March 2004. From our research it is clear that China lags behind OECD countries in its R&D capability and the technology transfer rate is low, hampering China's hi-tech potential, although China is achieving some success in hi-tech exports, notably of ICT goods. Furthermore, innovation capability, locational factors such as being located in a regional industry cluster (in or outside STIPs), guanxi and networking opportunities, entrepreneurial skills, including international business experience and access to more financial sources and capital for developing the business, are essential for commercializing technology effectively in China. The role of entrepreneurship is evident. However, it remains still underdeveloped in China's STIPs.     

High-commitment HRM system,HR capability,and ambidextrous technological innovation

Technological innovation is becoming an increasingly significant driving force of firm competitiveness; however, only a few scholars have attempted to investigate the specific relationship between technological innovation and human resource (HR). In this study, we test the relationships among high-commitment human resource management (HCHRM) system, HR capability and ambidextrous technological innovation, as well as the mediating role of HR capability in the relationship between the other two. For this purpose, we derive HR capability based on two dimensions: (a) factors (skills vs. behaviors) and (b) nature (component vs. combinative capability). Juxtaposing these dimensions enables us to generate the following four elements of HR capability for ambidextrous technological innovation: (a) T-shaped skills (component skills), (b) technology brokering (combinative skills), (c) personal initiative (component behaviors), and (d) cooperation (combinative behaviors). Empirical results based on data collected from the HR and technology planning managers of 105 corporate research and development centers indicate that HCHRM positively affects HR capability and ambidextrous technological innovation. In addition, we find that HR capability fully mediates the relationship between the HCHRM system and ambidextrous technological innovation. We discuss theoretical contributions and practical implications of these findings.     

Knowledge sharing in supply chain networks: Effects of collaborative innovation activities and capability on innovation performance

Building on knowledge management and innovation capability theories, this paper aims to reveal the mechanisms of collaborative innovation processes by investigating the complex relationships among critical factors influencing firm's innovation performance in supply chain networks. Using hierarchical Multiple Regression (MR) and Moderated Multiple Regression (MMR) methods, results from a survey of 236 firms in China indicated that there are significant positive relationships between collaborative innovation activities, knowledge sharing, collaborative innovation capability, and firm's innovation performance. Moreover, it is expected that knowledge sharing plays a partial mediating role in the relationships between collaborative innovation activities and firm's innovation performance. Collaborative innovation capability exhibited a moderating effect on collaborative innovation activities - innovation performance relationship. These results contribute to collaborative innovation process management by offering a nuanced conceptualization of the collaborative innovation - performance relationship in supply chain networks.     

Innovation,agile project management and firm performance in a public sector-dominated economy: Empirical evidence from high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises in China

While agile project management has become increasingly important for high-tech small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), firm performance varies greatly due to companies’ different degrees of innovation capability and internal and external environmental dynamics. Drawing on the resource-based view – as well as innovation capability and agile project management theories – a comparative analysis was conducted of two high-tech SMEs. The results were used to develop a theoretical model based on six hypotheses. Empirical research was carried out that included measurement of key variables, data collection and analysis, validity and reliability tests, regression analysis, and structural equation modeling, which confirmed five of the six initial hypotheses. The proposed model incorporates different innovation capability roles, considers project agility enhancement of firm performance, and takes into account interactions between companies’ innovation atmosphere and environmental dynamics in a public sector-dominated economy (i.e., China). The results contribute to project agility management’s theoretical development and refinement by presenting new findings on innovation and environmental dynamics. The results also provide guidelines for project agility practices in high-tech SMEs in China, with the potential to improve these firms’ performance. Implications and limitations are also discussed.     

The Indian perspective of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability

This study focuses on the empirical analysis of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability. Line and HR firm performance is further analysed. The sample size consisted of 640 managers in India. Standardized questionnaires were used as tools for the managers' perception of the two variables and their link to data collection. Statistical results indicate that correlation coefficients were mostly significant and positive for the variables and sub-variables of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability. Discriminant functional analysis reflected that line and HR managers differed significantly in their perception of both variables. Stepwise regression analysis indicated that both the variables of strategic HR roles and organizational learning capability predict firm performance.     

Human resource involvement,job-related factors,and their relation with firm performance: experiences from Greece

A great deal of debate exists regarding the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and firm performance. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between HR involvement in firm's strategic planning, job-related constructs (job characteristics, workplace characteristics, and satisfaction), and their impact on firm performance. A new research model is proposed exploring the above-mentioned relationships. The validity of this model is tested using data from 106 chief executive officers (CEOs), top managers, and managing directors of Greek small medium enterprises (SMEs)), using the structural equation modeling approach. The results indicate that job characteristics and workplace characteristics directly affect satisfaction and firm performance, while HR involvement has a direct impact on job characteristics and workplace characteristics and an indirect effect on satisfaction and firm performance. It is suggested that managers should emphasize on the HR involvement in the process of strategic planning which actually affects the job-related constructs, in order to improve employees' satisfaction and achieve higher firm performance levels.     

HR flexibility and firm performance: analysis of a multi-level causal model

Human resource flexibility as a construct, how it develops, and its effect on firm performance have not received adequate attention in strategic HRM literature in spite of their obvious importance in today's dynamic competitive environment. Based on a study of 98 manufacturing and 103 service firms in India, this paper addresses these issues by developing and testing a multi-level model that attempts to explore the ‘black box’ of the interlinkages between the various components of HR flexibility and firm-level human, operational, and financial outcomes. The results suggest that a certain set of ambidextrous HR practices constitute a distinct dimension of HR flexibility, beyond the dimensions of flexibilities of skill, behaviour and HR practices as already identified in the existing literature. Evidences from both manufacturing and service sectors support the notion of HR value chain that suggests that HR system has a direct impact on firm-level HR outcomes which are most proximal, and its effects on increasingly more distal operational and financial outcomes are mediated by HR outcomes that it produces. Another important finding is that HR practices as a system have both direct and indirect (mediated by behavioural flexibility) effects on firm-level HR outcomes. Existence of significant direct effects highlights the important role that HR practices play as a structural mechanism in achieving superior firm performance.     

Who should be the respondent? Comparing predictive powers between managers' and employees' responses in measuring high-performance work systems practices

This study first examines the association between the effectiveness of high-performance work systems (HPWS) and two types of firm performance (the financial performance and productivity of a firm) in Korea and then compares the relative predictive power between employee responses and manager responses. The results indicate that the effectiveness of HPWS has a statistically significant positive effect on firm performance and that employee perception of the effectiveness of human resource (HR) practices explains more variance in the financial performance and productivity of firms than does managers' corresponding perception. This study highlights the importance of a firm's employees as a source of HR information.     

Efficiency evaluation of China's high-tech industry with a multi-activity network data envelopment analysis approach

This paper employs a Russell multi-activity network DEA model and divides the overall innovation process into the upstream Research and Development (R&D) process and the downstream commercialization process to appraise the innovation performance of China's high-tech industries from 2009 to 2013. This model can deal with the problems of intermediates, shared inputs and slack-based measure in a unified framework, and the result can provide policy makers with process-specific information on how to improve the innovation performance of China's high-tech industries. The main findings are presented as follows. First, the overall efficiency of China's high-tech industries still remains at a low level, which has its roots mainly in commercialization inefficiencies other than R&D inefficiencies. Second, for most provinces, their R&D efficiencies do not match up with their commercialization efficiencies. Finally, the innovative activities of China's high-tech industries should be driven by the market demand -oriented for the improvement of innovation efficiency.     

Interrelationships between human capital,HRM and innovation in Belgian start-ups aiming at an innovation strategy

Research on the impact of human resource management (HRM) on firm performance has increased since the end of the nineties. Despite the pile of studies and results, critical assessments of this literature stream point to several empirical and theoretical gaps. We focus on two empirical gaps. First, there is a lack of attention to innovation as a measure of firm performance outcome. Most articles use financial (e.g., return on assets (ROA)), organisational (e.g., productivity) and employee related (e.g., commitment) performance measures. Yet, Western knowledge economies consider innovation to be a driving force of economic growth, and international competitive advantage. Moreover, innovation is a function of a firm's ability to create, manage and maintain knowledge. Because knowledge is created by and stored within individuals, human resources as well as HRM may play an important role as drivers of innovation. Second, HRM is considered to be a large company phenomenon. Yet, small businesses provide a great environment to study the HRM-performance relationship because of their transparent nature and the small distance between an individual's and a company's performance. Next, human resources and HRM are crucial to small businesses because they have less tolerance for inefficiency. We examine a sample of small start-ups that aim for an innovation strategy, but are not necessarily successful in terms of innovative output. We expect start-ups with superior human resources and HRM to produce more innovative output. The results show that both human capital (of owners/managers and employees) and HRM are important determinants of innovation in start-ups.     

Does gender diversity matter for green innovation?

This study empirically investigated the relationship between board gender diversity and firm's green innovation, using panel data of public companies of China's manufacturing. Green product innovation was assessed by “green” patents and green process innovation assessed by environmental management certification. The endogeneity problem that resulted from self‐selection of gender diversity was addressed by means of extended probit regressions with an instrumental variable, and the instrumental variable was elaborately constructed based on changes in directorships. The findings show that occurrence of green innovation at the firm‐level is systematically related to female board representation. Specifically, women can exert a sizable and positive effect on green innovation, once they enjoy at least two seats on the boards; a further increase in representation of women on the boards can increase the likelihood of green product innovation rather than the likelihood of green process innovation. These results were robust to various regression specifications and alternative samples. The study provides empirical evidence that women at the top management can play a positive role in developing firm's active environmental strategies, and the conclusions are of practical implications for improving corporate governance along the environmental dimension.     

Environmental dynamism,human resource flexibility,and firm performance: analysis of a multi-level causal model

While strategic HRM scholars have conceptualized HR flexibility as an important source of sustainable superior firm performance in dynamic environments, the process through which HR flexibility creates value for the firm has not been empirically investigated. Based on a study of 98 manufacturing and 103 service firms from a wide array of industries in India, this paper attempts to illuminate the black box of causal linkages between environmental dynamism, flexibility of human assets, and firm level human-, operational-, and financial-outcomes by developing and testing a multi-level causal model. Evidence indicates that HR flexibility mediates the influence of environmental dynamism on firm performance and that irrespective of the nature of the industry and the degree of environmental turbulence, superior firm performance ensues when HR flexibility as actually possessed by the firm matches the environmental demands for such flexibility as perceived by the firm managers. The results also support the notion of HR value chain that postulates that HR system has direct impact on firm-level HR outcomes which are most proximal, and its effects on increasingly more distal operational- and financial-outcomes are mediated by HR outcomes. The findings of the study suggest that HR practices as a system have both direct and indirect (mediated by behavioral flexibility) effects on firm-level HR outcomes. Existence of significant direct effects signifies that HR practices play an important role as a structural mechanism in achieving superior firm performance.     

Intellectual Capital–Enhancing HR,Absorptive Capacity,and Innovation

This study investigates the role of intellectual capital (i.e., human, social, and organization capital)–enhancing human resource (HR) practices in the development of a firm's absorptive capacity, as well as the mediating role of absorptive capacity in its relationship to the firm's innovation performance. Results show that while human capital–enhancing HR (acquisition and developmental HR) is positively related to absorptive capacity, social capital–enhancing HR affects absorptive capacity through egalitarian HR practices. Organization capital–enhancing HR practices contribute to absorptive capacity through effective information systems. Finally, our findings confirm that the various intellectual capital–enhancing HR practices affect innovation performance through their impact on the firm's absorptive capacity. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneurial human capital,equity concentration and firm performance: Evidence from companies listed on China's Growth Enterprise Market

In this work, a sample of firms listed on China's Growth Enterprise Market (GEM) is employed to investigate the impact of human capital and equity concentration on firm performance. It shows that entrepreneurs' education level, industry experience and technical professional background have a positive impact on firm performance. Moreover, the higher the equity concentration, the better a firm's performance. Entrepreneurs with rich industry experience and a technical professional background tend to collect and condense equity, thereby increasing equity concentration. These findings reveal the relationship between entrepreneurial human capital and ownership concentration and enrich research on firm performance.     

Change and development in pluralistic settings: an exploration of HR practices in Chinese township and village enterprises

Very few systematic studies have been conducted on the managerial practices of Chinese Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) despite their increasing contributions to China's economic development. Focusing on the HRM practices in ten different TVE organizations in a new city in Southeastern China, this study aims at filling a gap in the literature by exploring the general HRM practices in those organizations. Results show that HRM practices in TVEs, although still relatively primitive compared to those in state-owned enterprises (SOEs), have been much more formalized recently. Employees are now mostly selected rather than referred by existing employees or ' guanxi ' as they were previously. New employees in many large TVEs are now trained through formal procedures rather than through apprenticeships, and pay is tightly linked to performance and skill levels. However, in smaller TVEs, HR practices are less formalized. The study points out that the firm size may be an institutional factor affecting the implementation of formal HRM practices. Yet, regardless of the form of personnel management, HRM practices are shown to be a very important factor in the economic success of TVE firms. Further studies are necessary to understand HRM and other managerial practices in TVEs and to test the relationships between HRM practices and firm performance among the TVEs.     

Impact of high-speed railway on urban resilience in China: Does urban innovation matter?

Based on calculating the urban resilience index from five aspects of economy, society, institutions, infrastructure, and ecology by adopting the entropy method, this study applies the time-varying DID model to systematically examine HSR's impact on China's urban resilience, on basis of which its heterogeneities and the mediating effect of urban innovation are also quantified. The findings reveal that: (1) HSR can significantly promote China's urban resilience, as supported by various robustness tests. (2) HSR can significantly improve economic and institution resilience of cities, but does not play a significant role on social resilience and infrastructure resilience, and has a negative effect on ecological resilience. (3) The driving effects of HSR on the resilience of core cities, large cities, and non-resource-based cities are more significant. (4) Urban innovation is an important channel through which HSR impacts urban resilience. The conclusions of this study can offer useful insights for China's future HSR planning and resilient cities construction.     

供应链中知识集成及其能力模型分析

通过对知识集成内涵的分析,建立了一个知识集成能力模型与物元模型,探讨知识吸收能力与协作能力对供应链中企业知识集成能力的影响,以及知识集成能力与创新绩效的关系.所提出的研究架构以知识管理理论和物元理论为基础,以科技产业及知识密集型的信息服务业的案例作为分析对象,通过分析与结构模式分析来验证研究架构,且利用物元理论构建了供应链中企业创新绩效的评价体系.     

Implicit human resource management theory: a potential threat to the internal validity of human resource practice measures

Since the publication of Huselid's (1995) paper examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, there has been an explosion of published papers examining the empirical relationship between HR practices and various measures of firm performance. This study examines the possibility that informants typically providing data about organizational HR practices may be biased by an implicit theory of human resource management. Our findings suggest the responses from subjects typically providing data about HR practices may be biased in their reporting by the performance of the organization. The generalizability of these results is considered and implications for future studies of the HR-firm performance relationship reviewed.