Role of human resource practices in absorptive capacity and R&D cooperation

This paper reconceptualises absorptive capacity as a strategic human resource construct and analyses its role in determining R&D cooperation and innovation in firms. In spite of widespread consensus on the role of absorptive capacity in innovation, the literature has so far concentrated only on traditional R&D and human capital based indicators of absorptive capacity. Furthermore, most firm-level studies investigating this relationship are cross-sectional in nature and there is need for longitudinal evidence. Employing the IAB Establishment Panel Survey on about 1200 private sector establishments in Germany during 2007–2011, we apply a structural model that links firms’ human resource practices, R&D collaboration strategies and finally their innovation outcome. Findings from the first stage of the empirical analysis suggest that adoption of employment practices positively affects horizontal, institutional and consulting-based R&D cooperation, while compensation programs positively affect only horizontal R&D cooperation. In the second stage, the effect of cooperative R&D conditioned upon human resource practices on innovation performance is examined. Results indicate that firms having institutional and consulting-based R&D cooperation relationships are more often associated with higher incremental product, process and new-to-market innovation, whereas the effect is relatively weaker in case of horizontal R&D cooperation.