 Deploying human capital for innovation: A study of multi-country manufacturing firmsLi Ma, Xin Zhai, Weiguo Zhong and Zhi-Xue Zhang International Journal of Production Economics, 2019, vol. 208, issue C, 241-253 Abstract: We study how firms across different countries and regions deploy human capital for innovation. Based on survey data from 304 manufacturing firms across 13 economies, we find that both task-related training and employee participation improve firm innovation in terms of the commercial success of new product development and the percentage of firm revenue from newly developed products. More importantly, the effects of training on innovation are stronger when firms have a high (rather than low) centralization of authority and when firms are located in fast- (rather than slow-) growing economies; in contrast, the effects of employee participation remain the same across levels of firm centralization and rates of growth in the economy. Our findings contribute to the research on the deployment of human capital in an international context and offer practical implications for global managers. Keywords: Innovation; Manufacturing; Human capital; Training; Employee participation (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:208:y:2019:i:c:p:241-253 DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.12.001 Access Statistics for this article International Journal of Production Economics is currently edited by Stefan Minner More articles in International Journal of Production Economics from Elsevier |
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