Promoting corporate entrepreneurship through human resource management practices: A review of empirical research

Is it necessary? A framework for assessing the utility of A.I. in HRM practices

Artificial Intelligence is expected to be a value-adding intervention in HRM processes; however, there is still a large gap between its perception of value-addition and its actual utility. In this article, we utilize transaction cost and resource-based views to build a framework to assess the suitability and potential adoption of AI-based tools in specific HRM processes. AI-based tools add value when they streamline operations and bring efficiencies by automating repetitive tasks. The transaction cost view in our framework assists in assessing the value created. Also, the resource-based perspective assists in understanding how AI builds the strategic capabilities of HR. We first review articles that look at the current state of AI literature. We then apply our framework to four critical HRM processes - recruitment and selection, performance management, training and development, and compensation and benefits. Based on our framework, we then develop propositions. Our propositions act as a roadmap for the strategic adoption of AI tools, ensuring smoother integration with existing HR processes. Our study adds to the HRM literature by providing a structured analysis of AI's impact on HR processes. We conclude by highlighting emerging issues that need future attention from practitioners and scholars.

How CEO transformational leadership impacts organizational and individual innovative behavior: collaborative HRM as mediator

Purpose

The purpose of this research is to examine how the chief exective officers (CEO's) transformational leadership impacts organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior, through the mediating role of collaborative human resource management (HRM) practices.

Design/methodology/approach

By using a stratified sampling technique, the data were obtained from ten Microfinance banks located in five metropolitan cities of Pakistan. By adopting a purposive sampling technique, total 427 responses were received out of which 411 responses were considered for data analysis. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was adopted using AMOS 21.0 to test the developed hypotheses.

Findings

The findings of the study described a significant and positive relationship between CEO transformational leadership and collaborative HRM. The collaborative HRM has also a positive impact on organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior. Moreover, the results revealed that collaborative HRM fully mediates between CEO transformational leadership and organizational innovation. However, partial mediate between CEO transformational leadership and individual innovative behavior.

Practical implications

The results of this study can be helpful for bank organizations and policymakers who have extended vision and anticipate the significance of innovation in a fast-changing market. The results of the study also provide the space and scope for prospective researchers and scholars for further research.

Originality/value

There is substantial literature existing on the relationship between CEO transformational leadership, organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior. However, the study finds this that only few researchers took the opportunity to observe the mediating role of collaborative HRM on the relationship between CEO transformational leadership, organizational innovation and individual innovative behavior in the context of Pakistan.

In the Pursuit of Green in COVID-19: Harnessing the Existing Talent to Pursue Green Corporate Entrepreneurship

The study was conducted to ascertain the role of talent management practices in promoting green corporate entrepreneurship through the median of organizational engagement in the context of COVID-19. The study is quantitative and deductive in nature. The data was collected from 323 employees working in the large manufacturing industry. The data was collected through a self-administered survey and the data analysis was done through Smart-PLS, both measurement and structural models were evaluated. The study found that talent management is related to green corporate entrepreneurship. The study also confirmed the mediating role of organizational engagement relating talent management with green corporate entrepreneurship. This study will develop insight for the corporate managers and decision-makers to understand the intricacies of the talent management process and its interplay with green corporate entrepreneurship, and organizational engagement. Talent Management is concerned with the process of hiring, developing, and retaining highly competent incumbents for pivotal positions. Hence, the role of the talent management process invariably affects the organizational processes and outcomes like creativity and innovation, which come under the umbrella of corporate entrepreneurship. This study will not only add value in empirical research of the chosen concepts and constructs, but it will also bridge the theoretical gap between talent management and corporate entrepreneurship. It is the first study that related talent management practices to green corporate entrepreneurship. Furthermore, it is the first study that examined the mediating role of organizational engagement relating talent management to green corporate entrepreneurship.

ORGANISING FOR INNOVATION IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRMS: ECONOMETRIC EVIDENCE FROM THE UK

Undertaking innovation involves a range of different activities from ideation to the commercialisation of innovations. Each activity may have very different resources and organisational requirements, however, most prior studies treat innovation as a single un-differentiated activity. Here, using new survey data for professional service firms (PSFs) in the UK, we are able to examine separately how a range of organisational work practices influence success in ideation and commercialisation. In particular, we use principal component analysis (PCA) to identify and compare the benefits of four groups of organisational work practices relating to strategy & information sharing, recruitment & training, work flexibility & discretion and culture & leadership. Strong contrasts emerge between those work practices that are important for success in ideation and commercialisation. Work practices linked to culture & leadership are important for ideation activities, while strategy &information sharing practices are more strongly associated with commercialisation success. The results suggest clear managerial implications depending on the priority

Poor resource capital of micro-entrepreneurs: the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation

Purpose

Understanding the micro-start-up resources and its relationships with entrepreneurial orientation and performance is unique because it operates a business in a poor resource setting. However, poor resource settings of micro-start-up are not adequately examined into the literature in relation to entrepreneurial orientation and performance. Therefore, grounded on resource-based view, this paper aims to attempt to examine the relationships between resource capital, entrepreneurial orientation and performance in a developing country context.

Design/methodology/approach

To establish this, the authors conducted a survey among 180 micro-entrepreneurs from Bangladesh and analyzed the data using the partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) approach.

Findings

The results demonstrate the mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation on the relationship between human and financial resources and performance, while having partial mediating influence between social resource and performance, therefore indicating the importance of resources for determining business outcomes for micro-entrepreneurs.

Research limitations/implications

These results extend theoretical explanations of micro-entrepreneurship within the poor resource setting context. The findings have implications for identifying micro-firms likely to succeed for the purpose of strategic allocation of resources and supports; they also provide future research avenues.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous study has established that entrepreneurial orientation plays a critical and mediating role between resource capital and micro-firm performance in a poor resource setting.

Investigating the role of HRM practices on service innovation: empirical evidence from UAE government agencies

Purpose

Government agencies are trying to develop strategies to improve their innovative activities. However, due to many challenges and obstacles, employees are reluctant to perform innovatively in such agencies. Human resource management (HRM) practises and an appropriate culture can help to improve service innovation. However, empirical evidence to prove this relationship is insufficient particularly in the government sector. Thus, this study aims to empirically analyses the effect of HRM practises and innovation culture on service innovation of the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s Government agencies.

Design/methodology/approach

The data were collected from government entities in the UAE. Structural equation modelling through partial least squares modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses. SPSS was also used to conduct preliminary analysis.

Findings

Statistical results provide strong evidence that HRM practises and innovation culture positively affected service innovation of UAE’s Government agencies.

Research limitations/implications

Further details and valuable implications are discussed throughout the study. Results have many practical and theoretical implications. Results can help government agencies develop their services innovation by tailoring HRM practises and establishing proper innovation culture in their agencies.

Originality/value

Although several contributions indicated that culture is a key determinant of innovation and a mediator in the link between HRM practises and service innovation, the literature lacks empirical studies investigating this link. Accordingly, this study seeks to bridge this gap and delivers evidence supporting them. In addition, this study is one of the unique studies that use these variables in government agencies in the UAE.

Fostering intrapreneurial behavior through human resource management system

Purpose

This work aims to analyze the effect of employees' perceptions of high-performance work systems (HPWS) on intrapreneurial behavior (IPB), and the potential role of knowledge sharing as a mediating variable in this relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypothesis testing was performed using a structural equation model (SEM) based on a PLS-SEM approach applied to a sample of 297 knowledge-intensive employees from six industrial companies of the Valencian region (Spain).

Findings

Results confirmed that the relationship between employees' perceptions of HPWS and IPB does not take place directly. Alternatively, this relationship occurs through knowledge sharing of employees.

Originality/value

This study makes theoretical and empirical contributions to better understand the impact of employee's perceptions of HPWS on IPB mediated by knowledge sharing. This work theorized and tested a model where the concept of IPB gains special relevance at academic and practical levels due to its implications for HRM.

Firm performance: is organizational learning capability the magic wand?

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to focus on human resource practices contribution to retail SMEs performance through its role in developing organizational learning capability (OLC).

Design/methodology/approach

A cross-sectional design was adopted, where data were collected from a sample of 214 managers of retail SMEs, utilizing a survey questionnaire. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Findings

The results indicate that incentive reward has the strongest significance on firm performance with a stronger influence on economic performance. Performance appraisal has the greatest effect on system perspective, followed by the impact of employee selection on managerial commitment (MC). MC strongly affects firm performance while openness and experimentation influences satisfaction performance. Additionally, OLC fully mediates the relationship between high-performance human resource management (HRM) practices and firm performance.

Research limitations/implications

It did not include large organizations nor consider other SME contextual variables which may otherwise exert significant impact on OLC.

Practical implications

A profound understanding of distinctive high-performance HRM practices effect on firm performance and the needed employee capabilities that would assist organizations to implement strategies to attain sustainable competitive advantage.

Originality/value

The study advances knowledge on HRM practices among SMEs by proposing that distinctive high-performance HRM practices can leverage OLC to enhance firm performance.

Performance appraisal as an antecedent to innovation: An analysis of its importance relative to other human resource practices

Orientation: Innovation is essential to organisational survival, and several studies have shown that performance appraisals (PAs) contribute to innovation.Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the importance of PA as an antecedent to innovation relative to other human resource practices (HRPs).Motivation for the study: The specific HRP drivers of innovation among employees and across organisations are not well specified, hindering appropriate resource allocation.Research approach/design and method: The PA–innovation link was investigated among 3180 employees across 53 South African organisations, utilising a cross-sectional survey design involving quantitative data, and focusing on correlation and regression analyses.Main findings: Human resource practices accounted for approximately 10% of the variance in innovation when considering individual employees. Performance appraisal was neither a common nor a unique predictor of innovation. When focusing on the link across organisations, a significant HRPs–innovation link was established in approximately 60% of organisations, with PA playing a significant role as the predictor of innovation in 10 (out of 53) organisations.Practical/managerial implications: Other HRPs, specifically supervisor support and staffing, played a much bigger role than PA in driving innovation of individuals, also across organisations. This specifies the relative importance of PA amongst other HRPs.Contribution/value-add: General managers, human resource practitioners and researchers can now use data-driven evidence to select specific HRPs which significantly enhance innovation among employees and across organisations.

Unveiling International New Ventures’ Success: Employee’s Entrepreneurial Behavior

New international ventures have become an important and growing role in the economics of a country. However, it seems that the literature on international entrepreneurship has paid little attention to their employees and their contribution to the success of these firms in international markets. The employee may be a key point in explaining their rapid and fruitful international development, i.e., increasing the international entrepreneurial orientation of the company. Using case study methodology, this investigation aims to unveil the human resource management in international new ventures, complete previous models explaining these organizations, and contribute to a better understanding of their international success. The findings show that the entrepreneurs aim to foster employee entrepreneurial behavior by implementing certain human resource practices.

Study of the Relationship between Political Connections and Corporate Re-Entrepreneurial Performance

Based on both resource-based theory and institution-based theory, this study places political connections, acquisition of entrepreneurial resources, institutional environment, and corporate re-entrepreneurial performance into the same research framework. Using data from 223 real estate companies in China as a sample and with the help of the statistical tools SPSS 22.0 and Mplus 7.0, the study examines the internal influence mechanism of political connections on corporate re-entrepreneurial performance as well as the mediating effect of acquisition of entrepreneurial resources and the moderating effect of institutional environment. The empirical results show that both explicit political connections and implicit ones have positive impacts on corporate re-entrepreneurial performance through the mediating effect of acquisition of entrepreneurial knowledge resources and entrepreneurial asset resources. Meanwhile, institutional environment positively regulates the relationship between political connections and corporate re-entrepreneurial performance. The results of the study suggest that political connections have positive impacts on corporate re-entrepreneurial performance under the circumstances of China’s transitional economy, but the impacts are restricted by institutional environment to a large extent.

How New HRM Practices, Organizational Innovation, and Innovative Climate Affect the Innovation Performance in the IT Industry: A Moderated-Mediation Analysis

Considering the cutthroat competition in IT organizations, public and state-based organizations are trying to develop strategies to promote innovation in the organizations. However, due to monopolistic structure, employee rigidness, and lack of innovation climate, employees are reluctant to perform innovatively in such organizations. New HRM practices (NHRM) can enrich the talented, motivated, committed, and innovative staff to enhance innovation. However, empirical evidence to prove this relationship is insufficient. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the effect of NHRM practices on innovation performance with the mediating role of organizational innovation and the moderating role of the innovation climate. Data collected from semi-government IT-based organizations provide results that there is a significant positive relationship between NHRM practices and innovation performance. The mediating role of organizational innovation was also found. Moreover, the results of the moderated-mediation show that the mediating role of organizational innovation is also strong if the organizational climate is more innovative. These results provide managerial guidelines to promote NHRM practices to enhance innovation performance in the semi-government IT-based organizations of Pakistan.

WHAT EMPLOYEES REALLY WANT: DEMANDS FOR INDIVIDUAL IDEA DEVELOPMENT

Present research on the front-end of innovation mainly examines factors or resources influencing an employee’s creativity, measured by outcomes such as the generated ideas. From the point of articulation, the ideas are more or less easy to handle as they enter a company’s sphere of influence. However, ideas that are held back by employees are not so easy to grasp, although they could provide a large pool of ideas to gain benefits from. This qualitative-empirical study points at demands of employees that have to be met to create an environment, which supports the development of ideas. Employees have great demands during information gathering and idea evaluation. Furthermore, the moment, when employees enter ideas into the idea management system, they are very sensitive to obstacles and feedback.

The impacts of leadership support and coworker support on employee creative behavior

Purpose

Previous research has emphasized how leadership style and collegial relationships can foster creativity in the workplace; in a related sense, understanding how support from leaders and coworkers affect the creativity process is critical too. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to seek a deeper understanding of how leadership support and coworker support influence employee creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative study was conducted among 299 employees working at eight organizations in a non-western country.

Findings

The results of this research revealed that both leadership support and coworker support exert positive influences on employee creativity, moderated by several additional variables. Specifically, employee engagement and tenure both strengthen the relationship of leadership support with employee creativity. Furthermore, individual creativity has a positive impact on job performance.

Research limitations/implications

These findings offer theoretical and practical implications, as well as directions for further research

Originality/value

This research examined the impacts of leadership support and coworker support on employee creative behavior and individual performance. To better understand the nature of these impacts, the authors introduced two moderators such as employee engagement and tenure. To the best of our knowledge, there are no empirical evidences regarding whether and how leadership support and coworker support interact with employee engagement and tenure to influence employee creative behavior and individual performance.

THE USE AND DETERMINANTS OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT FOR CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION

Human Resource Management (HRM) practices are considered as a possible contributor to firm success. Further research is needed in this field to address how HRM practices contribute to a firm’s ability to be creative and innovative. The first objective of this paper is to map the implementation of training and development practices for creativity and innovation (TD4CI) in manufacturing and the second is to analyse the factors that most influence this implementation. The study, based on the Spanish sub-sample of the European Manufacturing Survey, demonstrates the unexhausted potential of TD4CI as a step prior to innovation. The results show that one third of the companies currently use TD4CI and that this figure is rising. Most of the firms, however, have not put these practices into place and they have no intention of doing so. Regarding the determinants that influence the studied practices, the results show that there are some significant factors, for example new products or services being introduced within the company in the previous three years, that positively affect all the practices. Other determinants are individually significant, for instance the complexity of the product. Some factors, on the other hand, such as size or single unit production, do not appear to influence any of the practices studied so far. The value of this research lies in the up-to-date, relevant figures it provides regarding the implementation and dissemination of TD4CI.

Transformational leadership and corporate entrepreneurship

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine how transformational leadership may relate to corporate entrepreneurship by adopting a multilevel approach. The authors also theorized and tested the top-down and bottom-up intermediate process linking transformational leadership and corporate entrepreneurship.

Design/methodology/approach

Multisource data across different timeframes were collected from 129 managers and 244 employees from 55 units of 27 firms.

Findings

The results showed that transformational leadership and corporate entrepreneurship were positively related at the unit level. Furthermore, unit-level collective efficacy mediated the relationship between unit-level transformational leadership and unit-level corporate entrepreneurship. The authors also found that the firm-level empowerment climate moderated the indirect effect of unit-level collective efficacy on the relationship between unit transformational leadership and unit-level corporate entrepreneurship.

Originality/value

First, the goal of this study is to extend the single focus of transformational leadership on corporate entrepreneurship (e.g. Ling et al., 2008) and develop a more thoughtful approach on determining how transformational leaders influence corporate entrepreneurship across levels. This study responds to calls for research to look at the impact of unit-level transformational leaders, such as middle managers, across levels (Ren and Guo, 2011) and creates a multilevel framework in which transformational leaders at the unit level influence the appearance of corporate entrepreneurship at the unit level.

Mediating links between HRM bundle and individual innovative behavior

Using multi-level analysis, the present study proposes that psychological empowerment and perceived organizational support serve as mediators of the effects of human resource management (HRM) bundle on individual innovative behavior. We tested the model using data from 705 employees of 162 firms in China. The results revealed that both psychological empowerment and perceived organizational support partially mediate the relationship between HRM bundle and individual innovative behavior. This study contributes to the understanding of how HRM bundle impact on individual innovative behavior.

Human resource development and human resource management levers for sustained competitive advantage: Combining isomorphism and differentiation

Numerous studies have investigated human resources as a source of sustained competitive advantage, indicating that the high-performance work systems created by certain human resource development and human resource management practices lead to greater firm performance. Though the mechanism by which this link exists remains a ‘black box,’ substantial evidence shows organizations benefit by adopting the human resource development and human resource management practices that lead to high-performance work systems. We discuss two divergent perspectives, institutional theory and resource-based view, and their impact on high-performance work systems. We argue that organizations adhering to tenets of institutional theory experience isomorphism in certain human resource development and human resource management practices, whereas resource-based view attributes create ways that firms differentiate their practices. We posit that to be competitive firms must balance the push–pull effect of institutional pressure with that of resource-based view differentiation.

HRM practices and organizational performance in the UAE banking sector

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of human resource management (HRM) practices on organizational performance in the banking sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), to test the mediating impact of organizational innovation on the HRM-organizational performance relationship, and to test HRM practices as mediator of the relationship between innovation strategy and organizational innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

– Data were collected from 168 managers working in UAE banks. A structured questionnaire containing standard scales of HRM practices, innovation strategy, organizational innovation, organizational performance, and some demographic variables was used. The analytical method used to empirically test the hypotheses proposed is the structural equation modeling technique using PLS. The two steps are: the assessment of the outer model and the assessment of the inner model. Moreover, a bootstrapping method is employed in order to test indirect effects.

Findings

– Results found that organizational innovation fully mediates HRM-organizational performance link. Moreover, with the existence of innovation strategy, HRM mediates the relationship between innovation strategy and organizational innovation.

Research limitations/implications

– The limitations of common method bias and cross-sectional data are discussed in light of implications for future research. Nevertheless, the results provide new insights on the influence of HRM on organization innovation and performance in a non-Western context of the UAE by testing the role of some mediators in influencing the relationship between HRM and performance.

Practical implications

– In general, enhancing the effectiveness of HRM can result in higher level of performance and innovation. In particular, the choice of an innovation strategy implies the use of an effective incentive-based compensation, training and development, recruitment and selection and performance appraisal.

Originality/value

– This study is considered the first study to examine the mediating role of organizational innovation on the relationship between HRM and organizational performance in the Middle East. Also, the study is the first study to test the role of HRM as a mediator for the innovation strategy-innovation performance relationship in a non-Western context.

Entrepreneurial orientation and human resource management: effects from HRM practices

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between HRM practices and entrepreneurial orientation (EO) in large established firms. More specifically, the purpose is to add to the understanding of the influence of HRM practices on EO.

Design/methodology/approach

– An e-mail survey was distributed to a sample of Swedish and German manufacturing firms in high-tech and medium high-tech manufacturing industries, and firms in knowledge-intensive services sectors, with more than 250 employees. In total, 810 surveys were distributed, with a response rate of 12.7 per cent.

Findings

– The results show that an emphasis on entrepreneurial aspects leads to an increased EO only in the case of training and development. A conclusion therefore is that it seems difficult to recruit personnel or to use appraisal and rewards as to create EO on a firm level.

Practical implications

– The study indicates that firms aiming to increase their EO should make sure to emphasize entrepreneurial aspects during staff training and development activities.

Originality/value

– This empirical study paves the way towards a better understanding of the link between HRM practices and EO. The results should be of interest for both HR professionals and researchers interested in understanding this important relationship.

From professionals to entrepreneurs: Human Resources practices as an enabler for fostering corporate entrepreneurship in professional service firms

Professional Service Firms (PSFs) such as accounting, consulting, law, engineering or advertising firms increasingly face changing attitudes and fluctuation among young people with high potential who question traditional career and human resource (HR) concepts. In this context, it seems vital to foster a spirit of corporate entrepreneurship in PSFs to create an attractive environment that satisfies the autonomy-striving professionals. Our research is based on a multiple case study design that investigates how corporate entrepreneurship in the fields of elite accounting/consulting and law firms can be enabled by HR practices. Specifically, we analyse how contemporary PSFs manage to identify, select, build, reward, retain and let go of entrepreneurial professionals. Our findings imply that there are still challenges to overcome in the identification, selection and reward practices, while promising approaches for training and retention exist in order for entrepreneurial behaviour to prosper. Based on these findings, we present HR-related recommendations for fostering corporate entrepreneurship in PSFs and highlight some promising avenues for future research.

Collective entrepreneurship: Employees’ perceptions of the influence of leadership styles

Collective entrepreneurship (CE) is the ability of several individuals to jointly innovate and create within organisations. In this exploratory study, we investigate whether the relationship between some specific leadership styles and more effective CE is affected by moderator variables. The unit of analysis were staff members of a Portuguese group of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A total of 204 questionnaires were returned, representing almost half the employee population we approached. For measurement, we employed 19 items to gather the six latent variables related to our model. For data analysis, we used partial least squares. We found that participative leadership style had the highest joint and indirect effect on more effective CE. Job satisfaction appears to be an important moderator for the occurrence of CE. The impact of employees’ organisational commitment and collaboration on CE is rather weak. Our study contributes to advancing knowledge in the fields of organisational psychology and entrepreneurship. We combine and extend previous research, which allows us to reconcile the sometimes contradictory findings so far concerning leadership and CE in the realm of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Organisational learning and intrapreneurship: evidence of interrelated concepts

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to explore in-depth the interface between organisational learning and intrapreneurship. In this way, the paper aims at understanding how these two concepts are interrelated and mutually dependent.

Design/methodology/approach

– The method employed is qualitative analysis, including multiple exploratory case studies. For data collection, interviews with staff members of the selected companies and analysis of documents were used. Content analysis served as the data processing technique.

Findings

– The research identifies four dimensions of organisational learning and intrapreneurship in which both concepts are interlinked. Within each of these levels, the most beneficial attitudes and behaviours are highlighted.

Practical implications

– This study helps to better understand the dyadic effects between organisational learning and intrapreneurship. Through the dimensions and drivers identified, mechanisms can be developed and implemented leading firms to improve their performance through their employees’ learning and intrapreneurial capacities.

Originality/value

– The contribution of this paper is to provide an in-depth view of the interdependence between organisational learning and intrapreneurship. The findings allow development of a new conceptualisation of these concepts and the underlying drivers.

THE ROLE OF HRM AND ICT COMPLEMENTARITIES IN FIRM INNOVATION: EVIDENCE FROM TRANSITION ECONOMIES

Innovation is of critical importance for business productivity and economic growth. Firm characteristics and economic geography have been identified as influential drivers of innovation output. More recently, scholars have investigated the influence of Human Resource Management (HRM) practices and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on firm performance. There is evidence that productivity gains from adapting HRM practices are higher if supported by investments in ICT. Therefore, we hypothesise that ICT-use and HRM practices are complementary inputs with respect to firm innovation. Our data source is the Management, Organisation, and Innovation (MOI) Survey which assesses management practices in manufacturing establishments in transition economies. We find that firms that employ HRM practices are more likely to innovate relative to firms that do not use HRM practices. Our analysis also reveals a complementary relationship between ICT-use and HRM practices which positively influences firm innovation performance.

Innovation and firm performance: the role of human resource management practices

Purpose

– The purpose of this paper is to study the relationship between human resource (HR) practices and innovative performance in the Spanish industry. Specifically, the authors will focus on innovativeness, analysing the extent to which this capability is favoured by some human resource management (HRM) practices as investments on training and whether it is also affected by the use of full time and/or temporary workers.

Design/methodology/approach

– The authors propose the assessment of these relationships by means of the Spanish Survey of Industrial Strategic Behaviour. The authors focus the longitudinal analysis on the period 2001-2008, years of the highest economic growth in Spain during the last decades.

Findings

– The findings show that the most innovative firms are also the most competitive ones in terms of added value. Moreover, while a significant and positive relationship between the use of full-time workers and innovativeness is demonstrated, the role of temporary workers employees remains unclear. Finally, and surprisingly, training investments on new technologies, languages and data processes do not have any impact on innovativeness. The paper is closed with a discussion about some lessons the authors may learn from these wealthy years and the role played by HRM investments on firms.

Practical implications

– This study demonstrates the existence of two objectives that managers should seek to achieve. On one side, they should focus on innovation as a way of increasing firm performance. And, on the other side, managers should invest on specific training, in order to develop more innovative and profitable organizations.

Originality/value

– This paper proposes and tests a model where innovation mediates the relationships between HRM practices and performance. Such mediation would be a contribution to the strategic HRM field as very recent research call for the study of new mediators. Also, this paper employs panel data (2001-2008) for assessing these relationships. This is worthy because it is coherent with the idea of internal development of capabilities, instead of cross-sectional analyses and because the authors may infer causality with the study design, as it is demanded by researchers.

An empirical study of desired versus actual compensation practices in determining intrapreneurial behaviour

Orientation: Past research recognises that human resources management practices may influence innovative behaviour, particularly as compensation systems can be used as a tool to increase intrapreneurial activity.Research purpose: The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour. This is in line with research that focuses on how to promote business innovation, rather than merely research whether innovation is desirable for businesses or not.Motivation for the study: Recognising that entrepreneurial actions are the bedrock of intrapreneurial behaviour and that these behaviours may be critical to the long-term vitality of a firm and economy, it is important to facilitate the empirical study of them in an underresearched, emerging market environment. Moreover, compensation such as reward preferences and variable pay schemes remain controversial in terms of their costs versus contributions, and these constructs deserve more empirical research.Research approach, design and method: The study employed a quantitative research design, using a cross-sectional and empirical approach with primary data sources. A structured webbased instrument rendered a sample of 209 respondents from a diverse set of businesses. Canonical correlational analysis was carried out to test the hypotheses.Main findings: The results reveal that a gap exists between an employee’s perception of desired compensation practices and the actual compensation practices. The results further highlight that non-outcome-based measures like pay risk, job risk and expectations of success play a role in determining whether employees decide to be intrapreneurial or not.Practical/managerial implications: Due to the potential impact rewards have on intrapreneurial behaviour, it is necessary to design relevant compensation systems as part of organisational architecture in order to foster intrapreneurship.Contribution: In response to calls to unveil innovation practices in developing countries and in acknowledging a contingency relationship between compensation practices and intrapreneurship, this article is one of the first studies to test the relationship between actual versus desired compensation practices and elevated intrapreneurial behaviour in an emerging market context.