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Strategic human resource practices and innovation performance Themediating role of knowledge management capacityChung-Jen Chen a, Jing-Wen Huang ba Graduate Institute of Business Administration, College of Management, National Taiwan University, 1, Sec. 4, Roosevelt Road, Taipei, Taiwan, ROC b Department of Information Management, Chia Nan University of Pharmacy & Science, 60, Erh-Jen RD., Sec.1, Jen-Te, Tainan, Taiwan, R.O.C Received 1 February 2007; received in revised form 1 April 2007; accepted 1 November 2007AbstractThis study examines the role of knowledge management capacity in the relationship between strategic human resource practices and innovation performance from the knowledge-based view. This study uses regression analysis to test the hypotheses in a sample of 146 firms. The results indicate that strategic human resource practices are positively related to knowledge management capacity which, in turn, has a positive effect on innovation performance. The findings provide evidence that knowledge capacity plays a mediating role between strategic human resource practices and innovation performance. Finally, this study discusses managerial implications and highlights future research directions. 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Keywords: Strategic human resource practices; Knowledge management capacity; Innovation performance1. IntroductionThe strategic management literature recognizes innovation as a critical enabler for firms to create value and sustain competitive advantage in the increasingly complex and rapidly changing environment (Madhavan and Grover, 1998; Subramaniam andYoundt, 2005). Firms with greater innovativeness will be more successful in responding to changing environments and in developing new capabilities that allow them to achieve better performance (Montes et al., 2004). Innovation initiatives tend to depend heavily on employees knowledge, expertise, and commitment as key inputs in the value creation process (Youndt et al., 1996). The knowledge-based view depicts firms as repositories of knowledge and competencies (Grant, 1996; Spender, 1996). According to this view, prior studies recognize the knowledge and competencies of human resource as valuable assets for firms because of their characteristics of firm-specific, socially complex, and path-dependent (Collins and Clark, 2003; Wright et al., 2001; Youndt et al., 1996; Lado andWilson, 1994). Human resource practices (HR practices) are the primary means bywhich firms can influence and shape the skills, attitudes, and behavior of individuals to do their work and thus achieve organizational goals (Collins and Clark, 2003;Martinsons, 1995). Previous literatures have paid attentions to the link of HRpractices and organizational outcomes such as productivity, flexibility, and financial performance (e.g. MacDuffie, 1995; Ichniowski et al., 1997; Youndt et al., 1996; Delery and Doty, 1996; Pfeffer, 1998; Mendelson and Pillai, 1999; Collins and Clark, 2003), but the understanding needs to be extended to encompass innovation performance (Laursen and Foss, 2003). Accordingly, the present study attempts to address the link of HR practices and firms innovation performance from the knowledge-based perspective. For innovation to take place, firms may leverage human capital to develop organizational expertise for creating new products and services. However, expertise is much more complex and is primarily the results of deliberate practices on representative tasks in the domain (Ericsson and Charness,1997). These deliberate practices entail individuals wanting to perform the tasks and making efforts to improve performance. Firms can identify and exert a set of strategic HR practices to elicit the willingness and motivation of employees to engage in performing these delicate practices to develop organizational Available online at www.sciencedirect.com Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 104114 Corresponding author. Tel.: +886 2 33669655; fax: +886 2 23625379.E-mail address: chungjenmanagement.ntu.edu.tw (C.-J. Chen).0148-2963/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2007.11.016 C.-J. Chen, J.-W. Huang / Journal of Business Research 62 (2009) 104114 105expertise for business objectives such as innovation performance (Jacobs and Jones, 1995; Swanson, 1994). Accordingly, strategic HR practices can be conducive to innovative activities because strategic HR practices may allow firms to discover and utilize knowledge and expertise in the organization (Scarbrough, 2003). However, knowledge is within the human capital and firms cannot easily transfer the knowledge among individuals inside the firm (Hansen, 1999; Grant, 1996). Although a firm has access to the knowledge, skills and expertise of employees, it may need to possess good capacities inmanaging knowledge management tools in place to ensure effective utilization of the human capital in the development of organizational expertise for innovation. Knowledge management is an approach to adding or creating value bymore actively leveraging the knowhow and expertise resided in individual minds (Ruggles, 1998; Scarbrough, 2003). As noted above, knowledge managementmay influence the relationship between strategic HR practices and innovation performance. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of knowledge management capacity between strategic HR practices and innovation performance from the knowledge-based view. The remainder of the paper proceeds as follows. The next section considers the relevant literature and sets out the hypotheses of this study. Following is the methodology for the study. Then, the paper presents the results of the empirical study in achieving the goals as those set out above. In the last section, the paper discusses managerial implications and highlights future research directions.2. Research background and hypotheses2.1. HumanOwing to the increasing importance of HR practices to the competitive advantages of firms in the rapidly changing knowledge- based economy, some scholars have paid attentions to examine the determinants on the adoption of HR practices (e.g. Tannenbaum and Dupuree-Bruno, 1994) and their effects on organizational outcomes, such as productivity and efficiency (e.g. MacDuffie, 1995; Ichniowski et al., 1997; Youndt et al., 1996), and financial performance (e.g. Delery and Doty, 1996; Pfeffer, 1998; Mendelson and Pillai, 1999; Collins and Clark, 2003). Tannenbaum and Dupuree-Bruno (1994) explore the relationships between organizational and environmental factors and the use of “innovative human resource practices”. The items in “innovative human resource practices” include training, recruitment, selection, and employee involvement. The results demonstrate that external variables of labor availability and public scrutiny exhibit the linear relationships while favorability has a non-linear relationship with the use of HR practices. In terms of organizational factors, agency size exhibits a stronger linear effect than formalization and centralization on the use of HR practices. In investigating the impacts of “innovative human resource practices” on manufacturing performance, MacDuffie (1995) uses four measures including hiring, compensation, status barriers, and training to represent innovative human resource practices. He indicates that integration of bundles of HR practices is positively associated with the improvements in productivity. Similarly, Ichniowski et al. (1997) examine the productivity effects of “innovative work practices”. They use different measures of the innovative work practices, which include incentive pays, recruitment and selection, teamwork, flexible job assignments, employment security, communication, and training, and suggest that these innovative work practices achieve higher levels of productivity than traditional approach such as narrow job definitions, strict work rules, and hourly pay with close supervision. In addition, by using four dimensions of human resource practices, including staffing, training, performance appraisal, and compensation, Youndt et al. (1996) indicate that an HR practices system is directly related to multiple dimensions of operational performance. Also, subsequent analysis reveals that manufacturing strategies moderate this main effect. In terms of financial performance, Delery and Doty (1996), drawing on three dominant modes of theorizing, identify seven key “strategic human resource practices”, including career ladders, training, results-oriented appraisal, compensation, employment security, employee voice, and broadly defined jobs, and use them to develop theoretical arguments consistent with each of the three perspectives. The results demonstrate that each perspective can be used to structure theoretical arguments that explain significant levels of variation in financial performance. Mendelson and Pillai (1999) examine the impacts of the characteristics of “information age organization” and indicate that the relationship between these characteristics, including decentralization and incentives, information practices, and internal focus and inter-organizational networks, and business performance is stronger in industry segments that are more dynamic. In addition, Collins and Clark (2003) explore the black box between “strategic human resource practices”, which include training, performance assessment, rewards, and firm performance from a field study with 73 hightech firms. The results show that top managers social networks mediate the relationship. Though prior research has paid attentions to the impacts of HR practices on organizational outcomes, few studies explore the impact of HR practices on knowledge management (e.g. Currie and Kerrin, 2003) and on innovation performance (e.g. Laursen and Foss, 2003). By taking an organizational learning perspective, Currie and Kerrin (2003) use case study approach to explore the influence of “strategic human resource practices”, including performance management, recruitment and selection, employee interaction, and career development, on enhancing knowledge sharing within a company. They suggest that HR practices can improve knowledge sharing in the firm with a functionally based organizational structure and culture. In investigating the effects of “new human resource management practices” on innovation performance of firms in different sectors, Laursen and Foss (2003) categorize nine HRM variables, including interdisciplinary workgroups, quality circles, collection systems of employee proposals, planned job rotation, delegation of responsibility, integration of functions, performance-related pay, firm internal training, and firm external training, into two HRM systems. Their findings indicate that the innovation performance of four manufacturing sectors correlates with the first system while that of wholesale and ICT sectors is associated with the second system.These prior research term HR practices differently, such as strategic human resource practices (e.g. Youndt et al., 1996; Collins and Clark, 2003; Currie and Kerrin, 2003; Collins and Clark, 2003), innovative work or human resource practices (e.g. Tannenbaum and Dupuree-Bruno, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995; Ichniowski et al., 1997), new human resource practices (e.g. Laursen and Foss, 2003), and characteristics of information age organizations (e.g. Mendelson and Pillai, 1999). In addition, the measurement of HR practices is in different ways in these prior studies for coping with their research purposes. This study purposely focuses on examining the strategic impacts of HR practices on the innovation performance through the mediating effect of knowledge management capacity. This study considers those measures in the prior studies using the concepts of strategic and innovative HR practices (e.g. Youndt et al., 1996; Collins and Clark, 2003; Currie and Kerrin, 2003; Tannenbaum and Dupuree-Bruno, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995) as they are more germane to the arguments of the relationships involving HR practices, knowledge management, and innovation. Accordingly, this study adopts five dimensions, including staffing, training, participation, performance appraisal, and compensation, in the construct of strategic human resource practices.2.2. Strategic human resource practices and innovation performanceThe knowledge-based view concerns knowledge as a valuable resource of the firm(Grant, 1996; Spender, 1996). The knowledge embedded in human capital enables firms to enhance distinctive competencies and discover innovation opportunities (Hansen, 1999; Grant, 1996;Wright et al., 2001). When firms develop new products and improve management processes, they require the motivation and ability of human capital to produce creative ideas, develop innovative approaches, and exert new opportunities (Scarbrough, 2003). Human resource management function can influence and modify the attitudes, capacities, and behaviors of employees to achieve organizational goals (Collins and Clark, 2003;Martinsons, 1995) and it plays a crucial role in nurturing the necessary conditions for catalyzing and channeling individuals towards the development of innovation activities (Scarbrough, 2003; Laursen and Foss, 2003;Michie and Sheehan, 1999). Firms can use some strategic HR practices, such as staffing, training, participation, performance appraisal, and compensation, asmeans to motivate employees commitment and get them involved in creative thinking and innovation (Damanpour, 1991; Laursen and Foss, 2003). Thus, this study argues that strategic HR practices would play a critical role in affecting innovation performance.When firms develop innovation activities, they encounter relatively greater uncertainty and variability in the innovation process (Atuahene-Gima, 1996), and they need creative employees who are flexible, risk taking, and tolerant of uncertainty and ambiguity (Madsen and Ulhi, 2005). Therefore, firms must place more emphasis on these characteristics in the staffing actions. When firms use creative capabilities and innovative characteristics as hiring and selection criteria, their employees are likely to spawn diversity of ideas and commit to more innovation behaviors (Brockbank, 1999; Atuahene-Gima, 1996). Through effective staffing, employees become important sources of new ideas in the firms innovative process. With regard to training, it would facilitate employees exposure to variety of knowledge and openness to innovative ideas (Brockbank, 1999; Beatty and Schneier, 1997; Jaw and Liu, 2003). Firms may provide employees broad and various training programs to develop new knowledge, skills, and innovative capability necessary for performing theirwork (Brockbank, 1999; Mumford, 2000). Through training, firms can develop the organizational expertise in terms of demand and content for the innovation (Weisberg, 2006). Investments in training can develop employee expertise at all levels of the organizationwhich is likely to provide a potentially inexhaustible source of ideas for further innovation (Torraco and Swanson, 1995). In addition, innovation requires employees a high level of involvement and participation (Damanpour, 1991; Hurley and Hult, 1998). Firms may elicit employees involvement and participation by granting them to solve problems and to participate in decision making that affects their work (Damanpour, 1991; Glynn, 1996). A high level of participation would create the conditions to encourage employees to bring new ideas and exchange knowledge in the ongoinginnovation process and, in turn, enhance innovative outcomes (Jimnez-Jimnez and Sanz-Valle, 2005; Tsai, 2002). Because the innovation process is often lengthy, uncertain, and multidisciplinary, firms should signal the importance and value of innovation as a corporate priority, and provide formal appraisal mechanisms to measure innovation behaviors and outputs (Brockbank, 1999). Positive pressure from a performance appraisal creates challenges and feelings of achievements and serves as a critical motivator for employees (Jaw and Liu, 2003). Performance appraisal can enhance employees motivation to engage in innovative activities, and make firms achieve favorable innovation results (Jimnez-Jimnez and Sanz-Valle, 2005). Moreover, recognizing individual and team accomplishments with compensation also encourages innovation. Both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards are essential to motivate employees to take the challenging work, and provide them incentives to generate more new ideas and develop successful new products (Brockbank, 1999; Mumford, 2000). The preceding arguments suggest that firms can use strategic HR practices to influence the behavior and expectation of employees, and add greater value in developing innovation. Through effective strategic HR practices in terms of staffing, training, participation, performance appraisal, and compensation, firms would enhance their capability in introducing new products, services, and management system, and then achieve better innovation outcomes. Hypothesis 1. Strategic human resource practices relate positively to innovation performance.Organizations that effectively manage and leverage the knowledge and expertise embedded in individual minds will be able to create more value and achieve superior competitive advantage (Ruggles, 1998; Scarbrough, 2003). However, employees are often unwilling or unable to share their knowledge and expertise with others because of self interests and lack of trust (Currie and Kerrin, 2003; Hayes and Walsham, 2000; Mueller and Dyerson, 1999; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). Accordingly, it is important for firms to harness the involvement and participation of employees through knowledge management. HR practices are the primary approaches to elicit and reinforce employees knowledge and expertise that a firm requires (Martinsons, 1995; Youndt et al., 1996; Collins and Clark, 2003). Since people are carriers of much of organization-specific knowledge and expertise, firms may be best to utilize HR work practices to manage knowledge and expertise (Scarbrough and Carter, 2000; Lave and Wenger, 1991). Some strategic HR practices, such as staffing, training, participation, performance evaluation, and incentive compensation, are related to enhancing commitment, lowering turnover, and increasing performance through their impact on employee development and motivation (Huselid, 1995; Becker and Gerhart, 1996; Guthrie, 2001). Firms can use these strategic HR practices to provide employees with the skills, resources, and discretion that they need to develop knowledge management. Thus, this study argues that strategic HR practices are key enabling elements for firms to increase their capacity in deploying and facilitating knowledge management tools andactivities.An effective staffing system can help firms in selecting and allocating competent and qualified workforce to do the required tasks. Acquiring employees with particular knowledge and expertise is crucial for firms to operate knowledge management tools and activities. Those newly recruited employees are likely to do the effective sharing of knowledge if they are able to take the broader perspective and appropriate attitude (Currie and Kerrin, 2003). Moreover, it is also important for firms to select the employees who can integrate effectively for development of knowledge management capacity. Selection of individuals with appropriate skills and attitudes to do the tasks enables firms to integrate knowledge fromdiverse sources and stimulate innovative idea generation (Martinsons, 1995; Scarbrough, 2003). In addition, employee training is also likely to affect the development of knowledge management capacity. Continuous professional development is particularly important to knowledge workers. Firms need to offer internal and exter
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